Mexico

Over the Spring Break of my senior year of high school, one of my best friends, Luis, asked me to join him and his family in Mexico for the week. Luis is orignially from Veracruz, Mexico, and his family now splits there time between Veracruz and St. Louis, Missouri where he is attending high school. My week in Mexico was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Because I was staying with a family in their home, I was able to see a side of Mexico that most Americans, who simply check in at a resort and lay on a beach, are unable to witness.

During the six days I spent in Mexico, I was able to see many of the sites of Veracruz, a large shipping port on the eastern coast Mexico. These sites included an amazing aquarium where I almost got to swim with sharks (sadly the were closed for the day) and the historic downtown, eating at Cafe de la Parroquia, a traditional cafe local to Veracruz. We were also able to spend a day in Puebla, a beautiful colonial era city in central Mexico. It has become a much more commercial city, and we spent most of the day wandering around the town square and shopping at the open street markets, eating amazing street food whose names I could neither spell nor pronounce. One of my favorite adventures of the trip was visiting Catemaco. Luis' great uncle retired to the lake side town of Catemaco, and we spent a whole day visiting. We drove down the coast, which allowed me to see the beauty of rural Mexico and experience the terror inducing driving that occurs on Mexican highways.

While in Catemaco, in addition to eating some of the most delicious and freshest food I have ever had, we took a boat across the enormous clear lake to a rainforest tourist spot historically known for "witchcraft" and home to natural mineral springs, sweat lodges, and a forest dwelling shaman who blessed me with various herbs and oils (and, according to my traveling partners' translation, stated that I am rather "disharmonious with the world"). Overall, my experience in Mexico was an amazing gift, allowing me to grow in understanding of a culture outside of my own and grow as a person. I have been back twice over the past several years and love it even more each time I visit.