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Published: June 11th 2008
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Having soaked up enough of the ruined culture of Mexico, our stop off in San Cristobal de las Casas gave us an opportunity to sample something a little more current. We arrived in time to catch part of the town's fourth Jazz Festival. A quartet led by Jaime Valle entertained us for a couple of hours with the first live music we've seen in a while. We're not counting the 'traditional Peruvian' bands that assaulted our ears with El Condor Pasa on repeat.
From San Cristobal we headed to Oaxaca (5 points to everyone who can guess the pronunciation of that one) to take in another set of ruins at Monte Alban. Once again it was quite a different site from the previous Mayan temples. Not least because Oaxaca is at a slightly higher altitude, so we were actually able to walk around the site without sweating out enough water to solve Australia's drought problems. A pleasant change.
Also to be found in Oaxaca was the excellent former convent of Santo Domingo which now houses a great museum packed with artifacts from the Mayans right up to the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.
With a
Sugar Rush
Xochimilco, Mexico City mixture of relief and disappointment we took our final proper bus journey of the trip to bring us to Mexico City for our last week. Bizarrely it also proved to be the bus journey that included our first bag search of the entire trip. After 11 months and three weeks, finally someone wants to know what we're lugging around. It was a fairly cursory glance, which may or may not be down to the fact that our clothes hadn't been to the laundry in a while.
After meandering through a whole bunch of lightly populated towns and villages, coming to one of the biggest cities on the planet can be a bit of a culture shock. Home to 19.2 million people, it's not a place for the faint hearted. On the flip side, it does mean there's plenty to amuse a couple of travellers trying to cram in as much as they can before returning to 'normal' life.
Within fairly easy striking distance was our final ruin site of the trip, Teotihuacan. The important ancient city is home to two huge pyramids, including one which equals the pyramid of Giza in size. Of course it's compulsory to climb
Another Church
San Cristobal de las Casas this. Or, in the case of a couple of women we saw, use it as a relaxing area to meditate. Some found the climb easier than others. Possibly related to their average intake of Tacos.
Less conducive to meditation was the crazily busy home of Frida Kahlo, now a museum containing some of the famous painter's works. We can't say we're fans of the mono browed maestro, but her husband Diego Rivera's style was more to our taste as we discovered in another of the city's seemingly endless list of museums.
Despite having visited only a fraction of that list we feel fairly comfortable declaring that the Museum of Anthroplogy is up there near the top. Entry for less than two quid and it takes the whole day to see most of one floor.
It's perfectly possible that you could come here for three days and lose yourself in the myriad rooms that map out the history of the human race in this part of the world. Indeed we quite often lost each other.
Thankfully we managed to reunite for a trip to Xochimilco, one of the oldest parts of the city, where we passed on
Lollipop Lady
Chapultepec Park, Mexico City the tourist boat trip complete with mariachi band and instead hopped on a local colectivo lancha for a fraction of the cost and floated down the canals watching the various vendors hawk their wares from one boat to another, somehow avoiding crashes.
We didn't succumb to the tourist tat, but did make a welcome stop for some home made ice cream. Much to the delight of Carolyn who had just seen a boat full of brightly coloured lollies float by just out of reach.
She wasn't to be denied though, picking up a similarly neon effort at the Zoo the following day. The Zoo was a stark reminder of how many people live in this city. It's free to get in and by visiting on a sunny Sunday afternoon we guaranteed we'd be sharing the experience with thousands of kids yelling at the animals in Spanish, and at times felt we should be in a cage marked 'gringos' judging by the stares.
Unable to cage their offspring the locals seemed keen to take up the offer of a human lead from some of the nearby stalls. Kids of all ages trying to get the perfect view were
Aloe Aloe
Santo Domingo, Oaxaca halted by a strong tug of the leash in the opposite direction. Almost as fascinating to watch as the monkeys chasing each other round the trees.
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Calum and Kirsten
non-member comment
Looking forward to seeing you both
Can't believe it is a year already. We have missed you. Was that Paw Panda in Mexico??