Mexico City, el Distrito Federal (DF)

    "Beyond the East the Sunrise,
      beyond the West the sea. 
     And East and West the wander-thirst 
     that will not let me be."  -Gerald Gould

Wow. Mexico City. I don't even know where to start. It was amazing.

I arived in Mexico City on 3/1 and met my host, Luisa, a warm-hearted girl who is currently living in a room on the roof of her mother's house in the well-known and more upper-class neighborhood of Mexico City called the Colonia Condesa. She recently got back from traveling parts of Europe and Asia, and is currently saving her earnings as a high school Chemistry teacher to continue her travels.

Luisa's roof-top room (door on the right)

Luisa gave me a basic idea of how the metro works, and the following day I met up with a local couchsurfer named Nayeli. Together we saw the Templo Mayor, the destroyed remains of Aztec empire Tenochtitlan.... basically the bottom half of the central pyramid. It's amazing to think that the city is where these people lived, after having finally found the prophesized eagle catching a snake over a cactus in a lake (the image that appears on the Mexican flag). The whole city kept on sinking because it was on a lake! And then the Spanish came along and destroyed both the Aztecs and their city. Right beside Templo Mayor is the Cathedral, which is huge, beautiful, and extremely ornate. It's amazing to observe the enormous Cathedral looming over the destroyed remains of the once dominant Tenochtitlan.

Mexico City Metro

At Templo Mayor with the Cathedral in the background

Inside the Cathedral

Downtown Mexico City

The following day, Thursday, I rode a rent-a-bike around Luisa's neighborhood, explored, went for a run, and ate fresh cut mango and pineapple in Parque de Mexico. I must say that days like these are my favorite. No set schedule, no set plan, no tourist attractions. Just exploring and observing.

That night I went to a Couchsurfing gathering at Oslo lounge. It was a lot of fun; I met a lot of people, including Ruben and Sandra, who invited me to join them and other Couchsurfers at Chapultepec (a State park with a large, old castle), that following Sunday.

Parque de Mexico

At Oslo Lounge with Elizabeth (left) and Luisa (right)

The following day, Luisa, Nayeli and I met up with a local couchsurfer named Alex, who attended CU Boulder. We all went to a bar for some good conversation and some good beer. Later that night we went to a party one of Alex's friends was throwing, and it was a blast. Live DJ, good music, nice people. I couldn't have asked for a better time. Oh, and I had a good time telling a handful of people I am from Antarctica ... 'What's it like in Antarctica?' ... 'Well, there's lots of ice... and currently there's an economic crisis.'  ;)

At a bar with Alex and other couchsurfers

Best party in a long time

On Saturday, Luisa and I went to the famous and enormous Museo de la Antropologia in Mexico City. Considering my interest in Mesoamerican history and culture, the museum was amazing. There was a different room for each Mesoamerican culture (Aztec, Mayan, Totonac, Toltec, Olmec, etc.) I saw some very famous artifacts, such as the enormous Aztec calendar and a couple Olmec heads, which date back to about 2000 BC.

Aztec calendar, found in Tenochtitlan

Olmec head

Mayan carving

On Sunday, as planned, I met up with Ruben, Sandra, and 5 or 6 other couchsurfers and we climbed the Angel de la Independencia, a large statue/structure overlooking part of the city. Then we went to Chapultepec where we saw a very old castle from the 1500's. Ornate rooms, gardens, and views. Afterwards, we had tacos for lunch and came back to Luisa's place for some beers on the roof. It was a very nice day. That night, Luisa, Carlos, Ruben and I went to eat traditional Pozole... a considerably heavy soup. It was delicious.

View from Angel de la Independencia

At the Castle at Chapultepec with other Couchsurfers

Beers on Luisa's roof

The next day, although sick to my stomach and not feeling well (maybe the shaved ice I'd eaten in the park wasn't made with purified water), I went with couchsurfing friend Carlos to the famous Aztec city known at Teotihuacan, which is about an hour North of Mexico City.

Teotihuacan with Carlos

Contrary to the amount of warnings I received from people concerned about my travel to Mexico City ("be careful! It's dangerous!") I felt very safe in Mexico City. When I told Luisa and Nayeli about my concerns, they chuckled and said it's all stereotypes. Mexico City is in fact much safer than many parts of Mexico at this time; they've both lived in the city their entire lives and nothing bad has ever happened to them. As Aldous Huxley put it:

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

The following day, I took a bus 4 hours North West to Morelia, where I met up with local couchsurfer named Hugo (this trip will be discussed in a later blog). I decided to see Morelia when Luisa told me it was worth the trip. From here, I plan to go to Patzcuaro, Uruapan, then Zihuatanejo, on the Pacific Coast. From there I will continue traveling South to Acapulco, then to Oaxaca. On April 8th, in less than 1 month, I will meet up with Kasey in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. I can't wait!! From there we will see a few sights and head over to Chetumal, where we will cross the border into Belize. The route of my trip has changed quite a bit since I first started planning it out, but I like that. I love the spontenaity of backpacking. 

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.  ~Lao Tzu

Although I love seeing the sights (in particular, the Mesoamerican ruins), I must say that my favorite part of my journey thus far has been making connections and friends of all different backgrounds and experiences. I like observing that the similarities between places are much more abundant than the differences. Time after time it is apparent that no matter what part of the world you're in, no matter what culture or what language the people speak, people are the same. The world is much smaller than we acknowledge, with all of our wars and differentiation between countries. We are all neighbors, all residents of Planet Earth.

On this note, I leave you with:

"I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land." -Unknown

Veracruz

I arrived in Coatzacoalcos, a city in the state of Veracruz, on February 14th, to visit my good friend Veronica, whom I met during my stay in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2006.  It was a week of deliciously free fresh-squeezed orange juice (yes, every morning), homemade corn tortillas, tamales, and other yummies. The family was great; more than accomodating. I had my own room, slept in late, took naps, and occassionally took a jog down to the beach. The beach wasn´t all that great, but I found a beautifully intact sand dollar, which I gave to Veronica. I liked the symbol of the sand dollar more than the sand dollar itself; that even amidst apparent ugliness beauty can be found... You just have to look for it.

It was a week of delicious laziness. Vero recently had a baby boy (little Edgar) so we spent a lot of time tending to him and hanging out in the house. We did, however, have a small night on the town (a live band playing at a bar on the beach strip), and a trip to the "escolleras", which I learned means "jetties." There I drank fresh coconut juice from the coconut and soaked up the sun (the very intense sun, mind you).

Night out in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz

Escolleras (Jetties)

Vero´s family

Baby Edgar

Then, on February 22nd, my trip was to continue 4 hours North up to Veracruz, Veracruz-- interestingly, not the capital of Veracruz, but the largest (and most well-known) city. There I met up with Maria, a girl I met through Couchsurfing.  Turns out we were a great match. I´ve spent the past week with Maria coming up with random inside jokes, watching scary movies, and sight seeing. The first couple of days we stayed here in Veracruz, where there really isn´t too much to see other than normal city stuff (plaza, stores, beach, etc.) The beach here isn´t all that great either. But I´m patient; in a couple of weeks I´ll be traveling South along the Pacific Coast. I can´t wait.

We took a bus over to Xalapa (pronounced as if the X were an H), the capital of Veracruz. There the city was slightly different and more tranquil, with sloping streets, hills, and cooler air. We stayed on the 3rd floor of her aunt´s house, which, to be honest, was slightly uncomfortable. Not only because of the cockroaches, but also because Maria awoke in the middle of the night because the hammock she was sleeping in was swinging considerably... could it have been a ghost? "Most probably," as Kasey would put it. ;)

Anyways, we went out that night (Friday) to a couple different local places, both of which were pretty nice (other than the unspeakably awful service we received). I´ve come to realize that the need for good customer service is something unique to American culture.

Veracruz, Veracruz (central plaza)

Xalapa, Veracruz

Maria´s Cousin, Maria, and myself in Xalapa

From Xalapa Maria and I took a bus for 30 minutes to a quaint little town called Coatepec. It was another small town with not much to see, really, other than the little stores, the people, the central plaza and (of course) the church.  I must admit that my favorite things to see are the things that are uniquely Mexican; words, actions, sights, or occurrences that demonstrate, albeit subtly, the culture of Mexico. The following picture I took in Coatepec, for example, is something along these lines:

Long line for tortillas in Coatepec

That evening, which just so happened to be a Saturday, Maria and I returned to her home in Veracruz and decided to go to a bar, which just so happened to be a karaoke bar.  Now, those of you who know me know that karaoke is one of my favorite pasttimes. However, I must admit that I was pretty nervous about singing Pat Benatar´s "Heartbreaker," one of the few songs I found in the karaoke book that I actually know. Let´s face it:  before singing the song, I was already sticking out like a sore thumb. How much more would I stick out if I actually sang this 80´s rock and roll song, when everyone else that sang were singing slow-flowing romance, salsa, or, as Maria put it, "old people songs"? Not to mention, all the other women singing did so in pairs. So I´m 1) clearly a foreigner-- tall, blonde, pale-- basically different-looking than everyone else, and therefore apparently the equivelant of an alien from outer space, based on the way people look at me, and 2) Singing a fast-paced, upbeat rock and roll song, and 3) Going up on stage all by lonesome. If before I stuck out like a sore thumb, I most surely was sticking out like a broken leg at this point. But, alas, it went well; the people cheered and rocked their heads to the music. We´re all rockers at heart.

The following day, Maria and her family took me to Quiahuiztlan (don´t even ask me how to pronounce that one), a site of ancient Totonac ruins. Totonacs, although not as widely known, were a culture similar to that of the Mayans and the Aztecs; they lived widely in the State of Veracruz until approximately 900 AD. The site we saw was amazing, and unique in all of Mesoamerica, namely for the tombs that are scattered about the site. Apparently, the bodies of the elite were burried beneath these tumbs and then later dug-up and placed in urns, which were then placed in the nitch (hole) in each tomb.

Maria and her parents

And that´s that. Tomorrow I´m off to Mexico City. I won´t lie, I´m a bit nervous. But I´m sure everything will be fine. I already have a couch secured and numerous people have offered to show me around the city. I´ll update the blog at some point in the near future.

From there, I´ll head over to the Pacific Coast, to Zihuatanejo, the place mentioned in the Shawshank Redemption, where I also already have a place secured. From there I´ll travel South along the Pacific Coast until I reach Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, where I´ll finally meet up with my love. Just a little over a month until I get to see him!  :-D

I hope everyone is doing well! Cheers!

Still in Mérida but not for long...

A bit of time has passed since my last post, so I´ll try to update as thoroughly as possible. I´m still, surprisingly, in Mérida, Mexico. This is for three reasons... 1. I´m taking my time, 2. There are a lot of things to see in the outskirts of the city that I want to see before I leave, and 3. I caught a cold and felt too tired to go out and do all the things I wanted to last week. So, to pick up where I left off....

I did indeed go to Progreso, a beach town, the following day. I woke up, walked to the store, got some supplies, packed my things, and caught a bus at about 11:30 AM. It´s funny, there was a part of me that thought something would go wrong, that I´d take the wrong bus or something else would happen to impede my arrival at Progreso, but things went very smoothly. As I move along in this trip of spontenaity, I find that things usually go smoothly. And if they don´t, it´s not that hard to smooth them over. I met a guy from the Netherlands who hitchhiked from Cancún to Mérida, and when he left, he hitchhiked all the way to Palenque. Now that´s budget travel. Anyway, the bus ride to Progreso took about an hour. I got off where everyone else did, went into a random store and asked where the hotels are, compared prices, and finally checked into one for 17 bucks a night. From there I left my huge backpack, gathered my beach supplies, and walked a couple blocks down to the beach. I stayed for about 3 hours; swam, walked, layed in the sun (I later broke out in a strange allergic reaction on my left hand, which is still slowly going away). Then I explored the town until it got dark, had dinner, then returned to the hotel where I showered and settled in for the night.

The following day I returned to Mérida, checked into a different hostel called Hostal Zócalo in the grand plaza, and went to the art museum, which sits in the center of the city beside the cathedral. Seeing the art made me miss Kasey. I left the museum slightly saddened, but happy that at least he can come travel with me earlier than initially planned (April rather than June).

Art Museum

Cathedral

That night, laying in bed at the hostel, I chatted for a while with a Mexican woman in her 50´s who was sleeping in the bed beside me. She seemed pretty bitter. One of the first things she asked me was if I like Obama. Then she pointed out that he has dark skin, and that us Americans don´t like blacks. I patiently explained that´s not how it is, but it was annoying to be judged not by who I am or how I act, but by where I am from. I imagine that´s how many Mexicans in the United States feel. I definitely feel like an outsider here; everywhere I go, as long as I´m in public, there is at least one person staring at me. Men, women, children; I appear to be some sort of spectacle.

At this point I was feeling somewhat unhappy and out of place, especially sleeping in the dorm room of the hostel. People at the hostel partied, went to bed late and woke up early, and weren´t very quiet about it. It is nice meeting people from all over the world, but at the same time, it´s nice to have privacy and personal space. I felt like there was a wall between me and everyone; I was tired, a bit sick, missing Kasey, and I didn´t care enough to associate with them. I just wanted to sleep for 2 days straight without interruptions, but the hostel was full of them.

Dorm at Hostal Zócalo.. bottom bunk was mine.

On February 6th, I finally got my Mexican cell phone up and working; it was time to bring on the couch surfing experience. For those of you who are not familiar, visit this website for an explanation. After walking through the town for a bit during Mérida en Domingo, a weekly festival held every Sunday, I met up with a local couchsurfer named Marianela and a Dutch boy named Dene. I walked quite a distance to Paseo de Montejo to meet them at an ice cream shop, where we chatted about Mayan history. We then came back to the grand plaza, walked a distance to a locally known restaurant where I had a tamal and a panucha, went and got an expresso at a very cute cafe, and then came back to the plaza to dance a bit to some Norteña (they had set up a huge stage and speakers)... it was packed. I wished Kasey had been there to see the festival and the band.... I wanted to dance with him. Although still recovering from the cold, for the first time in a few days I felt pretty happy. Marianela is very nice and reminds me of Veronica, a good friend in Veracruz who I also plan to visit.

Paseo de Montejo, Anthropology Museum

Marianela and I

Mérida en Domingo

Mérida en Domingo

Paseo de Montejo

After such a nice time with fellow couchsurfers, I decided it was time to try the actual couch surfing thing... as in, staying at a local´s house. I met up with a different couchsurfer, a local girl named Jael, the following day. She introduced me to a good friend of her´s named Javier, who is also a couchsurfer and welcomes foreigners into his home. He offered to let me stay at his place, where his mom, dad, and brother also live, and after spending the next couple hours with him and his friends, I agreed. You know when you meet someone who has a very kind heart and genuine intentions... Javier radiates that energy. That night I met a handful of other couchsurfers from New Zealand, Italy, and Spain and we walked around the city, with Javier and Jael as our personal guides, and finally got dinner.

Upon arrival to Javier´s house, he made me feel right at home. He showed me the kitchen and where I could find all of the things I needed, including food. He showed me the shower, bathroom, and finally the mattress on the floor where I would be sleeping. He gave me a key to the house and told me I could come and go as I pleased. Oh, and unlimited internet access, too. Needless to say, I´ve been much happier here than I was at the hostel.

The following day, having finally recovered from my cold, I took a bus to Cuzamá, a town about an hour and a half away, to visit 3 cenotes (water holes in the ground) with 3 fellow couchsurfers: José (Spain), Sandro (Italy), and Dene (Netherlands). It was great. Cool, crystal clear, aquamarine waters. The cenotes are beneath the ground, practically in caves. You have to decend steep steps (or, in one case, a ladder) to get there. There is just enough sunlight to see the clarity of the water, which is extremely deep in most parts, but you can still see the bottom. When we got off the bus, we book a bicycle (a guy rode us, we sat on a seat attached to the front), then we were pulled by a horse in a flimsy carriage attached to train tracks to the cenote sites, which are in the middle of the forest. Very interesting mode of transportation. After the cenotes I broke out in yet another strange allergic reaction on my right hand, arm, and feet, which took about a day to disappear.

On the way to the cenotes

Dene jumping in at Cenote2

Cenote3

Me in Cenote1

The following day I went to Dzibilchaltún, mayan ruins that are about 20 minutes North of Mérida. It was very small, but very quiet and empty. I find it amazing to imagine what it was like for these people. Not only how horrible it must have been when the Spanish came and conquiered their civilization, essentially tried to erase their culture, but also how their day to day lives were. For them, everything had a meaning. Everything had a spirit, not just people and animals. They were so in tune with their surroundings.

I also swam in the cenote that was on the site. This one was different from the others, as it was not underground.

Dzibilchaltún astronomical observatory... I´m on the steps

Dzibilchaltún cenote

The next day I caught a bus to a town called Izamal, which is about 2 hours Northwest of Mérida. Everyone had told me I should see it. The whole town is painted mustard yellow and is famous for the large church, built in the 1500s, in the center of the town on top of a mayan structure. It´s built from stone. The front is mustard yellow, but the back is gray, looks like a mideivil (sp) castle. The place is very ornate. Although asthetically pleasing, I couldn´t help but sense an ugliness beneath the beauty... the wrath of a tyrant. Poor Mayans.

Izamál, back of church

Izamál, front of church

Today I plan to relax... it´s pretty cloudy and rainy outside, so it seems like a perfect day for it. Tonight Marianela has a little exposition at a place called Café Chocolate; she is a clothes designer and will be showing off her creations, along with other vendors in the area. I may go to that, along with other couchsurfers... we´ll see. Tomorrow I´m not sure what I´ll do either, although tomorrow night I plan to make dinner for this family that has been so kind to welcome me into their home. Stuffed eggplant parmesian... yummm. Sunday I plan to do the Ruta Puuc, or the Puuc Route, which is a road that takes you to 4 sites with Mayan ruins, including the famous Uxmal.

On Monday I will leave and begin to follow the path I´ve mapped out for myself:

The final stopping point on the map is Tuxtla Gutierrez, where I´ll meet up with Kasey in late April. From there we will travel more or less the following route:

In all of the places I visit, I´ve been making an effort to stay present in the moment and not let my mind wander to outside worries; soak up all the sights, smells, and feelings. Just really be aware. The people. The houses. The random smells in the air, most of which I recognize from prior trips to Mexico but cannot identify. I see so many people, so many lives, everywhere I go. It´s almost mind boggling to think that each of these people, which I glance at for only a fleeting moment, have their own life, their own story, their own worries, their own joys. SO many people. Not only here, but in all parts of the world. And everyone is just trying to get by, just trying to achieve happiness. In essence, we are all the same.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it:

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Until next time...