Nevado de Toluca

Last weekend we went for a little walk to a mountain close to Mexico City. 

The mountain is called Nevado de Toluca and located about 80 kms to the southwest from the capital. Nevado de Toluca is a vulcano with an altitude of 4680 m, and so it is the fourth highest mountain in Mexico. (After Pico de Orizaba (5636m), Popocatepetl (5426m) and Iztaccihuatl (5230m).) 

It is said that this mountain is a great place to practice for hikers aiming the Himalayas, because it is easy to approach and climb (since Mexico City is already 2200m above the sea level, there is "only" 2400m to climb). There are trails going up from the bottom of the mountain (a trail of 17kms hike), but you can go up to the top by car as well - in this case, there is a fee of 20 MXN and only a 2km walk from the final parking spot to the crater of the vulcano.

There is also a small "shop" on the top, selling water, juice, coffee and snacks for the returning (or leaving) hikers.

The food and drink can be solved so, but it is recommended to bring raincoat and warm clothes to the top, because it is cold over 4000 meters, and the weather can be quite unpredictable in such altitude.

Because we left quite late in the day (noon), we had not much time to walk, so we took a ride all the way to the top. Even the "small" 2km walk was however exhausting with thin air of 4000 meters. It is said that the view is stunning from the top in nice weather. Unfortunately, since this is the rainy season, it was cloudy and too humid to see much of the view, but the view of the mountain itself was still beautiful. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to reach the crater before a huge rain cloud would reach us: there are two lakes on the bottom of the crater, Lago del Sol (Lake of the Sun) and Lago de la Luna (Lake of the Moon). And these lakes do resemble their names: one is almost a perfect circle, such as the Sun, while the other has the shape of the old Moon.

It was also interesting to see in real what we have learned in school: how the fauna changes with the altitude. When we entered the mountain, we could see pine woods all over, but over 3-4000 meters, the trees suddenly disappeared and there was only grass, which as well got thinner as we reached the top.

This time we just "discovered" this mountain, but I`m sure we`ll go back there for more hiking. The road up the mountain is beautiful, with little villages, sheep herds and meadows. And if the weather is nice, I`m sure the view from the top is beautiful. There are also trails down to the lakes, so one can make a good one- (or more) day tour on this mountain.

For more pictures, just click on the main title!

Stray dogs

 Hello!
I don`t have any stories from the weekend, since the weather was so bad, we only went to the cinema. (It is Murphy`s law that now, that I`m all day in language school, the weather is nice, warm and shiny... )

Anyway, now I go to the center (metro stop Insurgentes) every day for Spanish classes: I have to take the bus, then the metro, then the metrobus (which is just a huge bus with a special lane on the road). The travel takes about 40-50 minutes (if there is no traffic jam) and I`m usually just wonder around in the bus.

So today, as I was just dimly looking out the window, realized that there are many stray dogs on the streets. I have seen them before, I just didn`t realize they were so many! But the strange thing is that these dogs are calm and nice and look well treated. I think the people don`t treat them as they are noone`s, but they keep them as everybodys` dogs. For example, I see dogfood and water at the corner of the supermarket every time: somebody just buys it (maybe for him/her own dog) and puts some for these homeless dogs.

Therefore the dogs on the street are not desperate and bitter and want to bite people, but they are cute and well-fed and friendly.

I guess it is inevitable to have a lot of stray dogs in such a huge city, but I had the feeling that Mexican people resolved this issue very humane: they try to help the dogs and live with them.
How much better is it than hating, fearing and trying to collect and kill them, no?

Chapultepec

Kedden végre (már hetek óta először) napos időre ébredtem, ezért elhatároztam, hogy elég az otthonülésből és bemegyek a városba. Az itt közlekedő busz elvisz egy hatalmas parkig, ami olyan, mint a Városliget. A busz egyébként nagyon olcsó, 5 peso (kb. 8o Ft). Az itteni buszokról tudni kell, hogy általában kb. háborúelőtti csotrogányok. (Nem valami biztatóak...) Ráadásul nincsenek buszmegállók, a buszt leintik, mint a taxit. (Őszintén, ezekre még nem volt bátorságom felszállni.) Amivel én mentem, az az RTP (a mexikói BKV), amik tiszták, újak, a buszban kamera van, és rendesen vannak buszmegállóik is.

A busz elvitt egy metróállomásra, ezért kipróbáltam a metrót is: egy metrójegy 3.5 peso, egy járatra, ráadásul átszállással együtt: vagyis, ha bemész az állomásra, annyit utazhatsz, és szállhatsz át 3.5 pesoért, amennyit akarsz. Viszont a metrón egymás után jönnek a koldusok, a CD-t vagy édességet árulók, úgyhogy én inkább a buszt preferáltam...

Szóval, a metrózás után sétáltam egyet a "Városligetben" (Mexikóban Chapultepec). A park hatalmas, több kilóméter hosszú lehet, több részre tagolva: van benne csónakázó tó, archeológiai múzeum (lásd a júniusi bejegyzést), állatkert, botanikus kert és persze rengeteg árus.

Érdekes volt, hogy hétköznap napközben is tele volt emberekkel - persze, egy 25 milliós városban ne lepődjön meg az ember semmin!

火曜日に久しぶりに朝から晴れていたので、やっと部屋こもりから脱出できると思い、近くにある公園へ出かけました。住んでいる周辺はかなり郊外になって、バスしかないが、バスはシティの中心地まで行くので、乗り方を覚えれば、かなり便利です。ちなみに、バスチケットは距離にかかわらず、5ペソ（約35円）でとても安いです。私が乗っていたバスはシティ経営のバスで、新しくて、清潔で、バスの中にカメラが設置され、しかもバス停もちゃんと設けてあるので、使いやすいです。（普通のバスはバス停がなく、どこでも乗り降りができるみたいです。しかも、それらのバスは少なくても30年前のモデルで、清潔は疑わしいのはもちろんですが、音もすごいです！）

バスはメトロの所まで行くので、せっかくなので、地下鉄にも乗ってみようと思いました。地下鉄は3.5ペソで、一回駅に入ったら、出るまでに乗り換えも含めていくらでも乗れます。地下鉄に物乞いやCD、お菓子を売っている人が頻繁に通るから、まあ、バスのほうがいいかな？

地下鉄でとりあえずチャプルテペック公園まで戻って、ぶらぶらしました。チャプルテペック公園みたいなのは日本にあるかな？と考えていますが、一番近いのは上野かもしれません。しかし、ここの公園はみどりでいっぱいで、上野よりも気持ちいいかもしれません。とにかく、公園が大きくて、たぶん何キロも続くでしょう。公園の中で池に動物園、植物園や人類博物館（6月のブログで書いたもの）があります。もちろん、いろんなお菓子やお土産（使えないものがほとんど）を売っている露店でもいっぱいです。平日の昼間にも公園が人でいっぱいのは不思議でしたが、2500万人のシティでは驚くほどではにかもしれませんね。

Chapultepec park

Cactus with dragonfruits - botanical garden

The avenue in the park

 For more pics, just click right here - Chapultepec

Puebla

A hétvégén Pueblába látogattunk, ami kb. 1.5 órányira van Mexikóvárostól. Puebla egy kb. 1.3 milliós város, egy Szentendre-szerű, koloniális időből származó belvárossal.

A város leginkább a fazekasságáról híres, de sok követ (ónix és márvány) is termelnek ott, ezért a szuvenírboltokban sok kőből készült terméket is kapni.

A talaverai kerámia (mint minden Mexikóban) feltűnő az élénk színeiről. Több minta létezik a különféle kultúrák összhatására. A pueblai kerámia a 16. században honosodott meg természetesen a spanyolok hatására. Ehhez a technológiához csatlakozott később itáliai, sőt kínai és fülöp szigetei hatás, amit a különféle motívumokban látható leginkább: kínából a virág- és állatmintákat, Olaszországból a zöld, fekete és sárga színeket vették át. (A legrégibb és legelterjedtebb a kék minta.)

Őszintén, én nagyon vártam, hogy majd sokat fogunk vásárolni, de a valóságban valahogy nem nyertek meg ezek a kerámiák. Gyönyörűek és színesek, de egy étkészletnek nem tudom elképzelni. Valahogy túl karakteresek az élénk színekkel és díszes mintákkal. Az állóvázák és különféle dísztárgyak viszont gyönyörűek! 

A kerámiák helyett (mellett) nagyon tetszettek a kővől készült tárgyak: vettünk is márvány gyertyatartót, ónix poháralátéteket, tányérokat, sőt még dominót is fekete ónixból. Gyönyörűek, jó érezni a kő súlyát és ráadásul olcsók is. :)

A városról: a belváros megőrizte régi épületeit, élénk sárga, piros, kék színekben. Ráadásul a városközpontban áll Mexikó második legnagyobb katedrálisa egy pálmafákkal és rengeteg zölddel teli park mellett, ami jó hangulatot ad a sétához. Puebla, mivel a kerámiájáról híres, tele van festett csempével díszített házfalakkal, ezért elég csak sétálni a belvárosban, ahhoz, hogy jól érezze magát az ember. 

Puebla igazán jó hétvégi kikapcsolódás!

今週末はプエブラへ出かけました。プエブラはメキシコシティから約1時間半かかります。町の人口は約130万人で、これで4番目に大きな都市だそうです。（首都は2500万に比べて小さいでが）

プエブラの名物は陶器ですが、町周辺にオニキスや大理石もたくさん採れるので、石でできた物も多く売っています。

プエブラのタラベラ陶器の特徴は鮮やかな色と豊富な模様です。模様は多くの文化の影響により、様々です。陶器の技術は16世紀にスペインからプエブラに伝えられたそうです。これにイタリアや中国、フィリピン（！）の影響が加われ、現在のタラベラ陶器ができました。中国の影響は花や動物の模様、イタリアの影響は黄色、黒、緑の色に表れているそうです。

食器セットがほとんどですが、個人的に、食器としてはお皿が非常に個性的なので、使用が難しいと思いましたが、花瓶や壁掛けのお皿などの置物は素敵でした。

陶器のほかに、お土産ショップでは多くの大理石やオニキスの物が売られて、珍しかったです。安い値段で大理石のお皿やキャンドルスタンド、オニキスのコースターやグラスを買いました。オニキスのチェスも売っていて、個人的にすごく好きでしたが、ハンガリーから木彫りのチェスを持ってきたので、たぶんまた今度…（笑）

街の中心地はコロニアル時代のままに残っていて、鮮やかな色の建物がとても素敵でした。中心地にメキシコ2番目に多きカテドラルと緑いっぱいの公園があって、散歩に最適です。

プエブラは陶器に有名なので、建物の多くがタラベラタイルで飾ってありますから、街の中を散歩するだけで十分観光した気分になります。

プエブラって、日帰りの旅に最適な町です！

The heart of the city.

Amazing house full with colorful tiles.

The famous talavera pottery

For more pics, click on the main title!

Mercado

This weekend due to the rainy weather, we stayed in the city and explored it more. It has been 3 weeks we weren`t in the city, so it was a bit exciting again.

We visited two markets in the city, one was the Mercado de Artesanias la Ciudadela (Balderas y Plaza de la Ciudadela 1-5) in Col. Centro, the other was El Basaar Sabado (Plaza San Jacinto 11) in San Angel.

Both were not the markets with fruits and chili and food, but were full with handicrafts: potteries, bronze and aluminum objects, glassware and of course the inevitable sombreros, guitars, hammocks and lots of lots of other things. Typical to any latino culture, everything was colorful, just a feast to the eyes!

The Mercado de Artesanitas la Ciudadela is just next to Plaza Ciudadela, which is a small park with lots of green and lots of people. It was lovely to see that the park was full of people (mainly elderly as I saw) and they just enjoyed the day: everybody was dancing or learning to dance for latin music, eating, drinking.

The other one, El Basaar Sabado (as its name says) is only open on Saturdays. It is located in San Angel which is a lovely district with colonial style houses, and cobble covered streets. The market is as well in a colonial house, with an inner garden inside which takes place to a restaurant. The handicrafts you can buy here seemed more "professional", it looked like the artists themselves were selling their products.

While in the market Ciudadela, you could find cute, really traditional and typical Mexican souvenirs, in the Saturday Market, you would find more artistic and sometimes unique handicrafts from Mexican artists.

After strolling all day in the markets, we went for dinner to a nice restaurant, close to the Saturday Market in San Angel: the San Angel Inn. We were told about this restaurant from many people, so we were curious about it. It serves international/mexican dishes of both seafood and meat.

Although it seems to be a really famous restaurant, the price was not as expensive as we were afraid of: 200-300 pesos for a main dish. The food itself was very very delicious (I had sword fish with lime sauce, my husband shrimps with garlic sauce) and although the main dish was not such a big portion, with a dessert at the end, it was just enough to be full. 

Next to its good kitchen, the exclusivity in San Angel Inn is the restaurant itself: it is an hacienda, a typical Mexican "ranch". The building was said to be built 300 years ago and has historical significance as well: it is said the the peace pact of the Chapultepec Battle in 1847 was signed here. The restaurant itself has over 40 years of history, so this place can be really a good choice to go when you`re in Mexico: it has history, and cuisine, and some nice gardens and fountains to enjoy during dinner.

The next day, as a continuation of seafood meals, we tried the Los Arcos restaurant. It is located in Zona Rosa in Mexico City. 

This restaurant was opposite of the day before: very local, simple, but still with a huge variety of seafood dishes. My husband had the same garlic sauce shrimps, and I made some adventure with a shrimp in mango sauce. 

Both were delicious, fresh in a very reasonable price: one main dish was about 160-180 pesos. I think we`ll have to go back a few more times to try the other dishes out!

Mercado de Artesanitas la Ciudadela

Sombreros and guitars

The colorful Mexican pottery

Sombrero for souvenir

Street in San Angel district

San Angel

Inside San Angel Inn

The map of the restaurant

The inner garden in San Angel Inn

Mango-shrimps in Los Arcos

Garlic shrimps - Los Arcos

For more pictures, click on the main title above.