Sights of Cuernavaca

I have spent the last two weeks studying Spanish at an excellent school in Cuernavaca, although the more I study, the less I believe that I will master Spanish before I die.  Cuernavaca was interesting, but I have decided to move on tomorrow to Oaxaca where I will study for the next two weeks.  Some random sights from Cuernavaca ...

On my daily walk one day, there were two workmen in front of me walking home. The man on the left has a shovel over his shoulder while the man on the right is swinging a machete in each hand.

 I saw this sign at the entrance to the market and thought it was a joke, so I took a picture to ask my teacher about it.  She did laugh, but the joke was on me.  For those who do not understand Spanish it says:  The entrance of devils is prohibited between the hours of 9am and 3pm.  The Administration.  Huh?  Who knew that "devil" is the word for a handcart in Spanish?  The markets are too crowded during the day, so handcarts are only permitted in the early or late hours.

Real Mexican food is not all that similar to California Mexican food.  There is not a lot of beans and rice, and almost no vegetables.  (Oh, darn.)  There are lots of different kinds of meat, and everything is served on corn tortillas.  I just thought I should point out that La Casa de Las Papas (The House of Potatoes) was shut tight.  I was happy to see that Mexicans have good taste.

Okay, this one really blew me away.  On my daily walk, I passed a playing field and went in to watch the kids play soccer, but they were playing American football.  At one end of the field, someone was teaching boys to play, while at the other end a girls' team was practicing.  Why?  Why are Mexicans learning and playing American football?  Then the big boys came in and played a game of flag football, complete with referees.  Go figure.

Practically everyone here is selling something, either from a store, their front room, a patch of sidewalk.  I'm guessing someone was going to show up and make this into a sidewalk restaurant.  Otherwise, I have no idea why there were chairs and a table at curbside.

As you can see from the flowers hanging over the wall, parts of the city are quite beautiful.  Unfortunately, income inequality is even worse here than in the US.  The nicer houses are gated, often with barbed wire or glass shards on top of the walls.  My school and my small apartment complex are beautifully landscaped, but both are gated and locked.  I need two keys to enter my complex and another to enter my apartment although the latter is superfluous since no one but my neighbors can get into the complex.  Here is the view of the pool and patio in my complex.

And over the wall to the left is a garbage strewn vacant lot.  There appears to be a family living in the shack at the front, although I'm sure it has neither electricity nor running water.

Finally, an oasis in the middle of the city - a beautiful hotel and restaurant for the tourists, although I must say that most of the tourists are Mexican (presumably wealthy given the prices).  I did not see any American or European tourists.

These photos are pictures I took of unusual sights.  The usual sights are more like the view over my fence.  The poverty and government disfunction is obvious everywhere.  Sidewalks are badly cracked, and the garbage collectors cannot keep up with the mountains of garbage.  The is a public garden with flower beds and pools of water ... except there are no longer flower beds, just random overgrown greenery.  My teacher told me that is used to be beautiful but is now ugly (her words).  The good news for an American is that everything is so cheap.  I had trouble spending $10 for a meal, and diet Pepsi is a bargain at forty cents for a 16 ounce bottle.  My manicure yesterday set me back almost $7.  Of course, with the exception of a staple like diet Pepsi, the quality of most things is lower as well.

Cuernavaca is a fairly modern mid-sized city.  I have been told that Oaxaca is an "authentic" Mexican puebla with wonderful food and crafts.  So I am off tomorrow to see what is there.