Mid-Summer

It's nearly August and this summer has been quite the topsy-turvy challenge. Lots of ups and downs, in a way this summer has reminded me of Space Mountain. Very fast, all in the dark and unpredictable. Fun, in a scary, adrenaline charged way.

Last summer, Ran and I went to Cuernavaca and Taxco Mexico to plan a trip for this summer with students. Because of some minor annoyances, such as the global economic meltdown and swine-flu, not enough students signed up for the class. So, no study abroad for me this summer. That's ok, though, I got lots of writing done and faced some financial demons that might have continued to have been ignored.

We are returning to Mexico this summer with Jas in tow. And we are going back to the Yucatan to explore Mayan ruins and cenotes and the fine snorkeling that is promised on the coast at Tulum. Since we are cheap and anti-resort kind of travelers we are staying off the beaten path (though I could not convince Ran that he wanted to stay in a cabana with a hammock for a bed). More about that after it happens. In anticipation, I was pursuing my pictures from last year and thought it was time to post a few of those.

Taxco and Cuernavaca are both inland cities. This is the view of the cathedral (Santa Prisca) in Taxco from a hike we took. I wrote about our best hike and site visit on my other blog here. (Eventually, I'll move those posts to this blog. Probably.)



Taxco is a lovely town, with a quaint zocolo. The Taxco zoloco is smallish and filled with life, street food, collectivos, and all the silver you could ever hope to buy inexpensively. Taxco was once the silver-mine center of Mexico. We also visited a very extensive cave area near Taxco.

We were with a huge group of people, most of them Spanish speakers, though a few Europeans (mostly from Germany). The group was too big for us to follow much of the guided tour but the caves were fantastic. Apparently Emilio Zapata used these caves as a refuge.





Gearing up to go again is such fun. Randy really loves the planning stages and as a result our vacations are much more organized that they would be if I were in charge. Last year we stayed at three truly awesome places that he researched and found. I would go back to any of the three of them and had planned to take students to those places. The quaintest was in Taxco, Hotel Mi Casita. Such a lovely space, so many plants, great view, terrific hosts and delightful rooms. We had two different rooms there, one with a roof-top patio (very romantic) and one called The Library.

Sweet Ran at our sweet accommodations.


View from our rooftop patio.



This is image heavy and somewhat disorganized. But filled with fun memories. I can't wait to make more.