Adios Guatemala

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Guatemala

My last night in Guatemala was spent watching the Super Chivos (Xela) play football in a classico (derby match). It was a pretty good night, met up with another guy from the treck to Todos Santos (Michael) and headed out for some dinner before the footie followed by a convincing win from Xela. At the game we met a couple of others from the Todos Santos treck and despite a city wide alcohol ban (due to it being election day) managed to find a bar after the game that let us in for a lock in (one of the things I like about Xela). It was the same bar where Katie and I previously enjoyed Sangria on the roof at 5am and again it was a very cool with a few more people we knew pretty well enjoying a couple of social drinks. One of the things I liked most about it was that we pretty much chatted in Spanish the whole time (as that was the first language of most people in the group) which felt like quite an achievement! Im my no means fluent or grammatically correct but I can understand most of what is said and cope well enough. Wasn't a particualrly late last night in Xela though and felt pretty refreshed for the morning shuttle to Mexico after my last night in chateaux Santos. It was definitely sad to say goodbye to Guatemala and Santos and Lydia.

Mexico

San Christobel de la casas

So the next morning saw me take a morning shuttle to San Christobel de la casas in the Chapas area of Mexico. This was in one of the same region as, but not an area affected by the flooding reported at home. Mexico is huge and being in San Christobel at over 2000m there was never any risk. It was a pretty uneventful journey & boarder crossing and I arrived a little tired but in good shape. Checked in intially to the hostel for 2 nights which I actually stuck to for once (something I never managed in Guatemala). The hostel was called Los Amigos for anyone heading that way and was pretty decent. Spent the first day wandering around the town which was fantastically beautiful, though I didn't really take to it. It was one of those towns that was spectacular in almost all respects, an old colonial town, with fantastic churches, buildings, streets and markets but it felt a little too perfect. My anaology at the time was that it reminded me of The Streets song ''your fit but my god don't you know it." I think the uplifting lights on the streets just went a bit far. Still it was a nice time and I had a good stay meeting a good bunch of people. The first night we had a few beers and rums in the hostel before heading to a local bar which was pretty trendy. I had arranged a tour for the next day so didn't have a particularly late one.

The next day me and another guy (together with 3 Irish ladies) did an all day cycle tour to a couple of indegenous villages nearby. Very good trip and interesting guide (thanks for the recommendation Steve and Jan) though the highlight was the cycling (which was at times pretty strenuous). The villages were interesting though a little too set up for tourism. However the church in Chamula (the first village) was definitely eye opening. There were no pews and the floor area was completely covered in green pine boughs. Curanderos (medicine men) diagnose the medical, psychological or ‘evil-eye’ afflictions and prescribe remedies such as candles of specific colors and sizes, specific flower petals or feathers, or in a dire situation a live chicken (which we saw), to be brought to a healing ceremony. Whilst we were there lots of Chamulan families were kneeling on the floor of the church with sacrificial items, sticking various candles to the floor with melted wax, drinking ceremonial cups of pox (bootleg rum) or Coca Cola or Pepsi (which they had to burp out to expel spirits or luck / not sure which). This was all done while chanting prayers in Tzotzil (the local dialect). Definitely interesting particularly the chicken! After Chamula we headed to a second village where we had lunch. The pace of the irish ladies was a bit slow though and they struggled with the up hills so we ditched them in the last town and did the last 10/15km ourselves. The start was difficult (4km solid uphill) but the downhill after was as the Kiwis would say "sweet as bro."

On returning to the hostel it was a pretty relaxed affair having some beverages around the fire after cooking up a feast. As I said it was a good bunch of people and quite random night in that a couple of people were in bands (different ones) and they where playing there stuff for us on their Ipods. Was actually pretty good music. The next morning was a relaxed affair, booked a bus for the evening, visited the indigenous medicine museum (which was eye opening). The museum included a video of an indegenous birth including such things as passing a chicken over the ladies stomach three times. Apparently this stuff really happens. The walk out the museum took me through the outskirts of town and it made San Chrisobel seem much more like a proper Mexican town. The rest of the day was spent lounging around town enjoying some top notch tucker (twice in the same restaurant).

Puerta Escondida

Having not been to a beach for a month or two I made my next stop the Paciffic coast town of Puerta Escondido which is reknowned for it surfing with one break know as the "Mexican Pipeline". The overnight bus was painless (a dramatic improvement in buses is evident as soon I crossed the Guatemalan border). Arrived early in the AM and was greeted by a rather enthusiastic (and still wasted) English hostel owner, the self titled "Steve the Geeze". Can't for the life of me understand how this guy runs a hostel, mostly drunk, leaves the hostel completely unattended for hours on end, and generally having no sense of what was going on. It was a good hostel though, cheap, with a pool and an outside lounge area with free pool table and table tennis (Tower Bridge Hostel). Had a pretty relaxed 3 days and met another good bunch of people. The hostel was out of town but near the best beach in the area.

With the exception of the last day when I did a pretty lengthy walk and also strolled around the market (as well as going to the beach) we pretty much just hit the beach each day and the bars in the evening. One night we hit this very cool bar with happy hour for sunset and it was paradise (think hammock, beanbags, cheap drinks, right on the beach). After three days though I was ready to move on as despite doing nothing of note it turned out to be a pretty tiring three days. Against the advice of many people I skipped the town of Oxaca having had my fill of colonial towns and being keen to do all the travelling onwards to Mexico city in 1 night rather that two seperate stints. There was also a game of football on which advance my plans a bit.

Mexico City

Arrived in Mexico City after another over night bus journey (again painless though not as much so as the previous one which was a higher quality and more expensive bus).

Mexico City info

Mexico City is the capital of Mexico and including the Greater Mexico City area has a population of around 25 million (though I heard wildly different figures), making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the second largest in the world. Despite common misperceptions it also a pretty affluent city. There are dangerous areas and very poor parts but there are also an abundance of really spectacular well to do areas. The city is located in the Valley of Mexico a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico and stands at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,349 feet). It was originally built by the Aztecs in 1325 on an island of Lake Texcoco (the area where much of Mexico city stands would have been the bootom of a lake in 1325!). The city was almost completely destroyed by the Spanish in the siege of 1521, and was redesigned and rebuilt in the following years by the Spanish who also drained the lake area. There are still some ruins from the Aztec era in the new city centre, though these are sparse.

Mexico City activities

Against advice from a lot of people I opted for 8 days in Mexico City and dont regret the decision at all. Its another of those cities similar to Bangkok and La Paz that get a bad rep but are actually really interesting and worthy of a longer stay. Also coming towards the end of the trip Im definitely choosing to opt for more time in less places. This is mainly because the whole checking in, checking out, packing, meeting new people, answering the same questions can get a bit tiring. Whilst I love seeing new places and meeting new poeple Im definitely finding it more interesting to stop somewhere longer and thus getting to know people and places a little better. I think this was part of the reason Marie headed home though she claims it was because she was missing Sanjay. The people I got to know in Mexico City definitely made for a fantastic experience.

MC Day 1 (Sat)

My first day in Mexico didnt involve too much, had a wander around and saw some of the historical centre, but the main focus was on the football that evening. Headed out of town to buy a ticket in advance (which turned out not to be necessary) came back to town for Tacos and beer and then returned for kick off at 5pm with another English lad. It was Cruz Azul (a Mexico City team) vs Atlas, and Cruz Azul won 2-0 with two red cards for Atlas. Was a good game and fun atmosphere with the beer seller seemingly concentrating on us with his $2 bottles of Corona. After myself and Steve (Milf to his friends) headed to a bar on the way back opting to wait out the queues for the metro. Ended up staying 2-3 hours as it was buy one get one free actually a very classy bar (almost $4 a beer) but with BOGOF it was a steal, particularly with a live band. There was also another Mexican game on which finished 5-4 and was fantastic. After we just headed back to the hostel, picking up the obligatory Taco (or 7) on the way.

MC Day 2 (Sun)

Having a few days in Mexico I didnt have to rush the tourist sites which 2was nice so the next day hit a couple of the main sites briefly in the morning and then met up with a local girl in the afternoon. She took me around the main park (which was huge) and then we walked up to the history museum which is elevated in the park where there were great city views. It was awesome having a local guide as learnt a lot more than I would otherwise, and was interesting learning more about Mexican way of life past and present. We also took a stroll down Avenue Reforma which goes all the way through the city and was a really good experience on a Sunday when the traffic is more chilled. Along the length they had an exibit of huge painted skulls each one done by a different artist.

After parting company with Elsa I headed back to the hostel to meet a couple of other English lads to head to the bull fighting. This experience was eye opening! Its the largest bull fighting arena in the world, and whilst not full, was packed with an affluent crowd of Mexicans (and a lot of attractive girls). There were frequent standing applauses as the matadors taunted the bulls (the reason for the applause wasnt always clear). One bull knocked over a matador (though no serious injuries), and of the 6 bulls 3 or so went vicously for one of the horses that were part of all the ceromony. It was a terrible event in terms of animal rights (imagine 6 bulls stabbed to death after being taunted for 25 mins, and a bull vomiting as it collapsed to the floor) but was an experience all the same. There was so much pomp and ceromony and after a few beverages you started to appreciated that whilst arrogant the matadors where actually pretty brave. Football players are icons here but matadors are worshipped more! After it finished we again headed back to the hostel (after Tacos) for a few more before retiring.

MC Day 3 (Mon)

The next day I did a big walking tour of the Historic Centre which was interesting (Mexico City really is a beautiful city) and after visited a couple of touristy markets with a Belgian lad Id met previously in San Christobel. By the afternoon though I was feeling under the weather (perhaps through sun, altitude, over indulgence in alcohol or tacos, lack of vegetables, lack of sleep, malaria or dengue). I was felling hot and cold and also exhausted just from climbing stairs (to the point where I needed a rest before walking the final 25m more to the room). Didnt do much strenuous that evening opting for the cinema as a healthy respite.

MC Day 4 (Tue)

Relaxed most of the next morning before heading out to meet Elsa again and some of her friends. We headed over to the The National Autonomous University of Mexico which was immense. It is a large (understatement) public university in Mexico. It was founded in 1551 making it the second oldest university in the Americas and is also the largest university in Latin America and The Times ranked it the best in Latin America, Spain and Portugal and it is widely considered the sole most important university in the Spanish-speaking world. This links to the google map of the campus (being the huge green area in the centre) give you an impression of the size.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=19.324711,-99.186759&spn=0.021929,0.035306&t=k&hl=en

It had 6 different bus routes just around the campus! The uni is also home to the 1968 Olypic Stadium which we visited now home to one of Mexico best football teams. The Olymic games in 1968 were marred by a massacre of students a little earlier by the government with the death toll ranging from thousand down to government sources estimate of "4 Dead, 20 Wounded." The university was certainly an interesting place to wander around and was steeped in history (for example 3 Nobel prize winners were pupils, the first Mexican in Space and the co-inventor of the contraceptive pill). The reason for heading over however was a Spencer Tunick exhibition (the artist who photographs huge groups of nude people in different cities). He had recently visited Mexico and photographed 18,000 starkers people in the main square! After Elsa and her friend had picked up their photo (free for posing) we wandered round and watched the videos of the process and photos on display. Definitely an interesting concept.

After we headed to an affluent and very pretty area called Zona Rosa and enjoyed some really nice food (Tacos - my stable diet here). Got taken by Elsa and it was the best place so far (accoldae indeed given I'm no Taco virgin). We also had a beer which had salt around the top and about 75ml of lime juice in the bottom which is apparently a local speciality and was an interesting drink to try. Afterwards I headed back to the hostel to meet a few other and had a few drinks before heading out to watch the Lucha Libra (Mexican wrestling the same as that shown in Jack Blacks film Nacho Libres - apparently based on a true story!). It was histerical the stadium was massive and the crowd were mad for it. Where as John Cena was the man in Guatemala, Mystico is definitely hands down the hero here! Was a very amusing night again involving the beer vendors swarming on our group like flies.

MC Day 5 (Wed)

After all the recent activities I was pretty tired so went easy the next day milling around town in the morning and heading out to a massive market in the afternoon before heading back to Zona Rosa to unsucessfully try and locate my favourite Taco stand. Most of the hostel crowd were heading on (as is normal for most after about three nights or four nights in the city) so said goodbyes and had a fairly relaxed night in preparation for another day of sightseeing the next day (with two new English lads who had just arrived). One of whom I had apparently met previously at home in England though neither of us were quite sure where though we eventually figured out the link (mutual friends at Aston Uni).

MC Day 6 (Thu)

The next day the three of us headed to Teotihuacan which was the largest-known pre-Columbian city in the Americas and is home to two big pyrammids and various other ruins. The city was located approximately 40 km (about 25 miles) northeast of Mexico City at. The name Teotihuacan was given by the Aztec centuries after the fall of the city, and is translated as "the place where men became gods". Was a really interesting attraction involving a bit of clambering up pyramids etc. Took most of the day but was definitely worth while visiting though it was a little over restored for my taste. The other two lads had also been away for a year and I think between us we took about 10 photos where as it would have been more like 100 at the start of our trips.

In the evening I headed out to meet a girl called Cecilia (Mexican City born and bred) and this would be the start of three hardcore days. Cecilia was without doubt one of the most fascinating people I have met since I've been away. At 22 she has spent 5 years travelling (including one time she went away with the equivalent of $2 and stayed away for months!), has been deported from England, travelled with carny folk, and lived in about 5 countries. These are only snippets as there were so many stories she came out with had me in stitches. The first evening we headed to a very cool bar with an American lad (Jonathon) and a couple of local guys. Was a pretty interesting bar with decent music and people. Met an English lad from Colchester living in Mexico City who was over enthused to meet me because - as he put it "we are from the ******* towns in England but were both larging it up here". After Cecilia, myself and Jonathon headed to get some midnight Taco's and beers (at my favourite place) and as we all had no money on us at the time decided to head home. Cecilia fancied a dance though and on the way we were persuaded to go for a little bit. Got to this club that had an awesome DJ, mixing all kinds of different styles together. He played salsa, electronic, AC DC, Rage against the machines, Right Said Fred, rap, indie and much more mixed seamlessly (Id had beers though) and we ended up staying till almost 5am. The place was rammed with the local party people and the place was a diamond find (a night I didn't think would be topped). Despite the lack of money we still managed to get fairly inebriated with the hospitality of strangers once again outstanding me. Cecilias best friend (a guy called Ceasar - hope I've spelt that right), shouted us all beers all night (to the point were each time you got back there were more beers on the table, and this wasn't a cheap place!) I felt a bit guilty drinking all these drinks but he told me that all he wanted was for us to have an awesome time in his home city and wouldn't take no for an answer. It amazes me how many times such things happen.

MC Day 7.

Having not slept much at all I had wake up to head back to the hostel and check out, then move over to Cecilia's for a couple of nights. Slept most of the afternoon and had a stroll around town feeling glad to have done most of the major tourist sights early in the week (aside from I couple which I never made). The afternoon a group of us including Cecilia, her boss and the two English lads polished off some beverages in the house before heading to watch the big Friday night event (Lucha Libra) being my second time in 4 days. This time was even busier and we had a fair few and really got in to teh banter and the spirit, there was a wrestler called PG who had a bad boy tash and was definitely the favourite amongst us English boys. Headed back for some more at the house after before crashing.

MC Day 8.

My last day in MC was my favourite. Woke up (late) and saw Cecilia's boss was drinking in the kitchen (as there were some cold beers left over and no soft drinks, and apparently it was working well with the hangover). I was convinced and despite having resolved to go cycling just outside the city today (though it takes 1hr 1/2 to get to just outside the city) the 4 of us decided to play cards and finish the remaining beers. Eventually setting off we stopped for a long lunch in the market which was fantastic (and good value at < $3) then caught various methods of transport to reach the forrest (including stopping for a quick look at the Aztec stadium) before finally reaching the forrest were we were going cycling (and were the air was fresh!). Arrived just a little after 3 and the hire bikes had been packed away for the day so we decided on a little walk (we had packed some beers). After about 40 mins walking in to the forrest we heard some pounding electronic music and followed our ears until we reached a clearing with a band stand (filled with all types of spirits and booze) surround by cars which had speakers and the like attached. Not wanting to impose or freeload we went a bit further away, finished our beers and just listened, then asked them were the nearest tienda (shop was). There wasn't one nearby selling drinks but there was a small food stand not far away and the owner there agreed to drive and get us a crate of Corona for $25 (a very fair price) to which we agreed. Before we had polished these off, it had started to get cold and we had got chatting to the people with the music and party in progress and they were happy to let us take advantage of the fire which they had been started. These people were awesomely friendly making it clear we should help ourselves to their booze and even giving us clothes from there cars as we had come ill equiped in just T-shirts (it was higher eleveation so it was cold!). We all had an awesome night that is difficult to describe, and then in the early hours when they asked how we were getting home we looked suitably confused. We said we would try and get to the main road and get a taxi (which we had no realistic chance of doing) but fortunately they offered to squeeze four of us in the back of a car (it was a decent car, these were an affluent lot) and drove us to nearer the centre (near there houses). From there it was easy to get a cab though it was more difficult to keep Cecilia awake in order to direct the taxi man. On returning Cecilia and I were chatting for a fair bit before eventually maybe getting a hour or two of sleep in which was piss poor preperation for my flight to the US the next day and the nightmare of US immigration.

BAD MAN IN USA IMMIGRATION

Tired and happy headed back to the hostel to pick up my bag which I had left in storage and was fortunate to meet another guy heading to the airport (and in fact the same flight) with whom to share the cab fair. The day was starting well with no trafic, and checking in was easy also fairly easy. This left some time to spare we started a game of texas holdem (I won though unfortunately there was no money involved) before boarding an un-eventful flight to Dallas. Arrived with close to three hours to make my connecting flight to Seattle.

Immigration had other ideas though and decided to make it as hard as humanly possible to make it. Was randomly allocated a queue for immigration which turned out to be staffed by one of the slowest most anal people I have met. All the other queues were moving swiftly but mine with 6 people took almost an hour. The guy referred 3 people out of the 6 people in his queue (the 3 getting let off being a family) to the back office. With me he was apparently skeptic that I had been travelling for over a year and visited many far off coutries he had no idea about. Despite being an English speaking British citizen, a professional working for a US company, possesing an onward ticket to return to England, with all necessary immunisations and having no skeptical history he felt I was a risk and referred me. Now I could understand this if I had a shady history of being ejected from a concert for urinating or even arrested for watering the Streets of London but my history is clean as a whistle. I then had to wait for an hour to chat to someone else for all of two minutes who seemed bemused as to why I had been referred (having obviously seen many more dicey cases) and promptly issued me the visa waiver UK citizens are entitled to. Then I had to locate my bag which unsurprisingly having landed almost two hours ago was no longer on the carousel. Additionally no one had a clue where it might be. Found it unassisted on the floor in the middle of the hall (alone) and with about 45 mins left on the clock till my flight departed from a seperate terminal (15 mins till boarding) went to customs and declarations. Explained my rush but told I had to queue up and when I got to the front "with nothing to declare" he asked if I had any food (which I hadn't) before noticing on my slip the number of countries I had been to. He informed me as I had been to a lot of countries lately (which I wasn't aware was a crime) I would have to get my bag checked. He brushed off my appeals with "it only an X-Ray it won't take a minute". Queued aother 10-15mins for the X-ray and again the guy asked me if I had any food to which I replied no, and so he said no need to worry about the X-ray and let me through. Ran through to re-check in skipping the queue to the annoyance of many, and then running through security (after queuing some more as they wouldn't let me skip). Ran to the terminal link train, sat agitatedly, sweating from the run seeing the clock pass 4.55pm (5pm take off) and wandering how long the journey to terminal A takes. 2 mins later to my relief arrived in the terminal and ran to the gate got my ticket checked and jogged on the plane. Everyone looked mildly annoyed a stewardess asked me if I was Mr Carrington and pointed me to my seat with a stern look. Had meant to phone Bob and Carol in the layover, change Peso's to Dollars and buy some water and lunch but clearly didn't have the opportunity. Starved for 4 hours on the plane before arriving safely in Seattle.

USA Proper

Walked through arrivals and saw the smiling faces of Bob and Carol who I am staying with for a week over Thanks Giving. This was the same family I stayed with for 6 months in 1999 and who I hadn't seen since they visited the UK while I was in Uni. It was lovely to see them, and was a wonderfully friendly welcome back to the states and soon made me forget about the bad men from immigration (though writing this has brought the emotions flooding back). Whilst for many people internationally the States conjurs up mixed opinions I have met so many people who are travelling from the States (particularly recently in Central America) who have been amazingly friendly and offered advice and hospitality. After Seattle principally I will hit Austin, Memphsis, Washingtton DC and New York and hope to stay with people in most these places so am really looking forward to experiencing these cities.

I expect the next update will be when I return to the UK. I'm returning specifically for the PDC World Darts Championship and an emotional reunion with Jim Howl and Sanjay who I have been told have shared private tears at the time we have spent apart. Afterward I will deifintely be staying around for a fair while returning to Deloitte in January, paying off my spiralling debt and returning home for Christmas. If anyone has plans for New Year (which don't involve expensive skiing trips) let me know if you don't mind an extra person. Hope you are all well and keep me up to date with plans at home.

For the last blog I was thinking about including some top 5 lists as everyone is always asking things like where was your favourite place and what was the best thing you saw / did. So if you have a top five you'd like to see let me know and it will give me something to think about (though I can't guarantee to include them!)

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Photos

Super Chivos
Maybe with all the scandal surrounding Luton Town I may switch allegiances permenantly.

Super Chivos 2
This might be my new team with the recent Luton news.

Cathedral
This is one of the many churches in San Cristobel de la casa at night

Puerto
One of the bays where we spent a lot of time.

Puerto 2
Monument on the beach.

Puerto 3
This was the main beach. Still regret not buying a hand sewn bag for $7 on the grounds it was too expensive!

Puerto sunset
Watched this from a very cool bar with hammock, bean bags and half price cocktails.

Waves
To big for me! You couldn't swim on this beach unsurprisingly.

Puerto 4
The bay near our hostel.

Surfers
A relaxed place. Whilst they were probably too big for me with my immense experience the surfers were only very impressed one day out of three while I was there.

Puerto Market
Yellow chicken anyone?

Puerto market 2
Same as many other places but interesting for a stroll and good cheap food and juices.

Drink?
Puerto's other activity

Puerto bar
Definitely no walkabout!

Puerto Hostel
Free table tennis in a nice setting. What would Lindo do?

Cruz Azul stadium
With the bull fighting stadium next to it. Went to both.

MC 1
People around the main square in the historic centre.

Markets
Colourful places.

Demonstration
Protest Mexican style. Not crazy enough to wake the sleeping drunk though. Its apparently a regular occurrence people stripping and using small placards to maintain dignity and advertise there cause.

Shoe shiner
For $1 you can have a new pair of shoes!

Subway
Sometime it was quite.

Working in the market
And not just the people in the foreground!

Cecilia
Made Mexico City a lot more interesting.

Univerity
This pace was huge

At the Spencer Tunick exhibit
Posing next to the picture she was in.

Comments

[elsa]

heya!
Hey Andy, im glad you had great experinces during your visit and I hope we meet up in D.C.!!! Take care!! p.s. great pics btw :)