An update about baseball and marsupials

Since I last wrote, I went to a Mexican baseball game (Oaxaca vs. the Yucatan), flew to Mexico City, rode to Cuernavaca, made tortillas, climbed a mountain to see some ruins, and at the ruins discovered a large group of Coatimundis. I will only elaborate on a couple of these as I am borrowing a friend’s computer and am exhausted from today’s trips.

A few days ago, in Oaxaca, I was talked into joining a couple of friends for a baseball game. Normally, I don’t enjoy watching sports, but this was entertaining. The crowd was very animated (and loud). Because of this I quickly realized that I should have brought the video camera with me, instead of the still camera.  

Next, was today’s trip to the temple ruins. We hiked up a mountain to see ruins, but upon reaching our destination, we were greeted by a large number of Coatimundis. I had never seen anything like this in person. It seems like a cross between a racoon, a possum, a monkey, and a ferret. They were very friendly, but became a bit frenzied when food was introduced. Many would walk right up to me and stand up, with their hands on my legs to look closer at my camera to see if there was any food in it. I have quite a few images of these that I will upload to flickr when I get back to the states. I love that all the ruins we’ve seen have been populated with such strange and interesting creatures.

Mexico (I forgot to post this one)

I’m leaving for Mexico in the morning and am taking a momentary break from packing. I’m part of a  Fulbright-Hays trip to Mexico June 9 through July 7, 2008. This time I’m not taking my computer, so my blogging and e-mailing will depend on internet access at hotels or universities. Until then, another member of the group will be taking a computer and blogging throughout. If you’re interested in where we’re going you can check his blog here. I will try and update this one when I can. Otherwise, I will be entertaining myself with the cameras and my new mantra … “don’t drink the water.”

San Cristóbal de las Casas y Oaxaca

I’m currently in Oaxaca and leaving for Cuernavaca tomorrow afternoon. In the past few days, I’ve seen some interesting things. My favorite so far was the Church in San Juan Chamula. Their blend of Mayan religion and Catholicism is strange and beautiful. Also, their use of Coca Cola is a great inspiration to my thoughts on religion, translation, and interpretation. I’m already working on ideas relating to this in upcoming projects with Barchael.

Since then, I’ve had a 12 hour bus ride (not the most fun) through the mountains to Oaxaca. We visited ruins at Mitlan yesterday and stopped in Tula to see the world’s stoutest tree.

Today was a trip to Monte Alban, Zapotec and Mixtec ruins atop some nearby mountains. In each set of ruins we’ve visited, there have been large numbers of animal or insect inhabitants. For the major Mayan sites, there have been armies of Iguanas, bees, and birds that have re-colonized the sites. At Palenque, instead of Iguanas, it was Howler monkeys (I could hear them, but only see them in the distance, jumping through the trees). Today’s inhabitants were thousands of small, yellow centipedes. I’ve started to wonder how these new residents play into the mythology of each site.

Tomorrow is a lecture, then an afternoon flight to Mexico City, then a drive to Cuernevaca. I’ve only had occasional internet access, so I’ll update as I have the chance and/or inspiration. I will also eventually need to upload some of my many gigs worth of photos I’ve taken so far. Not having a computer with me is a bit inconvenient at times, but at least there’s one less thing to worry with while traveling.

The Yucatan

So far, the group has traveled from Cancún to Mérida and now to Campeche. I´ve hiked many Mayan ruins, toured a hacienda, listened to a few lectures, went ing in a turqoise blue Cenote, and ridden a bike up and down the coast of Campeche. I´ve also been overfed with good, fresh, vegan Mexican food. It is an interesting trip so far.

I think I´ve gotten some intersting sound and video to work with and have already used about 3.5 gigs of my 8.5 gigs of memory cards I brought with me. Today, my goal is to walk around the city with my camera. I´ve been thinking alot about the Mayan construction of mathematics and time as well as the armies of Iguanas I´ve enountered. I don´t know where any of it will go creatively, but it´s a start. I also like that the placemat at breakfast this morning was advertising some kind of ¨Smutty¨ fruit drink. I was told it meant it was whipped. In either case I enjoyed that bit of language interface. Now off to exploration.