Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts

Friday, 7 September 2007

God has pissed on our heads

A series of misses:

In Guananjuato we missed the Callejonada - a gay little procession with a bunch of period costumed troubadours through the backstreets of the town. Reason for missing: too busy eating undiluted condensed soup.

In Zacatecas we missed the culmination of La Morisma - a mock battle recreating the triumphs of the Christians over the Muslims (Moors) in old Spain. Reason for missing: watching Back to the Future II at the hostel, then when we did go out, it was pissing it down with rain.

In El Fuerte, we missed out on getting the train up the Copper Canyon. On our 4th wedding anniversary. Coming here was pretty much the only thing we really wanted to do in this bit of Mexico. Reason for missing: Tropical Storm Henriette wiped out the entire transport infrastructure in and around Los Mochis.

We´re currently stuck here (Los Mochis), hoping to get a flight to Tijuana tomorrow lunchtime in order to be in LA to catch our flight to the Cook Islands on Sunday. We better had catch it, cos they only go once a week.

It´s actually been a pretty bad few days here, what with all the rain and stuff. This picture of Ben was taken when the storm and consequent flooding all seemed like a big laugh:


This was taken in Los Mochis, wading through town on Wednesday to get a bus to El Fuerte, where we were due to board the Copper Canyon train the next day. This was after the longest and most annoying bus ride ever from Guadalajara: 1 burst tyre (90 minutes to fix, borrowing our mobile phone to use as a torch - it got wet, now numbers 1, 2 and 3 don´t work. Or the joystick. Or the left soft-key. Anyone got a spare phone they want to send us? Seriously! Sony Ericsson preferred, please cos we´ve got the right charger etc.)...

The bus was also stopped - I kid you not - 7 times over the course of 16 hours. 4 stops by cops, one featuring a full drugs search, including unscrewing the digital clock at the front of the bus and examining the cavity behind it, plus one that had us hauled off the bus to produce our passports. We think they were fishing for a bribe, but they gave up when Ben told them we were writers, who are obviously paupers. The other 3 stops were for some sort of health/sanitary inspection. No idea what they were looking for.

So, then we wake up on the morning of our anniversary and the hostel owner says "No hay tren hoy". There is no train today. Shit. Shit shit shit. Damn. Shit. As we were trying to work out how to get to Chihuahua to catch our bus to LA, we met Doug of Mexico Horse, who was kind enough to give us a lift back to Los Mochis, where we found out we were in bigger trouble than we thought - no way at all to get to Chihuahua. Er... damn.

Finally, we met Elisabeth at the Los Mochis Tourist Information Office who was an absolute superstar, finding us a cheaper and quicker alternative route up to LA via Tijuana, and talking the bus people round into refunding 85% of the cost of our Chihuahua to LA tickets.

Anyway, things could be much worse - we only got wet and inconvenienced, not like dead or anything. Plus we kept our spirits up and stuck together in the face of a ruined anniversary, so all in all, not too bad.

We´re currently holed up in the rather nice Hotel Fenix in Los Mochis, just chilling and watching All New Judge Judy on cable, waiting for the plane tomorrow.

Still quite gutted about missing the Copper Canyon, but we´ll come back and do it on one of our other anniversaries. Also, this way we have avoided the 22h bus ride to LA, which we weren´t looking forward to.

All being well, we´ll be in the Cook Islands on Monday as planned. Bring it on!

Ben

P.S. We´re serious about that phone ;-)

Sunday, 2 September 2007

Mummies

We just left Guanajuato, which is a pretty town, but full of rich, snobby people unfortunately. We stayed in a pretty crappy hostel, but had a great time looking at the views and avoiding the rain. We also went to rock bar Los Lobos which the lonely planet described as "dive" but was nothing of the sort. Bill, you would have loved it :)

Here´s the view from the top of the funicular:

In the spirit of the Mexicans, who are seriously obsessed with death, we went to Museo de las Momias yesterday - the saving grace of Guanajuato. Wow.

The ground around Guanajato is so rich in minerals that bodies are mummified in about 2 years (which the locals discovered when exhuming bodies of the dead whose families could no longer afford to pay for the upkeep of their graves), and they put the best ones in a museum, which we went to visit, much to Debs´excitement.

We were the only non-Mexicans there, which afforded us a good view over the heads of the baying mob, and this is the kind of thing we saw:

Debs started crying when we got to the section of mummified babies (tiny, with hair), and we were both pretty shocked by the mummy of the person who was buried alive (hands in front of face), but all in all, a good time was had by all. Gruesome but great.

Debs, x

Saturday, 1 September 2007

Barbershops of the world, part 3

Peluqueria El Gallo in Guanajuato is the scene for a much needed beard trim, and hell why not since I´m here anyway I might as well do my head as well:


Cost 60 pesos (4 EUR) + a 10 peso tip, but don´t tell Debs ;-)
Cut quality 8/10
Fear factor 0/10
Comments: Excellent work all round, especially around the back of the head, according to Debs. Slightly overzealous work with the cut-throat razor on the cheeks, though, leading to a slightly rakish overall look. The chicas on the streets keep getting all flustered when I walk past...

On a side note: Internet perverts are stalking me! I put a photo of my Havana cut up on Flickr and it was favourited by some guy calling himself mzuri_mjinga. I think he might be gay. Also, he´s a member of the "haircuts fetishe" group... Hi guys! Plenty more hot scissor action coming your way from all round the world, right here, soon.

Ben

Up, up and away

Despite Mexico City being the most expensive place in Mexico we decided to stay an extra day here so we could take in the ancient wonders of Teotihuacan.

But before we could climb the third largest pyramid in the world, we needed a hearty breakfast - and Debs found us an absolutely killer 24h diner called Cafe El Popular. Look at how pleased she is with herself and her frjoles revueltos con 2 huevos (beans and 2 eggs, scrambled):

I had the hotcakes, which were similarly sublime, as was the coffee, served chino style - the waitress pours super strong coffee from one jug into your tall glass until you say when, then fills up the rest with hot milk from another. Delicious!

Enough about food. Teotihuacan was suitably awesome, and hot. We didn´t hang around much - seen one spectacular Mexican ruin, seen em all - but we did climb up to the top of the Temple of the Sun, which was breathtakingly enormous:


Shortly after descending, we discovered that the cheap Kodak batteries we bought in a pound shop in Wandsworth (1 quid for 10 AA batteries, what could possibly go wrong?) - were absolutely shit. 1 shot and they´re done.

After all that culture we did bugger all. Sat in the hotel and watched reruns of Law and Order (Have you ever seen this show? It´s balls!), and then Mr Deeds, which was farcical and fun.

The maid in Hotel Isabel was probably completely baffled as to how we´d got through and binned 20 batteries in one day. But by the time she was wondering this, we were long gone, on our way to Guanajuato.

Ben

Friday, 31 August 2007

Thrills, spills and anthropology

After the cosmopolitan charms of Oaxaca, we got a bit of a rude awakening in Mexico City.

Arriving on Monday night, we started off badly by staying in the shit Hostal Moneda (don´t go!), which we were told would cost 290 pesos when we booked, but which suddenly became 390 pesos when we arrived at 7pm. $10 might not sound like much to you, but we are jobless paupers now :-(

We should have gone elsewhere, but we caved in to the benefits of free internet, breakfast and supper (not good), and ended up in a cockroach infested room, which Debs wasn´t very happy about at all.

So we got up super early on Tuesday morning and immediately moved to the much more comfortable Hotel Isabel - a great colonial style hotel with cable TV and a safe in the room, so we were well and truly living it up after that. Also, it was cheaper. Result! Then the fun really began.

1st adventure: Head west! To Chapultepec Park for the National Museum of Anthropology. A marathon trawl through the entire history of Mexican civilization, featuring loads of cool little trinkets and massive sculptures. Truly impressive. Debs went nuts with the camera:

We headed back through the park and were delighted by tame squirrels begging for our dried chickpeas with chilli sauce (finger-stainingly good), but disappointed that the Hall of Mirrors was closed, apparently for no reason. And then...

2nd adventure: It´s a crime! I got totally rolled in the Metro at Pino Suarez. 3 or 4 youths crowded me from all sides as we were getting on, and I couldn´t push my way past them. It all happened very fast, and I couldn´t quite watch/guard all my pockets, but thankfully, our super special and top secret security precautions protected my stuff with flying colours, and by the time Debs came to my rescue and pulled me free of the mob, all they had managed to do was half nick my sunglasses, which they then dropped on the floor as they legged it. Quite good!

For our 3rd and final adventure of the day (this is pretty good going for a Tuesday) we went to the best "sporting" event ever: Lucha Libre at Arena Coliseo. It´s wrestling, Jim, but not as we know it. Two teams of masked opponents "fight" to the finish, apparently disregarding any rules that may or may not be there in the first place. There were also 2 referees in the ring who spent most of their time hanging around just watching the show. It was hilarious! We especially enjoyed the bit when the 3 good guys all synchro-dived through the ropes to smash into their heavy metal bad guy adversaries. Take that! All sorts of controversy and amusement ensued, culminating in 2 fighters being stretchered off, and "Blue Panther" being unmasked - OMFG!

There were some other good names kicking ass out there on the canvas that evening, including Dr. X, Tony, Bucanero, Vaquero, Koslov and the incomparable Ugugu. Oh, also this one dude apparently dressed as the Sugar Plum Fairy, I kid you not. He riled his bad guy rivals by blowing kisses at them. Maybe that was what led to his being stretchered off later...

Super amusing. We shouted ourselves hoarse, but have no pictures cos they wouldn´t let us take the camera in :-(

If only we´d been to this before those proto-crims tried to rob me on the Metro - I would have used some wicked moves and totally kicked their sorry asses, Mexican style.

And that was just 1 day in Mexico City, Dios mio!

Ben

Sunday, 26 August 2007

Northward bound

Here we are in Oaxaca (that´s wa-hak-ah in case you were wondering).

We arrived yesterday from Puerto Escondido, where we got up super early to catch the quick minibus over the mountains. At 6 hours for $13, rather than 10 hours for $22, we thought we had snagged ourselves a bargain...

Worst. Bus ride. Ever.

3 to 4 hours of those zig-zag mountain roads with no seatbelts to restrain your movements, a driver with some sort of crazy delay+reverb effect on his CB radio, and a passenger next to me with a round pot which we later discovered had been oozing some kind of meaty goo onto the floor, attracting cockroaches - delightful!


Anyway, we arrived in one piece, if a little exhausted, and lucked into a private room at the rather splendid Hostel Pochon in the north west of the city, run by the charming Geraldine and Ilan. We were especially delighted to discover a properly equipped kitchen, with chopping boards, knives, multiple types of pan... everything!

A quick tour of our immediate area netted us some olive oil, courgettes and a pain de campagne. After the basic charms of the last week´s beaches, this represents seriously cosmopolitan living!

Today we enjoyed a lengthy stroll around the city, finding some great street art and a couple of awesome markets on the way round.

Debs has become completely obsessed with piñatas.

Tonight we are going to sample some mezcal - the local tipple - but not too much, cos we have to get up pretty early to move on to Mexico City.

We´re feeling like proper travellers now, skipping from city to city, fearlessly turning up at hostels without a room reservation, and economising like mad on meals (so we can spend it on drink). Give us another few months and we´ll be like Stanley and Livingston. Perhaps.

Hasta Luego!

Ben

Friday, 24 August 2007

Thoughts on life on the road

Faithful followers of our exciting nomadic lifestyle are now fully up to date with where we´ve been, what we´ve done there, and what we thought about it. But we haven´t yet told you much about the logistics and details yet - this is the stuff we could only really learn about by doing it - the unknown stuff that made Debs worry and Ben say "no worries".

It seems like we´ve been away for months now, but it´s only been 3 weeks. We´ve been moving around every 2 days or so, packing a lot of places and experiences into a short time. Our friend throughout this whirlwind of travel has been the amazing Mexican bus service, and the Lonely Planet guide to Mexico, which is as enormous as it is useful.

We planned a rough route using the sample itineraries in the front of the Lonely Planet book, and then winged it a bit from there, talking to people as we go along and picking up tips and ideas in hostels - sometimes going on organised tours, but mostly stealing their ideas and doing it ourselves (not always as convenient, but more fun).

One of the things we´ve got used to is not planning too far in advance and not reserving accommodation at all. Debs absolutely hated this at first! But after a few disappointing bookings where we couldn´t cancel a 2 day reservation in a shit hostel, we realised that the random factor often gets us into cheaper, nicer and more enjoyable places. Since there are 2 of us, and we want to stay in a private room, there´s usually something available for us for not much more than the cost of 2 beds in a dorm. Well, OK, sometimes it´s quite a bit more, but then we do get an ensuite bathroom and privacy.

A couple of the private rooms in hostels have been really good for the price. The one we´re in right now - The Mayflower in Puerto Escondido - is $30 a night and much nicer than many Hotel rooms we´ve stayed in.

We´re also a big fan of hostels with shared kitchens, where we can attempt to make delicious and cheap evening meals instead of spending on restaurants. This doesn´t always work out as planned, as local shops don´t always have the ingredients we need (you can only get chicken stock cubes in Mexico), and the cooking equipment isn´t exactly of the highest quality.

Appeal for help! (Dido, we´re relying on you): please give us ideas for simple but delicious recipes you can cook quickly with minimal equipment. So far we´ve done stuff like pea risotto (tasteless; made from a stock of water, salt, pepper and soy sauce, and undercooked fresh peas), pasta putanesca (made with tomato puree disguised in passata packaging) , and tortillas with black beans and a salsa of toms and onion, avocado, and topped with hot pepper sauce (a success!!). Please mail us some recipes! We can get pasta, fresh vegetables, and some tinned stuff, but no frozen, or herbs and spices. Thanks!

Ben and Debs, x

Thursday, 23 August 2007

Zipolite

We´ve been on the beach in Zipolite (Pacific coast in Oaxaca) for the past few days, staying right on the beach in a cabaña (wooden, thatched roof hut) :


The cabaña was in a beautiful location, and the beach was perfect, but the bugs weren´t, and the lack of fan was a bummer. Even Ben was bitten, and we´re both itching away right now. Ppff.

We´ve moved down the coast a bit to Puerto Escondido and have a real room, with a proper shower, a fan, masssive bed. Aah, civilisation!

Debs, x

Cañoneros!

A day trip from San Cristobal de las Casas, the capital of Chiapas State, to Cañon del Sumidero. Here it is!

We weren´t going to even be in San Cristobal on this day, but we got talking to a couple of Israelis at the Hostel the night before and decided to stay on so we could go croc hunting:


We were "lucky" to see so many crocs - about 10 or 12. Others who went later in the day only saw 1, and they thought it was probably dead, since it stayed in exactly the same position for over an hour. Our crocs were menacing us: Debs in particular.


Our boat driver also mercilessly buzzed a huge flock of little black water birds of some description, despite the clearly displayed "Don´t disturb the wildlife" signs at the start of the tour ;-)

Ben

Monday, 20 August 2007

Mayans in action

We´re in San Cristobal in the Mexican highlands, and it´s cold!

We arrived yesterday morning after a 5 1/2 hour bus journey from Palenque and it´s great! After initial problems booking the Backpackers hostel, we found a great place called Hostel Las Palomas (formerly Magic Hotel, but now under new management), which is so lovely that we decided to extend our stay to 2 days.

Today we went to San Juan Chamul - a small town (80,000 inhabitants) a few kms from San Cristobal, and the only place in the whole of Mexico where they still follow traditional Mayan practices. The village decided to be culturally autonomous after the Mexican revolution, and since then they´ve chosen to follow some Catholic traditions (none of the boring ones like mass or confession) but mostly Mayan stuff. It seems that they basically pick and chose what they believe, which includes drinking Coca Cola to expel bad spirits through the power of the burp (no joke!), banning cameras because they steal your soul (but it´s OK to use cameras if you´re Mayan, because the soul stays in the village...), polygamy for men only, drinking lots of 58% rum etc.

Whilst we were there we went into the (Catholic) church (which isn´t recognised by the Catholic church in Mexico for reasons that´ll become clear) to see the Mayan people perform their cleansing rituals. The shamen diagnoses the persons illness (usually a psychological illness, otherwise they´ll recommend a medical doctor, which the local won´t go to), and the details of how to perform the ritual, which usually involves praying to Catholic saints and Jesus, drinking lots of rum, and killing chickens.

It was an amazing sight to see, and one of the best things we´ve done so far. Although they are very traditional and even expel people from the village if they turn to Catholicism or refuse to perform Mayan rituals, it seems that the younger generation are becoming slowly disillusioned and some traditions may die out, so it was a real privilege to experience it. We were also really happy that we were able to see some real Mayans in action after seeing so many of their ancestors´ruined temples.

No pics though. We´re not soul destroyers.

Debs

Saturday, 18 August 2007

One for Messrs Pollard, Yerruncle, Le Toy and Kursh

We´ve got the huevos!

For everyone else, this is us enjoying our first taste of Huevos Rancheros and Huevos Mexicana for breakfast at the excellent Don Mucho, in El Panchan. Check out the Dogtanian expression on Deb´s face!

Ben

Jungle fever!

Broadcasting semi-live from the overgrown depths of the Chiapas jungly/rainforesty bit!

Here we are in Palenque, just about to head off to San Cristobal de las Casas after a thoroughly enjoyable 2 day stay. We rented a cabaña just outside the entrance to the Palenque forest/park/ruins in a place called El Panchan - a group of cool little thatched cabins in the middle of the jungle with a great set of restaurants and bars in the middle. Our cabaña was part of the Jungle Palace group, and was called Toronja, which babelfish tells me means grapefruit. Described by the awesome Lonely Planet Mexico book as "rudimentary", it was a square room with a bed, a thatched roof and mosquito screens all the way round. Initial bug worries were soon dispelled, and, having patched a couple of holes with gaffer tape, we had a great time there. The best bits were on Thursday night, when a super heavy rain came down for hours, and we were snuggled in our cabin in our silk sleeping bag liner (luxury!) and not a care in the world.


Anyway, we´re here for the Palenque ruins, and they are super, super impressive. We got up nice and early on Friday to avoid the heat and the busloads of tourists, and were viewing our first ruined, overgrown temple at about 08.30 yesterday. It´s a majestic site, really nicely preserved, with a decent balance of super-crumbly/taken over by the jungle/imposing edifice type ruins.

Also, and this was Deb´s favourite bit, they had real avocado and lime trees in there, one of which dropped a lime for her - very generous, thank you very much!

Debs also spotted some sort of large rodent creeping around in the bush, and later, what I think was a squirrel, but she is convinced was a tiny monkey: "I even saw its little face!"


Just in case of any attacks by wildlife, Ben demonstrated his defensive technique:


We had an awesome time here, and are really starting to feel comfortable being on the road and doing the whole travelling thing, although we´re avoiding the hordes of dreadlocked gap year public school kids like the plague ;-)

OK, time to catch a bus. Seeya!


Ben

P.S. Old joke:

Q: Why did the monkey get lost?
A: Because Jungle is massive!

Older folks may not understand this one. Er... young people too.

Thursday, 16 August 2007

Barbershops of the world, part 2

Campeche today, and Fernando`s Peluqueria did the honours.


As you can see, a variety of styles are available to the modern Mexican gentleman:
I settled for a standard beard trim this time - my hair is still short enough for another couple of weeks:
Cost 35 pesos (2.3 EUR)
Cut quality 5/10
Fear factor 1/10
Comments: scrupulous attention to the hairline under the chin, but left my moustache untouched - must be the way the Mexicans like it.

Ben

Wednesday, 15 August 2007

Campeche

We´re in Campeche - town of pirates! It´s lovely here, all cute pastel houses and fortifications against the foreign marauders.

Quite an eventful bus ride down here from Merida, featuring an exploding bus tire! We could smell burning rubber for a few minutes, then a passenger went and told the driver, who then checked it out and saw this:

Reassuring! The trip took 4 hours instead of the billed 2 and a half... and when we finally arrived we had a bit of a mixed reception at Hostel La Pirata. Very friendly people, but they started by trying to gyp us $5 on the room ("No, the deposit you paid on the internet doesn´t count towards the cost of the room" ... "oh yes it does"), then got the tiniest possible room and promptly flooded it.

Once we´d sorted that out, we hit the BEST supermarket ever, stocked up on food and cheap t-shirts, then pulled off a passable pea risotto:

Debs shelling peas there, wearing her newly acquired hippy headband. "A lifesaver", apparently.

Chichen Itza

We spend the last couple of days in Merida, Yucatan - where we travelled to Chitchen Itza; the site of amazing Mayan ruins which were thoughtfully packed into a nice 1km square site. There´s a ruined Mayan ball park there where the Mayans played a form of football/ handball (depending on what you read) with a bonus ´get the ball through the ring and you´ve won´ part. The losers were all beheaded, and their skulls displayed for all to see. Nice.

Stayed in a really nice hostel in Merida - Nomadas - where we finally talked to some fellow travellers (there´s lots of teachers travelling at the mo) and felt more like backpackers. We have also cooking our own food - tortillas and refried beans!

The further we go into Mexico, the hotter it gets. Ben suffers from wet arms and I seem to be allergic to mosquito bites. Great. I had it once before when we returned from Sicily, but I was hoping it was a one off. It wasn´t. every time I get bitten, the center goes all hard and there´s a circumference of about cms of bite. Any suggestions welcome. It´s painful, and driving me mad.

Sunday, 12 August 2007

Arrrrrrribbbaaa!

After a bit of a tough week in Havana, we are now revelling in the friendly civilisation that is Isla Mujeres, a gorgeous little island in the Caribbean sea, off the coast of Cancun. Look, here I am, revelling:

Landing in Cancun on Thursday we had a pretty good night in Haina Hostel, marred only by Debs being seriously munched by bed bugs (that´s 2 insect attacks already). The manager wasn´t particularly concerned when informed...

So on Friday we got the hell outta Cancun (thanks for the suggestion, Karl) and took a short bus and ferry trip to the island, where we´ve been getting horribly sunburnt ever since.

Highlights so far: the food! 1000% better than the Cuban crap, but possibly a little too Tex Mex at this stage... Also - snorkelling today at Hotel Garafon de Castilla on the south end of the island. The best bit about this was the setup - including lockers so we could stash our valuables and frolic with the fish together.

And you should see pelicans in action - they zoom around then dive-bomb the shallows really hard. Poor fish...

Tomorrow we´re off to Merida, the capital of Yucatan, for a couple of days, then down to Campeche before heading into Chiapas for some serious danger/fun, depending on whether you believe the FCO, or our waiter, Cesar.

Ben