So today I did the coolest thing ever! I went swimming in a waterfall. It was awesome, as was the adventure getting to it, of course.
Saturday and Sunday I went on a trip to this place 4 hours away called Cuetzalan. (The bus ride there took us on the most winding road through the mountains I have ever been on, and then we arrive to this little town that's pretty much all built on a steep incline, it was nuts.) I had heard that it was THE place to see waterfalls, but our Animadores told us that visiting waterfalls wasn't part of our itinerary, so that was pretty disappointing. Actually, it was very disappointing because at that point I thought this trip basically sucked and was a waste of my time and money and all we were gonna do it see the Voladores (explained below) and wander aimlessly through a smelly marketplace in ridiculous heat and humidity with poor little impoverished children following us around asking for pesos.
So we get to the hotel and me and my hotel roomie Amy discover that we have a room with one full sized bed. And everyone else has a 2 queen sized beds in their rooms. At first, we just thought it wasn't fair, but then I was like wait a second, we're gonna be pretty much spooning all night in this humidity and that's gonna suck hardcore. So I went and asked how come we had such a tiny bed and they moved us to a different room on the back side of the hotel overlooking the (green) pool with a great view of the sunset. And the room has a (killer) fan, which we later find out is because the afternoon sun that beats into the room turns in into a sauna. In case you're wondering, a fan does not have the capability to cool down a sauna room. Even with the doors and windows open after the sun has gone down...
So Ian and I wandered around for a while after check-in, and I was dripping sweat the entire time. That was kind of the theme of the whole weekend...lots of sweating, all the time. After walking I went back to the room and chilled in front of the fan with Amy and we watched some movies dubbed in Spanish on showtime. Then we went to this place for (a crappy) dinner at 8, and got to see the "Flying Voladores" around 9. So the Voladores are these 6 dudes who do this ancient ceremony for all the tourists (and then ask for money) and it's kind of cool, although we all wondered why ancient people came up with this ceremony in the first place and how many people have died doing it. It starts out with the 6 dudes doing a dance around this pole. Now this pole is no ordinary pole. It's 30 meters high, with little foot posts coming out of it so they can climb up it like the telephone poles do. Ok so they dance. Then 5 of them climb up the pole, and they actually did it really fast. One stays on the ground, I'm not sure why. So at the top, one dude plays this flute and does more dancing on a platform up at the top. Meanwhile, 4 dudes sit on this square thing. Hmm...It's kind of like a picture frame, just 4 boards together and a hollow middle, and there's ropes somehow suspending this and allowing it to spin from the top. So then the 4 dudes untie a bit of rope and tie it around their waists. More flute action happens while they all make the square thing spin around. And then all of a sudden they all hurl themselves off the square, and are spinning around by these ropes tied around them. And as they spin, the ropes unwind around the pole, so about 5 minutes later they've unwound and reach the ground and everyone claps and then they go around asking for money because they don't receive a salary to be a Volador. It was kind of cool.
Then Ian and I went to a cafe down the street and sat around with these 4 girls and a guy on the trip with us, and I had a glass of white wine and wanted to fall asleep around 11. So instead of going to the only disco in Cuetzalan, I went home and for like a half hour Ian and I watched some TV. Then I decide that its still ridiculously hot in my room so I should try to move the fan. And I accidentally stuck my finger in the fan, and it got mangled. Blood was involved (but I didn't pass out - YAY!) and it throbbed for the rest of the night. Good one Sar... Then he left, I fell asleep, and woke up at 8am because the hotel owners dogs apparently live on the roof and were running back and forth and it sounded like they were trying to dig through the roof. Real annoying... So then I got ready and went to the hotel restaurant and hung out for a while with Bridget and we decided that we realy wanted to go to the waterfalls. So we found an Animadore and she let us keep our bags in her room so we didn't have to be back for checkout at 1pm, and the other dude animadore told us to go look for some kids because a lot of them were these "secret" guides and could take us to the waterfalls. So we get Ian and Bridget's friend from UNH Derek, and I decide that cookies will lure children to us (creepy, I know.) At the store, I ask this old dude if he knows where I can find some kids who can take us to the waterfalls. And after 5 minutes we finally figure out that he's telling us that for 200 pesos (less than $20) he can drive us there and back and show us where they are, and we can go to his house and look at his gardens. So the 4 of us and the old dude walk to his house which is kind of like a B&B place but you can also rent these big cabin type things. And he's got a pretty nice large garden, lots of hydrangeas. So we pile into his old Ford Aero van, and drive down and up all these steep dirt roads and finally we park with a few other cars. Then we HIKE for 20 minutes and come to this waterfall where all these Mexicans have set up tarps and are selling food and sodas/beer. So we take some pictures and then this little boy comes up to us and says he can take us to another one where no one will be. So we follow the little boy...up the steepest path I have ever been on for about 15 minutes, and then all of a sudden, we're at this secluded waterfall where there's 4 Mexican dudes just chillen in the water in their undies. So we take lots of pictures, and then we're all like OK time to swim! Luckily I brought my neat-o waterproof case for my digital camera so I took it into the water with us and if the lens hadn't fogged up towards the end I would have had tons of sweet pictures. It was very cool to swim there, even if I didn't bring a bathingsuit and went in in my clothes. After about a half hour, we put our shoes back on and hiked back to the car on a different path that was just as steep as the other and then gradually flattened out. And the dude drove us back to the hotel and invited us to go chill by the pool with him and have a beer. So we rinsed off and changed, went to the pool and met the old guy, chatted in Spanish for a bit, had some beers and tortilla chips with really good guacamole, got his address to we can mail him a picture, and then it was time for us to get back on the bus and make another 4 hour trip back to Cholula.
It was definitely very very cool and that adventure totally made the trip worthwhile.
Aaaaand now I have to go do my homework that I put off doing till the last minute, of course.
Adios kids. Don't forget to IM me every now and then.
-Sar
