A bit different from my first visit in a hotel. That's the difference with being in the travel routine. Hostels are just great for meeting people etc whereas my hotel last month had NOBODY in it to share travel plans etc, and what with the whole capital being roadblocked for independence, it was a very different atmosphere. Feeling hungry after my bus I set off to get veggie food and was getting rapidly depressed when I bumped into Mick, an Irish guy travelling on his motorbike who I'd met in Guanajuato. Which cheered me up. Food was indifferent but then breakfast on the roof of the hostel the next morning was great.
I also met a guy called Luke, a very pleasant Kiwi guy, and a French guy, called Jérôme. Confusing at first as they were speaking French, but I could just about pick Luke wasn't French, but didn't sound Quebecois. Got more confusing later as Luke and I were alternating Spanish, French and English. But I like that kind of confusing....
Any road, we duly agreed to go off to Teotihuacan together as we were all heading there. An adventure in itself as we went through a fairly rough part of town near to where I'd been before. The ruins were amazing. An hour and a half bus ride as the city really is HUGE, but then, there we were. And if my camera battery was flatter than a pancake, fortunately Jérôme's wasn't (see pic of him below). The pics of my first Mexican ruins are not mine, but oh well...
This is on the pyramid of the moon and to the left in the background is the pyramid of the sun. Interestingly, the Aztecs (or Mexicas as they were know, hence the name of the country) actually took over the site, but didn't build it. Which made it more pleasing for me personally as the rate of human sacrifice at Aztec temples reached something like 25,000 in one year not long before the Spanish arrived. All a bit bloodthirsty for my liking. However, the builders of this amazing place were probably more into the earlier Olmec and later Mayan way of doing things with much less sacrifice. The Aztec sacrifices were designed to placate the Gods and ensure the continued existence of the world. So judging by the huge numbers, they were really worried their world was about to end. And they were right.
The pyramid of the sun would look better with a bit more sun on it, but you get the idea. :) The next snap is a good hour from the centre of the city and you can see how tightly packed it is. The city is basically in a bowl, surrounded by mountains which you could see from the top of the hostel. The disturbing thing is that there was a greater or lesser haze of pollution every day and at some point I started to feel like I was sitting in a bowl of smog soup. Not too nice.
That evening I was feeling hungry again and Luke decided to be kind and show me a restaurant he'd thought looked pretty good. The food was goooorgeous. So nice to have a vegetarian pasta. Which I duly went into the kitchen and thanked them for later. As Luke wasn't eating, he was freer to talk to the girl sitting next to us who turned out to be an extremely engaging Chilean conceptual artist called Viviana. Here I noted the importance of going out either alone or with other Spanish speakers. Makes meeting locals much easier, especially as Viviana didn't speak Engish. The three of us went onto another very cool bar (I was competely sober, believe it or not, as I was resting after Guanajuato and had only had a little first taste of Mezcal). On the way home from there the chef from the first restaurant-bar and a friend of his invited us to a party. At this point my resistance crumbled and I did have a few beers. Finished at six am. All in Spanish, Mexicans, a Chilean, me and a Kiwi. Just perfect. And the music at the party was rocking.
The next day the three of us went to the market as Viviana needed to buy something for her next piece - some transparent plastic suitcases. An absolutely stunningly colourful market where I bought a load of salad stuff, seeds, nuts etc. Yay! We bought sweetcorn at this stall which was THE best I've ever tasted. Amazing. We then worked our way to a pulquería, where they sell only pulque. A sort of aniseedy, brewed, creamy beverage with flavourings like vanilla etc. Met a load of young Mexicans knocking off from work and got chatting. Ended up at a student bar which was rammed. Chatted loads to Victor who is to Luke's right in the pic. Really nice bunch.
Having failed to make it to the Templo Mayor the previous day, went to it with Luke and a lovely Brit called Drew. Luke scooted off half way through so only Drew benefited from the truly amazing salad I put together for lunch back at the hostel. The site is amazing. It was the main temple in the Aztec capital called Tenochtitlan so the Spanish just built their cathedral right on top of the site as you can see in the background of this pic.
At some point before I left, we also went to see the National palace which was packed as it was the weekend and it's free. Started with a 4-minute, slightly optimistic, but visually impressive surround-sound, multiple-screens-covering-every-wall projection of the history of Mexico's history. The main reason we went there though was to see Diego Rivera's murals.
The biggest one in the main stairwell took 6 years to complete and also covers all of Mexico's history. Utterly amazing. This was followed by meeting up with one of the guys from the previous day to go to a party which ended up being too complicated so we went to a club and within a minute of arrival was dragged off to the dance floor by a Mexican girl for my first dance to Reggaeton. Cool. And if you tried to dance like Mexicans do with complete strangers in England, you'd either end up wearing a pint or very embarrassed as they looked at you like some kind of weirdo. Here though, perfectly normal to mix, salsa, lots of hip grinding, preferably getting as low to the floor as possible. They'll even drag you into a circle to watch you do the same while cheering you on. Great. Loved it.
Stole this photo of Coyocan off another blog, as again failed to take my camera. Beautiful place near Frida Kahlo's family house, which more than made up for the swimming pool being closed after my 25 minute walk to get there. All the partying was making me feel like I needed a rest again so set off for Oaxaca with Jean-Charles and Drew. The first time I'd set off with anyone else when moving on. Nice change. And easy as JC was very organised and found a hostel on his computer, whereas I had neither guidebook nor made the effort to look online.
The Casa Angel was great. First food round the corner at caf was great too - Tlayudas (type of tortilla) with veggie filling and garnished with a local herb which was beautiful. Yum. A welcome break from the already somewhat boring routine of quesadillas etc. The owner, Octavio, was a star. Went to the shop to get us beer and then when I saw another client with a Mezcal and asked for one too, he initially said no then got me one - his Dad's mezcal. Not on the menu at all. Nyce. An easy morning and day followed walking around with JC and respectively talking for England and France - in French, and very stimulating it was too. Gave me a few ideas :) And his photos too as you'll see from the better quality - lens envy...Beautiful cathedral - Oaxaca.
Another idea came from talking to Mum and Dad on skype who highly recommended the restaurant below, La Biznaga.
Which we duly went to and found it to be every bit as good as we'd hoped. Me, Drew, JC on right, a British couple on left. The next day we went off on a very long and arduous journey on a local pickup/taxi to a place called Hierve el agua. Or the boiling water. Which turned out to be beautiful, but not boiling.
The inevitable 'walking in air/flying' pic. The tall guy on left was a lovely Scot named Mark.
We failed to see the ruins or the enormous tree at Mitla on the way back because it was too late. What we did find however, was this:
By the time the two bottles had almost bitten the dust on the roof terrace, all was going extremely well. Went dancing and hooked up with two rather lovely Brit-based ladies (one Cech with a dash of Polish, the other actually born and bred in London - not sure which is more unusual) and an Aussie guy. Great fun. And the next morning, Mick, who had duly arrived (2nd random meeting) laughed at my whole-body-shake hangover. Ah well. At least I didn't get robbed by the cops which Drew did.
Mick very kindly offered to take me up to Monte Alban on his bike which was quite an experience. The museum was pretty amazing and the ruins even more so. The pics don't do them justice.
Mick ran into some friends and so we all took a guide while I tried not to die on the way round. According to the Zapotec guide, the pictures below and others like them show Zapotec medicine 101 - they didn't leave any texts so this is all we have. He was also convinced there were Chinese faces, African faces etc. One thing's for sure - the Zapotecs were a powerful civilisation who predated the Aztecs and the Maya, if I'm not much mistaken. The site also included pelota court. The game sounds like a cross between real tennis (the court), handball, rugby etc and the winner got to be sacrificed to the gods. Bonus! More a Mixtec/Maya thing though, not Zapotec.
So fairly well baked in the sun, we went off for a visit to the Oaxaca cultural museum which had beautiful Zapotec (older, maybe builders of the site) and Mixtec (more recent, local rivals of Zapotec). The guy who drove us to Hierve el agua spoke Zapotec as his first language. Chichebiste is 'cheers.
Back at the ranch it was a Belgian guy, Sam's birthday, so we went out again. Barracuda bar - much silliness ensued. Oddly enough this painting reminds me of the Lascaux/peche merle stuff with the hand outline.
and then the Casa de Mezcal. Where I was invited to eat a worm from the bottle. Which I did wrong apparently. So I did it again. Fortunately, I was able to dance off the hangover in about two hours of dancing on the roof, where I had my ipod plugged in and my Mexico mix on. As Amy, Barbara and Nigel were leaving for San Cristobal and were inviting me along, I packed my stuff and tucked into some afternoon chelas (mex slang for beers) and we caught the night bus.
Which arrived on 23rd Oct.... about which, more later :)
Love you all and miss you lots.
Steve
x
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