Vagabond and Beyond: October 2011

Thursday 27 October 2011

Why visit Mexico City....

The drive from San Cristobal to Mexico City was 15 hours and it wasn't helped by the several narcotics police stops along the road. Our bus was pulled over six times by them in the first two hours and searched 4 of those times, thankfully when we left the state of Chiapas there was no more stoppages. They must think people stop smuggling drugs after that state?! We were staying in the historic centre close to the zocalo (Main Square), so that was our first port of call. The restaurant we chose to have a drink in order to look out over the zocalo happened to be a little more upscale than we anticipated, so when they found out we wanted drinks instead of their pricey buffet we were asked nicely to leave and return later for drinks (a little embarrassing), we probably only got into the hotel in the first place because we were gringos!

A lot of people warned us off Mexico City but none of these people had been there, anyone we met that had been to Mexico City said it was a must go place and not to miss it and thankfully we made the extra effort to see it. There is a serious amount of attractions in Mexico City; to do most of the list recommended to us you would need at least two weeks. We tried to fit in the guts of the massive city best we could in the 5 or 6 days we planned on staying there. First up, the National Palace, stupidly I spent more money for a locker to put my water bottle in than the water cost itself! Moving on from my stupidity, the building was once occupied by Hernán Cortés, the Spanish explorer who conquered the Aztecs, and the reason for our visit was to view the famous panoramic mural of Mexican history by Diego Rivera. The murals sum it all up pretty good and rightfully enough the conquistadors are not shown in the best light. Then on to the National Anthropology museum, the highlight being the Stone of the Sun or Aztec Calendar which was excavated from the Zocalo, apparently it was more likely used as a ritual altar for gladiatorial sacrifices rather than an astronomical device, the most impressive artefacts in Mexico always seem to involve sacrifices! We finished our day with a trip to the Tequila and Mezcal museum which also happened to be Mariachi central (from what we could tell they all meet up here before heading off to gigs for the night). Sneaky photo below of Sarah chilling with the Mariachi's.

The next day we were planning to head to the large ruins just outside Mexico City (Teotihuacan), however, some books/websites said they were closed on a Monday so we headed to the area of Coyoacan where Frida Kahlo's (famous Mexican artist) house is, which is now a museum. Unfortunately that museum was closed too and we later found out that ironically the Teotihuacan ruins were now open on Monday's! With nothing to do we found a great food place in the local market and had the best Tacos we've eaten in Mexico to date (unashamedly returning the next day for double portions). We spent the rest of the day in an artist's market and bought a few things to send home. We're chancing the Mexican postal system and according to our tracking number the package has already made it to the airport so we might be one of the lucky ones that get a package delivered.

Next day we had a lot of catching up to do now that the sites were finally open. We went to Teotihuacan ruins and climbed the massive pyramid of the sun, pyramid of the moon and walked the avenue of the dead. The ruins founded by an unconfirmed people are much older than the Mayan ruins (beginning 100 BC) and later became an Aztec city. Apparently at one stage the city would have been one of the largest in the world. On the way back from the ruins the bus was stopped yet again by the police and all the men had to get off (I figured this out when I looked around and it was me and about 10 women) for a bit of a pat down. We read earlier that the bus to the ruins is robbed frequently so they must have police stops along the route to stop further robberies. We then went to Frida Kahlo's casa azul or blue house and back just in time for Mexican wrestling night with the hostel. Free Tequila shots before the wrestling and off we went to the main arena for the oddity that is Mexican wrestling. Unfortunately no cameras are allowed in so I couldn't take any photos of a little person fighting a Ron Jeremy lookalike, it was surreal to say the least. Back to the hostel where the barman gave free Tequila to people with wrestling masks, hadn't posted mine back home at this stage so free Tequila it was and some post wrestling banter.

Mexico City is beautiful and one of our favourite places yet, the people were friendly, the metro is brilliant and there is more things to do in this city than any I've been to anywhere else in the world. Sure we saw 3 police officers running down the street with guns out and later what appeared to be a post mugging scene but this is one of the largest cities in the world (23 million) so there is going to be some crime and if you're not an idiot you'll survive the mayhem and love this city. From our experience it was all good and if anyone asks us if they should visit the city they will get a resounding yes! A quick note on the metro, during rush hour it's every man for himself (I say man as women and children can take their own separate carriages) and people nearly kill each other getting on and off. Being one of the tallest people on the metro (Sarah is the average height in Mexico) helps as you miss the elbows to the face : )

Our next stop was going to be Acapulco to lie on the beach and give these hectic days of visiting ruins and museums a well-deserved break but after mentioning our plans to the barman in our hostel we quickly changed our minds. We checked the news about Acapulco and now plan to skip the beach and head to Oaxaca staying in the surfing paradise of Puerto Escondido after there. Apparently there is somewhat of a war going on in Acapulco with a few shoot outs on the main tourist strip with heads recently decapitated being thrown into shopping centres etc. The barman said that there are 15 kidnappings and 10 murders a day so thinking it might be best to skip Acapulco if we want to finish out this trip! We just started on the malaria tablets so looking forward to the side effects already; short term memory loss is one of them so I'll be using it as an excuse for everything I do wrong. Short term memory loss is one of them so I'll be using it as an excuse for everything I do wrong.....

La Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México at the Zocalo

Inside La Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México at the Zocalo

Away with the fairies

Anthropology Museum - stand off

Anthropology Museum - crazy looking skull

Stone of the Sun or Aztec Calendar

Anthropology Museum - shock and awe

Anthropology Museum

Diego Rivera Murals at the National Palace

Paddle Boating

Mariachi Central

Tequila!! and lots of it

Sarah and the Mariachi's


Coyoacan Market, best Tacos in Mexico!!

Avenue of the Dead

Sarah on the Pyramid of the Sun

Pyramid of the Moon

Pyramid of the Sun

Frida's House

Mexican Wrestling Night - Sarah hiding behind that mask

Sarah can't get away from those Java Developers

Mexican Wrestling Night

Sunday 16 October 2011

Holy Coke!!!

As I write this post we are currently waiting to board a bus that will start a 15 hour trip to Mexico City after spending a week in the colonial town of San Cristobal de Las Casas which is set in a highland valley surrounded by forests and indigenous villages. Initially we booked in for two nights but ended up staying for 7! During our stay we visited a Mayan Medicine Museum to find a cure for Sarah’s cold, did a speed boat trip down a Canyon that was both epically beautiful and covered in rubbish at the same time, visited an indigenous town where they sacrificed chickens and coca cola was the offering of choice to the saints, played an intense version of scrabble called grabble and had a few good nights experiencing the local tipples of Mezcal and Pox.

El Hostalito, our home for the week was a hostel/bike shop run by a Spanish guy named Joaquin who planned on cycling around the world but got distracted by the town of San Cristobal after he started his journey in New York. Like most of the other travellers staying in El Hostalito the plan was for a short stay but everyone got on so well that a short stay became a weeklong one for most.

First off, was a trip to San Juan Chamula to see the religious practices of the locals and to try some Pox (ironically pronounced Posh). The village, extremely religious appears to be sponsored by coke! I still can’t fully explain the craziness of a town that strives for a simple religious indigenous life except when it comes to their favourite beverage of coca cola. The focal point of the town is the church and an odd place it is… Inside there are no seats, about 100 glass caskets with statues of their favourite saints, thousands of lit candles with different meanings placed by locals all over the ground, a floor covered in pine needles, people being rubbed with eggs by healers to cleanse the body, live chickens being sacrificed (I kid not) and of course a few dozen crates of that holy beverage coca cola! You’ll have to take my word for this as cameras are strictly prohibited in and around the church as the Tzotzil people believe cameras can steal your soul. Like at home, after church we went to the pub except when I say pub it was a long table in the back garden of someone’s house in the middle of nowhere. The owner of the house brewed his own Pox, a local drink made from sugarcane that was served in a soft drink bottle and came in too many easy to drink flavours. It is commonly used for ceremonial purposes among the Mayans and means medicine/cure. Pox was commonly used in religious ceremonies but increasingly coke has been substituted for it, something to do with the gas of the drink and the soul! Pox brings out the best stories from people, for example one character who shall remain unnamed for obvious reasons to come. To get an idea of the kind of person we are talking about; he mainly eats uncooked organic food, practices yoga, plays a hang drum, doesn’t read the news or watch TV, fond of a herbal plant or two and plans to live in a commune after his travels. Anyway, on one of his detox’s the only thing he did for 2 days was drink his own urine to purify himself or something along those lines. He was pure entertainment for our time there and not too shabby on the hang drum either. After San Juan it was back to the rooftop terrace for some more Pox and the inevitable hangover the next day.

Next up was a trip to Canyon Sumidero to see crocodiles and the natural beauty of the Chiapas region. Halfway through there is a massive area covered in plastic and wood waste where there are about 20 boats trying to clean it up 7 days a week. Except for this unusual polluted spot the river canyon was amazing. Check out the pictures below to see some of the waterfalls, wildlife etc. The photos don’t do the canyon justice but you get the idea.

It’s rained the whole week in San Cristobal, rainy season decided to hang around for another couple of weeks! Hurricane Jova is in the region and Emily and Andrew (who have been on a similar route to us) have had their bus to Guatemala cancelled twice due to landslides and heavy rains. They finally got going third time lucky and we are heading in the opposite direction back to the sun and away from the wet and cold weather. After all, escaping the Irish weather is part of the reason to go travelling. So trips to the local market and Mayan medicine museum have kept the rainy day’s ticking by. Sarah picked up a bit of a cold (most likely from the change of moving from the warm beaches to the cold mountains) so bought a ‘Vick’ like medicine from the local Mayans (it worked!) Sometimes when the rain was too heavy to leave the hostel, we watched hours of DVD’s (some truly awful films) and played grabble which I found to be too competitive and tense for these relaxing times. Check out some of the photos below of the colourful and entertaining market that we ventured out to see when the rain did stop.

One night we moved on from Pox to Mezcal. “Mezcal is tequila’s brother. Like tequila, it is distilled from the agave plant, but mezcal doesn’t have to come from blue agave, or from the tequila-producing areas of Jalisco. In other words, all tequila is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila.” Drinking the mezcal led to talks with Joaquin, the hostel owner, about a few of us doing a 5 day bike trip to a paradise beach a couple days ride away. News of hurricanes and landslides the next day kept any thoughts of a bike trip to the beach a dream best kept among the few on the terrace drinking mescal.

So Mexico City is next, and despite the media reports on its dangers we have only heard good things about the place from fellow travellers so we’re looking forward to exploring the second largest city in the world (23 million people). After Mexico City we are working our way back down the pacific coast to Oaxaca and on to Guatemala to a Spanish school where we can settle down for a while and finally unpack the bags, for a little while anyway.