Eternal Spring

Cuernavaca has a long history as a vacation spot from the days of the Aztecs, through the Spaniards, and even Maximilian had a vacation home here. I can definitely see why. This city of about 1,000,000 people is situated on the southern slope of the Sierra de Chichinazutin, about 50 miles south of Mexico City and has a stable climate and a plethora of flora. It truly is beautiful, vibrant, and welcoming.

We arrived the 15th, and took a taxi to our host Brent's house. He had eaten something that didn't sit well, so we stopped by a "botanica" and bought him a bag of tea that the lady claimed was exactly what he needed, and that after steeping it for 7 minutes, he could refrigerate the bag and steep it up to 20 more times. I wonder who actually does that? On Saturday he took us to breakfast and then to the market. The restaurant where we ate breakfast was called "El Común". Not only was the food good, there were posters on the walls about women's rights and civil rights. There was even a jar for donations to send to Haiti, to help aid the victims of the earthquake. This place was right up my alley. After breakfast, Brent took us to the "mercado", market. We started in the fabric store, ventured through some dark corridors and ended up in an endless labyrinth of sneakers, purses, clothes and hats. I had never seen that many varieties and colors of Pumas and Jordans in my entire life. The tunnels of fashion wear spit us out into a maze of flourescent lights and media. People peddling knock off everything while spanish dubbed new releases were blaring from flat screen tvs on every "corner". We were amidst endless movie bootleggars. Less than $1.00 USD and we could get anything from "Amadeus" to new releases like "Avatar". Timmy and Brent dropped some pesos on a few movies and we proceeded to the food market. We emerged from the dark passages of poorly dubbed Hollywood blockbusters, to open air vendors that lead to a wherehouse of equally cramped food stands with higher ceilings. We stopped for a drink: beet, celery, apple, orange, and carrot juiced to perfection. We needed all those vitamins, because once we entered the endless rows of produce, stacks of cheese, bins of beans and racks of raw meat, we were swept with the flow of people buying anything from chicken feet and grasshoppers, to edible flowers and guavas. We returned back to the apartment for a siesta and some dinner. There was a drag show with a queen by the name of "La Gorda" but we missed it because dinner took too long. Timmy and Brent then headed out to a club around 1am. I stayed behind to relax and write.

Traveling tip number 1: wear proper shoes.

It's terribly ironic that the job I left in California revolved around the biomechanics of the foot, and here I am suffering what is a typical case of plantar fasciitis (laugh it up guys at Fleet Feet). I went running around the giant university last week in my old school vans with no socks, which inevitably led to the blister of a lifetime on my heel. That's no sweat. But then I decided to wear flip flops to Cuernavaca- good weather, eternal spring, and a long bus ride- not too much walking. I was wrong, we must have walked 5 miles between metro and buses and trying to figure out the cell phone Friday. So Saturday morning I had an inflamed fascia from hell on my right foot. It hurt to even stand. So now I'm back in Mexico City and I'm going to need to walk. We'll see how it goes!

Below are pictures of the valley east on the way out of Mexico and into Cuernavaca, the market, a state building (state of Morelos, Cuernavaca is the capital) and me with our host brent.