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Published: April 4th 2006
After returning to Tucson, I was ready to leave the US and go all the way down the pacific coast of Mexico. I was glad upon arriving at the bus station, as the greyhound buses were all full and the one for Mexico was almost empty, with much more leg room and comfort. It was really astonishing that the bus service was so much better than the American service, but there was one slight hitch.
When arriving the Mexico border, I was required to pay for my visa but unfortunately I did not have enough cash on me to complete the transaction. They told me I had to go back to the US side and get money out of a cash machine which I did as quickly as I could and would not have been more than 10 minutes. When returning back to the Mexico side to my dismay, the bus had left without me! I was stranded in the dangerous border town of Nogales and they had taken off with my backpack! I tried to ask several people around but the couldnt really help me mainly because my spanish was terrible, so again I returned to
the US and at the bus station they told me that it should be ok if I catch the next bus in 1 hour. I was very worried but luckily I always carry my valuable items on my person. After an anxious bus ride I was very relieved when I did find my bag at Hermisillo bus station but I guess it wasnt the best start on entering a country.
Another problem arose when I tried to buy a ticket to Guaymas as the ticket office didnt speak a word of english and didnt even try to help me in getting to my destination, luckily one of the guards on duty was much more helpful and I arrived at Guaymas at about 7am.
Guaymas is a decently sized port town about 300 kilometres from the US border, the hotel was cheap and I was happy to be spending alot less money than in the US as the kitty is diminishing at a very rapid rate. The heat in this town was very intense, about 38 every day with extreme humidity meant walking around almost ensured that you would be dripping with sweat within a quarter of
an hour. I rested here for a few days and met one interesting fellow from Veracruz who spoke english quite well unlike most who didnt speak a word, he had learnt it whilst in a Texan Jail for 5 years for selling coke. It was good to spend time getting used to Mexican way of life which mainly involved not doing much at all mainly due to the searing heat. All in all however the town itself lacked alot of character there was no nice archecture and most of the buildings and roads were quite dilapitated.
I continued my trek down and did not find many towns to be much of interest. None really having any rich archecture and was quite disappointing. This included Los Mochis where I tried to catch the train through the grand copper canyon but alas it was full and Los Mochis wasnt the kind of town I wanted to hang around very long, besides I recently saw the Grand Canyon so I was all canyoned out. I continued south to Mazatlan where I found a pretty decent hotel at a good price so stayed for a couple of days on the beachside. But
Zocalo
Mexico CityI really do not like big resort towns as they are generally expensive and ugly littered with oversized hotels along the beach making the setting unpleasant. I went onwards to Puerto Vallarta a smaller version of Mazatlan but still had way too many tourists and hotels and was extremely pricey indeed. I attempted to find a hostel that was listed in the Lonely planet but now was demolished and was the only hostel in the town. By this time the searing dry heat was replaced with tropical humid heat and torrential rain, I didnt know which I prefered. The hotel I eventually found was terrible and expensive and after a strong storm during the night the room actually became flooded and alot of my books and clothes were soaked.
Finally I made my way to Sayulita which is a beach side small town near Puerto Vallarta, this was a great place to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery and the people there were mostly musicans that would play the drums and guitar and watch the sunset. It was very easy to get sucked into this easy lifestyle of not doing much at all everyday except sit back, go
Mexico City
Bellas Artes for a swim and sip some tequilla. Almost every night harsh rains occured and most of the mexicans campìng had such cheap tents that just didnt last and became soaked. I was surprised that my tent had done such a good job until one night when the rains were so bad that the ground was not draining properly and the water started building up under the tent and a few small holes meant alot of water inside! Also, a few days later I became seriously ill unknowingly most likely from bad water , and ended up being incapacitated for 4 days straight. This was not much fun indeed, especially having a fever in the searing humid heat. I had to get out and a took the next bus into mexico city.
On the way to Mexico City, I was still partly delirious from the sickness, and ended up getting off at the wrong place which i thought was Mexico City but was actually Queretaro. After spending about 2 hours trying to find a hostel that didnt exist because it was the wrong city i started to fall ill yet again and ended up throwing up all over the
Mexico City
Classic Beetle Taxi sidewalk in front of many non amused mexican onlookers. Enough was enough I went to the nearest hotel and crashed for the night only to realise in the morning that this was not mexico city. I felt like a complete idiot!
Finally, after another 2 hour bus ride I actually made it to Mexico City and was very relieved. I spent a few days resting in a nice hostel right in the centro historico district and spent alot of time strolling the streets of this megalopolis of a city. It truly is a great city with alot of nice architecture and places to see. One great point of interest was the anthropological museum which has an enormous collection of artifacts from all around Mexico including the jade encrusted mask of Pacal, leader of the mayans in Palenque roughly around a millenia ago. Its also interesting to see just how many Volkswagen beetles are around, in fact all the taxis here are classic beetles and apparantly they are all new with a Volkswagen factory making them all in Mexico.
Amongst other attractions in Mexico city is the plephora of markets dotted around the city. At first it
Mariachis
Mexico City is very difficult to find what you want as the city is so big and spread out into little pockets where one section of streets would sell on hifi, elctronic and computer equipment, and another would just be store after store of musical shops selling guitars, durms and other musical instruments. Its easy to spend alot of time here just wandering around and it has a very good vibe and excellent night life as well, although the only real downside is the fact that there are so many people here that on weekend its basically impossible to walk around the centre without getting into a human traffic jam. It got to the point where it just was not worth attempting to go anywhere during this time. The Mexicans pride themselves on their selling abilities and everything is sold on the street kerb from flowers to pizzas to illegally copied cds, dvds and hard core pornography in full sight for young and old. However, every city has its dirty side but this really is a magnificent city and well worth the visit.
Just a short bus ride north of the city is the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan, now abandoned
about 1000 years ago, was once the biggest city in the ancient world ruled by the infamous Aztecs reknowned for their barbarian style sacrifical offerings of people to the gods of the sun and the moon. The pyramids here are quite spectacular and not the easiest to climb either. Its quite a large site and is a very fascinating glimpse into the people of the past that once lived here so long ago.
The next stop was Oaxaca, about 6 hours bus south of Mexico City and finally I found a city that was really what Mexico should be like. Beautiful cobble stone streets with classic colonial buildings each brightly coloured giving this city alot of charm indeed. Even the hostel I stayed at had an excellent atmosphere and was very relaxing just to sit back and lie in a hammock and forget about doing anything.
For me the best aspect about Oaxaca is the infamous drink Mezcal. Alot of people either do not know what it is or mistake it for Tequilla. The difference is that tequilla is made with the Agave plant and Mezcal is made from the Maguey plant. Mezcal originates from Oaxaca
and is normally only really found in this area. There are Mezcal shops found all around the city and are also famous for containing the worm or gusano as it is known here. Of course, you must try it and I for one really love the Mezcal and here it is great because it is so much cheaper than in other areas of the world.
Another great thing about Oaxaca is the Market place. Here you can buy almost anything and everything you need. Fantasic fruit and vegetables as well as your standard junk and dvds, cds ands herbs ands spices. What amazed me was how much different types of chilli there were most of which are extremely hot and make your eyes water for those who dare, the chile d´agua is the hottest in the whole of mexico even hotter than the cayenne and habernero it really makes the eyes water.
High up in the mountains of Oaxaca lies the ancient ruins of Monte Alban. It used to be the main area for colonised by the Aztecs but now is completely abandoned the ruins are impressive and even though are not as large as Teotihuacan
are perhaps more majestic in nature.
Further south on a crazy bus journey through the Oaxacan mountains lies an excellent beachside getaway known as Puerto Escondido. This has an amazing beach that is well known by many surfers from around the world. For me however it was just nice to sit on the beach and do some more relaxing although by this time I felt I had done enough relaxing and the torrential rains that kept pelting down every evening was a strain on myself as well as my cheap tent that was now leaking very badly.
I decided that this would be the end of the current trip, as I was already in debt and had some money to pay off it would be good to do it now as I was exhausted from many months of travelling. On the way back to Mexico city I stopped in Huautla de Jimenez a tiny little town in the northern mountains. It was very quaint and no tourists were in site. Many indians live here in there old traditional methods and little technology is seen. They lead a very peaceful and simple life that was easy to
envy and admire.
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