Day 13

Hola!

Today is Day 13 of my trip in Latin America. Of course, I am joined by my beautiful sister, Alicia. I´ll do my best to chronicle some of the things we´ve done in the past 13 days: First, we met in LAX. Alicia departed from SF and I from Nipomo, our paths converged in a busy terminal in LAX, one of the many crowded places we would be over the next couple of months. We were both extremely excited for what lay ahead, if a bit apprehensive as well.

We were greeted in Mexico City by a friend of Alicia´s, Pepe, who turned out to be a wonderful friend, and a skilled tour guide. Despite the seemingly innumerable warnings that we each got about the dangers of Mexico City, we both found it to be very hospitable -- a wonderful place to visit. We rode the extremely efficient subway! Step aside NYC, Mexico has you beat with state of the art rubber wheels, frequent trains, and an $0.18 fare. We toured around the City Center and saw awe inspiring civil structures built in the 16th century under Cortez. In the center is a GIANT Mexican flag -- a very salient symbol I thought. The Museum of anthropology in Mexico City is perhaps the most impressive museum I have ever seen. Here, there is much to be learned about the ancient civilizations which existed before the Spaniards ended their way of life and enslaved them. These Conquering Catholic Crusaders (CCC) were quite effectivee in building Churches to symbolize their dominance over the now subjugated race. Of course, the ubiquitous churches are beautiful! There is, however, still something to be said for these former civilizations. The ancient city of Teotihuacan where Mexico oldest civilization (peaked between 250 and 600A.D.) built its City Center is incredible to behold. It is ineffable, really. See for yourself on the left. In the distance, on the left of the photo, is the Pyramid of the Sun. The photo was taken from the Pyramid of the Moon.

While in Mexico´s capital we also stopped in on Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo´s old stomping grounds, visited another ancient city of Tepoztlan to the south near Cuernavaca, and took in some of the local culture at the evening festivals in Cayoacan, the charming part of Mexico City that we stayed in. All in all, we found Mexico City to be rich with culture, and a great place to visit.

A 20 hour overnight bus ride brought us to the pristine beaches of Puerto Escondido. A few days in the sun in a relaxed beach community were quite welcome in our travel itinerary.

Another 12 hours on an overnight bus brought us to San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas. This was a remarkable town, flourishing with culture and enthusiasm, set low amongst the beautiful tropical mountains that surround it. We savored the rich coffee which was easy to find in this town of Chiapas, the State with the most coffee production in Mexico. It weighs in at 30% of all of the coffee grown worldwide. The urban planning of this city was stunning to both Alicia and I. Clearly much forethought went into the many promenades, cobble stone roads, and plazas. There was some unique live music in the Central Plaza one of the evenings we were there. Lots of percussion instruments, two giant wooden xylophones, and a horn.

Our last stop in Chiapas was in Palenque. This is a town which can be very proud to be located in the jungle near the Palenque ruins: by far the most spectacular ruins we´ve seen on the trip. I will let the picture do the talking for this one. A bit of history: this is an ancient Mayan city that was the heart of the Classic Mayan Era, first occupied in 100A.D. and flourishing between 600 and 900A.D. The subsequent era was characterized by a mixing of cultures with the northern modern day Mexico civilizations. Thus, this shit is the last of the pure Mayan architecture, and, well, this is some REALLY good shit. To be sure, it was difficult to stand amongst these impressive temples without thinking that I would soon wake up from a dream.

Presently, Alicia and I are in Merida, Yucatan. We´re staying in a great hostel right along the central town square. A note: when the Spaniards did their CCC act I mentioned above, one of their first orders of business, after they had satisfied their imperialist egos and subjugated enough dark people, they quickly constructed city centers in their new land. Their way of claiming their booty. Here is Merida, as in many other places, the results are some phenomenal works of architecture, and of course, structural engineering. Albeit, this dichotomy of professions wouldn´t come until much later. Not until the industrial revolution in Europe and the wide use of iron as a construction material. Oops, i digress, apologies. Right, so our hostel is one of the historical buildings making up this square that the Spaniards built. High ceilings, huge windows, marvelous.

While in Merida Alicia and I have done something very unexpected. We took a chance and followed the advice of a fellow dorm-mate and went for an all day trip to the City of Cuzama, south of Merida, to visit some cenotes. Honestly, we didn´t really know what cenotes were at the time. But, as we´ve learned along the way, some of the best decisions are spontaneous in nature. Not your everyday form of transportation, we enjoyed a ride on a train cart pulled by an indomitable horse named Chacho, with the incessant urging of a local Cuzaman at the reigns. We were floored to find four beautiful, enormous limestone caverns (cenotes) with crystal clear blue water along the journey. The above picture cannot begin to do them justice.

There. That brings us to the present. Day 13 of our trip. I have fallen in love with travelling. The ability to go wherever you want to go, whenever you want. The ease of meeting people. The allure of new places, new cultures, and new activities with each day -- it´s overwhelming at times. In short, I am having a great time, better than I could have imagined. I feel liberated.

I hope this ´blog´meets all of you well. Please send me emails or make comments on this page. I would love to hear how you are all doing. I miss you all!

Andres el Reves