Advertisement
Published: November 25th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Puerto Escondido
Look at me! Yes, that's right! In the Mexico football shirt... Coach just called me up to play left back...... (ready for this?!?)... LEFT BACK IN THE CHANGING ROOM!!!!!!! (thanks, you've been a wonderful audience.) Heeeey! Five weeks in between blog entries already eh?! If you think Mexicans are lazy, come and have a look at me…
So after thoroughly outstaying my welcome in Puerto Vallarta I made my way to
Guanajuato, a beautiful beautiful colonial city which owes its wealth to producing a third of the world’s silver for almost two centuries. It was their annual Cervantino festival so the town was pretty packed with visitors. Sadly most of the events laid on were far too highbrow for yours truly so I went out and got drunk with a couple of sound Mexicans down on holiday from Chicago. Guanajuato’s built right into an improbably steep valley so I’d picked a very bad place to start jogging and going to the gym but fear not… I haven’t been in weeks now!
Eventually I made my way back to
Mexico City some five weeks after leaving. I was due to meet up with Marina again two days later for some serious beach action which gave me a little over a day to ‘do’ Mexico City, although to quote Spaced, I was ‘all templed out’ by lunchtime and in dire need of a siesta.
When
Marina arrived I’d arranged for a few of us to go out for a picnic in the sunshine which was dead nice before we all piled up a skyscraper to watch the sunset over the city. I actually turned to someone to say something and missed it, but I got the gist of what had happened. That evening I went off to another house party where I was fed tequila until 6am by a crazy Mexican before stupidly agreeing to jump on the first bus to Oaxaca.
Oaxaca is another of Mexico’s three main silver mining towns. I’d resisted buying anything until I got there, and spent the next two nights running about the markets seeing how cheaply I could pick up some tat.
Time for the beach again. The night bus I took to
Puerto Escondido on Mexico’s south coast was the craziest ride of my life. Admittedly the craziest ride before that was probably the number 395 bus tootling along to my village school but this driver really didn’t give a fuck. At all. We’re talking about the oldest bus, the tightest hairpins, skidding around every corner, not caring about the luggage falling off the racks,
blah blah… I was mesmerised!
Anyway, it was well worth the journey as Puerto Escondido was class! We headed for the cabañas - wooden huts with thatched roofs and a couple of beds and hammocks strung about and stayed for a week, virtually all of it with the soundest Israelis I’ve met yet and a lovely Mexican couple down for a beach holiday. Keeping up with the Israelis’ drinking almost killed me, though. By day we’d go to Carrizalillo bay, which was beautiful and perfect for swimming in big juicy waves and by night would drink copious amounts of tequila and try to enjoy the town’s questionable nightlife.
With all the hard work I’ve put in I must say I’m disappointed with my ‘tan’. Woah! Just noticed that ‘tan’ has
exactly the same number of letters as ‘red’… Spooky, huh? I also found the time to go to the cinema a couple of times, firstly to see
‘Wallace Y Gromet’ (“Queeeeeeeeso, Gromet”, basically) and also
‘Gol’ a rather apt film about a Mexican guy who trials for Newcastle United… and scores a goal!!! Two hours long and nothing more to it than that! Fantastico.
Back by myself
after this week and a fifteen hour bus ride takes me to
San Cristóbal de las Casas, a smallish city in the heart of Chiapas, home to the Zapatista rebels who continue to push the government hard for fairer rights for the many indigenous peoples of the area and women in particular. The city shot to prominence in 1994 when the rebels took control of the city before getting very bloodily evicted by the Mexican army.
San Cristóbal is beautiful (though absolutely freezing) and surrounded by lots of traditional Mayan villages. Shortly after arriving there I booked a horse ride to
San Juan Chamula some eight miles from San Cristóbal. I was assured of a big group and a competent guide although in the event it was just me and a moody thirteen year-old kid who appeared to know fuck all about anything. Until then I’d always respected jockeys’ courage and horses’ intelligence but now I’m shocked by how misplaced this admiration ever was. Firstly, horses are just plain thick. Steering my horse was just a case of yanking the head wherever you wanted the horse to believe it was thinking of going. Acceleration, on the other hand (for when it starts to get lazy/buckle under your weight) is controlled by giving the fucker an almighty kick to piss it right off. All in all, great fun.
On another day in Chiapas, I had an overwhelmingly insightful tour with
“Alex Y Raul” back to Chamula and also to Zincantán learning huge amounts about the two towns’ different Mayan traditions and being invited into families’ homes as well as religious areas normally off limits to visitors. Fascinating.
My final destination in Mexico (having already fallen almost two weeks behind schedule and a little over budget) was
Palenque where I spent four nights staying in very cool jungle cabañas just outside Palenque’s incredible ruins with a group of people I’d previously met in Guadalajara (one of whom was unfortunately called Maya - ensuring the need to stop and pose for photos in front of signs about fifteen times a day). Built deep in the jungle, the views from the tops of the temples and palaces over the beautifully kept lawns and surrounding jungle beyond were magnificent. Additionally it was possible to go inside most of the ruins, all of which made me decide this place was quite a lot more pleasant than Teotihuacán.
Next on the agenda is a bus ride into Guatemala. Camera has just started working again; a fortnight after getting soggy one of the many storms that have come our way so will now look for some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0278s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
tania
non-member comment
mexico
graham try to speak and write in spanish, you came here to learn! i liked very much de pulque no? picture and keep writing! your stories are very funny i laughed a looooot ... i'm glad you find your camera!