Feria de Chapultepec & Valle de Bravo

Last Friday till Sunday was packed with good times. Friday was Colegios Peterson's Day at Feria de Chapultepec (think Coney Island vs Six Flags). All students, except grades 10 - 12 had no regular classes and their day began at the feria many with their families as well. My day began with physics lab 11. All 10 - 12 as well as some 6-9 students who were at school rode buses around 11:30 over. We had the whole place to ourselves for the day.

The rides were fun though some knocked you around a bit and I, of course, came away with a couple of bruises. The best thing was the Haunted House... really scary fun! I hung out with a number of the teachers and we enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was very sunny so we relaxed in the shade as well. My day at the park ended around 4pm meeting Ken Peterson at the gate along with Adam (see above), Barbara, Sarah and Mary from my campus and Erika from Tlalpan campus for our weekend away to Valle de Bravo. We would be staying at the Peterson's house there.

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We hit traffic as we got closer to the valley so did not arrive till close to 20:00. We had a wonderful dinner and just relaxed and got some sleep.

Saturday, we got a chance to really see the house. After a wonderful breakfast, some went out kayaking (walking down to the lake from the house they have a dock) and some of us walked to a really nearby waterfall

and back up to the house. I then sat in the sunshine reading my latest book "The Hunger Games" which I really enjoyed. The others came back and after more time relaxing, we went out for a longer nature walk by a much larger waterfall; Velo de Novia

which was just stunning and the weather was beautiful. We walked/hiked along the path all the way down to the lake, but the drinks were out of reach in the middle of the lake there so back we went.

Too far without a bathing suit.

We had another wonderful meal with grilled veges and a specially marinated beef all in a tortilla along with salad and a bunch of other little bits. All the food was wonderfully prepared and there was plenty of it.  A bit later, we took a trip into town to browse around a bit and saw some native dancers in the square in front of the church. Back to the house for a light meal and then some of us went out for a night on the town. This being Mexico, at 22:00 we were the first ones in the bar, but it soon filled up with others. We did some relaxing and people watching and hanging out. What a great night!!

Sunday after a wonderful slightly later breakfast (I just love pancakes!!) we headed out to the Art Market in town and I picked up a small basket woven with pine needles and a nice bedside lamp as well as few other little things. We all had fun and helped the local economy out. :) After another great meal of chicken with mole, rice, salad, etc We packed up to head back to the city. We were lucky with the traffic (or lack thereof) and made it back in about 2-1/2 hours.

The whole weekend was filled with wonderful weather, food and most important company.

Ken, Nancy, Mary, Me, Erika, Sarah and Adam

If you want to see more photos: click here!