El Rollo y Mexico

Sorry I've been so lax at getting messages up. I didn't change grammar teachers after all and on top of that I've been sick with a minor infection, but have had very strong medicine to kill it that has been wiping me out. But life goes on. :)

Last weekend was an incredible weekend. Stephanie Kendall and I went to El Rollo which is an aquatic park about an hour outside of Cuernavaca. We started our adventure by meeting at Puente 2000 where we usually meet. We walked to the Lasser bus station and caught a bus for a town we've never been too. When we got there, we had no idea where we were going, we asked the bus driver and another passenger was getting off at the same stop and took us to a ruta (in town bus) that was supposed to take us to the park. Well.....it took us to the street the park is on, but we had no idea where the entrance was. We asked directions at a small tienda and started walking down the road. I kid you not, about a kilometer later we found the entrance. One of the pictures I am posting is on the road when we stopped and really wondered if we were heading in the right direction. We got there and since this is the off season half of the stuff was closed, oh but we managed to spend 6 hours there anyway!

We are convinced that a few of the "rides" we went on would not be legal in the U.S. But I've never been to a water park in the States so I don't know for sure. Probably the scariest was the pendelum, I took a few pictures and videos of it, because it's simple but amazing. It's roughly in the shape of a U and you start on one end in a raft, you go up the otherside, back up the first side a little and back and forth until you stop. I probably screamed a scream that I've never heard pass my lips before, I was almost hyperventilating at the end, it was so bad I struggle to tell the girls where I kept my inhaler in case I really needed it. I didn't, but wow!

The next one we did, is the green and blue one (if I can get the pictures posted), you shoot down the slide and go around and around the big open part. When I went I started to come out the opening in the bottom head first. I struggled to get myself turned around and was only partially successful and came out sideways, yep, that hurt! A sideways bellyflop! The pink one next to the green and blue one, it's called the back lash, you get in a raft, only two at a time, you head down this ramp and then there is a turn around point, only when Steph and I did it, we didn't turn around and went down the next half backwards! What fun. Hopefully the series of pictures help you imagine this.

There was another one that was a completely dark tube that seemed to take forever to get through and you emerged through the mouth of a snake at the end. Fun!

The one we probably spent the most time on was called the wave river. This is the one we think probably wouldn't be legal in the U.S. I took videos of it and series of pictures to try to give you an idea. It was a blast. There is a part that is for surfing, the current is so strong people can surf on it. The next part over there is a ramp to enter the river. If you're brave, which we were, you wait for the big wave and you get washed down the ramp into the river. Before you enter the river you get sucked under the water for several feet, it's an amazing experience. To those of you who wonder, yes, I did lose my top of few times on this one, but was able to recover before coming back out of the water! As you go around circular river every couple of minutes another series of waves come up behind you and wash you down a little further. There are a couple of entrances where you don't get washed down the ramp, but why bother with those? Yes, I got scraped up a little, but not too bad, Stephanie got a few bruises too. Kendall is just fine.

There was also the normal wave pool and a fun tube slide that we went on too. We were able to sun bath, it was so cold we were the only ones doing it! After it started to get dark we decided to take our pictures and then make our way back to Cuernavaca. Did I mention that on the bus we took, the hour outside Ceurnavaca took 2 hours? Oh well, it was really cheap so we didn't mind! We were so tired Stephanie and Kendall slept most of the way home.

The next day we went to Mexico City, my third time as a tourist, my sixth time in total. we went back to the casa Azul of Frida Kahlo and walked through the zocolo there Carlos told us that even though this is in the center of the bustling metropolis of Mexico City it is still very much like the old Mexico pueblos and still has a small town charm. It was in fact very much like some of the smaller towns we've been to. It was nice.

Afterwards we were on our way to see a bullfight when it started raining. It's a little spendy to go and Carlos explained that the bulls don't do well in the rain and it's really not much to see so since we had just parted ways with Javier (see picture) so he could go to a futbol game we decided to call him and ask him if he could buy our tickets and we would join him. He happily agreed to do so and so we saw the last futbol game before the finals, it was a lot of fun, but we were so high up that I was almost more interested in watching the people than the game! It really is an experience to go to a futbol game here in Mexico! Of interest, the venders here sell cup of soup, dominos pizza and fried chicken meals, not to mention beer, oh yeah, and beer and some soda pop too. lol. There is a picture here too of a bunch of fans on their way to the game, I have a short video clip too that captures a bit of their singing and excitement.

This Sunday after we teach English we are heading back to Mexico for the bullfights, we are hoping for good weather!

Oh, did I mention, the turkeys are because I heard there may be a shortage in the US, there are plenty here so I thought I would share!