Mexico City, Puebla & Oaxaca

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18th May - 6 months exactly since we started the adventure and what a weird day! We leave Hong Kong at 11-35am and get to San Francisco at 08-30am the same day after an 11.5 hour flight!! Have crossed the international date line. By the time we get to Mexico City (MC) at 6-00pm we have been up for 24 hours!

We’re staying at Mexico City Hostel in the heart of the city near the Zocalo (a Mexican euphemism for central plaza) in the centro historico. It’s a lovely building with tiled floors and murals on the walls; very traditional Mexican decor. We have a great room, which could sleep four, with a balcony on to the street. We go for a wander around the main plaza - dominated by a huge flag (Mexico seems to go in for big flags we find). Feeling a bit spaced out we find a local youth hostel by the Cathedral that has a nice bar (our’s doesn’t have one) and settle down for a couple of cervezas!!.

M feels tired of the travel for the first time in months - maybe it’s the effect of all that energy spent trying to make Sarah’s trip special!! We appear somewhat disorganised re the rest of our 6 weeks in Mexico.

Jet lagged we don’t really do much except wander for a day or two taking in the sites - we have time fortunately. It’s a huge contrast to China. People here are very different physiologically - much more “robust“ though quite small; there’s a whole programme on TV selling corsets! The number of corset & bra shops are amazing!! Also, unlike China, people are more spatially aware and drivers are more courteous, they happily stop to let pedestrians cross the road. Wow. And, most significantly, we don’t have the same problems with communication. With a smattering of Spanish we can get by - including ordering food, although it has to be said that our experience of restaurants in MC is not good. Enchiladas in particular are awful! Street food (tacos, tortillas and quesadillas) is excellent, however, we do resort to Burger King one evening - and very good it was too with a Mexican twist - fried chilli stuffed with cheese - yummy. To our surprise and delight we find a Baskin & Robbins and it does Jamoca almond fudge ice cream - M’s favourite - we become regulars.

There are quite a few street entertainers - including khaki uniformed organ grinders (equipment produced in Germany apparently in the 19th century) who churn out music (badly) and expect a peso for the pleasure! And there’s a major industry in shoe shining stands?? Something that causes huge excitement for C is the Herbie car taxi service - masses of white and green (old) VW Beetles that race around packed to the gills.

A few noteworthy features of life in MC are: The number of tradesmen who sit and advertise their availability for work in the main square - plumbers, electricians etc - the UK should look here for guys to fill their skill shortages.
Things shut down at 9pm generally and open at 10am. This makes the city or the part we got to know rather boring and quiet in the evening - perhaps some of the outer neighbourhoods - as they call them - have more life?! We also find a number of the usual suspects - Burger King, KFC, Big M, Starbucks - cheapest we have come across. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger + mates seem to be quite big here as they were in China. Unlike China where no tipping is the norm and folks got very embarrassed if you offered them a tip, here you leave something. And finally, the newspapers have front page stories with very gory pictures of people shot dead in gang wars etc - we suspect drug related - virtually everyday. Oh, and in the area we’re in, police are everywhere as this is the heart of government; should be reassuring but somehow it isn’t. Police are stationed on most street corners (largely women with guns!!).

There are many attractive buildings - mainly Spanish in architecture. The street scene is definitely Spanish/American but poorer - many areas are in need of regeneration, and there is graffiti everywhere (another contrast to China) though there seems to be a great sense of civic pride - the pavements in the centro area are washed each day.

Next to the Zocalo is the Metropolitan Cathedral - built in the style of Seville cathedral - which has the most elaborate altar (of the Kings) we’ve seen anywhere. We’re there on Corpus Christi and the area is packed with families with kids dressed up in traditional clothes. This Cathedral is built on the site of the main Aztec temple, Templo Mayor which was pretty much destroyed by the Spanish when they invaded and subsequently built the Cathedral on top of it. This was a favourite pastime of the Spanish - part of their drive to eradicating the “savage” culture (the Aztecs made human sacrifices daily!) and enforcing conversion to Catholicism. It’s interesting to see how the Aztecs (1400’s) constructed their temples - each new ruler building a larger structure over the previous temple or palace so leaving undiscovered a wealth of history beneath. An archaeologists heaven! The remains here were not discovered until 1978 and archaeological work continues. The artefacts discovered are pretty amazing - one wall features over 260 skulls in its design!

The main post office is also amazing! It’s fabulous Venetian exterior is matched internally with gilt and marble - more like a ballroom than a sorting office. There’s also a lovely building occupied by Sanborn’s - a department store - with white and blue tiles all over it’s elevations. This was decorated by a countess who was from Puebla - famous for it’s ceramic tiles - who lived here. We look forward to our visit to Puebla if this is what we’ll see.

Murals are a special art form in Mexico generally and were particularly well supported politically in the early 20s and 30s to bring national pride to Mexicans after years of internal conflict and economic decline. Mexico has a very chequered and turbulent history - civil wars and internal strife abound - even in the Mayan & Aztec times. We didn’t realise that the original Mexico covered Arizona, Texas, Utah & vast swathes of what is now the US and they sold it for $10million - what a steal by the US. All these aspects are brought out in the excellent works of Diego Rivera which are contained in some of the government buildings in MC such as the Presidents Palace and the Education Department. They are stunning. The detail is fantastic and the colour, size, historical and regional images helps to convey their powerful messages. It’s worth studying some Mexican history before seeing them as this significantly helps appreciation of this art form.

As does taking a trip out to the Teotihuacán pyramids with a tour guide. We start at Tlatelolco Temple just a short ride from the hostel - the site of an Aztec temple also demolished by the Spanish and a Church built on the site.
We discover - and we have no idea why we didn’t know this - that MC was an island in a lake until the 1500’s! (What we also hadn’t realised is that it is about 2500 metres above sea level - which explained why we felt breathless getting to our 2nd floor room). This temple was not part of MC (or whatever it was called then) - it was a sister settlement across the lake.

When the Spanish invaded they drained the lake - an act that has caused countless problems since as many of the city’s buildings are sinking! This is not helped by the fact that Mexico city is prone to earthquakes and has an active volcano very near by. It’s last major quake was in 1985 when about 10,000 people died. The signs are still around in some of the many churches and many places have evacuation notices about what to do in case of an earthquake.

We also visit the Basilica - the second most visited Church in the world after the Vatican! It is easy to get churched out here! This is the place where the Virgin Mary appeared to an indigenous Indian 4 times (so they have 4 churches dedicated to her) and her image imprinted itself on his poncho when he told his story to the doubtful local bishop. The poncho - which has been extensively tested and verified by experts apparently - hangs in the modern Basilica. It is very clear in its detail. The area is now a place of pilgrimage as a result and up to 5,000 people can fit into the new Basilica.

Away from the centre MC is generally a sprawl - illegal settlements abound - mainly brick/concrete built - although with govt provided basic amenities - electricity, water etc. Affordable housing is limited - there is some provision for government workers with a sort of Right to Buy system where you buy your house after paying rent for 15 years.

The Teotihuacan pyramids follow a lunch of good typical Mexican food - lots of chillies and cactus and refried beans, preceded by a shot of tequila at a local co-operative of local artisans! The Teotihuacan temples to the Sun and Moon were built in 100 - 250 AD and have been reconstructed to show what the settlement would have been like. Apparently they have the same base area and orientation as the pyramids in Egypt. It’s not known what happened to the civilisation that built them believed to have been 500,000 people; the pyramids were rediscovered by the Aztecs in the 1400’s.

After 4 days we move on to Puebla, a smaller city 2 hours away, by the very efficient ADO private bus. The first class buses are great as are the bus stations - they even have baggage check in facilities. All bus transportation is privatised - amazingly the nation has no train service and hasn’t done so for years, except for some freight trains operated by a US company!!

Puebla is considered to be more Mexican than MC - which is definitely true. It has more of a soul and country feel to it which we are really glad about after MC. The people here seem to be more relaxed and dress more fashionably.

We are staying at the Hostal Santo Domingo - another good place with a central courtyard and a large room. Again we’re close to Zocala but here it is much smaller and more intimate shaded by trees with a central fountain.
It’s quite beautiful during the day and when lit up at night. Puebla centre at night is more lively than MC - the Zocala lights up and the local café culture is better - families come out - and things go on till late.

We take a Turisbus trip (an open top bus) to see the highlights of the city. It’s the quickest way to get orientated & check out the best areas in town - a regular feature when we go to major cities on our travels. We enjoy a fab dinner at a local restaurant - Fonda de Santa Clara- recommended by Lourdres the receptionist at the hostel - very helpful and speaks great English. We try steak, refried beans & guacamole & pork with chilli peppers, cheese & avocado - all with amazing tacos & green salsa which was superb. As are the local tacos at the street markets including sweetbread with salsa, stuffed chilli & chorizo. We also find the local artisans market which is colourful and has loads of food stalls where we have dinner and try molotes - yummy fried tortillas stuffed with cheese & courgette flowers, bbqed steak smashed to paper thin (they way they do things here) with refried beans, chilli salsa (of course) and cactus leaves - simply awesome all for about £5. All this after our cervezas with fresh lime from Oxxo - a 24 hour store.

Puebla has a reputation for being a gastronomic city. The Cuisine famous here and other parts of Mexico is Mole - Chicken or beef stew with chocolate. Some have raisins, some fruit or almonds or a combination of the lot and off course don’t forget the Chilli!!! + Salsa which is also hot as hell. Chilli Nogada is another local speciality of stuffed green chilli with beef or pork or chicken with dried fruits, almonds & covered in cheese. And if we thought some of the food in China extreme, this made us think again - some of the regional delicacies are - Ant Larvae, worms fried in chilli with guacamole, fried crickets (they eat them like peanuts - of course they are marinated in chilli first), snakes of various sorts etc. Not sure if we’re going to be brave enough to try some!!! We love the cactus vegetable though. Overall the street food is more enjoyable than the stuff in the restaurants & more fun.

A definite highlight of our time here is M’s haircut- done incredibly quickly in Mexican style - about time as the last one was on new year’s eve last year!!!

A four hour bus journey along the toll paying motorway takes us to Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-ha- ka). The scenes change from lowlands filled with a variety of cacti to highlands out of a western movie. One expects John Wayne or Clint Eastwood to come riding down the valley!!. We stay with a local family, the Reyes‘, while we spend a week at language school improving our Spanish to help us with our travels through Central and South America. Baude, one of the daughters meets us and shows us our lovely room in their beautiful home; very traditional with a central courtyard full of flowers and caged birds. They are very accommodating of our poor Spanish and great at sign language fortunately. The rest of the family are Theresa and Ermilo, the parents, and their daughters Tere, Rita and Baude.

Oaxaca (a Spanish colonial styled city) is renowned for its beautiful centre, it’s colourful streets, with lovely buildings and crafts stalls in and around the Zocalo - ideal for browsing and chilling out. We probably don’t get to see it at it’s best however, as local teachers protesting at reforms they feel the government should introduce especially in public schools (e.g. books, note paper for the kids, electricity in schools etc etc + better pay and conditions) have taken over the square - with placards and tents. They seem to be in it for the long run with tents all over and are obviously passionate about their cause. Though we understand that they will pack up in a week or so’s time and head home as this is the end of term & they can enjoy their holiday time. They are paid while being on strike - but it seems the children suffer as they get no education and no one seems to care as this whole fiasco has been going on for quite a few years now. The teachers do this every May to June!!!

We haven’t eaten all day when we arrive so we search out a place serving good local food - El Sagrario - and happily take advantage of their happy hour on beers whilst watching Santos clinch the championship with a 2-2 with Monterrey having been 2 nil down at half time - looks like a fix to M. It‘s also the first live game we have watched in 6 months!! (They didn’t even show the European Championship final live - even though the result made it to the front page in one of the nationals). We also try a tequila (served with tomato juice and Tabasco) and a mezcal (served with orange slices dipped in chilli!). Both very addictive! Then a great meal of Tamales (tacos with mole and chicken cooked in banana leaves) and chilli peppers stuffed with chicken. The Tabasco sauce here is nothing like the ones in the UK - thick and mega hot (and this isn’t the top of the range in hotness!!) - it has M in raptures! Cheese, lime and chilli feature in most food - the latter 100% of the time - they even have ice lollies coated in chilli & cerveza with chilli and lime - boy do they love it!!

The central area is largely pedestrianised and full of cafes and restaurants, liberally interspersed with museums, attractive shops and churches. The side streets have street food vendors (great cheap eats!) & a preponderance of stalls selling CDs & DVDs. The majority of music is English 70s & 80s stuff which is surprising as hardly anyone speaks English!!! The rest of the streets are very colourful as the shops and houses are all painted in different & bright colours. A lot of the buildings & homes have lovely large internal courtyards. The is no high rise here - mainly one and two floors high. The streets are generally clean and whilst crime is low - graffitti is rampant - adds to the colour we suppose! The sidewalks are narrow & the main danger is the manhole covers missing all over the place - so watch your step!

Generally the folk seem reserved but friendly - very family orientated and passionate - quite visible on the streets especially by courting teenagers!!. There is a lot of poverty around - up to 60% of professionally qualified folk are unemployed & the average wage is about £200 a month. Doctors earn a living as cabbies. There are a few beggars but largely the poor try to eke out a living by trading on whatever little skill they have - playing the accordion, weaving garments or making dolls, playing the guitar (one particularly badly & you’d pay just to get him to stop) etc. Clearly behind the colourful exterior lie other problems aligned to poverty. We have seen, Alcoholics anonymous, Narcotics anonymous, Neurotics anonymous and Overeaters anonymous!!

After a lovely Spanish breakfast at our Mexican home, we start our week of Spanish classes with Oaxaca International school. Boy they cover a lot of ground and we thought it was going to be a gentle canter through. We are taught grammar by Augusto and linguistic skills by Maria - we have a good week’s challenge ahead. The school is excellent. Classes are small - just the two of us in ours and two other women are having 1:1 sessions - they are geared entirely around your capability level. And the structure is good. Augusto is very patient explaining (for the nth time) why the past tense is the way it is! And the conversation sessions flow easily - so it really doesn’t feel like a lesson though Maria gently corrects every mistake. She also takes us through - on our request - the life & experiences of local Mexicans. They have free education till university, and health care is also free and is dispensed from mobile health vans as is dentistry. Housing is virtually all privately owned homes or private rented - which might explain why the extended family system is so strong here. C’s Spanish is coming along in leaps & bounds - just as well as we need it for negotiating all the 2 for 1 cerveza deals!!

We also have a couple of free outings; one to a local pueblo (village), San Bartolo de Coyotepec, renowned for it’s polished black pottery. We see the potter at work - all by hand, with no electric wheel or fancy tools. And the finished results are beautiful. Each pot is 30 days in the making and yet they sell them really very cheaply (another one of those times where if we hadn’t been travelling we would have bought loads). The other trip is to another pueblo, San Antonio Arrazola, that makes small wooden toys - fantasy animals ( many of them creatures of their imagination) called Alebrijes , all hand crafted and painstakingly painted. They are pretty impressive, colourful and come in various shapes & sizes - however, by any standards they are expensive. They have been making them here for centuries. One surprising thing of note was that as soon as we got outside the city limits we saw a host of coloured Tuk Tuks - in navy blue, scarlet red, bright yellow - all relatively new plying their trade - more impressive than the ones in India.

Our days are spent in school in the morning and then in the afternoon wandering around the lovely streets of O - the city is set out in a grid pattern. It is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains. All the streets are one way and the walk now sign has a bird sound to help those with sight impairment - boy is this confusing - one stops to wonder where the twittering bird is! The atmosphere is pure Mexican, much more so than MC. O has a Burger King but not some of the other food brands we have seen in Mexico. However, there is the Italian Coffee Company who would give Starbuck’s a run for their money - they have one almost every 100 meters & they are pretty good. No wi fi though! We also find, to our surprise and amusement, “Condomaniacos“! - speaks for itself; not what we expected in this fervently Catholic City.

There are some lovely looking restaurants but the street and market food tempts us mainly. Lovely tacos served with cooked pork or chorizo, frijoles (fried black beans) and guacamole with salsa, or squash flower heads with quesillo - the local cheese - very stretchy and a bit like mozzarella. One night we try Tlayudes - huge tortillas filled with mole, frijoles, meat and salsa cooked on BBQ coals. A local place has a reputation for queues around the block though it doesn’t open until 9-00pm. We get there at 9-15 and it’s already packed. And in the market a great find serves albondigas, arroz con pollo and other homestyle food with platefuls of chopped onion, chilli and lime. A meal for two with 2 beers costs 70 pesos (£3.50)!

At our homestay we are out during the day so only have breakfast with them but they really take time to chat and make sure we understand what they are saying (and as the days pass we can contribute more which is a good sign). They are pretty mean cooks too. Every breakfast has fresh squeezed orange juice and fruit (melon, mango & apple, papaya etc) and then a Mexican or Oaxaqueno speciality; the highlight is tomato salsa & cheese on enchiladas (served hot) garnished with quesillo, avocado and coriander. Delish!

While wandering the lovely streets we come across a local funeral which is an amazing sight - hence the mention here. However sensitivities prevailed & M resisted the very strong temptation to take a picture. The hearse was a standard converted car but the beautiful bit was the band - all dressed in black traditional costumes with sombreros following just behind playing some amazing music - a trumpeter, two guitarists and a woman on violin. The tradition here despite being a Catholic country is to celebrate the dead going to the next life - as did the Mayans - we are in Mayan country now! The rest of the procession were local folks with hosts of fresh flowers - mainly white long stocked lilies and white and red roses. Every November they celebrate Fiesta de Muertes - festival of the dead - as big as Christmas with dressing up and big celebrations in the home and at graveyards.

We are coming to the end of our week here & it’s been a great experience in a lovely place to learn Spanish - we’d definitely recommend it. (Note: we have Anaya Castell from Insight to thank for this as she recommended this place to M when they last met & discussed our trip). We feel we are getting a better taste of the real Mexico. We have dinner at Zandunga’s and at Biznaga. The latter was fantastic nuevo Mexicana cuisine - we even treated ourselves to the house red (just a glass!) - it was Chilean and was it good with the great food. Oaxaca is lit up at night and is lovely to walk around.

At the end of our last day of class, we take photos of all the teachers, and thank them in our best Spanglish for their help on our linguistic journey; they’ve recommended a school in San Cristobal de las Casas - our next stop - so that we can carry on our efforts!

Our final day in Oaxaca is spent visiting the local market - full of every kind of produce and food and taking as many pics as we can of this beautiful town.We decide not to visit Monte Alban, the local Mayan ruins, as we had a glimpse of them from San Antonio Arrazola, and we expect to be Mayan-ruined out in the coming weeks with Uxmal, Palenque, Chichen Itza etc, which are supposed to be more spectacular. Then back “home” to say thank you to the family for looking after us so well. We’ll be sorry to leave - but we have booked a night bus for the 12 hour journey to San Cristobel - which is up in the mountains and reputed to be even more beautiful … we cant wait!

See you there as this is the start of the Yucatan Peninsula section of our journey steeped in Mayan culture, history and mystic - and just a touch of the Caribbean!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Just one observation about Mexico City. Although the historical district is one of the main districts in Mexico, it´s not considered the most important for socialising. It´s very quiet at night and has a very strong working class feel as rich families left the historical district many decades ago to build their mansions in more upscale neighbourhoods. Coyoacan, where Frida Kahlo lived, still preserve many colonial colorful building. http://www.mexicocity.com.mx/coyoa2.html A similar neighbourhood is San Angel Inn. The trendy districs are Polanco and La Condesa; the financial district is Santa Fe. The gay district is Zona Rosa, which is also one of the main nightlife areas of Mexico City. This may give you a broad view of the different districts in Mexico City. http://www.city-data.com/forum/mexico/190554-photos-mexico.html