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Hi all,
Well we managed to make it out of Mexico City a bit worse for wear but are hopefully on the the mend now...
We arrived in Mexico City after a 6 hour bus ride from Guanajuarto to be absolutely bowled over by the sheer size of the place. I guess in land span it isn´t that different from sprawling Auckland but instead of suburbs with 1/4 acre sections there are just miles and miles of densely built up development.
It´s a city of 20 million people in the greater metropolitan area, is covered by a blanket of smog, is slowly sinking into the reclaimed sand beneath it and is just a monolith.
The traffic is insane, cars inventing their own lanes and jostling to get a spot. Traffic police on every corner flapping their hands and blowing their whistles. Ordinary police cruising the streets everywhere. There were protests in various places with riot police lined up along the streets. A lot of people were wearing face masks, presumably to keep the air pollution out. I got a headache the minute we walked anywhere so I can understand why.
The historical centre of the city is pretty impressive, with a massive square housing the palace and various other incredible old buildings. The only problem is that due to the frequent earthquakes and the sinking of the city, many of them are no longer level, with some walls sitting at pretty crazy angles. Legend has it that the Aztec people were told by their god to head South to what is now Mexico and settle when they saw an eagle devouring a snake (this can be seen on the Mexican flag). The only problem is that they spotted the eagle on an island in the middle of a huge lake. Slowly but surely they expanded the island to the city that is here today and the lake is all but gone. With 20 million people consuming water, it is a city sitting on dry sand, hence the sinking.
We have some pretty cool photos, including some of a military parade in the city square, but unfortunately I have the usual problem with my camera so that will have to wait.
We booked into a hostel on arrival to find the only space they had was in a dorm of 12 bunks. We thought we´d stay there anyway and see if any private rooms came up the following day.
The 2nd day we were there we caught the metro out to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera´s house. I wasn´t so keen on the metro idea but Rob insisted it would be fine, and it was. It was incredibly cheap (20 cents each) and fast and not too crowded outside of rush hour. Apparently during rush hour there are women only carriages but not during the quiet hours. The only problem was it was bloody hot down there. Luckily it was pretty good above ground, being pretty high above sea level. At every stop a new person selling something would get on. They´d yell about their wares and the price loudly the entire time and then get off at the next stop. They usually seemed to tout drinks, chewing gum and music, which would be blaring loudly from a walkman. There were also a couple of preacher types, which everyone seemed to ignore. It was quite comical how one would pop up to replace the previous one.
We were a bit disappointed at seeing Frida Kahlo´s house, especially after I had anticipated it so much. I´d read so much about their blue and red houses joined by a bridge but they had removed so many of the furnishings and art that I had to work hard to picture them living there. The focus was almost completely on Diego again too, and hardly any of Frida´s work was depicted. There were also security guards following us the whole time to make sure we didn´t use the camera flash, which is fair enough I guess. The fence made entirely of huge cacti would have impressed Rob King-Borrero though!
After the museum we headed back to the metro only to find we were feeling more and more sick as we walked. By the time we got back to the hostel my stomach was pretty dodgy but Rob was much sicker. He had it coming out of both ends and was starting to get a temperature. We figured it could be the orange juice we bought in the park, but it had seemed so safe as we could see she didn´t add any water. We also had a free breakfast from the hostel that morning and I had picked all the ham out and eaten only the egg. Rob ate it all and had his and mine free ham sandwich on the bus the day before too so that could explain why he was sicker than me. From some of the sounds in the other loos I would say the hostel food was definitely the main culprit though. We tried to watch a DVD for a while but Rob started shivering quite violently so we decided to turn in. I basically spent the night setting my alarm to administer more paracetemol to bring his temperature down and to apply wet cloths to him to try to cool him down a bit, all between me having to rush one story up to visit the toilet myself.
Thank god we didn´t both get the fever as he really needed looking after and it was absolutely horrible to see him so sick. He actually started mumbling incoherently and I was on the point of calling an ambulance when I felt his temperature start to go down. By the morning it was almost back to normal but we still have the stomach issues. He was feeling quite weak and we were both very sleep deprived. The problem was that all this had been going on with various comings and going in our dorm room. First 6 people turned up that had been sent to the wrong room, and while they waited for one of them to go downstairs and sort it out they basically stood around staring at me administering wet clothes like some nurse in the English Patient. Then 2 Mexican guys staying there decided to rearrange their lockers just when Rob was showing signs of getting some sleep. They had the lights on and were still talking at 11.30pm so we had to ask them to quit it, which they did quite graciously. Several other misdirected couples turned up throughout the night and on top of that, all of our electronic door keys kept resetting so you´d be heading down to reception after each toilet trip to get it fixed or have to knock to get someone to let you in, or have to let someone else in.
Then in the morning, just as we were managing to doze of course everyone had the lights on to pack up and head off. An American girl came looking for her friend and seemed to think it might be me, as I was the only girl in the room and her friend is blonde. She was discussing this with a Danish guy in our room and wondering whether to pull the sheet back to see if I was her. ´Just let her try´I thought. Then the guy said ´Go on, she shouldn´t be sleeping all day anyway!´Very, very lucky for her that she decided her friend must be elsewhere...
It was truly the night from hell. Rob didn´t feel like moving but there were still no private rooms available and I felt that if we didn´t get some proper sleep we would get much sicker so I insisted. We showered and packed up and luckily found a hotel nearby. The rooms were pretty luxurious for Mexican rates at US$50 per night but I felt it was well justified. We managed to catch up on our sleep that day and Rob found some anti-diarrhoea medicine in a pharmacy (unfortunately not safe for pregnant women).
We felt unable to face the tour to the pyramids we had planned so decided we would have to spend an extra night. This would mean putting more pressure on us to get to Cancun but not much choice really in the state we were in and Rob was really interested in seeing the pyramids, as he had learned about them in his anthropology classes at university.
The only other thing we did that day was explore an archealogical dig and museum of an ancient temple discovered under the city, and I managed to practise my Dutch on some tourists. I nearly fainted in the museum though, so we headed back to our hotel and unfortunately never got to see Diego Rivera´s murals on the palace walls (I have only seen prints of them).
The following day we felt well enough to book in for a tour of the Teotihuacan pyramids (pyramids of the sun and moon), about an hour out of the city. That was pretty cool. The pyramids were built by an unknown civilisation about 200 years BC. They differ from the Egyptian ones in that they don´t house tombs on the inside, but rather temples to the gods on top. Some ancient human sacrifices were also found there. The place was abandoned by these people for unknown reasons and taken over by the Aztecs. The Spanish missionaries burnt any documentation the Aztecs had regarding their history. Much of them has had to be restored by archeologists today, and many of the original cladding and colouring has been lost. It was pretty touristy with a million pushy vendors of Aztec flutes and temple statue reproductions. Rob felt well enough to climb the pyramid of the sun and run to the top of the pyramid of the moon, so that was a good sign. We stopped for lunch at a place on the way back that had some guys in traditional Aztec costume performing. I tried to order tea with my trusty ´un te negro con leche, por favor´but for some reason nobody could understand this, even though it was on their menu and I was pointing to it. Even when the Italians we were with who were fluent in Spanish explained it, nobody understood. First they tried to offer me a coke, then a bottle of negro beer. I kept saying ´don´t worry´as I didn´t want the tea that much, but they seemed determined to please. Then one of the staff saw the light and realised what I wanted. He asked if I wanted it hot or cold and I said hot (´caliente´). I wound up with some cold tea in an ordinary drinking glass that was completely full, and another completely full glass of hot condensed milk. Classic! The weirdest part was that it was on their menu...
The next day (thank god, given that it made us so sick) it was time to leave Mexico City. We got a 6 hour bus here to Puebla (another town with well preserved colonial architecture) and stayed last night. The first thing we did we get to a nearby hospital as our stomachs are still the same and we have lost several kilos and I in particular have been feeling quite feeble. We were starting to worry about the baby. I have been feeling it move regularly but it´s still a scary thing. We managed to explain why we were there with the help of an English speaking doctor. I thought she was going to check me out but they shut the curtains and before you know it a more senior doctor came in and his 4 interns, just like on Grey´s Anatomy. It turns out it was a university hospital! The doctor prodded my belly to feel the size of the baby and then his Doogie Howser lookalike intern brough out the device to listen to the baby´s heartbeat, all with the lady doctor translating everyhing. I was feeling pretty confident that the baby was OK as I had been feeling so much movement but it took them ages to locate the heartbeat and our hearts were both sinking when there it was, loud and clear. It was such a relief that I couldn´t stop the tears streaming out of my eyes after an exhausting and stressful few days. The doctor pronounced the bambino to be fine and precribed me some antibiotics and stomach pills that were safe for the baby. We left the hospital feeling very grateful.
As we were walking around trying to find a pharmacy we were made part of a clown´s performance! There was some kind of festival in the town and he asked where we were from then made me put my arms around him so Rob could take a photo, then demanded $2. He was pretty much gently poking fun at us and the crowd was roaring with laughter but we found it funny too.
The pharmacy we finally found then gave us the wrong drugs, which we didn´t discover until we were back at our hotel. I was so pissed off but too tired to walk back there. Today we managed to find a more reputable pharmacy and got the right ones, so I am now on antibiotics and will hopefully get better soon. The stomach drugs turned out to have a ´not safe when pregnant´message on them so I´m not taking those. It´s possible the doctor knows them to be OK or something, but I´d rather not take the risk and the antibiotics are the most important thing - the stomach ones just treat the symptoms anyway.
Tonight we catch a 14 hour overnight bus to Campeche, then it´s only one more bus to Cancun to catch our flight to Havana. We didn´t want to do any more long bus rides but the lost day in Mexico City meant we had to, and the overnight ones aren´t so bad provided the driver doesn´t blast his music all night like last time. Although, as Rob pointed out, if it means the driver stays awake then that´s not such a bad thing.
Well, that´s it really. Sorry this was so long but a lot has happened in a few days.
Love, XX Krista.
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Emily
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poor flowers
hey petal. poor you! it sounds like mexico city won't be on your return visit list! reminded me somewhat of my ulaanbaatar food poisoning experience, although at least there I had the dorm to myself and only me to look after. Poor you. So good to hear the bambina/o is kicking along nicely. Enjoy the pyramids! xxxem