Cerro de la Silla

It's been 1 year since i last trekked so was kinda worried about my physical stamina when Arturo suggested going up Cerro de la Silla, the mountain in Monterrey that has a summit that looks like a horse saddle. But then again, i can't reject the chance to climb a mountain here especially since i've been climbing the Malaysia mountains all this while.. time to conquer some mountains in Mexico!

Up the mountain we went..

Yellow flowers along the route.

Weird looking tree.. we get to see lots of them in Mexico wherever we go.

A glamorous picture before everyone starts getting tired from going uphill non stop.. haha..

Orange flower along the route.

Carla's 1st time drinking water from the water bag.. she was so excited.. haha..

Cactus. They are everywhere in Mexico too.

At the platform which was exactly halfway up the mountain.

Purple flowers.

The route up. It was uphill all the way and it just got steeper and steeper towards the top. The sun was extremely hot that day too. The thing about the sun here.. it's scorching and kinda blinds u even when u have ur sunglasses on.. I still prefer spore's sun i think.. haha..

Misty view from the top.

Smile! Glad we made it up! Haha..

Another view from the top.

A final photo before heading down!

Yvonne

Weekend at the Ranch

During one of the weekends, Marcela (Arturo's gf) kindly invited us over to her ranch in Saltillo to have a bbq, relax, drink booze and go for buffalo hunting. Her ranch was really cozy and beautiful, a pity we were all so busy cooking and partying that we forgot to take pictures of the house. Oh well.. i will take it if we are going there again sometime before i leave for my travelling.. Oh anyway, there was a small little accident on the highway when we were on the way there. Carla's car just started swerving left and right for close to 5 mins. We all thought we were going to die but thanks to Carla's good driving skills, everything became in control after a while. Nobody knew what happened to the car.. weird.. Anyway, so here goes the pictures! Enjoy!

On the way to the ranch. We went off road for quite a long while and i think Carla's car was dying.. lol.. Her car's not an SUV, not really meant to go off road so once in a while we hear noises that sounded like the car was coming apart any moment.

Went for a hike up a nearby mountain and as usual, Nyan found an a green friend and decided to pose for some disgusting pictures with it.. haha.. anyway, all of us had cuts all over our legs cos the plants there were ALL spiky. Think it's cos of the weather in Mexico, so hot that sometimes there's natural forest fires every now and then.

View from halfway up the mountain.

Buffalo hunting!! Marcela's dog, Toby, went crazy chasing the buffaloes! Haha.. The buffaloes were actually scared when we went nearer to them.. So the girls managed to pose for a picture with them.

The guys with the buffaloes.

The long walk back to the ranch after looking at the buffaloes.

BBQ time!! Guess what we are doing? Making tortillas from scratch! Everyone wanted to do it cos we were all worried that we cannot live without them when we return back to our home country.. haha.. And we had fun making them!

For me, i had the fun of cooking the tortillas after i make them too! It was quite simple.. Like making roti prata.. haha..

Me and a photo with the great chef, Memo!

We marinated the chicken with beer and teriyaki sauce. The mexican way - beer in everything! Haha.. it tasted really good!

Poor Toby, smelling all the nice BBQ food but not given any.

Everyone resting outside the house for a chat before going back to Monterrey.

Yvonne

The long awaited Veracruz Carnival

Finally! The post on Veracruz Carnival, the biggest carnival in the whole of Mexico that i promised a long time ago! lol..

Gran Cafe de la Parroquia! The most famous cafe in Veracruz! Fantastic food and the best coffee I found ever since i got to Mexico. And the best part is, they do it the teh-tarik way!

Group photo outside the cafe.

Along the port.

The Naval Headquarters.

Nyan and canon

I can't help but comment on this picture. By right, we were not suppose to sit on the display (there was a sign beside it) but Nyan couldn't resist himself and decided to sit and take a quick picture. Subsequently, all the tourists follow suit.. lol.. Bad example Nyan! Haha..

The famous 5 pesos bus in Veracruz. This is my 1st time riding on a bus ever since i got to Mexico and I must say that it's really a different experience. The thing about buses here is that there are no bus stops. All we have to do is to wait at some junction and when we see the bus coming, we jump, wave, dance and do whatever we want to get the bus driver's attention. And we can get down anywhere we want to. Just press the bell and the driver stops right on the spot. Haha.. We were always on the wrong side of the street so when we see the bus, we will be running across the road to board it.. Haha.. The bus kinda reminds me of those old school buses we see in american movies.. Lol..

Shops next to the port.

Filete a la Veracruzana! Basically, its fried fish with the Veracruz sauce which is made out of tomatoes, olives and onions. I think those are the only ingredients they use but i might have missed out some stuff.. haha..

Some artistic weird looking sculpture along the road.

See those cups we are holding in our hands? The best ice cream in Mexico as claimed by Carla called Guero. I love the ice cream! Haha..

Oops! I didn't mean to touch his butt!

So much for all those tourist things we did. Finally we get to see the parade. The crowd was just overwhelming. It looks as though the whole population of Mexico were gathered here for the significant event! Took lots of pictures of the floats! They were beautiful!

The crowd. Anyway, the parade was late by 2 hours, a typical thing that happens every year. Mexican timing!

Nyan and his 2 litre beer. He bought 5 of them. Loco loco.

The police force was the 1st to parade. And what a scene they created when they passed by! The public were chanting "puto" which means gay constantly. As if that wasn't bad enough, they started chanting song that goes like this “hay qué estudiar, hay qué estudiar, si no de policía nos vamos a quedar” which essentially means that if they don't study then they would end up being a police in future. We just joined in the chanting and i actually saw some police waving and smiling back at the people. Corrupted and weird Mexican police. lol..

Superstitions in Mexico.

The guys and their new Veracruz Carnival shirts!

Tacos!

Performance in the Zocalo, central area of Veracruz.

Eggs with beans, Carla's favorite. Haha.. I know it looks disgusting but then it actually taste quite ok! Nyan hates the beans though.

Before leaving Veracruz, we made a discovery while my friend was looking through his rough guide. There was a picture of the guy playing the instruments in the book (picture above) and we suddenly realize he was the guy who was playing the instrument for us at that very moment! So yes, we took the opportunity to take a picture with him before leaving.

Yvonne =p