San Cristobal de las Casas

Chiapas, the heart of indigenous Mexico

This young woman was kind enough to let me (meaning to force me to) try on this indigenous outfit. I then paid her to get in a picture with me. She wasn't sure how old she was--she thought about sixteen. In fact, her Spanish wasn't much better than mine, but considering I was pretty proud at how much we were able to share!

Tonina

At the entrance of Tonina: more beautiful ruins!

La Playa Nasconda

Hidden Beach
What was seemingly miles from civilization...we never would have arrived without our jeeps. But since it was so difficult to reach...we were the only ones on the entire expanse of the beach!

High above Oaxacan Valley, Monte Alban was at one time the capital of the Zapotec empire. Putting them closer to the gods, the Zapotecs sheered off the top of a mountain to layout this collection of places of worship, providing a stunning view of ALL of the surrounding valley as well as a feeling of seclusion and safety. It’s history has five periods, the first beginning 500 BC and ending with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Monte Alban's expansiveness is incredible. How do they raze a mountain and get it so flat??
There was a beautiful family sitting on some steps (because everything pretty much was steps): a particularly beautiful image. I looked over at them and smiled. They smiled, too. Several minutes later the woman and her husband came to me and asked if they could get a picture of me with their two smallest kids. They were a large family with two young ones, a girl of about four and a boy of about three. Both were gorgeous with such pure eyes and complexions; in fact, their entire family was. I was smiling so big in the picture; they were probably so embarrassed to ask, but I was tickled pink that they had. I must be the perfect gringa American tourist. Afterwards, I went and spoke with them and got a family picture: one of my most treasured Mexico possessions.

Oaxacan Cafe'

Enjoying some Mezcal (made from the same cactus as tequila is) with our group of students.

Puebla--in the Market

Inside the daily market in Puebla, Mexico. These women live with their families on the land outside of the city. In most cases, their entire families work their land, and then they bring whatever they do not eat into the market to sell, often their main or only source of income.

Puebla, Mexico

January 6:
After leaving the airport, we first arrived in Puebla. At first Puebla did not seem so special. Then we passed what looked like a huge canvas of a Colonial European city to our left with antique buildings and sidewalks and richly painted buildings. Only it wasn’t a canvas. It was the Puebla’s colonial part, built by Spanish settlers in the 17th century. It truly is a stark contrast from the outer, not- Spanish built part of the city, and feels so European. The buildings are richly colored and there is very traditional Spanish tile, or “talavera,” accenting the exterior of many.

Puebla facts
•Pop. 1.3 million
•Puebla, a great social experiment, is where the Enlightenment met the new world. It was conceived in 1531 by a group of Humanist Spaniards and, called the “City of Angels,” was to be a crossroads of religion and education. This is one of Mexico’s cities with the most libraries, schools, orphanages, hospitals, and libraries. It is also a city in Mexico with a respectively small wealth gap, so rather than very, very rich and very, very poor, it has a fairly homogeneous group in the middle. To this day, it is still a mix of 17th and 18th century European ideals with Mexican art.

Mexican Odyssey 2008

Hofstra University's Mexican Odyssey 2008 runs January 6-26 in Mexico with Linda Longmire and Timothy Smith. We studied an interdiciplinary course that provided an intensive introduction to contemporary Meiico's historical, political, economical, and cultural life. It forucsed on the economic and political forces at work in the urrent restructuring of Mexican society, the evolving woen's movement and indigenous peoples' movements, and the implications of the growing globalization of the region. We arrived in Mexico city, rented two jeeps, and traveled 7,000 kilometers in southern Mexico in the regions of Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tabasco, and Chiapas.

My first blog post?

After much traveling and wasting my time away scrapbooking and keeping a journal, I am turning to blogging. Not that having scrapbooks lying dusty on my shelves where only I can get to them is not ideal...but I think that it's far time I expand beyond that.

And with all the traveling that I do, all the traveling that I intend to do, and all the people that I have and will meet, it's high time!

I am a student at Hofstra University, and I am studying photography and global studies. I love art, and I love to travel...so I'm combining the two.