Hotel Plaza las Fuentes Puebla

... On a Sunday. While people were worshipping.

But my host brother said it was common. So, I took some pictures.

And then he took me to see the body of Saint Francisco.

Yup, his actual body. I didn't take a picture of that. But wow! What an experience, huh?

We visited a few more markets (I bought a beautiful scarf for about $6 USD) and then went to pick up the rest of the family. Edgardo and his family (his wife and 3 children) took Ronja and I to ...

... children and were part of the "village" that is working to mold them into wonderful people.

After the last 2 groups, we rode back to our facility for education time and then went back to our host family's home for the night.

Friday was our performance day. My first performance in Mexico! I was so excited! We had a pretty good crowd and I was able to play 4 songs on the piano as I worked myself back into performing with the cast. They whole ...

... paper container, and places a piece of paper - similar to a placemat - on the tray. How much of this is thrown away?

All of it.

I wonder what McDonalds would do if 90 students came in, requesting that their burgers and fries be put on plates. Pretty cool think about, huh?

Concordia recently did something similar by going completely trayless - as in they don't use trays anymore as they are unnecessary and save on energy and water consumption. My boyfriend, Matt, and ...

... out, have coffees, etc. Most of these squares are surrounded by restaurants and are a great spot to eat, drink and people watch. After looking at yet more churches, all getting ready for semana santa, we went to piramide Tepanapa. The spanish had built a church on top of a hill, not realising that it was infact an only pyramid, what idiots! We climbed the pyramid, on the way up, Luz (Marianas friend) made me stop and try some grasshoppers and worms from a food vendor ...

... are a little cramped, but are still good value for money.

Another good budget to midrange option is Hotel Centro Historico, 4 Poniente No. 506, Tel: 01 (222) 246 8942. The refurbished modern rooms are kept in pristine condition but are a tad on the small side. Their rates were 250 peso for 1 or 2 persons.

Hotel Provincia Express, Avenida Reforma No.141, Tel: 01 (222) 246 3537. This pleasant midrange hotel is as ...

... and it reminded us of North NZ so much, quite bizarre really. Next, on turning a corner within the forest, there was suddenly a huge snow capped volcanic mountain dominating the landscape ahead of us, we were so surprised it really took our breath away, just stunning! The mountain is known as 'Princess Mountain' and its name is 'Iztaccchihuatl,'(not hard to spell at all!). Apparently you can climb it but its tough and takes 4 days.....if ...

Today as you may be able to see i have been diligently trying to catch up here, and have been sucessful. Liliana also came over and we re-worked our schedule and did further research on our trips to Oaxaca, the town with many silversmiths and a trip we are taking later this week to see a musical preformance and festival. (soda)

Today I attended a conference (speaker) with Lili and Lewis at Lili's college. The speaker spoke about the Lady of Guadalupe. I gathered this event is/was very important in history and it is also celebrated in many other countries near Mexico. The second one i am not totally sure about, i could have interpreted wrong, it was in spanish. I know from Lili that the Lady of Guadalupa event happens in Mexico City (the capital) durring the week of ...

Monday 9th July It has been a bit of time since my last update but more about that later. As you may have already worked out, and as some of my correspondents have pointed out (you know who you are!) - the first part of my trip was not really backpackerish. In fact, it was more like the kind of trip I am used to - staying with friends, wandering about during the day but with the certainty of some company in the evening. So it was with some trepidation that I ...

... Mexican states of Chiapas and Yucatan taking in the Mayan temples. Started this off in the very colourful city of San Cristobol de las Casas. While staying here I visited two indigenous villages. The contrast between the two was interesting. Two Indian villages about 3 km from each other with different cultures. One village had changed their interpretation of catholicism so the men could practice polygamy. This town also did not strongly advocate education for children - hence you ...