Super Amy

Friday, Jessi and I got interrogated by a group of high schoolers. It was strange, because for an hour or so, Jessi and I sat minding our own business while we waited on Michele to take care of some things, and other than an occasional strange look, people left us alone. Then, one girl asked us where we were from, and within seconds, there were twenty of them. They’re like vultures. Anyway, it gave me plenty of opportunity to practice my Spanish, and also to help them with their English homework.

Anyway, they kept pulling out their cell phones and asking if they could take pictures of our eyes (gringa eyes), so in retaliation, I took a picture of some of them.

Saturday morning, we took a bus to Tampico. Tampico is right on the eastern coast of Mexico. There, we stayed with some of Wendy’s friends, who were very nice and hospitable, and fed us and gave us beds to sleep in and coffee to drink, and a grand tour of Tampico. They were lots of fun.

There is a port in Tampico that has been there for almost four hundred years, I was told. At the top, there was some sort of chess tournament taking place. Inside, there were dozens of chess sets, from all over the world. Some of them were very beautiful, with pieces carved from onyx or wood, and some of them were simply ridiculous. I liked the ninjas.

And the city of Tampico, as seen from beside the chess tournament:

Mexico has a lot of animals that we don’t have in Greenwood. Mexico also has a lot of animals that we do have in Greenwood, like this squirrel. He is not like the squirrels we have in Greenwood, though, because he’s so ugly, and he’s a lot bigger and faster than he looks, which is why I did not pick him up, even though I wanted to. When I get home, I am going to buy a pet monkey, a pet parrot, or a pet baby tiger. I would have taken all of these things with me, if it weren’t for stupid flight laws.

We went to the beach right when it was cooling off. It was so nice. Beach photos:

Saturday night, we went to see “Pirates del Caribe 3.” Guess what that was. Luckily, it was subtitled and not dubbed. I enjoyed it, and it only made me want parrots and monkeys even more.

Sunday, we went to church with Wendy’s friends in Tampico, and ate lunch with them afterwards. Jessi had a spell of illness for a while, so we stayed in Tampico, and took the bus home last night.

This morning, Wendy and I got up at four thirty to go to the “Sotano de los Golondrinos,” or the Pit of the Swallows. It is the second-deepest natural pit in the world, and thousands of swallows and parakeets and other birds live in its walls. Each morning at sunrise, they all start flying out, circling through the pit and up into the air.

Sadly, we ran out of gas halfway up the mountain, so we didn’t get to see that pit. Instead, we talked with some of the people that Mr. Coad knows through the church in the Huasteca, and they gave us coffee. One man told us that there was another similar pit nearby, only it was a little smaller, but it was easier to get to. He and his daughter led us there, and we took the twenty minute steep hike through the woods and up the mountain, to see the pit. It was an incredibly deep pit, and more than a little scary. When we got there, it was starting to rain, and hundreds of birds started diving back and circling around to find shelter, so even though we missed the sunrise birds, we still got to see some crazy parakeets and swallows.

Just a picture of the mountains:

And the pit (those are trees at the bottom. It is very, very deep… 478 meters, or 1,568 feet deep.)

All of the little white specks are birds:

So there you have it.

This afternoon, Wendy, Michele, Mr. Coad, Jessi, and I went to the town of Xilitla, up in the mountains. The main purpose for the trip was to visit the home of Edward James. I won’t go into too much detail about Edward James, because you can easily read his wikipedia page here, but basically he was a contemporary of Salvador Dali and Henry Magritte and the like. He was very rich, and lived in England, but he moved to Xilitla to be with parrots and snakes and things. He built his house, one little room for himself, and then tons and tons of architecture… strange rooms and staircases leading to the sky, and symbols and arches and all sorts of things. Flowers and plants and such… it’s absolutely beautiful. There’s a river behind the place, and a huge waterfall, with carved pools and figures and things all the way up. Basically, it’s like something Salvador Dali would have painted, but it’s real. I’ve never seen such a beautiful place in my life, and I wish I could live there. And now, a photo of the parrot i wanted to take, lunch, then photos of Las Palmas.

If you ever go to Mexico. I say, go to this guy’s house. Well worth the trip. Also worth noting: He built a house downtown in the city, too… which is now being used as a hotel, and you can go stay there, fairly inexpensively. Tempted?