Alright y'all. I'm back from my weekend away to Catemaco and Santiago Tuxtla. It was quite a learning experience. I'll start at the top.
I grabbed a cab Saturday morning pretty early and went to the ADO station- which is kind of like Greyhound (by the way, I only took a backpack... that's right, only a backpack for everything I needed for two days, I know... it's hard to believe). I bought a ticket to Santiago Tuxtla (about 2 and a half hours away) and I was on my way. My intention this weekend was to go to Catemaco, but the woman who runs the school told me about this terrific little hotel in Santiago Tuxtla, which is only an hour away from Catemaco, so I got my room there and I took the bus to Catemaco for the day. The ride from Veracruz was really interesting. We passed tons of small farms with really intersting looking cattle and some skinny horses, and finally, some DONKEYS! which I've been looking for since I got here. The landscape changed slowly from, well, city, to farms with a lot of vegetation to rolling hills and finally, to me, little mountains. It was really beautiful. I got to Santiago Tuxtla before noon and just started walking. I took several pictures of the town and I hope they turn out, because the place was adorable. Very quaint. The city had a lot of little shops, and farm stands and restaurants right on the sidewalk. Santiago is in a hilly area and there is a cute little river running through it. I walked through town for about half an hour and then checked into my hotel.
The hotel is round and has 5 floors. You can see it all across town. I was on the fourth floor and had terrific views of the city and the hills beyond. I took pictures. I unpacked the stuff I didn't need for the days and took off for Catemaco on another bus.
Catemaco is known for several things, including the Malecon (the sea wall) which is lined with little carts that sell a bit of everything. The Malecon has a bit of beach beyond it and the view is of several little islands with a lot of wonderful things like a japanese water garden, jungle, and an island full of monkeys. The other things Catemaco is known for is it's brujas, or fortune tellers/witches. I was told that I could get a "cleansing" from a bruja and I wanted to experience it. So...
I asked a cab drived, who asked a guy on a bike, who took me to the house of this man who was a brujo. He took me into this room in his home with fabric covered walls and an altar covered in catholic imagery of jesus and mary, pictures of his family and little drawings of people. There were candles, bits of holy water, herbs and eggs. He sat me in front of the altar and began praying over me and rubbing me with a bunch of herbs. After the herbs he moved to praying over me with an egg in his hands. After the egg he said a prayer and started blowing away the bad spirits covering my body. Then he took a drink of holy water and, wait for it.... Spit it on me! Then he was praying, he took in more water and spit on me again. At first I jumped because I wasn't ready for that, but I settled in and let the spitting continue :-). He prayed some more and then told me that I will now have luck in love, work, good health. He gave me an amulet that will protect me if I keep it with me. All in all, spitting aside, it was an incredible experience and I'll tell you the story a little bit better if you ask me in person :-).
For the rest of the day I walked through Catemaco, sat on the beach and watched all the herons fly by. It was beautiful and sunny. I went to the bus station and bought my ticket to go back to Santiago, and while I was there I saw this boy... who looked a little... well... let's just say it, flaming. I hoped and prayed that I was right, because as of now, i haven't met anyone else here that's gay. So, I struck up a conversation with this boy, and found out that indeed he is gay. Thank god! He was adorable and to my surprise he was taking the same bus I was. We chatted for the whole ride, and I learned much more about gay culture in Mexico (Puebla to be specific) and it was wonderful. We exchanged emails and took a picture together and he gave me cute little cheek kisses when I had to get off at my bus stop.
Back in Santiago, I walked back to the hotel and stopped at a few shops along the way, bought water, apples and bread for breakfast. I chose a restaurant near my hotel and sat at a table outside to watch people walk by. To my surprise, I saw two Americans walk toward me and they sat at the table next me. There really aren't any Americans in this part of the country, to speak of, so I felt like chatting with them. I found out that they are archeologists from St. Louis and Kentucky and that they are on their way to Tres Zapotes for a dig. I told them good night and then went back to my hotel to get cleaned up and go to sleep.
In the morning I went to the pool at the hotel and again to my surprise the Americans were there. They asked me if I knew anything about sorting pottery shards and I told them no, and the man said "you're hired"! They asked me to join them at their dig in Tres Zapotes because they needed another person to assist. At that point, I understood the desire to backpack around a country without a schedule, because if I hadn't had to return to school in Veracruz, my next journal entry to you all would be from an internet cafe in Tres Zapotes :-).
The ride home was smooth, I slept and watched a movie subtitled in spanish and listened to a cd (that Molly and Brad burned for me... thanks guys). Now I'm back at the school, watching Irma make flan and soon I'm going to wander out for dinner. Hope all is well with you guys! Hugs (abrazos), Tracey
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