10/11/07 - In search of a playground

After being there nearly a month, I had been unable to locate a park that had playground equipment. Katy had said she thought she had seen one at a park somewhat nearby our former host family's house. We went on a hunt that day and managed to find one, though the equipment was old, and geared toward much older children.

Below, are pictures of Rafael our host mother's eldest son, and Lupita, our host mother.

This gigantic rock has a pretty impressive history. Apparently, it rolled it's way off Cerro de la Bufa long ago, and came to rest right there in the park.





Katy and Andre playing on the slide. He had a great time and Even though it was obvious Katy was having a hard time with Andre, she was getting much better than before with not getting annoyed or frustrated with him.

10/10/07

One of the best things I could have brought with us to Mexico was the portable DVD player. I had brought a couple of DVD's with us from home, but those got old real quick. I happened to find a department store there and was able to purchase some DVD's for Andre so he wouldn't get bored with the same old thing. He must have watched the animated movie, "Cars," about 100+ times since purchasing the DVD. But, if it made him happy to be in his favorite chair, while watching his favorite movie, then that's all that mattered to me!

El Mercado

There was only two of us at this point in school; myself and Katy. Out instructors decided to take us on a little excursion to the local mercado. It was really cool to see a true Mexican mercado or "grocery store".

Inside the mercado was a tortilla factory. We were allowed to walk behind the counter to see how they made the tortillas. It was pretty interesting and I got some good photos.

My instructor Luci on the left, Karla, the other instructor on the right.

Prickly Pear Cactus vegetable.

These little wrestling masks were all over the place down there. I think they are pretty silly.

Katy trying on hats in the hat store.

City of Zacatecas police motor bike.

Andre wearing Katy's new hat.

Eating at the really yummy French restaurant.

Our Long Walk 10/07/07

After being unable to find a park with playground apparatus for the boy, I asked around the school to see if anyone knew of a park that had some. I was told a park across town had a few things for kids to play on, so on this day we ventured out there. Katy was supposed to go with us, but she had been invited to experience rural Mexico from her instructor, and therefore canceled on us. I tried to make the best of our trip, just the two of us. When we arrived at the park, there was no playground for kids and no apparatus anywhere. I decided to walk around the little pond and return home.

In total, the trip took about 4.5 hours to walk there and back. We walked down one of the main roads and past the park with the cool fountain lights that sprays water in rhythm to music.

This was a flower shop that looked like it was built into the earth.

A weird wedge-shaped building.

Mexico's version of a science museum.

They had a really cool enclosed playground for Andre to run around in. I think this was our favorite part of the entire trip that day.

Unfortunately, the people in Zacatecas, don't care much about their earth or city. They litter all over the place. Even in this pond. In fact, the city stopped working so hard to clean their city because the people just don't care to keep it clean. I think that's pretty sad.

Cool Cactus.

All tuckered out!

Cerro de la Bufa