One of the Many Faces of Riley

I have quite a few pictures of Riley that capture her true goofyness and this is one of the special ones.

On the Lake I saw a Bird

This is a just for fun pic. I took this photo while we were waiting for out food at the restaurant on the lake. These birds I could see were walking all through the marshy part of the lake, but this is the only one that I saw up close, thanks to the 10x optical zoom on my camera. I do not know what type of bird this is, so if anyone could tell me that would be great.

The New People

We had 10 of the 31 people from last session stay here for this session. Those are the ten weekers as I call them. And this session we had several, about 17 new people come. This is a picture of all of the 10 weekers and several, not all, of the new 5 weekers at our first day trip excursion to Guachimontones.

One of the Guachimontones and Me

This is one of the ruins in Guachimontones. There I am in the picture the tour guide took. We had to leave shortly after this, because everyone was supposedly hungry. Too bad. This particular structure we were unable to climb, it was one of the restored ones and I assume a bit delicate. We did get a chance to climb the bigger one though and that was fun.

Los Guachimontones

The Guachimontones are a grouping of circular, pyramid like, structures. This one stands about 10 meters high, it is one of them that has been restored, there is also another one that is larger that has not yet been restored. Around each of these structures is a set of platforms that encircle the circular structure creating 3 concentric circles in total. There are several of these at Guachimontones of various sizes. I took this photo while standing on part of the larger, unrestored structure (which is covered in grass and trees, it was almost like climing a small hill). These Guachimontones fascinated me so much that I almost got left behind. No not really, but they all decided to leave 30 min before the scheduled time, so I was off doing what we were supposed to be doing, exploring the past, when the next thing I know everyone is on the bus ready to leave. So off I go like a good little girl and get on the bus too. It was not really fair though, I do wish I could have stayed longer, just not forever, and get left behind. Maybe I will return to them someday.

Ball Court at Guachimontones

This is a ball court of an ancient civilizacion. Here they played ball games for many purposes. If there was a dispute between two men they fought it out on the ball court. They would take 4 of thier best ball players and play a game. The dispute would have had to be quite grand because the captin of the loosing team would be beheaded, and his family and teammates would be given to the captain of the other team. Yikes, I hope that didn't happen often. But on the other hand if the game was being played as a religious event the captian of the winning team would be beheaded, and they believed that by dying in this manner they would become an imortal god in the afterlife. Quite different I must say. They also say that this game was played a bit like football, but you could only use your hips. They they also played from dawn till dusk and then counted up the points to see who would be the one to get beheaded. Interesting huh?

The First Site

This is at Guachimontones. Where they have an awesome view of the valley. The trip there was very beautiful and surrounded by the most magnificent mountains. I hope to travel there again some day.

Mi Bonita Guadalajara

Group Pics

Don Quijote & Me

He's a little short, but I guess he'll do.

You can't help but laugh can you?

Native Flora

This is a Nopal cactus and the bugambilla flower bush.

On Our Way to Taplpa

This is Riley, Laura, and I on the bus to Tapalpa. Weeeee!!! Well that was fun, on the back roads of Mexico in the mountains, I didnt get too sick on the way there, we wont talk about on the way back. Nevertheless the time we spent together was worth while.

Tapalpa Churches

This last weekend we went to Tapalpa to go and explore the town. We ended up not being able to do much there but I got some nice pictures

The Road to Mazamitla

This was our road trip to Mazamitla, we rented a car and drove there. It was so much fun and we saw some amazing sights.

Traditional Mexican Cemetery

We stopped the car on our way to Mazamitla to view a traditional Mexican cemetery. It is a different experience. The cemetery was not kept up very well but it was very colorful and interesting. During Dia de los Muertos "Day of the Dead" the families of the dead set up an altar over their family members graves. They bring food and drink along with favorite things of their loved one and many colorful decorations. One other requirement of these altars is to have a representation of death. They usually do this by bringing some sort of skull or skeleton, they like to make fun of death by dressing the sugar molded skeletons in dresses and hats.

Las Jirafas y Yo

I put had my friend take this picture especially for mom, cause I know you love the Giraffes. So here they are. The pen that they were in had fences so low that the giraffes could lean over the fence and eat vegitation on the other side of the fence. That is something that they deffinately wouldnt allow in the US. I am very glad I went to the zoo here to see not only the animals, but the differences between the way we run things in the States.

Budda Gorilla

I thought he was super cute, and Budda looking. Also I think he is sucking on a sucker. Funny huh?

The Phatest Cats in the Kingdom

We have a Puma, a Lion, and a White Tiger. I must say that I favor the cats at the zoo. I especially like the Puma, dont know why, just do.

My Friend the Komodo Dragon

This is obviously a statue that I am sitting on, but the real komodo dragon is behind me beyond the glass. Yes, that oh so deadly komodo dragon, the largest lizard in the world, and I stood only meters from it. There are only a few thousand of them left in the world, and one of them is housed right behind me in this zoo. They eat large prey and are supposed not be a serious threat to humans, but knowing that a single bite from them would kill me, I would definately keep my distance. I'd hate to be the one to clean that cage.

The Edge of the Earth...Or Just the Edge of the Zoo

WOW, what a sight it was, quite amazing. This is the "Edge" of Guadalajara. My CEA advisors always said that after the city ends the jungle begins, that is after it drops off into oblivion. We sat at the edge of civilization and, well, a very large cliff. It was a beautiful sight.

Latin Lady

Yay that is me in the yellow. My latin dance class had a preformance at the commencement of classes yesterday. We had a great time and I made a lot of nice friends. This dance, to me, was the most visually appealing. I had a ball.

Day at the Zoologico

This is Riley and I at the zoo. We had a good time exploring one of the larges zoos in the world. This is at the enterance of the zoo. We stayed for 3 hours looking around and got a good work out walking in the heat.

The Machete Dance

I am in a latin dance class and we are going to be having a preformance tomorrow. There is one dance that we have to wear these flowy skirts and the guys have to clang machetes around. It is a simpler dance for the girls, but the guys have a little extra work to do in this one. While they do the hard part of the dance, we sway our skirts and look pretty. We do more difficult steps in other dances that we will also be preforming, where the girls have to do more movement. They are all really fun to do though. I am thinking about taking another class when I get back home. It is a good work out and a lot of fun.

La Minerva

This statue of a goddess Minerva is in the center of a very large circle. This circle is the center of a very large network of roads, one being around it and the rest radiating from it like a wheel. We use this landmark as a point of reference in the city. There are many businesses near and around La Minerva, it is a busy place that we frequent on a regular basis. It is south west of our school which is southwest of our house. It is yet another beautiful sight in the city, naturally surrounded by a gigantic fountain.

The CEA Group

This is part of the CEA group. These people are the ones that went to Tlaquepaque. I suggested that we take a picture, but I wish we would have used my camera cause the quality of this pic isnt that great. I am on the top row near the center. There are 20 of us here and there are 31 in the group so we only could include most of the people. But anyway here we are.

Everyday trees

These trees, like so many others here, are cut like a box on a stick. They are cut just high enough so that Riley and I can walk right underneath them, so about 5'4'' tall. Its fun, we always just walk right on under them while everyone else has to walk around. In this case it pays to be short.

The Tequila Barrel

This was a part of the Jose Cuervo estate that still is standing from the original estates. This is a tequila barrel in that part of the estate. I climbed a ladder and got my picture taken. This barrel was huge, I was a little aftaid of falling into it, but only a little.

La Hacienda

This is the Jose Cuervo hacienda, estate, in Tequila.

La Calle

A beautiful street in Tequila. What an awesome place to take a stroll.

Agave Fields

This is the sea of agaves near and all around tequila. In one of these pictures there is a volcano with clouds surrounding it. cool huh? I even took these from the moving bus. Can you tell? I hope not.

Sleeping Beauty

This was on the bus back from Tequila passing some awesome mountains and agave fields. Riley fell asleep on the bus, no surprise there. Esta bien.

Tequila Lab

Go figure, what do I take a picture of, well the lab, of course. Me and my sciences, well I thought it was cool...
This is where they test the tequila to make sure that it was up to standard quality.