October and Atlixco

October has been fairly uneventful.  Pancho started working Oct. 1.  He loves his job.  It's exactly what he wanted and he really enjoys it.  The only downside is is that he's been working a lot, some weeks he's pushing 70 hours.  But we're working it out and rearranging our schedules so that we're still able spend time together.  Yesterday, for example, I went with him to work in the morning, and then after that he came to horseback riding with me and then we went to Atlixco. 

Atlixco is a small city outside of the city of Puebla, closer to the Popo.  I really enjoyed going out there.  First we went to some nurseries and I got a few plants.  The plants were so inexpensive.  The prices here are very different from the US.  In general, cost of living is less here, food is really inexpensive, but other things, like our phone plans and most electronics are a lot more expensive.  But, I'm really happy with the plants that I got. 

After the plants we went to the Cerro de San Miguel and went to the chapel on top.  I enjoyed that a lot.  There was a beautiful view of the city from there.

After that we went to the ex Convent of St. Francis and then to the downtown area.  It's a lot like Puebla, just on a smaller scale with less graffiti and less trash on the streets.  In the center there was a flower display for the Day of the Dead coming up.

Can you see the skull?

Dia de Muertos

We walked around, went to a little market, and went to the ex Convent of San Carmen.  After that we had a nice dinner on the roof of one of the buildings in the center of the town.

View of from the roof.  The Popo is in the back, the ex convent of St. Francis is the tower that you see under the Popo, and the hill is the Cerro of San Miguel with the chapel on the top of it.

It was a really nice day and Pancho and I look forward to going back there.

Everything else is going well.  Spanish class is coming along and I'm still enjoying the horseback riding a lot.  In November I'm going back to the States for 9 days for Thanksgiving.  I'll be in Houston with my sister and I'm looking forward to that very much.  This upcoming we celebrate Day of the Dead and I'll write about that afterwards.  :)

On Electrico- don't let the name fool you, he doesn't have a very electric personality.  Once he starts moving he's great, but getting him moving can be a little difficult sometimes.