Circles

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Find myself going in circles again- back in Xalapa for 2 nights and 1 day. Leaving Cuetzulan I told myself it was because I wanted to see the moist mountain countryside (which was a wonderful ride) and not pass back though the hard dryness around Puebla which is true, but it is also a pattern I have - when I feel down or uncomfortable in a place I tend to retreat to the last place I found remotely comfortable (even if it was not right and I wanted to leave) - like how many times have I crossed Canada doing that and how many times have I retreated into something left behind? Maybe it was the need to truly realize that pattern that made me return.

Left Cuezulan a bit sad - for it is a sad beauty to the place - and maybe it is also the lack of "buzz" that forces you to confront some of the thoughts that had been plaguing you but that you could ignore. Thought that it would take me 4 bus connections on second class buses to get to Xalapa but found it was only 3. The road out to Zaragoza was the same beautiful twisty drive that I took in - though it seemed dryer towards Zaragoza than it had comig the other way (all a matter of perspective) - it was not foggy and you saw men tending some corn fields and planting on these incredible steep slopes and a few cows on slopes just as steep. In Zaragoza (a small not too interesting town) ended up taking a first class bus to Teziulan because I believed that there were only 3 buses from there to Altotonga which I thought would be my next changing point - took my info from ticketbus.com.mx whichI now realize only lists some of the 2nd class routes - which I later regretted cause the TV on the bus bugged me, and more importantly because we took the autopista instead of the back roads which are more interesting but take 2-4 times as long. When I got to Teziulan - a mid-sized town with a traffic problem - a mix of old and new - central shopping area and of course the zocalo (town square), big church, and market which form the basis of most towns (and are wonderful) I found that the local second class bus left every 15 minutes for Jalapa (I was one of 2 people to take the entire trip) stopping in and through every town on the way - was full of school kids at first going home to small villages, and many getting offf and on, standing room only for brief periods, acting a local transport too - with people buying tickets by the side of the road in larger villages, and paying as they get on by the side of the road where there are concrete covered but shelters very frequently. It was a great trip, countryside lush, passed a small town on the border of Puebla and Veracruz states that had a grass covered old pyramid and beside it, a chapel or small church built on top of what was still very visibly a pyramid - countryside still poor, but had a good feel in most places until got near the dryer lands up near Perote (mountain summit) - one town with covered portales on main street had the dusty feel. Felt happy, like I could ride around Mexico on second class buses endlessly.

When I got to Xalapa i found that there were no posted schelçdules for AU - the second class line and it is hard to get general trip planning info (and being friday evening station was a zoo scene)- had a mini-meltdown and found the buzz of the city getting to me (a feeling I often get when I run in retreat). Some of the same people here, so could speak to people which was nice. But today quiet - ended up in a long political discussion this morning but it is time to leave tommorow.

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