Queretaro

After a few too many days in Merida I flew back to Mexico city. Arriving in town I had to take the Metrobus which could only be paid buying an expensive card. I asked the cop/guard outside the Metrobus gates if I could get on without buying the card and for a small fee he let me through, after making sure nobody was watching. Did I bribe someone? Is it that easy here?

Anyway, I am now in Queretaro, 200km north of Mexico city. Carlos (a friend from BCN) has very nicely offered to receive me for the WE. The town is part of the UNESCO world heritage program and is super nice: at every street corner you discover a nice church, a nice paved street, a beautiful garden, square, monument, museum, alley way, bar... A stunning place to finish my trip in Mexico.


At night we went to a "traditional" Mexican night club, i.e. a night club playing Cumbia and musica `Norteña´. Most men and some girls where wearing a sombrero and dancing in a style not very different to country music style. It was a weird mix. Watching them dancing to `YMCA´in a country/cumbia/disco manner was the highlight of the day. The end of the night got blurred probably because of to many beers/tequila. It was time I had a Mexican night out, after 30 days here.

Quizz

Where, outside of the US, can you find the highest number of Americans by square metre?
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Answer: Chichen Itza in Mexico.

A pity because the site is stunning. I had to be a bit acrobatic to take pictures with no tourist.

Merida - no good

They are good, they are really good. They are everywhere around the main square and the cathedral. One started talking to us as if nothing... talking about his life, the weather, his country. But when he told us the building date of the 3 monuments on the square something told me he was not that genuine. He was a tout guide, an unofficial guide trying to hook us, take us for a visit and get money from it.

I watched them in the afternoon from the other side of the main square and they do not stop chatting up tourists, joking with them, laughing. They are really nice and funny. I wonder how successful they are. After watching them for 45mn I only saw one actually leaving the square with a tourist.

Anyway, I do not like Merida. It is very touristy and you can really feel the US influence. I did the city bus tour this morning and it was horrible (unlucky for the 1st bus city tour I ever do). For 2h the bus took us to see strrets with nothing to see, ugly monuments, avenues with Toyota/Chevrolet/Mercedes car sellers and finally to the 3rd largest mall in the country (including Starbucks, Mc Donalds, Sears, C&A and trhe like) What a tour I tell you my friends. Highly not recommended.

The only OK thing here is the main square and Paseo Montejo, a large avenue hosting the grandiose houses built by the rich families of the end of the 19th century (now occupied by banks). My pix are crap, but there is nothing much to show here.



But Merida is a great base to explore the rest of the Yucatan state, especially its 2 main Mayan sites Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Let´s see tomorrow...

Tulum

Just spent 3 days in Tulum, on the Carribean coast of Mexico. A quick summary would be beach, beach, beach and Pina Colada... on the beach. For the Mayan ruins, forget it, there is nothing much to see. This place has the clearest water I have ever swam in, it is really the Caribean here.


Spent the 1st night in an empty hotel where I got eaten alive by flees. Spent the next 2 days in a very hippy hostel where everybody did hippy stuff: dread locks everywhere, playing with fire, juggling... I did not do the usual cabana night on the beach: it is super nice but very very quiet, and absolutely nothing to do at night.But if I ever get married, that´s where I would love to come for the honey moon. If my wife to be is reading... well you know.


Spent a great night on the beach with 2 beautiful English/Australan girls... and it happened to be Nic´33rd birthday. Also went snorkling in Cenotes which are caves with water that you can discover snorkling or scuba diving. The Yucatan peninsula has 2700 of these and the ones I saw where wonderful. We went underground in confined spaces where you can only snorkel (or scuba dive) from one cave to another (see pix below).


Ah, and something else. In Tulum, pharmacies play salsa really loud out on the street as they do not have window. It is almost a happy thing to go and buy medecines here. A big change from our dull pharmacists dressed in white back in Europe.

Jungle

I have spent the last 3 days in the jungle. Well, I haven´t really seen jaguars, big spiders, snakes or monkeys... I suppose it is a tourist jungle.

Palenque, a beautiful Mayan site is located North of the state of Chiapas, in the middle of the jungle. The best place to stay is a complex of Cabañas and little huts spread around the forest called "El Pachan". It is a very chilled out and hippy place where reggae and Carribean music is played live at night and where travellers converge. The place is always dark as it is surrounded by tall and thick vegetation.


To get to your hut you need to walk through jungle-like trees and plants on illuminates wooden pathways. After 11pm, lights are out and it gets really tricky to reach your warm and humid bed. And when it is pouring down as it did last night it gets even more fun.


And what do you do from "El Pachan"? Well, you visit the ruins of Palenque and try to understand the Mayan way of life, why they were squizzing baby`s head for years to make them flatter, you walk through the jungle, learn about natural healing plants, climb trees (well, I do), swim in large waterfalls and try not to drink to much as it is the only thing to do at night.

My plan from here was to go to Tikal in Guatemala where everybody around says the Mayan ruins are wonderful. But the stupid ass that I am left his tourist card in Mexico city (in order not to loose it) so he cannot leave the country. How is that for organisation?

I am therefore taking a bus tonight for Tulum, a Carribean pardise.

San Juan de Chamula

In San Juan de Chamula an 'Indian' village a few kms away from San Cristobal de la Casas there is one church for 60,000 inhabitants. That is to say people are not devout catholics. Weddings, burials, births are all celebrated by the Mayan crosses planted in the various neighborhoods of the village and at home (population here is of full or predominant Maya descent). But then, why is there a church in the village?

From the outside, the church looks like a colourful little catholic church. But as you step in an unknown world opens up, a different period of time... a place you don´t quite understand.


The church is used by locals as a healing place. As you step in you discover dozens of people kneeling, crying, holding living chickens, you see candles everywhere on the floor, pine needles spread all around, a very strong smell of encens overpowers everything and you hear chickens and children playing. Male saints stand to the left, women saints to the right (yes, women saints.... not very catholic, is it?.

There is no priest in this church, but only ´curranderos´(healers) who cure people from spiritual and physical problems. To have an audience with a healer you need to make offerings to your saints, the healers or whoever (I did not quite understand everything). The items you must offer are the most surprising of it all: encens, pine needles, coca-cola or some other sweet drink (there is a huge coca-cola factory a few kms nearby), posh (a local alcoolic drink made out of sugarcane), eggs and living chickens. To cure you or understand your problem the healer takes your pulse and rubs your body with the eggs you brought.

It is all weird and difficult to understand in here. A shame it is strictly forbidden to take pictures.

After so much intensity I blew up a fuse and got married to Daniela in a village nearby as you can see below:

Chiapas and San Cristobal

2 days ago I was swimming with dolphins and turtles in the warm waters of Puerto Escondido (well, we were surrounded with dolphins on the boat we hired and I swam for 30 seconds with a turtle before it dived down). I am now in Chiapas, San Cristobal de las Casas, 2000m high, surrounded with luxurious montains...and it is freezing.

San Cristobal is very peculiar. There are loads of Indian people around selling artisanal clothes and stuff and living in the villages around. Don't even try to take a picture of them, they will refuse even if you ask first. Taking a picture of them is like stealing their souls apparently.

The town is as well very arty and revolutionary. You will all remember the Zapatista movement which took place here in 1994, with the objective to try and improve the condition of Indian people. Loads of shops sell 'Zapatista' artefacts, small theatres show political movies and documentaries... it is all very curious. Tonight I am off to see a documentary about the 'Zapatistas' and what they tried to do (without any success apparently). The town seems to have turned into a symbol of the liberation of poor people around the world, into an anti-war and maybe anti-globalisation city. I will post of few pix of the town in another post.

In the meantime I am leaving you with pix from the Canyon del Sumidero which I discovered this morning. It was all truly impressive and beautiful (and yes I know mum, I need to shave... but it is too cold to do that here, bathrooms are outside in my hostel and it is 4 degrees when I get up in the morning).

Backpacking

A couple with a strong American accent enters the room:
She - wow, there is no lock to this room.
He - oh well, I guess we know where to go if we need some cash or clothes.
She - ooooh, I am so cold.... hey, are we not supposed to be naked to do that?
He - well, we are not gonna get warmer if we take our clothes off.
She - so what do we do then?...... Oh shit, there is someone sleeping here!!!

A conversation in my dorm as I was having a nap. The joys of backpacking!

Oaxaca - Puerto Escondido

I am now chilling out on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Puerto Escondido is chilled, too chilled to my liking at the moment. The high season starts in 2 weeks with an international surf competition and a fishing competition. In the meantime, it is quiet, quiet, quiet...zzzzzzzzzzz. My hostel is great with swimming pool and all but totally empty, there are 6 of us today. I spend my days on the beach, watching crappy surfers trying to stay on the board. I am too lazy to have a go, it is too hot.... Anyway, I am leaving tomorrow for San Cristobal De Las Casas where there should be a bit more action.

I have included below 2 pix from the beautiful town of Oaxaca, my previous stop.

Chapolines - Oaxaca

Returning from Mt Alban - another stunning set of ruins of a disappeared civilisation - we all felt hungry. Before lunch, we decided that we had to try the local delicacy, chapulines. That is, friend grasshoppers with salt and lemon. Hummm, they look horrible and the trick is to close your eyes. I had 3. What a treat!!!

How to celebrate life

We arrived at 10pm. Outside the gates a multitude of stalls were selling tacos, tortillas, enchilladas, mescal, tequila, beers... the place was buzzing with life. What was going on on the other side of the wall? A concert? A political rally? Some sort of show?

We went in.

The place was buzzing even more. Hundreds of people of all ages, thousands of candles, flowers of all colours, musicians, kids playing... and tumbs. Tumbs covered with candles, flowers, food, drinks, skulls made out of sugar...


We were in the San Felipe cemetery, north of the city of Oaxaca. It was the second day of the ´day of the dead´celebrations. Families were following this old tradition dating back from pre-columbian times, where death was celebrated, not feared. On Nov. 1st Mexicans celebrate ´los niños muertos´ (the dead children), on Nov. 2nd they celebrate ´los adultos muertos´ (dead adults). To celebrate their lost ones families gather around the tumbs, cover them with flowers, candles and the food and drinks the dead person used to like (eating and drinking what has been left on the tumbs is know to have no taste as the souls come round at night and eat and drink what has been left for them). On the cemeteries people speak, meet, laugh, eat, drink and play music.


It is a happy celebration, not spooky or sad at all. In South Mexico and the Yucatan cemeteries come alive on Nov. 1st and 2nd (in the cemeteries near Cancun people get the bodies out of the graves to clean the bones, so that the souls see the clean body when they return). Villages (as we saw the previous day) celebrate with comparsas - brass bands and inhabitants dressed as dead people - dancing in the street and visiting one house after another. The whole village follows as well as the occasional tourist like me.


I changed my original route in order to attend these happy celebrations. It was great.

Teotihuacan

For my last day in the capital before starting traveling I went to Teotihuacan today.... and wow, that was impressive - although not as much as the Cairo pyramids. For all the culture and history stuff I leave you to surf the web and find out more. Spent the day with my new-found cool hippy dread-locked friends, and hangged out around plaza del sol, which sounded very familiar. Also saw some weirdos singing and celebrating the sun or something, and it all finished with big hugs and kisses. We waited for them to get all naked and dance but it did not happen. Maybe they were calling for the rain and it did not come.

A few pix below which don´t fully represent the beauty and splendour of the site. I am off to Oaxaca tomorrow, the day of the dead celebrations should be full on.

Moving around Mexico city

If you want to travel around town you have a few options: you can take a taxi - the green beetles or the white and red cabs - but you should be careful with these: I have heard that these taxis nicely take you to where you wanna go but might make an unwanted stop: a few mates of the driver would rob you of all your posessions and you might end up naked.


You could get your own car but in a city with 20m people traffic is terrible. And if your car is old there will be a day in the week when you will not be able to use it as legislation now restricts circulation based on license plates.

You could take one of the many buses driving around but you will equally be stuck in traffic and squeezed hard against some un-known smelly armpit.

You could use your legs and walk but as I discovered on the 1st day distances are much much largest than they appear on your map.

The last and best solution is the tube. It is the cheapest in the world (so I have read somewhere): 2 pesos, that is 0.13 euros, that is 50 times cheaper than London. But it might sometimes get difficult: I could not get on my tube this morning at rush hours, it was literally impossible. I watched 5 trains go by and there was no way I could get on. I gave up and went out. This has never happened to me, even in London or Tokyo. In response to the over-crowdness some carriages are reserved to women: this prevents men from touching women curves apparently.

When not packed the tube is fun and full of colourful people. Every minute on Line 2 someone walks past you selling biscuits, sweets, chewing gums, pens, kids books, CDs, tissues... you name it. Most of them carry a bag-pack with a built-in stereo system blowing very loud cheesy latino music - music which makes Julio Iglesias songs sound cool and funky. The benches where you sit are also slippery: when the driver breaks hard (which happens a lot) you slide down the bench (if nobody sits next to you) and you end-up bumping against the next person down. Weird at the beggining, especially when you end-up against a grunting old man.

Anyway, tomorrow a bit of culture as I am heading to the pyramids of Teotihuacan.

D.F. (Mexico city)

Bong, bong, bong... the sound of the Catedral Metropolitana echoes around the Zocalo, Mexico city main square. I have just changed hostel as the previous one did not have water, no heating (and it is 6 degres today) and was extremely noisy... just what you need when you are jetlagged and at the altitude of 2000m.


Anyway, my new hostel has a roof terrasse above the Zocalo - the 3rd largest square in the world after Tienanmen sq. in Beijing and the Red sq. in Moscou. From the rooftop I can see the cathedral, the palacio national hosting some huge murals by Diego Rivera and some other government buildings.

The striking thing to note is that most of the heavy buildings around here are not straight. 500 years ago the land where Mexoico city now stands was a huge lake which was dried by the conquistadores. The ground below is therefore soft and heavy buildings are kind of sinking. This is a huge problem for the city apparently.

I haven't seen much of D.F. yet apart from the Zocalo, a bit of Coyoacan (a great little chilled out part of town) and Paseo de la Reforma, the largest avenue in town.

Oh, I have also seen a huge group of people demonstrating totally naked against the privatisation of their company (I think that was the reason). How divertido!! If people on strike in France where demonstrating naked, it would be the hippiest country ever...

Getting ready

Well, here we go again. Another country, another blog!

After 3 months reading about Mexico and asking people around, a vague image of what I should see and where I should go has finally formed in my mind. The map to the right is roughly my plan of action.

But as usual, the beauty of travelling on your own is the flexibilty. My trip might turn a different corner due to an encounter, falling in love with a town, with a bar, being stuck in bed because of the previous night's chili sauce....

Anyway, it will be all starting on October 25th.