Palenque

Today I went to the superb ruins of Palenque, right in the heart of the jungle. Here is the hot, humid weather I've been expecting. You think it would be nice after a cold mountain town like San Cristóbal, but no. It's not. So, trying to be smart, and not waking up early enough to tour the ruins before the sun hit its nasty, burning zenith, I went later on in the day. This still proved to be very grueling, especially since most of the ruins consisted of large, pyramid-like temples, often on top of hills. I've seen a lot of ruins by now, but they never fail to fascinate and delight me. Walking on the same stones worn smooth by thousands of years of human feet, seeing living remants of ancient culture in crumbling carvings, one feels a powerful, sometimes even unsettling, link connecting us all through the vast halls of time. Most of all though I feel in awe at a culture that could create such power and beauty, mighty enough to have lasted through the ages.

Time Flies... Like a Little Old Lady

It was sad to leave the beach, and even more sad was the fact that I faced a 12-hour bus ride to San Cristóbal de las Casas. Things got a lot better though when I met a lot of cool fellow travellers at the bus station. My seat for the night however was next to this peculiar old woman who kept vanishing and mysteriously reappearing. I didn't even notice she had left her place next to me and when I did it was at least a half an hour before she came back. Then she vanished again and after about an hour I thought she must of had some sort of emergency and confined herself to the onboard bathroom, but she wasn't there... Actually she had temporarily switched seats. However, we made a stop about an hour before San Cristóbal and she got off the bus, yet when I got to my destination, she showed up again from nowhere. A little odd at that point, but it got really strange the next day when I was walking through the lobby of my anonymous hostel and there she was again! I was wondering if I had a stalker at this point. I guess as far as stalkers go she'd be an ideal choice, because I can't imagine she could overpower me or anything, but it was a bit strange. Any way, the reason I'm devoting so much of this post to a little old lady is because I did very little during my two days in San Cristóbal. It's a great town high in the mountains and very cold, and I ate a lot of good food and did a lot of shopping. I hung out nearly the entire time with this really cool girl from Boston, Courtney, who despite her dreadlocks is really not a hippie. It was refreshing to have some company again, and despite doing very little (or perhaps because of it), time passed quickly. In fact, much the same could be said about this trip - sometimes I feel as if I just arrived, but I've been here a month already and am down to the final week! Well, I better go - I just noticed some little old lady entering the internet cafe...

Chocolate, Crickets, and Paradise

From Guanajato I had a long journey to get to where I am now. A few long journeys actually. I took a five-hour bus to Mexico City, where I had approximately forty minutes to cross the city to another bus station. Midway through the second of three Metro transfers, I faced a very long underground tunnel. Sweating profusely under my large pack (growing in weight daily), I got to the end, turned the corner, and almost screamed. Another hall, at least a quarter of a mile long. Why can't they just build the two stations next to one another? I'm no engineer, but wouldn't that be easier? Even after this tunnel there were a few more shorter ones, twisting and turning, and then about two-hundred steps, and, I kid you not, the escalator was broken. How I ever made it to my bus on time is beyond me.

After a half-sleepless night on the bus I arrive in Oaxaca, high in the mountains of southern Mexico. After finding a hostel and taking an immediate nap, I explored the city. It's a very artsy place. At night I listened to a free concert in the central square. There are two specialties produced here: Chocolate, and fried crickets. I loved the one and didn't try the other. Can you guess which one I didn't try? I ate dinner one night in the middle of a dirty indoor meat market, because they had a few tables set up and were grilling steaks. Something about the girl grilling the steaks struck me as funny, and so typical of Mexican girls. She was in her teens, and wearing clear plastic pumps, a full-length white lace-trimmed dress, large gold hoop earings, and covering all this glamorousness, a old dirty apron. And she's grilling steaks! Funny.

Something about all these cities was getting me down, so I decided to make the wisest choice possible, and head back to the beach. I took a bus halfway the first day, which winded through some incredible mountain scenery, and stayed in a crummy little town where I decided to splurge a bit on the room. It got me air conditioning, TV, and several cock-roaches. The next morning I took a pickup to Zipolite, finally arriving in paradise. There isn't much here beyond a few shops and bungalows and a perfect beach. It's rimmed by cliffs and the water is either a deep blue or crystal clear. The surf is rough but enjoyable. I'm staying in a resort up on the cliff on on end, called "Shambhala." It is one of the most creatively designed places I've ever seen, stretching up the cliffs in a series of walkways, steps, and rooms, decorated with Indian motifs and hand-crafted shells inlaid in the pavement in mystical patterns, and terminating high up on the summit of the hill in a meditation area. Yep, lots of hippies. My room is actually a hammock, which I paid $4 bucks for. It is on the edge of the cliff and overlooks the beach and ocean. I realized that it's not so fun sleeping a hammock though. But it was worth it when I went to bed under the stars and to the sound of crickets and crashing waves, and even more so when I woke up this morning to the sun rising over the water.

What Lies Beneath

I am in yet another colonial mining town, Guanajato. You know though, I never get tired of these places. Besides their obvious beauty and history and quaint charms, there is always something lurking below the surface. Something you just don't see every day! In Guanajato for instance, there literally is something lurking below the surface: Tunnels. Yes, that's right, tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels. The town is built in such a narrow, steep ravine, that to allow the smooth flow of traffic, they just dug a bunch of tunnels under the city. They wind and stretch in serpentine coils through the hills, popping out every so often into the upper streets. Riding through the town in a cab is quite fun, because you'll be zooming along the nice ol' cobblestone roads, past cathedrals and what not, and suddenly your driver will take a sharp turn down a one-way road leading STRAIGHT UNDERGROUND. You crash down into gaping darkness and then you're tearing every which way through narrow, dimly lit tunnels, twisting and turning, and again suddenly you take a steep turn up a hidden incline and emerge back out next to some historic builing in another part of town. And so on. I didn't feel like paying for a taxi, or explaining that I just wanted to drive around through all the tunnels (stupid American tourist...), so I decided just to walk a few of them. It was fun, until I got lost. It's really hard to tell direction underground. I thought I'd be coming up by my hostel but instead I emerged clear on the other side of town! Guanajato also has other skeletons in the closet, or mummies in the closet I should say. Yes, it is the home of the infamous "Mummy Museum." From the little Spanish I could understand, their cemetery got full, so they dug up a bunch of corpses and decided to make a little profit off the whole thing by displaying them in a museum. The dry climate here acts as a natural preserver, so you have all sorts of corpses (yes, corpses, not mummies like in the horror films) in various stages of decay. And I do mean all sorts of corpses - men, women, children. I'm sure that's descriptive enough, but for those of you as morbidly interested as I was (and hey, we all are, because this museum is pretty darn popular), I've included a few of my favorite photos. Yes, Guanajato, charming little town!

Who Needs Shakira When You've Got This?

I've had such a good time this week that I'm making myself jealous just thinking about it. There were eleven of us spending seven days on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta. That's a lot of time to cover. So here goes: We'd wake up. Go to the beach. Lay out. Swim. Lay out. Eat a great dinner. Hang out. Go to bed. Multiply times seven. There you have our week. The first few days we actually stayed in a condo (friend of a friend's) overlooking the beach; our rooms were on the 6th and 7th floors and both had balconies (the picture from my previous post is the view looking down from there). I felt more like I was in the US than Mexico, because most of the condo's residents were foreigners. When we weren't enjoying the luxuries of the condo we were out on the beach or at the pool. We also went into town and soaked up the overwhelming spring break atmosphere. I mean, come on, a club called "The Zoo?" Enough said. Besides all this we also went to El Eden, an ecological reserve in the hills outside the city. Way outside. We thought we could walk there, and even after passing snarling rabies-infested dogs and fording streams, following jungle paths and ducking under barbed-wire fences, we got to the road and had to walk another hour and a half, up and down hills. Mind you that this is the place where they filmed the movie "Predator," so it was a bit creepy exploring these remote stretches of dense jungle. Finally we got there... and the only restaurant was closed! We all had a good laugh and hitched a ride back in a pick-up truck (probably the only truly dangerous part of the experience).
The other part of the week we spent in the secluded beach town of Yelapa, on a cove about a thirty minute boat ride south of the city. This is the ultimate in chill, laid-back places. Our group rented out an entire jungle resort near the beach, which consisted of bungalows, hammocks, plam trees, and an excellent French chef. If possible we were even more relaxed than at the condo. At night we would sit in the light of tiki torches and listen to live music. What can I say, except paradise? You know though, I have seen a lot of beautiful places, beaches included, in my travels, and I must say that as great as they all have been, my favorite memories are of the friends I was with. Poor Jen missing her standby flight two days in a row and miraculously finding us each time. Her and Ambers' sun-burnt puffy lips. Ashley and I getting dunked by that wave (especially as told by Mysti). Kimmie sliding down that rock waterfall/waterslide like a champ. Aaron, watch out for those waves (and those shady local Yelapans). "The Llamas and the Papas." Jonathan and Kayla, Parker and I wandering down the Malecòn that last night. Chris's story about getting trampled by llamas and pelted with peanuts. And getting attacked by koala bears. Parker's story about the vegetable crisper, and Mysti's reenactment of the pencil in the eye. All the stories. All the songs. All the fun. I love you guys. Thanks for the memories.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

It's been an eventful few days. I spent an entire day exploring the mining city of Zacatecas. It's at an altitude of almost 7,000 ft., which I discovered only after wondering why I was having so much difficulty breathing all day. Incredibly beautiful place, due to its colonial legacy and all the silver it has produced. I toured the old mine, whcih was a bit like a ride at Disneyland - we had to put on hairnets underneath our hardhats, and fake bats hung from the ceiling. I took a cable car to the top of the biggest hill in town to watch the sunset. I rapturously drank in the surrounding beauty. I feel like I'd be very content living here.
From Zacatecas I headed west and down towards the coast. The first leg of the trip was to Guadalajara. After comparing the many buslines offering tickets, I decided to go with the cheapest one available. I'd be saving four bucks. How bad could it be? Once underway, I was nodding off a bit when I vaguely became aware that we had broken down. Cheap bus, go figure. So I glanced out the window and noticed we were straddling a set of train-tracks. Not very wise, but I figured the driver knew what he was doing. Suddenly I heard what might possibly have been the most frightening sound in the world at that moment - a train whistle echoing towards us down the tracks, and growing louder by the second. Immediately the passengers rose up and surged forward down the aisle, fighting each other to get off. Pandemonium doubltlessly would have ensued, but at that very moment the bus miraculously started. It lurched off the tracks just as the train sped by.
Maybe I should take the more expensive bus from now on. Any way, I arrived alive in Guadalajara, where I spent the night. It's a fascinating big city, but I left with a bitter taste in my mouth since it took me three hours just to get to the bus station the next morning. In fact, it was to be a day of bus troubles (though thankfully no more train troubles). I finally arrived in Puerto Vallarta hours after I had told my friends I'd be meeting them. Once I got into town it took another three busses just to arrive at their condo. Mind you, it was only one ten minute bus ride down the road, but I just couldn't seem to get there. I even gave one bus driver the name of the place, only to get dropped off at an entirely different hotel. But my reward for the days and perils of bus travel had finally arrived: A week long stay on the beach, the first nights of which would be spent in a luxurious two-story condo belonging to a friend of a friend. The picture below is our view of the beach from the balcony. I've seen many beautiful places on my travels, but now I've truly arrive in paradise.

Coming Out of the Desert

Well, it's been a few days - I have been a bit out of it, both clear out of civilization and sick out of my mind. First thing first. I left Mexico City last... Tuesday? Yes, Tuesday. I spent the day in the nearby city of Puebla, which is a delight jut to walk around, being one the best preserved colonial cities in Mexico. As you can probably guess, those are pictures of it above. I then took a night bus (screw all you nighttime highway robbers!) and arrived Wednesday morning in some random city called Matehuala. I only went there to catch a bus up into the mountains to the village of Real de Catorce. The bus goes up and up an actual cobblestone mountain road and then through a one-lane tunnel, emerging in the village. It's an old mining town and actually became a real ghost town after the mines dried up. Now it's been revitalized a bit but it's still very "old world" (meaning I couldn't find a place to update my blog). I feel instantly in love with the place - the whole town is made of stone and looks like it's growing right out of the hillside, the howl of the wind and the cries of animals are heard more than human voices, and horses outnumber cars. I really felt like I had gone a few hundred years back in Mexican time...
Unfortunately, I felt pretty sick my first day there. This passed more or less after a night of fever dreams and hallucinations, and then I hired a burro to take me out into the high desert. My guide and I, he riding a horse and constantly flaying my ass (not mine, the burro!), descended down a narrow winding trail cut out of the cliffside that opened up into a significantly hotter cactus-covered landscape. On the way back up I really felt like a local, riding the trails, enduring the sun, walking bowlegged from sitting on a burro a for five hours... Maybe I was just going crazy from all that time in the sun. Regardless, I came out the desert feeling like a ghost. I staggered into bed and it took a whole day to recover my strength. The sound of horses' hooves on the cobblestones outside my window racked me with horror. But I survived, left town the next day, and after another whole day of riding (this time busses, not burros), I arrived in Zacatecas and back into the 21st century. Thank goodness.

Two Days in the Valley

Yeah, so it's been a few days since I wrote. Having been using one of the ten or so computers at my hostel, I came back the next day to find that they had all vanished. Apparently they all broke, at once. Pretty coincidental if you ask me. Keep in mind that there are also no power outlets anywhere in this entire place, even in the kitchen. I think it's a conspiracy to move civilization back to the stone age. Either that or they're just really cheap. Any way, I've been spending the days doing some incredible things. Saturday I went to Teotihuacán, probably the most famous ruins in the vicinity of México City. They're hardly ruins though; in fact, the Pyramid of the Sun weighs in as the third largest pyramid in the world. It and the other famous structure there, the Pyramid of the Moon, both date back to about 100 A.D. The rest of the site originally extended quite a distance, and still lines both sides of the infamous Avenue of the Dead which runs through the center. Apparently the buildings are alligned with the solar system and have a myriad of numerogical/astrological symbolic corelations, but I was too cheap to pay for a tour guide so I just made up my own. Perhaps the most amazing thing was a handful of murals, which used to cover just about every building here. Some of them have retained the original colors, which at nearly 2,000 years old are quite awe-inspiring to behold. All in all I spent about six hours in the open sun and climbed over five-hundred steps (pyramid size steps, which are like twice as big as our typical steps), but it was well worth it.
On Sunday I decided to take advantage of the city's weekly free museums. Let me tell you, there is nothing in the world as boring as trying to cram visits to multiple museums in one day, especially when the displays are in Spanish. Wait I take that back; the only thing in the world more boring than visiting multiple museums in one day is trying to describe what you saw there. So, moving on to more exciting things, I did go to a bullfight! This is something I have always wanted to witness, and yes it's offensive and cruel to the bull, and I'm an evil person for supporting such a barbaric custom, yada yada yada, but it was darn entertaining! And despite multiple bulls being tortured and killed, which really was quite sad, one of the matadors got injured as well, so it kind of seemed like a fair fight. No really it was quite shocking: This particularly cocky matador thought he had just outsmarted this particularly clever bull, when it lunged at him with its horns down and tossed him up into the air! The crowd gasped as he landed and got up, limping, his leg covered in blood, and as his assistants rushed in to distract the bull, he turned his back and the bull rushed forward to toss him again! This time they had to carry him off. When the backup matador rushed out to finish the job he was extra cruel and enacted his revenge for humankind by stabbing the bull multiple times instead of with the typical solitary killing thrust, and the crowd booed him right out of the ring. It was all pretty horrifying but in the end you couldn't help but feel some love for that bull, and deep down even a dark wish that he had gotten that other matador too.

The Mixed Blessings of Outdoor Siestas

Today was sort of a blow-off day. Meaning I walked all over Mexico City and really didn't accomplish much except for getting a sunburn. It all started when I went to check out the university here, which supposedly has 260,000 students (well, come one, it's a big city!), and decided to participate in the local custom of the siesta. Being a university campus there were plenty of inviting grassy hills, and after a brief round of Z`s in the shade of a tree, I awoke to find myself smack dab in the sun. Darn sun, moving all the time! Any way, the rest of the day was spent either walking aimlessly/confusedly or crammed into the metro. Finally I made it to the National Anthropology Museum, my intended goal, but upon finding out it was free Sunday I decided to come back. I did happen to witness four men dressed in native Indian clothing swinging upside-down a few hundred feet up in the air. Honestly, I even included a picture to prove it! The other pictures on here are of the Catedral Metropolitana, which is right next to my hostel. It`s all about location.

On the Road Again

Welcome all to the blog of my latest journey, this time to Mexico. Yeah, I know, it's only been a month since Central America, but darn it feels good to be back on the road. I've had this urge to see Latin America ever since my last trip, and I mean, geez, it's right there underneath my home country. Why not!? Especially because every time I encountered something crummy in Central America (honestly quite often), I would start saying under my breath, "That's Mexico for you..." - only to realize that it was indeed not Mexico I was in. In fact, my culturally-instilled bias to the contrary, Mexico has so far proven to be extraordinarily nice. Of course I had only seen Tijuana, so go figure.I left Atlanta Wednesday March 1st and arrived in Mexico City on Thursday afternoon. What took so long? Namely the fact that for a cheap ticket I was willing to spend ten hours sleeping in the Detroit airport. This may sound like the most awful experience imaginable, but as most of you are aware of I can sleep just about anywhere so it really wasn't that bad, just uncomfortable. On the actual flight to Mexico I sat by this Mexican guy who has been living in the US. He apparently gambles tens of thousands of dollars and has seduced near as many women, and insisted on giving me twenty dollars to "enjoy myself with." I got a room in a nice hostel right downtown with stupendous rooftop views (note the top picture). So far I've really enjoyed exploring a bit of the city, and ate the cheapest, most delicious taco of my life. It was a clear day, apparently a miracle in Mexico City, so I went up to the 42nd floor of a building to watch the sunset. I can't get over how great this place is! I'm really digging being back on the road.