More Mexico Stories

just wanted to email you and tell you about the latest adventures that Ihave been having. Just to let you know that my emails are my journal for mytime so I hope you enjoy this. This email is going to be a long oneOur friends Deppe, Isaac, Tyler and Chris�s sister katy came over thanksgivingWe picked them up at 11 at night in mexico city (not a good idea to fly in tomexico city at 11at night) but everything was great. they were 45 minutes late, from there wehad a taxi drive us to the hostel where we had reserved to stay the night. Itwas 10 bucks a piece, and an alright place. We had to split up, so katy deppeIke and Chris stayed in a room andTy and I went to a different room. This place is right in the middle ofdowntown mexico city has an awesome view from the roof where they have a freebreakfast. We talked for a long time and decided to go to sleep, but once wewere in bed, we just kept talking. we had to get up early because we weregoing to see these pyrimids just outside of mexico city andwe had to be back in cuernavaca at about 5 in the afternoon, so we left early,rode the metro(subway) for while and got on a bus to the pyrimids. We climbedthe highest one a hung out there for a while, but then we had to jet. It aquite a sight up there though, and my friends had fun time making fun of mebecause I talk to the vendors forever abouttheir pruducts, negotiates prices and everything and makes these poor peoplethink that they have a sale and then I realize that I don�t need the product.They get angry at me. we laughed about it for a while. we rode the bus backto Cuernavacawhere Chris and I had a closing the cemester ceremony where I had to speak.Everyone came and acutally Chris and I sang and danced a song in front ofeveryone with some other classmates. We had learned it in order to learnpronunciation and they asked us to sing it for everyone. I played theharmonica and this other dude played the Jew�s harp and we sang andchoreographed a dance. It was pretty smooth. that night, we just hung out atour house with all our roomates, who were really cool to everyone. we all justsat in the kitchen and told stories for a few hours and laughed out heads off.Our friends told them stories about us and they told them stories about us andjust made fun of us for a while. we were all pretty tired so we the crashed,everyone slept in our room, we got a bunch of extramattresses and stuff and set it all up. it wasn�t too bad at all. Chris and Ihad a tough final the next day that we got up early to study for. everyoneelse slept in and hung out at our house at the pool and stuff. It wasthanksgiving so we went to a lunch and all got these great mexican hawaiinsandwhiches. Our house had planned a party for that night, so we barbecued andwatched everyone get drunk before we went out to the club. Before the clubthough we took the fellas and katy to a Mexican pro-wrestling match!! It isthe funniest thing in the whole world. It is so white trash, it only costs 4bucks to get in, and it is so funny. they are all these old fat men that dontknow how to wrestle at all, they just kind of run around pretend to hit eachother. it is so great. they sell these killer masks there for 5 bucks andeveryone bought one. We laughed pretty hard at them all for a few hours. Itwas the best 4 bucks I have ever spent. after that we met everyone at thedance club where we got jiggy with it for a little while, katy and i sangkaraoke "How sweet it is" by James Taylor and then deppe sang "ice ice baby".After a few hours of serious dancing, we wenthome where we watched our drunk roomates throw up. It was quite the show forthese Utah boys and girls. Deppe even wanted to record it, we wouldn�t let himthough. on friday morning, we left for this city called taxco about 2 hoursfrom here. It is such abeautiful colonial city, where we did some silver shopping, some taco eating,and sight-seeing. This little boy had this plastic crate that he was ridingdown this cobblestone hill on, so I jumped on with him and rode down a fewtimes. It was so fun. We stayed at this little piece of crap hotel where Chrisand I slept on the floor, our view was gorgeous though. wesat out on this balcony for a few hours and talked and I pushed Chris off thisplastic chair because he was making fun of me and the plastic chairshattered. I haven�t laughed like that for a long time. The next morning wewere off to acapulco to the beach where the fellas payed for a sweet hotelroom and once again, Chris and I slept on the floor. We did some beachin, somefake tatooin, some hair-braiden(katy), sun bathin, and some eatin. In thenight, it was deppe�s b-day, so we went to dinner at hooters, which is not thebest food or anything for that matter but it was fun, all the waitresses madedeppe stand on atable and dance and fed him ice cream. it was great. later we went to see thecliff diver show which was really cool!!! at that point we were so tired so wewent back to the hotel and slept. we didn�t get up until about 11 the next dayand then we just went to lunch, all you can eat tacos, deppe and isaac justabout exploded. We hung out at the beach for the rest of the afternoon,. Thenwe came home that night and shipped them out the next morning. It was so muchfun and I loved seeing my sister and the fellas. We had some great times. momsent my cookies and the guys brought plenty of mountain dew. I now have acredit card, which is trouble. I have already made a few purchases, and willuse it to go onour end of the semester tripI cut and pasted the last part from an email from Chris to save time this iswhy it might sound weird.AnywaysLast week we got a bunch of school supplies that our friends brought down fromthe non profit organization that I work with. The bags were very heavy filledwith over 500 toothbrushes, 200 toothpaste, thousands of pens, over 200coloring books and a hundred crayons sets. It was heavy carrying them throughout our trip with them but it was worth it. We also received a $100 to buyschool books for the kids. We went to buy books and when we went to thestores the people were so impressed that they donated extra. There were somany that we only ended up spending $50 and giving $50 to the town mayor tobuy new text books for the Junior High. We also had a clothing drive atschool. There were two garbage bags of clothes. Because we sent most of ourluggage home with our friends, I didn�t have an alarm clock and tried to usemy watch to wake me up which usually does. Except that we had been partyingthe nights before, so instead of waking up at 6, we woke up at 7:30 when wewere supposed to be there. Nevertheless we didn�t get there until 930. Theyhad already left us when we got to the office, so the organization lent us aVW bug to drive to the community. It was a blast and the people were soexcited. The women of the community each took an article of clothing that wasdistributed by one of the ladies. No one chose, and they saved clothes for thefamilies that weren�t there. They didn�t want anyone to be hurt or left out.Also, because they didn�t want to be selfish the took the assignations anddidn�t choose. It was very interesting. I took soil samples that I will beanalyzing in the states to find plants that better suit the community. I alsomet with a girl from Belgium and a Mexican guy that are interested in helpingout with this project. They are going to inspect the irrigation system in thecommunity and we are going to help fix it in May. She is also going tofundraise in Belgium with the boy scouts to get supplies for the project. Wewere planning on going to Puebla to sleep in the streets that day and see thetown, but because we were worn out, and I was sick and still am with a cold,missed our bus and got a ride to Cuernavaca, we never got to see puebla. Wehad problems all year long. So we thought it was destiny. We are going to seeit in May anyways when we bring down the volunteers so everything is good. Ihope everyone got those pictures that I sent you. Anyways we spent Friday athome and saying good by to members and our friends.Because finals are over, we left for our huge vacation on Sat. after our finalwe left for Oaxaca. We thought any ways, because I left my passport back inour house and had to spend 9 bucks on a taxi to get it. We almost lost thebus that we had to take. We slept on the bus that night for the 8 hours ofthe ride, to save time and money. It isn�t very comfortable but it is do able.We explored the city that day. Chris and I are traveling with two girls fromCanada that lived in our house. Any ways, we went to some ruins on top of ahill that the Aztecs had completely leveled to build the city. It was veryimpressive. We then took a bus to see the largest biomass on the worldsupposedly. It was a huge cyprus tree that is estimated to be over 3000 yearsold. I thought Dad would appreciate it. We also saw an old church built inthe 1500 which had a family tree of the Saint in it. It was a good example ofgeneology so I took a picture of it.That night we hopped on a bus going to San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas.Chiapas is the state were the famous Zapatistas are and the most poor state inMexico. We got there and we saw some cool caves that were like those inTimpanogas. There were some huge cement slides and tons of school kids onthem. Chris and I had a good time playing with them and slid down on a log.It was a lot of fun. We also saw the city which was very colonial. I alsobought a cool leather suitcase because my back pack broke. We also saw themissionaries. That night we stayed in a hostal for $3.50 a night. The nextday, Chris and I went on a boat ride down a huge and very green canyon without the girls because they didn�t want too. We saw crocodiles, tons of hugewhite cranes, ducks and other birds. You could even hear howler monkeys in thetrees like the ones at Hoogle Zoo. We also had incredible shrimp and octopuscocktails. There was a huge cliff which is over a kilometer high were 15000indians jumped to their death instead of becoming slaves for the Spanish. Icould only think about how Mom and Dad need to come to Chiapas while I havebeen here. It is very montaneous and very indigenous. They have a lot oftourism because of the environmental factors. That night we took a bus toPalenque, another part of Chiapas, and slept over at a hotel that cost only $5a person.This morning we went to the huge ruins in Palenque, which is the rainiestcity in Mexico. The ruins are in a jungle and are incredible. They are hugeand they haven�t excavated the majority of them. The emperor who lived therehad a clubbed foot and deformed head because his parents were brother andsister. They had sewer systems and fake arches which are more efficient thenroman arches because if the middle fell out of arch, the sides collapse toform a new arch. They have withstanded thousands of years of earthquakeswhich proves their importance. We then went to these incredible waterfalls inthe jungle called Misol Ha and Agua azul. We went swimming in them and had agreat time. We separated from the girls and are going to Guatamala tomorrowto see Tical and some other ruins on the border. And then we are off toCancun.This is the experience of a life time for me and I hope that one day Mom andDad especially can at least see Chiapas. I am spending a lot of money, whichis good for a cheap person like me, because I am living life to its fullest. Ihope everything is good at home. I love you and will see you in a week.ScottPS mom and dad thanks for getting my housing situation covered