Zacatecas

We visited Zacatecas this past weekend, and it was a fun trip. It was not as hectic as the Mexico City trip, yet we still managed to get a lot of stuff done. We took a tour of the city and went in a cable car over the city, up to a mountain (ironically also named La Bufa - the same name as the mountain in Gto.). We went to some "pyramids" which were not actual pyramids but a city built rather vertically by prehispanic tribes, who ate snakes and deer and believed in human sacrifice. It is called "La Quemada" (the burned one) because the city was completely burned when it was discovered. We visited a mine which had been rennovated for tourists. It also had a club in it (which we visited later, once we had free time). The mine impacted me a lot - I felt amazed to be so far underground, inside rocky tunnels, and to think of the hard work that men and even children had done to dig so deep into the rock without dynamite - only pickaxes and drills. We visited museums, including a Huichol indian museum. They are the indigenous people of the Mexican desert who eat the hallucinagenic cactus peyote as a ritual. Their art is colorful and full of animals.


We also visted the Corona beer factory. The buildings are so huge inside that workers ride bikes to get from one side to the other. My favorite part was the huge vats of "wort" - the liquid mixture that beer is made from, before it becomes alcoholic. It contains wheat water and sugar, among other things. There is a sink next to the vats of wort, and when you turn on the faucet, pure sweet wort-water comes out. It takes good. It has a discusting sounding name though. The strange thing was that on the tour, a group of Mexican students from Guanajuato were there. I made friends with one of them, and we are planning to watch a Mexico-China soccer game tomorrow. Also, the Corona tour guide seemed to really like our group. It was quite strange. He invited us to return to Zacatecas for a margarita party... although Corona doesn't make any margarita related drink. Then, later he showed up at our hostel with two other Corona workers, bearing a cooler of beer. We all ate dinner and drank together, and they were very nice. I am still confused as to why he wanted to hang out with us though.


I also managed to buy some cool souvenirs, including some art made by the Huichol indians. I also got this candied gourd thing called Visnaga which is a typical Zacatecas treat, for my host brother who demanded that I bring him back something. He seemed quite satisfied with it. Then he took me out to dinner today. It's strange. I've never had a brother before, so it's quite frusterating to have somebody whom I live with who is annoying and selfish one second, and then completely fun and generous the next. He calls me ugly, and he pokes me (my pet peeve!), and he bothers me when I am trying to sleep or trying to do homework, or he talks about boring stuff for a long time! UGH!!!! It's so annoying! But then, he also takes me to dinner and to beautiful little towns, he introduces me to his cool designer friends, he buys me gummies, and his adorable sons call me their sister. So he can be really nice at times. My friends think the reason for his strange behavior is that he has really bad manners.... who knows.