Feliz Navidad A Todos

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December 25th 2010

Published: December 26th 2010

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Slowfeet

Pinatas In The Making

Oaxaca

A Merry Christmas to everyone from Mexico. Our second Christams on the trot away from most of our families and we do miss you all. Last year we were sitting up in the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia above 3000 metres. This year we are in San Christobal de las Casas in Mexico but only up 2000 metres so I suppose you could say we are getting closer to the real ground. Last year there were 3 of us from the family together, plus all of the people travelling with us on the truck. This year we have stepped it all up a notch having joined up with Adam and Klaire a few days ago. It is, of course, Christmas Eve here although it is now Chrismas Day in Australia.

The last post left us in Chihuahua. From there we needed to pick up a bit of speed so that we could meet Adam and Klaire in Mexico City on the 17th as arranged. Our first leg took us to Torreon by bus. A long trip starting early and ending later than we had expected. We were only overnighting there so only wanted a basic place. We achieved that. They talk

Street art, Mexico City

in the guidebooks of places that were 'once grand but are now tired'. The Hotel Galicia was definitely tired and it had certainly been grand, ... once ... at about the time of the Revolucion ... 1910 or thereabouts. A staircase that really deserved women in flowing gowns and men in tuxedos, tiled halls and a friendly and helpful manager. It is just possible that the beds are also original, but comfortable enough. The bathrooms were definitely new from early last century, sensitively placed where a window might otherwise have been looking over the gallery and an impressive town square.

We aren't complaining though. The people were very nice. When our key refused to perform in the lock on our door, enthusiastic assistance was immediately available from, first, a passing woman, and then a bloke with one leg. Unfortunately, they had no more success than I and then bellowed for the manager. There was a trick. After 88 tries I learnt it.

Torreon is said not to be a particularly remarkable place. Not really a tourist town but it is not all that bad around the centre. They have, for instance, public karaoke in the main square. Lots

Christmas Decorations

Near the Zocalo in Mexico City

of willing participants and not such a bad crowd, although this may have been just for Christmas. The Mexican love of noise and colour, as ever, was on display. Also on display was, for us, a masssive police presence. Coppers everywhere. On Segways, bikes, roller blades and even walking. No less than 12 ute loads of them in and around the centre. Each ute was fitted with a mounted gun that remained manned at all times scanning the pretty sparse crowd. There were seats along the side for up to half a dozen of the walking police. They waited until we had finished our nachos, corn and salsa with coke dinner and then, on a signal, all left. They probably had heard that we had been travelling for nearly 12 hours and felt like a bit of a kip.

Zacatecas was a shorter trip and we arrived mid-afternoon. This was according to plan. The Villa Colonial Hostel is well set up and very well located just out of the busiest area of the centre. Zacatecas likes tourists and obviously makes more than a little money from them. A pleasant place to spend some time exploring. We only had the

Zacatecas

View from near the cathedral of this UNESCO World Heritage city

afternoon and that wasn't enough. We may come back when we travel back up from South America to the USA but probably only if it is on the way.

From Zacatecas it was up at 6.30 am to try to get on a bus to Mexico City. An 8 hour trip so they said. But we had noticed that the traffic on the buses was picking up. Reminded of trying to get out of Ho Chi Minh City in the lead up to Tet. We were early at the bus station. So was everyone else. We were able to get on a bus at 8.30, which wasn't bad. Not one of the flash Prima Class buses but the Second Class was pretty good. No toilets but that only started to become an issue after 4.5 hours without a stop. Into Mexico City at around 6.30 pm, almost an hour in a queue for the 'reguladao' taxis – the safe ones that don't cart you off to rob you or hold you for ransom – and then the trip the 6 km to town.

Mexico City may well be largest city in the world. I would guess that it

Filing past the Day of the Dead figures

at the Blue House

hasn't the highest level of car ownership but I would also guess that it also doesn't have as many roads. And, as our English speaking taxi driver informed us, everyone is on the road right now and, at Christmas, Mexicans go a little crazy. An hour and half later we made it to the hotel, causing some confusion because we suspected that it looked just a little too flash for us. Adam and Klaire weren't in their room but we found them easily enough in the nearest bar.

Mexico City may lack some of the bits and pieces of other large cities but it has life, lots of it, particularly at Christmas. The streets, even early on Saturday morning (for Mexicans), were busy with the throng building as we walked closer to the Zocalo. Just like Australians, the Mexicans seem to associate Christmas with snow. There, right smack in the middle of the square, kids skating on ice rinks and tobogganing down a snow slope. The generators to keep this action going were massive.

We had both recently read 'The Lacuna' by Barbara Kingsolver so, even though we had not seen the movie 'Frida' we wanted to see

Sitting in the Plaza de Armas, Torreon

The Hotel Galicia is in the background

the murals painted by Diego Rivera and the houses where Rivera and Frida Kahlo had lived and the house where Trotsky lived and was murdered. The Rivera mural that we found in the Museo dedicated to the man was excellent. It was interesting to see his representation of Mexican history through his focus on the key players. The print will go on a wall when we finally build another home. Not so sure about a lot of Frida Kahlo's art, nor the truth be said, some of Riveras but the house was very impressive. Design ideas all over the place – although I remain impressed with Pancho Villa''s little place in Chihuahua.

It was with some trepidation I headed for the place Trotsky rented after having has a disagreement with Rivera and Kahlo. Their house, the Blue House, was pretty luxurious it must be said, for a couple of Communists, or at least socialists. Trotsky, though, was the bloke who would have taken over after Lenin, and would have if only he had realised earlier that Stalin was a maniac and had him put down. But he didn't let me down. A large house certainly but not plush. Basic,

Once majestic

The hallway of the Hotel Galicia at Torreon

workmanlike with the rabbit and chook cages still in place and evidence of Trotsky and Natalia's pretty simple, if fearful, way of life. Worth a visit if you are even slightly interested in how seemingly minor events can dramatically change the course of history and want to see some evidence.

Mexico City has a reasonbly dangerous reputation. I have to say that we saw no evidence of any danger, at least to us. We abided by the rules about the places you should avoid, we didn't jump into taxis on the street and we did notice that most business and residential premises have high levels of security. The security was not at as high a level as South Africa. There seemed to be a lot of police around in the places we wandered, although out of the centre a bit the police presence was not so apparent. I don't think that we ever felt under any threat, although I will say that when we decided to walk home from a restaurant – after a very nice dinner with Chloe – we managed the 3 kms in much better time than on the walk there. Perhaps it was just that

At the Aqueduct Zacatecas

there were so few people on the footpaths.

I have no idea whether the danger for tourists in Mexico is over-blown. Certainly, in our short time in the USA we were pretty constantly told to be careful and not to travel through the northern areas. There is no question that there is a major fight underway between the police and the drug cartels and, whenever idiots are firing off guns there is the potential for people to be shot. There are a lot of police around but I wouldn't recognise a drug cartel person if they stood up in my breakfast so have no idea whether I have seen any or not. I am sure that if you are a drug runner or a police officer you run a major risk but I do wonder whether the fears that have been generated for tourists is, at least partly, a product of Fox News. Or perhaps, this is just my anti-Rupert paranoia at work again.

It is the case that the Mexicans we have seen and met as we have travelled down through the northern areas and Mexico City have been getting about their daily business and seem more

Zacatecas Cathedral

from the back of the Cathedral

interested in getting set for Christmas than anything else. They have been friendly and helpful, although they tend to be a little more reserved with us than people from some other cultures.

We spent the last few days in Oaxaca where Christmas really is a festival. This one uses radishes and corn. I will let the pictures tell the story but I have to say that I did wonder whether there was much you could do with a radish. Turns out that I have no imagination. Some of the displays were simply brilliant.

Also spectacular was Monte Alban, the site of a city that existed for over 13 centuries. Just a few kms from Oaxaca up in the hills at the confluence of the three valleys, the people who populated this area in the prehispanic times demonstrated that you really could set out a pretty special place without modern engineering or town planning. Perhaps though there is simply nothing new under ths sun.

We are now having a few days here in San Christobal after an overnight bus from Oaxaca. It is a nice place to kick back and spend Christmas. Tequila and tacos for Chrissie dinner

Recycling in Mexico City

Bottle wall on top of a house

this year with something local called 'rumpope'. An egg nog, creamy sort of thing that might be 10% or could be substantially more. When it gets too sweet you switch to tequila.

Hope you have a good one every one.

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