Magic town of Cholula

Cholula - a native Indian town of Aztecs is situated around 30 min from Puebla. Said to have established after the farming of Teotihuacan started to be less productive, Cholula developed as next Aztec colony in the area.

The biggest pyramid of Cholula contains a maze of tunnels under the pyramid. The caves were blocked for several years but were cleaned and restored in 1931. You can walk udner the pyramid for about 1km. There are several forks and branches to the tunnels that lead up, down or perpendicular and create a scary maze. they have blocked the entrances to those forks with grills to ensure that nobody is lost inside.

The local guide told us a legend that Spanish Aztec war lead Spanish conquerors search these tunnels under the pyramid for wealth. Before they could find the hidden chambers beneath the pyramid, Aztec managed to take the treasure out to some other place. When Spanish did not find the treasure, they ensured to take some revenge.

The town boasted having 365 pyramid temples in the past. Each Pyramid is converted to a church now. That seems kind of rude behavior of Spanish conqueror to destroy the local culture of Aztec civilization. However some churches that we visited are very glorious with golden paint on the walls and detailed carvings.

We also visted local fruit and vegetable market. Looked quite a lot like Mandai markets in Mumbai or Pune. People also did some shopping of souvenirs, jewelry etc.

Saturday Night

Party for Steve’s birthday started on Saturday around 7.30pm with a few beers and wine and went on till 3am, until eventually when people not able to realize what they were doing and ended up in their respective beds.

The party started with a nice 3 course dinner. Paula arranged some pasta for main course for vegetarians. The hotel staff did quite an arrangement by setting up candles, wine glasses, cooling all the drinks we had purchased, arranging the projector for our slideshows and the sofas on the terrace for drinking.

I was wearing the slippers from the room and Morgana and Sabine found it amusing. Coincidentally Mario also wore the same kind of slippers but changed to shoes when they made fun of him.

Volker created a nice slide show and projected on the wall with solo pics of every one and some tourist spots in Mexico we visited in last two weeks. Steve played the guitar with Tracy singing with him. When everyone was drunk a lot, we played songs from different countries. Volker’s effort of compiling this album with 3 songs from each language of the participants was quite a hit. Louis liked the “Nagada Nagada” and “Morya Morya” and tried to dance bhangda and Marathi Ganapati festival style dance with us.

The deal was not to post pictures of anything that happened after 10pm. But actually we took quite a less amount of photos (I don’t think anyone was in right mind to do that!) and most of them were alright. Nothing to be censored!

14 of us finished about 3 tequila bottles, several boxes of beers, red and white wine. We had much more with us…I am sure people are gonna have one more bash soon to finish them… vodka and more beers. Sophia volunteered to make a few cocktails which turned out to be popular. Sridevi tasted some tequila to everyone’s surprise.

 Michelada - beer with spicy Mexican sauce

Tequila

People slowly started deserting the party land when they were drunk than they expected and could not take it further. I went to the room around 2pm. I heard later that people went to warm water pool later.

The hang over next day is something you don’t want but can’t avoid. I woke up at 9.45 and went to have some breakfast only because it closes at 10. After having some food and coffee, I felt a little better and sleeping till noon again, made me fresh back again. People spent their Sunday in shopping which has been pending for last two weeks now.

Yoga session under the sky

We had been discussing of having Yoga sessions for a week now, but because of moving to other hotel for a few days and people being busy with the field trips, it was not happening.

Finally we had a nice long Yoga session today. Sophie came on the terrace to do yoga on her own, where I was running on the mill. And we also found Sharon. Three of us ended up doing several different asana (postures) for about an hour. I led my routine with instructions. It felt good to have this done after quite a few days. Sophie seemed to be quite regular at it and had the most flexible body.She also knew the Sanskrit names of the asana.

Volker was watching us from the gym, doing several different postures ... a few difficult ones like Ardha Machhindrasan and Garudasan (Eagle Posture). It felt food to stretch your arms and legs under the sky watching shapes of the clouds and sound of the wind.

We may end up doing different routines of each other in the next few days.

Birthday bash

It was steve's birthday today...  but everyone including me is so wasted that we afre not able to talk straight right now. so more details tomorrow (mostly afternoon).. sorryt for the spelling mistakes .. cant help it.. :)

Two weeks Check-point Meeting

Two weeks Check-point Meeting: We had out two weeks check point meeting today for all the three subteams. Health and Security teams worked from IBM office today. Alfa...

The pre-party

We are planning to celebrate Steve's birthday tomorrow. A few of us went to wallmart in the evening to get the party stuff. But the mood for the party had already begun. We ended up having a long preparty today... 

It was full of a lot more events than expected

• Lot of laughs and discussions
• Playing music from German, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Chinese languages
• Very less drinks (as compared to tomorrow’s plan)
• Discussion with Steve about English Grammar (Drunk/Drunken) and Cricket (Mostly British team surprisingly winning a few matches :-) )
• Tracy losing her cell phone (probably in the cab)
• Three sincere people working downstairs and Sanket and Sabine ensuring to capture them in photos

• Getting next amount of Per diem … some of us were eagerly waiting for that :-)
• Every one, separately,  asking Paula about what time we were leaving tomorrow and Louis’ suggestion to record the audio of “10.00am” or “Taxis are waiting”
• And the most entertaining was every one trying a Yoga Aasana

It started with the plan to have Yoga session on Sunday and Sophia, Krishna showed Padmasana (Posture of Lotus). It involved two steps. First step was very easy, but the second one – not so much unless you have a habit of it. There were several laughs when a few of us could not do it well. And a few of us could not do even the first step. Volker managed to do the second step finally and was very expressive about it. (A couple of beers you know!). Sabine did it very easily and gave a pose like a Hindu Monk for a snap.:-) Sharon and Steve tried and surrendered (with cheers :-))

Volker finally managing to do it

Sabine looking like a Hindu monk - happy and realized

Steve and Sharone

Cheers!

Paula - Not so difficult!

Luda

The party finally ended at 12.00 midnight when all the beer and wine was finished and with the agenda to pack again to move back to La Purificadora.

If you need to ask, you don't need to know!

Solving puzzles at Pizzeria

We went to Pizzeria to have dinner today. The lady told us that pizza is going to be about 12 inches. So Sabine and I decided to share.

It took us quite long to decide on the pizza. I wanted a pizza which does not have ham or any kind of beef. Sabine wanted to pizza not having eggplant or garlic or egg. Sabine wanted to have one with the ham but wasn't very hungry to finish the whole one. Morgana ordered ham but she was hungry and wanted to finish the whole.

With all these permutations and combinations, we finally ended up ordering a simple margarita pizza. It was good. And I heard that it turned out to be better than the ham. Finally it worked for us.

Shopping...

People are now growing more and more impatient for shopping. Two weeks already passed. Half of the stay is over. Most of us have not even started looking into what needs to bought. So some of us are growing anxious and planning to go out in the downtown markets to buy some stuff in the evenings.

Shridevi and Tracy are ahead of every one so far, enjoying their shopping. Sabine went out this evening to buy some bracelets etc. I have bought a few t-shirts and some key chains in my visit to the pyramids and haven't really done any shopping so far in the city. Probably it's time to hang out in streets in the evening!!

Grande

Mexican can eat really spicy food. The food is generally 7/8 out of 10 in spicy scale and some of the sauces are even 10. They are even spicy for an Indian tongue like me.

Many of the food items have same ingredients but different bread. or just change one ingredient but may have whole different name. Semitas and Toratas for exmaple only one or two ingredients different.

Mexicans like to eat a lot of cheese and fried food. Frying tortillas (Mexican rotis)  and frying chicken are very common. The wahaka cheese which is a special kind of Mexican cheese is used with generous hand.

People are very nice and friendly. They would go out of the way to fulfil your requests and with smiling face. That is something very new to a person from Pune. For example the lady where we generally have lunch did not have spoons, but when bought chankallas (sorry for the spelling), we asked for the spoon because it was not dry. She could have said she does not have it, but in stead she went out and bought a few plastic spoons for us quickly.

Found the right spelling... its' chanclas

Food is very colorful here with red, green sauce, white cheese, yellow mexican rice and black beans. Brings a different presentation to your plate. (It depends on what you manage to order with your Spanish and the recipient's English). It could get really messy sometimes. I once ordered a sandwich and fries on the side. I got a big sandwich and a huge plate full of french fries worth 45 pesos. Entire team ate fries of that plate. Considering that our daily lunch is about 40 pesos; the dish was huge.

Luda ordered some juice at a taco place (Grande - large size). It happened to be so large that she could not finish 30% of it.

What is your age?

Apparently this seems like a very common question in Mexico and even when asked to the girls. We were asked this during the lunch on our very first day then occasionally during dinners, parties... eventually you start to think it is normal to tell your age.

Mind blowing police academy

We had a long field trip today. We visited office of Attorney General in Puebla first. Had a meeting with Director of Attorney General and discussed the model of Ministerial Police of Puebla State. It was an institute of training and professionalism.

Then we visited the Police Academy. It was about 45 min drive from Puebla City situated on a hill surrounded by forest. The academy extends to 23 acres and a very high tech training equipment. It is told to be funded by State Government of Puebla and Govt of United States. The simulator in the academy was very cool... it simulated robberies in the mall and similar other incidents and train the police to shoot with guns in such cases. The real time experience in 3D of the simulator was mind blowing.

The academy also hosts vetting center where drug tests, psychological tests, socio-economical tests and lie detector tests are carried out. Every policeman has to pass this certification in order to keep his job and ensure the attitude towards the public and fitness for the job.

The academy also had state of the art computer labs for training technologies and systems that police department uses. It also had real time connection with the emergency call line and a lab to train on bio chemical analysis of the crime.

We had a long meeting with director of the academy and test center and asked her several questions. It was amazing to see how much efforts and money the Government is investing to make the police department better and up to date and ensure the security.

Relaxing day Sunday

Sunday was not quite happening. Most of us went for a magic town about 2.5 hours drive. It contained another pyramid but had a very long steep walk. I opted out because i am still not able to get over the jet lag and sleep schedules are not normal.

 Sharone and I went to Cathedral.. it was very nice. We went to attend Sunday mass but the church was full with small 2nd grade kids gathered there for the communion. We did not get the seats for the mass and it would have been long boring mass anyway because of the communion. The cathedral was awesome... the interiors coated with 22k gold. The cathedral is boasted to have a 7 ton bell in its tower. We got to hear its ringing sound ... deep base that connects straight to your heart! We will visit the cathedral again

We visited a few more churches on the way. One church had the decorations of previous day's wedding.

Church with floral arrangement of a wedding

Had lunch at the Cinemex mall closeby .. got the sandwich... vegeteriano. In the evening had a quick workout of 45 min and spread my legs in the warm water pool for 15 min.

By the end of the day around 8pm, the group came back from the magictown trip all tired and sleepy. :). I was glad i missed the trip.

Pyramids of Teotihuacán

The pyramids of Teotihuacán are a massive cluster of temples worshipped from 200BC. It is not clearly known who built the pyramids but something caused several cultures including Mayans to migrate here and create a metropolitan city of 200000 populations. 

There are two main pyramids in the cluster. Sun Pyramid devoted to the Sun is the biggest structure with around 250 steps to climb. The Moon pyramid is slightly lower in height but a more organized structure with several small pyramids surrounding at regular angles and huge highway approaching through them. There are doors that lead the caves beneath the pyramids but they are sealed. Legend tells that they are graves of royal people and preachers and storage of wealth too.

Sun Pyramid

We reached the village of Teotihuacán around 11am and visited a factory producing the ancient Native Indian artifacts for a museum. They showed us a huge cactus plant of “Arabe” from which the famous alcohol Tequila is made. It’s a huge plant growing 10 ft high and Tequila is produces from the huge flora of the cactus. The Indian ladies used the flora for not only the drink but also sewing, extracting natural paper and several other things. It’s like coconut tree – no part of the plant goes wasted. As part of the tour, they gave us a few sample shots of original Tequila – so strong to get us drunk enough, to climb the sun and moon pyramids easily.

Cactus from which Tequilla is produced

We also saw jewels that are found in Mexico and the way Indians extracted them. Several jewelry and artifacts were very expensive and moreover they were heavy since they were made of stone. I would have had to pay extra baggage of $100 if I would have bought anything there.

 Of course the climb of the pyramids was full of photography sessions. We met a group of people from IBM GBS India. They had come to Mexico City to work their client.  We took some snaps with them. The moon pyramid was also almost same but the pyramids around it were structured in more organized fashion like Panchayatana in Hindu temples.

The journey back was a long session of shopping where everyone wanted to buy some souvenirs and lunch at freaking expensive place just because all the customers were tourists. I bought a nice Mexican style traditional frock for Sayuri and some key chains.

Aztec Indian Art

First Workday of Subteam Security

IBM Corporate Service Corps, Mexico, Puebla 2013: First Workday of Subteam Security: Today we were shown our office for the next 4 weeks. All of the people we were introduced to were very nice and gave us a warm...

http://cscmexico2013.blogspot.mx/

We have created a common blog where all of us keep blogging the travel information and events in our everyday life while in mexico

Keep watching this space too.. http://cscmexico2013.blogspot.mx

State Governor meets IBM CSC Team

Here is one of the news coverages translated from Spanish to English.
State Governor of Puebla state in Mexico meets IBM CSC team and IBM Mexico President.
Also i managed to get a high resolution snap from Governor's facebook profile.
Hope you can find me in the snap. :)

Thursday, April 18, 2013 16:47

Puebla benefits from IBM Global Program services

IBM International experts provide expertise to projects for security, education and health.

RMV Stresses talented and experienced consultants to help transform the state of Puebla.

The Governor Rafael Moreno Valle started with IBM executives, Corporate Citizenship Program (Corporative Services Corps), which aims to support business consultants that the state administration in high-impact projects in education, health and safety.

"We are honored to have consultants from around the world to share their talents and expertise and contribute to the transformation of Puebla, said the president with IBM executives, led by Salvador Martinez Vidal, president of International Business Machines, Mexico.

The program involved 15 professional high performance IBM, from China, India, USA, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and the UK.

Moreno Valley were assigned to work in three strategic areas for safety Puebla government, education and health. "Undoubtedly, this opportunity to exchange views, we will find a solution to the challenges facing the administration," he added.

IBM president appreciated the confidence placed by the Executive to help generate value poblano government actions for the benefit of the public.

He explained that specialists, as part of its commitment to social responsibility, were selected by IBM to support a four-week period, in consulting three high-impact projects in Puebla community related to education, health and public safety.

The program IBM Corporate Service Corps, launched in 2008, aims to contribute to economic development in emerging market countries, providing high-value consulting through professional teams (with different nationalities and specialties), moving to work voluntarily in social projects, educational and environmental, with impact on the economic development of a country.

He noted that since its founding in 1911, IBM has maintained a long-term commitment to society. Recently renewed this commitment formulating its vision "Smarter Planet" (Smarter Planet), with which-based on their information-seeking technologies to help transform the way the world operates.

The development of three projects in Puebla, will run for four weeks during which 15 IBM experts and technicians interact with officials of the State Government, in order to identify specific solutions to various problems in the aforementioned areas. These are areas in which you can apply technology and knowledge of IBM, helping to solve social needs.

The designation of the State of Puebla, among others in the country, was made after a thorough selection process, based on the development opportunities in the town. These coincide with the objectives of technological vision called Smarter Planet IBM (Smarter Planet), ie, support organizations and institutions to achieve prosperity (economic growth), operational efficiency, sustainable development and impact on society.

IBM professionals voluntarily contribute their knowledge and experience while they know the idiosyncrasies and functioning of the state government, enhancing their leadership skills in a global market. The teams of top performers from around the world that IBM forms, covering projects in areas of research, marketing, finance, business development and institutions.

Globally since 2008, more than 2,000 professionals from 50 countries have participated in over 140 projects in 30 countries. The projects in which we have worked range from networks to help entrepreneurs and small businesses trying to grow and reach export markets until the adoption of technological ideas-new, smart-for private and public sector. In our country, 40 specialists from IBM employees have gone to countries like India, Ghana, Tanzania, Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt and other countries of Asia.

In this regard the importance of the Programme is to IBM, its president in Mexico, Salvador Martinez Vidal, said: "The long-term commitment from IBM to society with a culture supported by solid shared values ​​internally, which has enabled the organization to over 100 years of life. "

He added, "It is a pleasure to endorse IBM through this initiative, commitment to Mexico and the Government of the State of Puebla, a state known for its high growth potential and international competitiveness."

Last modified on Thursday, April 18, 2013 17:02

 http://www.diarioeco.com.mx/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=41932:puebla-se-beneficia-con-servicios-del-programa-global-ibm&Itemid=59

La Purificadora

The Hotel La Purificadora is 2 min walk from the downtown. Brand new and considered to be good. It has traditional colonial feel of the interior. It was an old water purification factory hence the name. The first impression when we reached there was not very good. Because exterior was very simple and the approach road was small. But later we came to understand that the desirability of the hotel is very high. We have started liking the hotel very much now and appreciating its unique colonial look.

The rooms are eccentric with glass wardrobe. It looks messy when you have hung up the shirts and kept the bags there, no matter how organized you keep it. The bed is cozy though.

The stairs and the lobby of the hotel are made of glass. So every time you walk on them, you feel like you are in the air. You can actually see the ground floor and it is very scary. The glass steps vibrate while you step on them. I heard that the glass did not have the line markings earlier and the plain glass was scarier.

I managed to take some cool snaps to capture the gravity of fear.

The terrace attached to the rooms are even scarier than the stairs. That is single glass floor without any support on three side and the glass door opening to the terrace is of the size of entire wall. You feel like it will break while you are opening it. And if you stand on the terrace for 10 min without being scared, dinner is on me.

The interiors of the hotel are very nice. They have bonfire at the lobby every night. The key chains of the hotel room keys are made of traditional rope. The swimming pool is like a fish tank with glass on the sides so that you can see side view of under-water from outside the pool. The gym is average but has the wights, trademill and a bench so does its work.


The best part of the hotel is its location. The city center of Puebla is walking distance and the shopping plazas and malls are too.

How to order a vegeterian food in Mexico?

How to order a vegeterian food in Mexico?
The answer is simple. you have to have someone with you who can speak Spanish. Otherwsie best of luck!

Try "sin pollo, sin carne". Without Chicken without meat.. does not work... they simply dont understand what you want if you are asking in English. First of all, there is hardly any vegetarians in here so they dont know the concept of what you need. They ask if cheese is okay. or if beans are okay and it goes on....

Yo no hablo español

I don't speak Spanish. Spanish is official language of Mexico. hardly 10% people speak English and they are not comfortable speaking it either. Spanish is used in government, hotels, TV, malls, business everywhere. The hotel receptionist also has problems with English.

It is very hard for non Spanish speaking person to even order an omelet in Mexico. Thank God, we had Gustavo with us. He is our interpreter and a very nice person. He offered to take us for a city tour, for shopping in a mall and did not mind to take us in his car either.

Do you eat grasshoppers?

Chapulines or fried grasshoppers (naktode in marathi) is one of street food in Mexican cities liek Puebla and Mexico City. They dont have wings or legs but only torso fried and dipped into salt and spices. It tastes more like Pakoda in India.

There were initial ieee and noooo first from everyone but finally a few of us managed to taste them and actually asked for more. The looks are not very nice.. eating insects... but the taste was not that bad.

Live Erupting Volcano

Popocatépe​tl volcano is about 50 km from Puebla and it started erupting 15 years ago. It erupts fumes, ashes, rocks every few months and Puebla City Security Department has put extra effort to monitor this volcano. The have 24x7 surveillance around Popocatépe​tl

On the very first day in Puebla we could see the volcano ejecting ashes and fumes. It was visible right from the hotel terrace.

Having a live volcano quite close the city could be one of reasons of great worry for poblana in future.

Primer día en México

The first day in Mexico was filled with quite a few events and sight seeing. Mexico is a unique blend of native Indian and Spanish culture. In a way it has very close connection to India in terms of weather, volcanic mountains , Geography, food habits, manners, affinity towards spices, etc. However the roads all over Mexico are amazing. We are not even 20% close to the road infrastructure that they have. We have no commonality with Mexico on this front.

The building in the down town are 2-3 stories high but well maintained, colorful and artistic. Mexicans like to use extravagant colors for building exteriors like dark blue, Yellow, dark red, etc. Makes the city look like a holi all the time.

The city was built by Spanish Rulers on the trade route from Mexico City and north of Mexico to Acapulco Harbor to carry gold to the ships. There was no Indian habitat at Puebla and hence the city was built with very well plans predefined. Every street crossing perpendicular at regular intersections.

There are around 200 churches in the Puebla. And when Sunday morning when we were on the city tour, almost all churches had very good attendance for the mass. Puebla is considered to conservative catholic city. Some of the churches are from 16th century .. one quite close to our hotel was the first church in Puebla  - has about 100 ft tall tower of bells. (Every morning at 7am the bells start ringing with its deep acoustics and wake you up from a nice sound sleep. But that is a different topic.) There is one church ringing bells right now while i am typing this. :)

The downtown was filled with shops and restaurants and they have flea markets like tulshi baug too. The city center is nicely designed and well organized.

el principio

The blog is created to log the travel details and experience of Corporate Service Corps assignment in Mexico during April and May 2013.. más tarde.
#ibmcsc mexico