Mexico page 2
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A panoramic shot of the view from the roof of the place I am staying at (click to view full-size).
A dish known as 'mole' (pronounced mow-lay) An interesting blend of cheese, chilli and chocolate (I'm not making this up). Nick found it especially amusing that the menu said "not sweet or spicy" when the overwhelming taste sensation was exactly that.
A heated game of tabletop f00sball (sp?) at our favourite night time dig - bar fly (hahaha geddit?). This picture is also included for the benefit of those who have complained that there are no photos of me on this travel diary.
Up close and personal with the action.
Over the weekend, we made a day-trip to the nearby city of Leon because there was a fair. It is very much like the royal melbourne show or sydney's royal easter show. There were many stalls, many strange things to eat and a huge agriculture convention of sorts. Here we observe the rather underwhelming 'Rodeo' where a small and weak horse is lassooed to the ground by some dude with the assistance of his mates on horseback.
After getting bored with the fair, we journeyed into the city of Leon. This is the gate... there is a lion.
A typical street in Leon looks very different from Guanajuato. Nick said that it reminded him of Adelaide and I thought it reminded me a little of Munich. In reality, it is nothing like either of these cities in any aspect other than initial appearence.
The main square of Leon with its lovely hedges.
Another view of Guanajuato from above. The universidad can be seen towards the right of the shot.
A statue of some guy.
And to prove that I was actually there, another poto of me, this time in front of Guanajuato. This photo was taken not long after the "Chili Incident" and, although you can't see it, my lower lip is peeling and bleeding. I'll know to avoid those green chilis in the future.
A long-exposure shot of one of the group taken during dinner (Luisa's going to kill me for this). There is nothing particularly special about this photo with regard to telling the story of my travels, but I was particularly pleased with the way it turned out so thought I should include it for fellow photography enthusiasts.
My sense of humour never changes. This is a Swedish-Spanish dictionary. I've been here for over two weeks now and I still have a bit of a giggle at it every morning - yes, I'm mature.
Guanajuato isn't as backwards as you think... but then again, donkey is still a common way of transporting goods.
A photo taken through a glass of beer to simulate the beer-googles effect. Notice how everyone looks better? From left to right, Nick, Luri, Meg and Olle.
On our second weekend here, we played soccer with some of the staff at our language school. Due to the fact that the majority of students are from the US and wouldn't know a soccer ball if it hit them in the head, and also because Saturday morning follows from Friday night, the turnout student-wise wasn't great. Combine that with the altitude and we pretty much got smoked up by the locals who, to be fair, took the game far too seriously.
On Sunday of the same weekend, me and Nick attempted to climb a nearby mountain. "The way is easy" we were told, "you don't need a map" we were told. After countless accidental incursions onto private property we finally ascended what looked to be the right mountain. Once clear of the trees, we looked around to find that we were about three mountains off. Oops. On the way down, we found ourselves, once again, on someone's property and despite our explaining that we were sorry and didn't see any signs and had gone up an alternate route, the owner of this property unleashed four ferocious dogs on us and we had to make tracks rather quickly. Here we see something that is actually taller than Nick. Phallic symbol or desert plant? You decide.
And for those who are wondering exactly how high we really are...
On Thursday 1st of Feb, we had a little party to celebrate the large group of American's leaving (that came out all wrong... actually, no it didn't). Luckily, it was at our (me and Nick's) residence so we didn't have to travel far. Much food was consumed as well as a fair bit of alcohol. Here a group of us can be seen readying for an interesting party game where everyone has a balloon tied to their leg and the aim of the game is to be the last person with an unpopped balloon. Unfortunately, I wasn't present for the first of these games as I was sitting on the roof DJing on my laptop, but I did manage to make it down for the second game, which I won. My prize - a large shot glass of tequila! The Dutch girl Lisette can be seen in the foreground of this shot sitting on the concrete bench with a pink balloon. Later that night she would be sitting on that same concrete bench while throwing her stomach into reverse gear as a result of too much tequila... tut tut.
Interestingly, the Americans all left quite early (who can blame them, it was their party...) but the group of us did manage to get a shot with their lovely program coordinator who was actually from Yorkshire, in England (she's the blonde one in the middle).