Parties, museums, Roteract and a naked transsexual

I felt so popular this week with all of my party invitations. Well, there were only three. But still. The first was this Friday at the house of one of the seasonal teachers, Juan Francisco, in honor of his little brother’s birthday. Sheila dominated the ping pong competition after lunch, but I think we made up for any sore feelings with the bottle of tequila I brought. It was gone before we left. Ironically, though, Josue, the birthday boy, doesn’t drink. Whoops. I was invited to another birthday party later that night for the La Jornada journalist I’ve been meeting with, but I had already made plans to hang out with teachers Nadia and Cesar. We ended up at a gay club near Mambo Café, where we danced until 3:30 a.m. They even had a show, though instead of the drag queen lip-synching routine I was expecting, we got a strip tease. I never thought I would be able to say that I had seen a naked transsexual, but I guess there’s a first for everything. I’ll just say that her body was in much better shape than her overly-plastic-surgeried face – or her lip-synching/dancing abilities.

Sheila, her host mom Rosario, and me.

Saturday was party number two, for Sheila’s mom’s birthday. That is, Rosario, her “mom” here. When I arrived, Rosario had a band and a huge spread of delicious food set up in front of her house. I only stayed a couple of hours because I had been invited to give my presentation at a Roteract meeting. Roteract is basically Rotary for students and young professionals aged 18 to 30 interested in “service above self” and professional development. Roteract clubs are usually sponsored by a parent Rotary club and may work with that club on certain projects. There are 10 Rotary clubs in Cuernavaca and five Roteract clubs, plus two more Roteracts in formation. Each Rotary and Roteract club has its own weekly meeting time and place. This particular meeting, however, was the last in a series of three or four workshops where representatives from all the local Roteract clubs came to learn about each club’s projects and the organization’s missions in general. So, instead of about 10 or 15 people, I got to present to about 40.That was no problem, though. Everything went smoothly, everyone seemed very interested and I was asked good questions at the end. I also got invitations to speak at more Roteract meetings so that those who couldn’t make it to the special weekend seminar could hear my presentation too.

The Roteract group I presented to.

After the meeting ended, I socialized with about 10 of the Roteract members at one of their houses. It was great to be around so many friendly, interesting people my age. At one point, there was a swing song playing so I gave an impromptu East Coast swing lesson to a girl who had told me that she loved to dance. After that, it was on to salsa and soon everybody was dancing around the narrow living room. I had also promised Sheila and her “brother” that I would meet up with them later that night, so I left around 11 p.m. to join them at a newly-opened club. Even though it was more of a lounge than a dance club, we danced anyway, just right next to our table.

Today, Sunday, was my unofficial Cuernavaca museum day. First, I went to the Jardin Borda, which was originally built as a vacation house for a wealthy Taxco silver miner in the late 1700s. The gardens were pretty big, with several fountains and a little pond where you could rent a rowboat or feed the ducks. But my favorite part was actually the attached museum, which had temporary exhibits of watercolors and traditional puppets.

Next, I went to the Museo Casa Robert Brady, which is the art collection and former home of U.S. art scholar Robert Brady (of course) who settled in Cuernavaca in 1960. His home was packed, just completely cluttered, with art from all over the world – but in a good way. It was kind of nice to see everything simply left where Brady might have used it last. There were laminated sheets that explained what everything was, but not many nametag markers to formalize the place as a museum. I took at least a dozen pictures of the different rooms.

From there, I walked north several blocks to the Chapitel del Calvario. It was beautiful inside, but I only took one photo because it didn’t seem like a church that got many tourists.

Just down the block, I visited the “Castillito,” a little castle-like building that houses antique photos of the city. It was truly tiny. Even though I made a point of looking at each photo, it probably took me less than 15 minutes to peruse all of them.

Another block east and I was at the entrance to a river ravine park. There was a nice winding trail that went down below street level to the rocky sides of the “barranca.” It’s too bad, because it would have been an idyllic place if not for the trash that was littered all over the trail and in the water. There were trash cans everywhere too, but unfortunately, it looked like no one had come to empty them in quite a while.

After I finished walking through the ravine, I walked back to the centro to take a bus home. I still have a few more sights here that I’d like to see but I’ll have to come back for those another day.