More traveling, hiking and exams!

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since my last blog, and this will most likely be my last blog from Mexico. Last blog ended after my ISE trip to Xilitla. Since then I've been to San Cristóbal for a week, I've visited my family in León, and I've had some vacation and other activities. Now there's just one week of classes left before we have the final exams. The 21st of may will be my final activities, after which I will go back to León. From there I will go to San Cristóbal again, after which we (Bob, Chris and me) will go to guatemala to start the big trip.

But let´s pick up back where we left off. After Xilitla we needed a bit of rest, and to catch up on some schoolwork. However, the entire group besides me went to Guadelajara, it's the 2nd biggest city in Mexico, about similar in size to Monterrey. It's in the state of Jalisco, and the town of Tequila is nearby (almost all tequila is from there, like champagne is from Champagne in France). So they had plenty to do, while I stayed in Monterrey. I didn't want to spend too much money on places I had already been, so I had some more time to focus on school and spend time with mexican friends.

San Cristóbal
Then the next week on wednesday morning we left for San Cristóbal. We wanted a good few days there, so we decided to skip some days of school. On wednesday it was just Julieta (ES), Bob (MX) and me. Christian (DE) would arrive on friday morning. One of the reasons we decided to go to San Cris is that Bob's dad has a hotel there, where we could stay free of charge. Besides that San Cris is one of my favourite places in México. It is located in Chiapas, one of the most beautiful places of México, a state covered in jungle, mountains, rivers and vulcanos. The city itself has a very hippie, artistic vibe, with loads of travelers all over the place. It's a hotspot for a lot of travelers to stack up, rest up and hang out. Many people stay because they're stuck in the amazing atmosphere.
When we arrived to Tuxtla (capital of Chiapas) early morning (around 9.00) we were picked up from the airport and taken to San Cris, which is like an hour drive. When we got there we got a tour of the amazing hotel, which is very beautiful and has an amazing location. It's very open, with a lot of natural light, which makes it increadibly spacious and calming. The first nights Julieta and me would stay in bamboo (each room was themed, they had water, bamboo, earth, metal, sky, air and fire). Bob got his own room elsewhere. We were shuffeled around a bit during the stay, depending on where was room, so we got to see a lot of different rooms in the hotel. But first things first, after arriving we had some breakfast, and then we went to do some sightseeing.
San Cris is a very colonial city which is very nice to walk around in. In 2017 there was a heavy earthquake in Chiapas, which caused a lot of damage to the old fragile churches that are scattered throughout the city. When I was here in the beginning of 2018 a lot of damage was still visible, with most building still covered in scaffolding. By now most damage had been repaired, but reconstruction wasn't fully finished yet.
As San Cris is in the mountains, there are a lot of nice views if you climb up the hills in the city. In Monterrey the mountains are far and high, but here they are a lot closer and smaller, making the entire city feel a lot more small and cozy. After all, it's quite a small city (mas o menos 200.000 habitantes). The first few days we were occupied with the city itself, doing a lot of sightseeing, as well as planning some trips to do when Chris would arrive.
Since Julieta won't have any time to travel after the semester, she wanted to make the most of this trip to Chiapas, so she chose to go to Palenque on saturday (8 hours round trip by bus), and Chris decided to join. Since Bob and I already know quite a bit of San Cris and it's surrounding area, it was a bit more relaxing for us. We stayed in the hotel, relaxing in the hammocks, enjoying the beautiful views, and going for some drinks in the bar next door. The bar next door is very much a travelers bar, filled with people all over the world. It's a great place to sit on the rooftop terrace, watch the sunset and share stories. It really made me want to get started on my trip as well. So many people came from the south with many amazing stories. So then we decided to come back after the semester is over, as a jumping off point to Guatemala.
On sunday we wanted to go to cañon del sumidero, but that meant we had to skip the church in a local town where they still practice local indiginous rituals.
However, the cañon is an amazing spectacle. The river you go down is blocked in by massive walls rising up from the water. The weather was great, but a bit dryer than last time I went, so there were no waterfalls inside the canyon. After this Chris and Julieta went to Tuxtla to catch their plane, while I went back to San Cris, to meet back up with Bob. We still had a few days left, and we wanted to relax to the fullest. Writing stories about us relaxing in hammocks, eating crepas from room service, and chilling on the balcony isn't very interesting though. So after some days of not doing much, we went back of Monterrey on tuesday evening.

León
After coming back and catching up with some homework, it was time for the next trip. The 8th of April is the birthday of my mother from my 2nd family (Laura), and also the birthday of my dad from my 3rd family (Ernesto). So then of course I was invited to come to León to come to the party. My dad was having a party on Sunday, while my mum didn't have anythin special planned. I arrived on friday, where my brother Enrique picked me up from the airport. When I went to visit my family at the start of the year, he was still in Europe traveling around. So it was the first time in a year that we saw each other again. After exchanging stories from both our trips, and greeting all the other family, it was time for food, as the best food in mexico is found in León.
The next day it was time for a party. It was someones birthday, so we had a nice house party. Just some friends of my siblings, but most of them I knew from back in the day.
Then on sunday it was time for my Dad's party. A nice place was rented out, everyone had an assigned seat, decorations and cake were ready. It was his 60th birthday, so reason for a good party. A lot of the people that were invited I knew from my exchange, other rotary families, some of which hosted exchange students as well. It was nice to catch up, eat some nice food, and drink some good tequila. Enrique also made a nice video showing much of my Dads life which was very well made.
On Monday it was also my mum's birthday, so I went over to familia Morfin for the day. Pato (my little brother) is in university, so he had class in the morning, but we had some time to hang out it the afternoon, while Yayo (my older brother) was hard at work. However, in the evening we all went bowling together, where my dad could show his skills and wipe the floor with us. After that I met up with family Vega to have some diner to celebrate my dad's actual birthday with just the family.
It was a calm weekend, but it's always very nice to come back to León. With my Dutch family all quite far away, it's nice to still have some family close by (only 10 hours by bus!). It still feels a lot more like home than Monterrey. But people matter much more to make you feel at home. Not that I haven't found my place in Monterrey, but in León I have loving families where I can always show up on their doorstep and I have a house. Here in a month I will leave my key, and maybe never come back. In México I was really taught the importance of family, and Méxican families are a lot warmer and embracing than I was used to back in the Netherlands. Some things change over time, but I'm sure I will always have families and homes here.
Tuesday I just did some homework since my flight was in the evening, and everyone was occupied. I also had plenty to do, so I didn't mind. A friend of my dad's invited him to come to Monterrey on Tuesday, since he couldn't attend his party on Sunday. Since they would be flying as well, they would give me a ride to the airport, since they would fly about the same time. However, they would fly in a private plane, property of my dad's friend. So when I told him I was going to Monterrey as well, he offered me to just come on their private plane, instead of a very cramped, uncomfortable economy seat. Which of course, I couldn't say no to.
It was a small plane, with just 4 seats, which was a lot more comfortable than the alternative. My dad also brought some very nice whiskey, so we were enjoying a nice view, with a nice drink. In the end I arrived almost the same time, since a small propeller plane isn't as fast as a commercial airliner, but we left about an hour earlier, since we didn't have to wait in line.

Back in Monterrey
Then the next week it was Semana Santa, the week before easter. Because this would be our final vacation before end of the semester, everyone went traveling somewhere. Almost everyone. 2 Peruvians and me stayed behind. I didn't want to use my money, just to go to the beach, or see something I had already seen several times. So therefore I stayed home, planning to work on my projects and do some hiking.
However, here in México the university shuts down during vacation, so I didn't have access to the workshops to do any work. So unfortunately it was no a very productive week, but I did have fun with a few hikes and went for some drinks with friends.
However, planning my trip for after this semester has started, since it's only a few weeks away now. In León I had promised all my family that I couldn't leave México without saying goodby to them first, and my Dad from my 2nd family invited me over to their rancho in San Miguel. And with Bob we also decided we'd come back to San Cris before we'd set of to Guatemala together. Chris also really liked Chiapas, and since he is staying here for over a year, he has 2 months vacation in summer to travel, so he wants to come with us to San Cris as well, and maybe follow to Guate as well. So the first few steps in México are basically set, but in July Thomas (a friend from university) is coming to visit from the Netherlands. Ofcourse when long flights are involved we need to plan a bit beforehand, so I collected a lot of lonely planets, and dove into the books. There are some places in Guatemala that I haven’t visited last time where I really want to go, and some places I just need to revisit. In San Pedro la laguna, a beautiful little town next to lago atilan in the Guatemalan highlands is one of those places. Maaike (my older sister) lived there for a month while studying spanish, and durin her stay there she stayed with a local hostfamily, so she could practice her spanish there. Last year when I was traveling with Emma (a danish friend from my exchange in Leon), we stayed there as well. It’s a lovely family, in a beautiful town, where there is still so much in the area I have yet to see. Another place I’ll be revisiting is Acatenango, a dorment vulcano, located next to Fuego, an active vulcano. Thomas will arrive in July, so I had to plan my trip in June in such a way that we would arrive in Guatemala city around that time, so that we could do Acatenango together. However, I’m getting slightly off track here. There was a bit of planning to do with several people, and just looking at all the places we could visit made me very excited about the coming months. To end off the vacation, by this point, Game of Thrones had started, and the first episode aired the week before, but there weren’t a lot of people here. However, now some people were back again (including my roomies), so we set up GoT on Bob’s tv, and had a nice movie night together.
However, when the vacation was over, and everyone came back to Monterrey, life was back to normal. Exams were coming closer, and I had some partials, so plenty to occupy me at university.
In the weekend we decided to go to La Estanzuela with the group of foreigners. We borrowed Bob’s car, and drove to the canyon. It’s a beautiful green canyon with a river running down it. On the way up we chose to hike through the river, mostly hopping from stone to stone, sometimes there were parts that allowed for a bit of swimming, but if you wanted you could keep your feet mostly dry. As we got further up there were nice big pools where plenty of people came to chill. A little further we settled down at a pool to eat lunch and relax a bit. It was quite hot, so the water was nice to cool down, but due to the trees we were mostly in the shadow anyways. On the way back we took the path that ran next to the river. The path diverged upwards, where we were rewarded with a beautifull view of the valley. When I chose to go to monterrey, I never expected to find such beautifull variety of nature here. I though it’d be much more dry and and barren, and while this is true for some valleys, there is an abundance of green and life in others. Anyhow, back to the story at hand. After La Estanzuela we decided to go to Avengers Endgame. The cinema is much cheaper here than back home, so why not make the most of it. However, Chris and I were planning to go hiking with the club de montañismo the next day, which ment the alarm was set around 6.00. Therefore we went pretty early to the movie, since it’s a 3 hour beast.
The next morning I got up bright and early to meet up with the club. We were heading to El Naranjo, a canyon with a big river running through it, and nice small waterfalls along the way. In contrast to La Estanzuela this canyon had few trees, meaning we were out in the sun all day. However, there was much more water in this canyon, meaning there were entire parts that were several meters deep. We brought special backpacks with holes in them, so the water would flush out quickly. It was a very hot day, well over 30 degrees, so the cool water was very nice and refreshing. We hiked up the river for 4,5 hours, but since we were wading through water, swimming, or climbing over rocks, the pace wasn’t very high. After a lunch break we went back, and going downstream meant a lot of the rocks we climbed up, now we could just jump off them, into the water below. After 3 hours we were back at the cars, and even though the hike wasn’t very exhausting, we were all quite hungry, so we decided to go and get something to eat on the way back. However, by now it was already way past 20.00, and GoT was already out. So we quickly rushed back, and Chris, Summer and Alfredo (a mexican friend from the club de montañismo) came back to my house to watch the latest episode. Luca came as well, but he didn’t do the hike. Having had a weekend crammed full with hiking and entertainment meant I had quite a bit of homework to catch up on the next week.
The pressure for the final projects was starting to show as well, as the deadlines were drawing closer. For my design class I need to build a chess board, but due to material problems, and unavailability of machines, I don’t have much built yet. Another class we have to simulate memory asignation as done by the linux kernel. We can choose whatever language we want, and we went for python. It’s quite interesting, I don’t have much experience with python, so this is a good chance to learn. For another class we’re learing 5 different languages, so we just have 5 exams and homework exercises. For another class we just do C++, but that class is very easy and slow. Past week I’ve spent most of my time studying or working on projects, ending the week once again with GoT in my house with a nice group.
Now this week I have had my final classes last tuesday, and now it’s just studying for my final exams. I assume I’ll have quite a bit of time for other things as well, but my projects might take more time than expected. The 22nd of may I’ll probably go to León, leaving Monterrey behind. I’ll donate all my clothes that I’m not bringing, as well as my suitcase. The semester has flown by. It feels like yesterday that I arrived in Puerto Vallarta and finally met up with my family. Monterrey has not become my home like Leon, but it was a great experience that I’ll look back on with fondness. Now I’m really looking forward toward my next big adventure. Traveling with friends will be a lot of fun, and maybe diving with whale sharks (!) should be very cool, but I am also thinking a lot about what I’ll do after when I’m on my own, and where I’d like to strike down for a few weeks/months. But I guess I’ll see all of that when I get there.
I expect my next blog to come from Guatemala or Honduras, I guess it depends when I can find some time. As said in the last blog, I should be looking at a way to share some photos, so I’ll hopefully get on that soon, and then I can share some of the beauty I come across on my travels!

Cheers,
Jelle