Excursions can go well?!

This is going to be a bit short because of time constraints, but you'll get the idea. Saturday, I went to the little town of Tepoztlan with a group of other extranjeros. I adored it. Small, peaceful, with more character than Cuernavaca. High up in the mountains above Tepoztlan is a little temple that some totally insane indigenous society built. It took us an hour to make the ascent on foot, and it was hard work. Very steep. Two of the girls got altitude sickness because we ascended so rapidly. The temple itself was only remarkable because of its location, but the view was spectacular. The mountains near Tepoztlan are incredibly jagged, heavily forested, and ridiculously beautiful. I could retire there happily. Interestingly, Tepoztlan has a weird hippie streak - there's a surprising amount of influence from the Far East there. I think the closet hippie in Andrea would love it there.

Sunday, we went Taxco (pronounced Taz-ko) with the school excursion. It was actually the first excursion that went reasonable well. Taxco is the silver capital of México, and it shows. There are literally hundreds of silversmithies in Taxco, from the junkiest junk to 5000 dollar tea sets. The prices were fairly reasonable, though, and some of the craftsmanship was mind-blowing. I definitely didn't have enough time there.

Taxco's main church, however, is both my favorite and most hated in Mexico. The outside is made of two tones of pink rock - probably sandstone - and carved with some really amazing statues. It's gorgeous and eyecatching. The inside is a bunch of god-forsaken baroque retablos painted gold. I've seen baroque, but this is beyond that. This is the essence of baroque distilled into a single church. Disgusting. Oh, well. I'm just not going to go inside again.

In other news, my ten-day vacation is upcoming. Since I know there are at least a couple of Mexican readers of this blog who are unknown to me (Hola, mexicanos. ¡Presentense!), I'm going to refrain from doling out my whereabouts. But, I'm going south, and it's possible there will be beaches involved. Speaking of which - it is is officially confirmed: I cannot tan, ever. Not a big deal, but the conjecture has been made fact. I just turn a deeper red.

Also, a scad of new photos on Flickr. I dunno, I've heard of some problems from my whiny girlfriend, so let me know if you can see this (and if you can, post a snide comment about her competence):