Exploring Puebla and it's surroundings!

I must admit that I haven't really offered time to keep my blog updated. I've just been busy enjoying time with all the great people I have been lucky to meet here in Puebla! At the moment of writing this post I am having some relaxed time of my own on Cuba ;) Puebla is a great city with lots of things to do and see, and I have had some wonderful and helpful people spending time with me and showing me around! One of the first places to visit in Puebla is the zocalo which is a nice and relaxed park with a fountain in the center. The zocalo is right between the palacio, where the governor of Puebla works, and the cathedral.

I have been so lucky getting to know the Condado family! The are just amazing, and have been like a family to me :) They have really helped making my stay in Puebla unfogettable!

Manolo has taught many through his years in gymnastics, and we went to a nice restaurant owned by one of his former students. This was a restaurant famous for it's pozole, a soup with huge maize corns.

After having a tasty lunch we walked on to visit the famous market for arts and handcrafts, El Parian.

One of the things that I have gotten really used to in Mexico is the way they use chile with anything and everything ;)

After a nice day downtown Edgardo invited us to finish off the day with a ride on the worlds biggest transportable wheel. In the back you can se Volcán Popocatepelt.

Every Monday in the luchas arena they have luchas libres, the famous wrestling matches of Mexico. One Monday after classes at the gym we were a few who went to see the mathces. It was crazy!! They were dressed up in funny costumes, there was wild fighting, loud screaming (fighters and spectators) and some beautiful ladies announcing each round.

One day Edgardo had a meeting in Cholula with a principal of a school we would have a workshop with, so we both went for some sightseeing in the city before the meeting. Cholula is known to be the city with one church for each day of the year!

Also they have a church built by the Spanish when they conquered Mexico. They made a hill by burrying a pyramid from the indigonius, and built the church on top of the hill.

We were lucky and got to see the tradition of the voladeros. They are four people dancing upside down while hanging by ropes and swinging around. Normally there would also be a fifth person on top playing a tiny drum and a flute.

Again the Condado family was so kind to invite me out to experience more of the Mexican culture. This time they took me to Atlixco where there is a famous restaurants with a lake nearby where they fish their trouts they serve. There were two ladies making all the tortillas that were served, and I got to try to make my own tortilla ;)

This is the result, my Norwegian tortilla! I can assure you it tasted better than it looks ;)

I have also had a wonderful girl, Veronica, showing me around. She took me to the worlds smallest volcano (or if you want, the largest geyser), Cuexcomate, which only reaches 13m.

We also could climb into the crater ;)

Vero also invited me to Ex Hacienda de Chautla. This park used to be farmerland, but today it is a recreational and cultural center. The park is well known for El Castillo, it's castle overlooking the lake. Edgardo and another friend, Emmanuel, also joined us. Before we got to the park we bought some lunch so we could have a picnic in the park :) Tacos and tequila was a great combination!

A popular meal in Puebla is the cemita, and one of the most famous places to eat a cemita is in Mercado del Carmen. The Condado family invited me to have one of these cemitas, and we went there to see how they prepared them. It was amazing watching how fast they made hundreds of these huge cemitas!

I must admit I am a fan of Mexican food, and I got a great oportunity to learn how to make tamales from a great friend (Comadre) of the Condado family.

Some of the gymnasts from the club made an arrangement to go ice skating. To get there we drove this beauty. Manolo's original buggy from 1962!!

For some it was the first time trying to ice skate, but they did really well and there were no major accidents!

One of my last trips with friends from Puebla before travelling went to Teotihuacan, known for many of the most architecturally significant pyramids. To the right you can see the great Sun Pyramid, and straight ahead you can see the Moon Pyramid.

On the top of the Sun Pyramid there is a point where you can gain energy from the sun by holding your finger there for 30 seconds.

The pyramids had some great spots for doing gymnastics! I am glad to do some gymnastics with my friends. Here I am working with Amèrica :) We also met 4 guys from Taiwan who asked to take some pictures of us perfoming our art ;)

¡Gracias a todos! ¡Voy a extrañar Puebla y ustedes todos!

MEXICO!! First stop Oaxaca de Juarez ;)

I am so lucky to have good friends in Mexico! It was so easy to arrive. I was meet at the airport by Rosmy and Marox who I will be helping teaching gymnastics in Condado Fam-Gym in January. First I was going to meet up with Edgardo and spend New Years with him and his family! Edgardo met me in Oaxaca de Juarez where we would spend some time as tourists. Our first trip went to Monte Alban, an old Zapotecan pyramid village.

After walking around in Monte Alban for a while we got hungry and decided to go back downtown and find the market. People say you have not been in Oaxaca before you have eaten in this market! It was a great experience. The market was packed with people eating, preparing food, selling drinks or just walking through to get a look at the culture. We decided to try 3 different meats, and my favorite was the chorizzo!

In addition to the meat we ordered I got to try something new. An old lady came over to us with a basket full of chapulines! Of course I had to try fried grashoppers :D Here is my taco with chapulines, onions and chile.

The next day we decided to take a tour where we would be driven in a van to five different places. Our first stop was at El Árbol del Tule. This is a huge tree in the church grounds in the town center of Santa Maria del Tule. It was 58 meters around the trunk!

We moved on to a little village called Teotitlan del Valle where we got to se the prosess of making rugs. From spinning the wool, natural coloring and to woving the rug.

Some of the rugs they use several weeks making. I also got to try weaving ;)

Our next stop was a little farm where they produce Mezcal, a typical alcoholic beverage in Oaxaca. It is made from maguey plant native to Mexico. When it is ready to get prosessed it looks like a giant pineapple.

Of course I was chosen for some traditional mezcal testing. Here I am ready for a shot of mezcal which is normally finished off with a bite of orange with sal de gusano and a whole gusano! Gusano is a larvae!

We moved on to another archeological site, Mitla, which supposedly was the most important village to the Zapotecs.

After Mitla we grabbed some lunch at a typical mexican buffet before we moved on to our last stop. We spent the rest of the day at Hieve el Agua where we enjoyed the view from the top of two cliffs that look like waterfalls. These cliffs are made over several years of fresh water springs containing calcium carbonate running down the cliffs leaving excess minerals to the cliff.

Of course there was some time to practice gymnastics on the edge of the cliffs :)

Here is a view from above. You can see two fresh water pools where it is possible to go for a little swim.

It was a long but great day! ¡Mucas gracias Edgardo!

Helping Juanita in Palmares :)

There is another club here in Costa Rica that is doing danish gymnastics! Last week Juanita invited us to help her out in her club in Palmares :) So we jumped on my bike and drove to Palmares where Juanita had organized everything for us to have a perfect stay! Juanita has studied different kind of physical and mental wellness around the world, and has now evolved her own way of training mind and body.

We were allowed to help out and show some of the danish gymnastics, like swing, balance and different exercises across the floor.

The ladies loved to make pyramides, so we finished off the class by making one!

The next morning Juanita had arranged for us to have a workshop at a local high school. This was a fun experience where hardly anyone could speak or understand english. They didn't have any equipment so we had planned some games and activities on the hard floor ;) Some activities like danish swing was difficult for many of them, and many kids didn't dare to try and just sat down to watch. It was difficult for us to make them join and try new things, but we improvised with different games and all in all it was a fun and good experience!

Later in the evening we teached in the club, and there everyone was motivated and happy to have us there! We had 3 different groups of young girls.

There was many girls on each team, and not too much space in the gym! I believe we had a total of around 60 gymnasts on the 3 different groups. It was so much fun, and we could see the joy in their faces!

The next morning there was a new class for body and mind ;)

We also had lots of fun with them!

And built more pyramids, haha!!

¡Muchissimas gracias Juanita!