The Industrial City

The longer I live in Monterrey the more I learn about how unique and sweet of a city it is. On Saturday I spent the day with my friend Nelly, a girl I met through some missionaries that is from here. She recently got married and moved to Texas, but she's in town visiting and taking care of some things, so I've seen her a few times this week. She was driving me around near her mom's house where there are TONS of factories. She pointed to one and said, "that one makes soap. Many days when you drive by, it smells like soap." Really? How odd to drive down the street with the smell of soap in the air. She continued, "there's a Gamesa (cookie) factory nearby too so a lot of times when you drive by there it smells like cookies. AND there is a Bimbo factory (the most popular brand of bread in Mty and yes, its called Bimbo bread) that smells like fresh bread." She went on and on about the different factories in the northern part of the city, there's a Kraft plant, a huge steel plant, a huge cement plant, a Mary Kay Distribution Center, a York Peppermint Pattie Factory, and I just found out tonight that my favorite chipotle salsa is made there too. I've been told that Monterrey has some of the hardest workers in Mexico. I believe it.

New apt.

I wanted to give you Chiapas Part 2 but my internet is terrible. So, I leave you with the view from my apt. at dusk. This, my friends, is Monterrey. Or about 10% of it. There's a lot more to the left and behind the little mountain on the right.

And, on Sunday, while relaxing in said wonderful apartment, we started hearing water pouring out of somewhere. Awhile later I entered the kitchen and fell smack on the floor (bruised knee to prove it). The kitchen was covered in about a 1/2 inch of water...and we even have a drain in the middle of the floor. Sudsy water was pouring out of a random tube in the wall (I know that doesn't make sense. Just remember that sometimes in Mexico, anything goes). Come to find out our neighbor had hooked up his washer to the wrong tube, in turn causing it to flow into our kitchen through aforementioned mystery tube, reasons still unknown. He switched the hook-up and problem was solved. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Chiapas Part 2

The last part of our Chiapas trip was spent in Palenque, Mayan ruins that were built around 500 AD. You read about the history of Palenque here. Very interesting and VERY beautiful! Most of the ruins were overgrown by trees and in the middle of the jungle. Most of these pictures were taken in the "downtown" area so there were some clearings for public gatherings. But it was all still in the middle of the Jungle..."Legends of the Hidden Temple" anyone?!?

Chiapas: Part One

Stop One was Chiapa de Corzo and the Cañon del Sumidero. Chiapa de Corzo is a quiant little town along the Rio Grijalva. We stayed in a hotel in the town square where they had this gazebo, built in 1562 to look like the Spanish Crown.
We took a boat ride through the canyon and it was absolutely beautiful. I think one of my favorite parts was a waterfall that had left mineral deposits on the rock overtime, and had taken the shape of a Christmas tree, which is exactly what they called it, "The Christmas Tree."

After the canyon, we headed to a town called San Cristobal de las Casas, where the temperature dropped to about 50 at night and it felt amazing. It is a sweet colonial town surrounded by a lot of indigenous towns. One day we went with a friend of the hostel manager to visit these sweet ladies who have their own fabric and weaving co-op. They made their own clothes, tapestries, table cloths, blankets, scarves, you name it. They dressed Rosalyn and I in their traditional outfits, but Ros has the picture so it will come later. We also got to have lunch with them and hang out for a little bit which was maybe one of my favorite parts of the trip!This is a picture taken from an indigenous cemetary on the top of a hill overlooking the town of Zinacantan...one of the indigenous towns we visited.