Dec 2007

The best way I could describe Mexico City is as a full-on acid trip. It´s been that amazing and bizarre at the same time. My first day in Mexico City, my mate Sam and I started out by checking out the Zocalo, or city square. It´s a massive square in the center of town surrounded by historical buildings, but unfortunately at the moment, you can´t see the main square itself because there is a massive outdoor ice-skating rink in it. For some reason, I´d never put ice-skating and Mexico together, but there it was. From there, we checked out the Government Palace, which in itself was a bit boring, but the murals painted on the stairwell and second floor by Diego Rivera were amazing.

Also in the Zocalo are the first major cathedral in Mexico (built right over the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan by Cortez), an old Aztec temple they found ten years ago under a church, a bunch of shops and organ grinders everywhere. From there, we walked around the city some more, just checking out the buildings and neighbourhoods. That night, we ended up having tequila poured down our throats by the hostel staff and getting completely annihilated, before I headed out on the town with my mexican amigo and some other people. First, we went to the Spanish Cultural Center, which had a decent DJ but started to close right after we each bought a drink. Then, we went to a club on top of a building near the Zocalo, which had an amazing view, but not many people.

The day after, we got a bunch of people together and headed to Xochimilco, a series of rivers and floating gardens that has been around in some way or another since the Aztecs. We rented a boat for a few hours and went sailing around the rivers, and I have to say, it was one of the maddest things I´ve ever seen. Trippy, fluorescent colored boats sailing down the rivers, with Mexican families dancing on the boats, boats full of mariachis that sail up to your boat to play songs, floating street food stalls, and all other kinds of mayhem. We even went to a tree that had a bunch of mutilated dolls and stuffed toys hanging from it, as an old Mexican fished them out of the water after a local girl drowned to appease the "river gods".

After that, we went to the Dolores Olmeda Museum, and it honestly has to be the trippiest museum I´ve ever seen. The museum is a walled complex, with huge gardens and the buildings themselves looking like an old castle/ mansion. The gardens have sculptures all over the place, with peacocks and small, black hairless dogs running around everywhere. I walked out of one of the exhibits and there was a peacock standing right in front of me! The museum itself is separated into a bunch of different galleries with a lot of work by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and one of the exhibits in a building that looks like a castle is full of man-sized skeletons surrounded by bright, fluorescent artwork. There was also another building in which you could only walk a certain way through the exhibit and you had the staff there telling you exactly where to go.

The next day, we went to Teotihuacan, the ancient Toltec site about 45 minutes outside of Mexico City. Teotihuacan is comprised of two giant pyramids, the pyramid of the moon and the pyramid of the sun (which is the third largest pyramid in the world), a long avenue called the "Avenue of the Dead" and a large temple complex on the south end. The view from the temple of the moon was amazing, and we spent the day wandering around the ruins and climbing the pyramids.

On Tuesday, Sam, Ying and I went to the National Museum of Anthropology, which is supposed to be the biggest and best museum of its kind in all of the Americas. On the way there, we walked through a giant park and Sam and I decided to buy "Lucha Libre" wrestling masks and started to pretend to wrestle in the park. The Mexicans around us looked at us like we were completely mad. We then went to the Museum, and we posed in various places in the exhibits with our masks. The museum itself was pretty cool, but it´s kind of hard to keep your excitement after you´ve looked at the thousandth piece of pottery or figurine. The replicas that they´d made of some of the ruined temples and statues (like the Aztec sun stone) were extremely impressive. That night, Sam and I went to the Mexico Arena and caught a live "Lucha Libre" match. It was insane. The acting was about as bad as in the WWE, but it was way more entertaining and the crowd was really into it. After that, we went back to the hostel and joined in the party there with our masks - the whole night was pretty mad.

Now, I´m off back to Canada for a week for the holidays, so I´ll start blogging again when I´m back on the road.

After arriving in Guanajuato on the overnight bus, the first thing I did was crash out. The second thing I did was to walk around. Put simply, Guanajuato is gorgeous. It's basically a small city, but it's one of the more important cities in Mexican history. For one, it was the site of a lot of activity during the Mexican revolution. For another, it was the home of some of Mexico's greatest artists, like Diego Rivera, which has resulted in a lot of museums and art exhibits. Third, it had one of the world's richest mining veins, so it became one of the wealthier cities in Mexico with loads of European style outdoor cafes. Finally, it's home to one of the best art universities in Mexico, resulting in a large student population with a decent nightlife. If you put those things together, the end result is Guanajuato today.

I spend the first day wandering around the streets of Guanajuato and taking in the architecture. Lots of color, lots of interesting buildings, lots of ... churches (this is Mexico). Way too many Mexicans snogging around the clock though. After a few hours of walking around, I ended up meeting up with an English guy I'd met in Zacatecas, Sam, and a Chinese girl I'd also met in Zacatecas, Ying. The next few days were spent exploring the city, climbing a hill to check out a statue of a Mexican revolutionary, checking out art museums, the nightlife, and a Mummy museum (which was really cool). Also, on Wednesday it was the Virgin of Guadalupe day, one of the biggest days of the year in Mexico. People were lining up (over a kilometer long) to try to get into a church at the top of the hill. There were tons of food stands, people selling stuff, makeshift food courts, and little kids running around dressed up in their little costumes. Overall, it was a pretty interesting experience.

Our last night in Guanajuato, Sam and I had the brilliant idea to drink a whole bottle of kahlua (because it's so cheap in Mexico). The night started off fine, as we met a Canadian guy and a few European girls who were studying in Guadalajara, but apparently drinking a whole bottle of liqueur is not a good idea as we both ended up feeling really sick and messed up that night. Like, in a constant state of having to vomit. Even though we were messed up (or maybe because of it) though, we both ended up being really ...strange... with Sam giggling like a school girl and feeling like he was on mushrooms, and myself offering up gifts to the Virgin of Guadalupe draped in a towel... and things that were even stranger. Everybody on the roof ended up laughing half the night, but when I went back down to go to the bathroom, I ended up feeling really messed up so I went to bed. The only problem was that I was so sick that I had to curl up into the fetal position because if I unfolded myself, I felt like I was going to die. After a few hours of constantly trying to get to sleep, I finally managed to pass out, but unfortunately, we both missed out bus to Mexico City the next day.

We did manage to get the next bus, but we were both in such rough shape that the bus ride was a total ordeal. By the time we arrived in Mexico City, we were tired, hungry, hungover, and generally not in a fantastic state. Plus, the Mexican couple in the seats in front of us kept making out and giggling and acting like 12 year old school children. We both felt like taking a baseball to them. Eventually, safe and sound, we arrived at our hostel, but neither of us was really in top shape so we just ended up crashing out.

Next blog...Mexico City!

After changing my plans, I changed my plans again... Such is life when you´re travelling solo. Since my amigo reckoned he could get the boat in the water for the beginning of January and there were a few places I really wanted to see in the interior of Mexico, I first decided to head to Guadalajara by bus.

The bus took a bit longer than I expected, so I didn´t get into Guadalajara until about 9 pm. After heading downtown, I got a bit lost and realized that walking down dark, vacant streets in a big Mexican city with all of my bags is probably not a good idea. Luckily, after stopping a few times at hotels to ask where I was, I finally ended up where I wanted to go safe and sound. It was a bit wierd to get back into the staying at hostels thing, but you know you´re staying at a good place when you check in and they give you a shot of Tequila. After heading out for some tacos, I met some guys and ended up getting a bit pissed on Mezcale, a drink that´s like Tequila, just nowhere near as pure.

The next day, I ended up going to Tequila with the guys I had met the night before. We went on a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory, which, to be honest, was a massive ripoff. Ten bucks for a tour, where all you get is a tiny little margarita at the end. At least we made up for it by stealing a few more from the bar before we left. After that, we went to a little tequila shop for "tequila tasting". Considering the fact that we basically were just drinking their tequila and not paying for it, the staff was pretty nice. We ended up buying a bottle of Don Julio Anejo, a pretty premium bottle of tequila and heading back to Guadalajara. After dinner (and getting lost again on the way back from the bus station), we drank the whole bottle between the three of us and went out clubbing with another guy from America. The place we went to wasn´t that great, but we still had a blast.

Because there was a massive electronic concert near Guadalajara, there were prettty much no beds in town for the Saturday night so I decided to head off to Zacatecas, a mining town about 5 hours from Guadalajara. It would have been cool to go to the festie, but paying 120 bucks to go by myself to an outdoor concert in the middle of winter didn´t seem like a great idea. Plus, how good of a festie could it have been if the headliner is Bjork??? Zacatecas is a historic mining town with a lot of churches, cathedrals (standard Latin American fare), but the main draw is that there is a 1000 m deep mine shaft with a night club in it . Also, because the rock in the area is pink limestone, the whole city is pink, which is a bit strange. After arriving in Zacatecas, I met a few Scandinavian guys and we had a few drinks before heading to the mine shaft. I kind of feel like I´m repeating myself every time I say this, but once again, the party wasn´t that great. It seems like pretty much every time I´ve gone out so far in Mexico, I´ve been a bit disappointed. The layout of the club itself was pretty cool, being in a mine shaft and all, and it was pretty funny to see the waiters all wearing hardhats, but the guy to girl ratio there was about 20 to 1 and there were only rich mexicans who were basically there to sit in their groups and show off. Not my ideal scenario. On the plus side, the drinks were surprisingly cheap and the 3 of us ended up downing a bottle of vodka.

Apparently in Zacatecas, every Sunday there is no power from the morning until 3 in the afternoon, and the whole city was basically closed (Sunday + Latin Country + small town = nothing open) so I decided to walk around town. It was actually a pretty picturesque town - cobblestone streets that head off in every direction, lots of little walkways, lots of churches, and lots of... pink. However, since my plans changed again and I´m now going to be flying home for Christmas on the 19th, instead of spending a few more days there to see how the city is during the day when places are actually open, I ended up taking a 3 am bus to Guanajuato, which is where I´ll be staying until Thursday or Friday.

Hasta Luego

The original plan was to paint the boat and have it in the water by the beginning of December to sail down the coast of Mexico and Central America.

It turns out that didn't work.

We managed to get the boat painted and put in the water, but after a night of drinking, we woke up to find the bottom of the boat flooded - turns out there was an engine leak. After spending almost the last week getting everything fixed, it turns out the engine has crapped out. Based on my luck so far, I'm starting to think that Mexico is some kind of magical place where everything ceases to work.

Anyways, after spending the last month doing almost nothing but working on the boat (with a few fun nights out), I have to say I'm pretty sick of both Puerto Vallarta and boats. Puerto Vallarta is basically pure tourist cheese. Insanely expensive massive resorts with crappy little beaches in front of them, a pretty cool boardwalk, and massively overpriced clubs full of aging tourists...definitely not my definition of heaven. Although, granted, my current frame of mind probably isn't helping things.

Because of this, I've decided to head off to southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and then Central Mexico. If the boat is fixed by then, maybe I'll still do the yacht trip, if not, it's down to the rest of Central America. My first stop... Puerto Escondido, a surfing town just off the bay of Tehuantepec, to get my surfing groove on.