PASCUAL // Otra vez

Chillin' like a villain

Hey everyone! This next blog post is once again dedicated to my eight-legged, plush friend Pascual! This octopus amigo came all the way from Las Vegas to join me in my Mexican adventures. I'm going to show you what we've been up to, like visiting ancient pyramids and tropical beaches. So far in our adventures, Pascual has lived a relatively safe and comfortable life... That was until about a month ago when he almost met the Aztec gods (no peyote was involved)! So the short story is that me and my friend (Lily M Gelfars) decided to spend the afternoon in the nearby town of Cholula, which as I have said in the past, has a the world's largest pyramid (only by volume, it actually only looks like a hill with trees growing on it). We explored the base of the pyramid again, which still has ruins from the Cholultecas, though Olmec and Teotihuacan influences are also visible in the archaeological site. Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to take Pascual around and take a few shots. That's when (near) tragedy struck!

Not even five minutes into my journey, I made the grave decision in posing Pascual on a post of the fence that separated the older, more delicate ruins from the public. Just as I was about the snap my shot, a freakish wind storm up and came out of nowhere, whisking Pascual away, down into the ancient ruins, right next the sacrificial altar! I was stunned when it first happened, and didn't know what to do. Had I lost my new friend? What was I going to tell my friends in Vegas? I looked down into the ravine of the ruins, and saw one of his bright green tentacles sticking out of a bush. I decided the only way to save him was to kindly ask park staff to please retrieve. I was lucky in that the person working was actually a kid, probably 15 or 16 years old, and he fortunately had no problem stepping over the gate and climbing down into the ravine to go get him. At last Pascual was back in my hands, and I decided not to pose him on anymore fence posts that led to deep ravines.

Here are the photos of our Cholula experience:

Pascual is very happy that Huitzilopochtli didn't eat his soul

Do you see the resemblance???

 

 So if you follow my blog at all, you will know that I recently traveled to the beautiful beach resort city of Acapulco in the state of Guerrero. I had an awesome time there, and so did Sr. Pascual. My octopus friend had the great pleasure of meeting some delightful, though albeit dead, crab friends while on the beach, and even got to see a few pirate cannons up close and personal. Here are some of my favorites from Acapulco:

I didn't have the heart to tell him that his new friend was actually... Dead.

Acapulco is kinda gorgeous.

Pascual is a playahhh!

UNHAND HIM OF YOUR FIENDISH CLUTCHES!

True Fact: Octopi double as ammunition.

STARBOARD SIDE, CAPTAIN!

Pascual is a lady killer, literally.

At the bay by the zócalo.

Pascual is SO cool that he eats his fried plantains with shades.

Sunset at Cuesta de Pie

Hope you liked the pictures. More to come soon as we take the country by storm together!!!

Les presento a: Pascual, el Pulpo

This blog post is dedicated to my new friend, Pascual. You see, Pascual is a special friend, he happens to be an octopus. But not just ANY octopus, he's a knitted octopus that like to travel around Mexico with me. I have no doubt that I'll be posting a lot more about him as we travel around the Mexican nation. He is definitely going to be a cool addition to my blog.

Now lemme tell you story of how Pascual came to be: An awesome friend of mine from Las Vegas named Natalia stitched him together with her own hands and sent him off to me late last semester as a homesick present, along with a Gryffindor screened t-shirt that she also made for me. To top it off, my other friends, Soraya, Antonio, Katie and Sam who were also behind this, stuffed my care package with starbursts and swedish fish to hold me over. =D

Natalia is a master octopus maker and has made other tiny-octopi in the past, and now I am so happy to be the proud owner of one. Plus, I sincerely believe that I have her best octopus creation yet. 

To welcome him, I gave Pascual a tour of the town before I returned stateside. Since the tour took place in early December, he got to see a more Christmas-y side of Puebla. And here are some of my favorites:

As my first week here was coming to a close, I decided that another tour of the city was in order, so once again my and Pascual took Puebla by storm! This time we went around the northern part of the downtown, but the two ex-conventos that I wanted to visit were both closed for remodeling. :( But we didn't give up. He set our hearts and eyes on a large hill before us and said 'forward march!' We ended up at Los Fuertes (the fort(resses) where the Mexicans fended off the French in the now famous Batalla de 5 de Mayo. On our way there, we also found an awesome church:

Pascual even made a few friends over at the Fuerte de Loreto:

 Today was a good day, and I can't wait to take Pascual all around!