Who: Meira and Rubi
What: mini get away with the Rubi.
Where: Chalma , State of Mexico
When: May 22-23 , 2010
Why: To spend a weekend in Rubi's town.
Ok, so now that we set it up that go back in time. First up , Who is Rubi? Rubi was my supervisor at Don Bosco, where I did my internship teaching. We became friends throughout the semester, and she kept asking me to come to her town for a weekend and I finally went the weekend after my semester program ended and the weekend that all the new student came( I wrote about them a couple posts up ! )
Rubi told me that we would be leaving around 2 in the afternoon on Saturday May 22nd , so I thought I would have time to sleep in a little ( 8am) and then run to the bank and do some errands. Rubi called me around 8:30 and told me that we would be leaving at 10 because she did not have her class. I RAN around Cuerna , did what I had to do and then headed to our pre-determined meeting spot. Rubi picked me up and then we headed out onto the road to Chalma. We discussed many things , but what was most interesting was the history of Chalma and why it is so busy each weekend.
Now for a background information break before we get back to the plot of my weekend. Chalma is in the state of Mexico. It is a small town that gets about 4,000 or so visitors each weekend . The visitors are on a pilgrimage to Chalma and walk/ ride horses/ drive for many days to get to Chalma. They go to visit the church. It is believed that the Spainards brought the virgin of Guadalupe here or she appears or something. Sorry I kinda forgot some of the background. But anyhoo, people come from all over Mexico to visit the church and then they do dances outside and it is a huge large party. The dancers are awesome too.
Now back to your regulary schedualed programming...
So we are on the road, going over the mountains and through the woods to Chalma. I am not joking.Rubi gets hungry , we stop and get some Quesadillas on the side of the road. If my mother was with me she would have flipped out , but hey she wasnt and I wasnt sick so all is good. While we were eating our yummy queso filled quesadillas the people who live in the house took one of their chickens and killed it in front of us. Don't know how because I started being grossed out and looked away and was girlishy screaming.After lunch we got back on the road and did not stop until we got to Chalma.Anyone who is going to Chalma for the first time, has to get a reth of flowers and then bring it to the Church, so I got a reath of flowers. See below.
After getting my flower hat , we contined to the bottom of the moutain of Chalma close to the church to rubi's house. After saying hello to her mother and being introduced to many family members , Rubi took a shower , and I watched some TV. Then we ventured to the Church. It was beautiful. We took some pictures, looked at the moat where people come to swim and then walked into the church to look around. The main sanctury is beautiful and very large.
Rubi said that there are so many people who want to come to the masses that they have 7 masses on Saturday and then 7 on Sundays. They are every hour. After looking at the church and the sacred Virgin of Guadalupe, I went and got blessed by one of the fathers because my flowers had to be blessed or something. Afterwards we went outside to watch the dancers. They were amazing and had fantastic costumes. See below.
Because I am a gringa and am very white , one of the dancers agreed to take some pictures with us. He was very sweet and very mango ( Handsome) Mango is slang for handsome. I even got to try on his hat. That thing is like at least 5 pounds. I have no idea how they dance with it on.Anyhoo, we watched for awhile , I put my flower thing on the pole where it was suppose to go, and then we walked home to Rubi's house. We hung out for awhile in her mom's pharmacy, and then ate a WHOLE plate of fruit. After eating our fruit, Rubi and I went on an adventure to buy things for the store. We went over a mountain to get to Malinalco to pick up the goods at a large pharmacy.
We then went into town and got a huge bag of bread because they are known for that. Afterward we went to a pizza restaurant that Rubi said look good and ate a light dinner. After dinner we drove back to her house in the rain. We hung out at her mom's for a little while and I met Rubi's brother who is in the seminary in Toluca. We then walked down to the Church again and watched the dancers in the dark. That was very cool and unfortunately I did not bring my camera . We came home , and sat around and talked for many hours. I started to get very tired so I went upstairs to my room for the night and went to bed around 11. Rubi tired me out and I feel right asleep.
The next day, I got up, went downstairs and helped in the store until Rubi got up. We hung out for awhile in the store and then had fruit and bread for breakfast. It was lovely. Rubi then decided that we were going to go and climb a pyramid. I had to leave around 3 for Cuerna because I had to be back for the first meeting with the new students.Rubi's mom gave both of us a present before we left. Don't you think these are great? handsfree and great for rain, sun , or snow. I will be wearin this in Des Moines!
We left Rubi's house at 1 to go to the pyrmaids. It was Rubi, her cousin , and I. The taxi took us to the base of the mountain and then we proceeded to go into the museum, where we looked around , got a tour, and learned about what we were going to see up at the real ruins. We then started the 30 minute climb up to the ruins . Rubi wasnt going to go up because she was wearing very tall heals but she climbed it anyway.
Many steps later and weaving around paths on a side of the mountain , we got to the top. It was beautiful. The pyramids are one of 3 in the world that were build out of the side of the mountain. We walked around for awhile and then started the climb down. We got to the bottom , went into town , ate some yummy ice cream, and then climbed into a taxi with 4 other people. Rubi did not have enough money to take us all the way home so the taxi driver only took us half way and then we had to walk the other half. It was hot and sticky and I was mad because we were already late and I needed to get back already. We finally got back to Rubi's house . I shoved food down my throat and then Junior, Rubi's cousin and I got into a taxi to take us to the bus that would take us to another bus that would take us to Cuerna. If that confused you, it takes two busses to get from Chalma to Cuerna. Rubi's cousin , Junior , lives in Cuerna because he is still in High School and goes to a really good school here. He looks like he is much older then me and he is totally understanding of my slow and sometimes bad spanish. He is also really sweet. So we got to the bus, Junior helped me on and helped me get situated on the bus and then we rode it off into the sunset and out of Chalma. We hit a little traffic but other then that it was good. Junior told me when we had to get off and we hopped off the bus and ran to the ticket booth to get a ticket for our next bus. We just made it but they oversold the seats so we ended up standing for the entire ride on the steps. I held on for dear life because I kept almost falling over. Junior was always there to catch me but it was hilarious to watch the bus take a turn and I go in the opposite direction. The bus took about 2 hours and then dropped us off at the bus depot. I walked home and was only an 1.5 hours late for my meeting.
This my friends was one of the best weekends I have had in Mexico.
I'm really enjoying your adventures Meira!
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