Oaxaca from Lonely Planet

I left beautiful San Cristobal on Tuesday and pulled an all night bus to Oaxaca town in the neighboring state of the same name.

With Mexico City now only five hours away by bus, I am near the completion of the loop I started a couple weeks ago when I made my way to Palenque via Veracruz and Villahermosa.

My first impressions here are that while Oaxaca is a nice town, by comparison to San Cristobal it's a bit expensive for lodging.  I'm paying 400 pesos here for something I could get in San Cristobal for less than 200.

And while San Cristobal had dozens of low cost laundry services available, here I've been unable to find any service but dry cleaning!  A minor annoyance perhaps, but clean clothes would be nice. . .

Check out the Lonely Planet's take below:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/oaxaca-state/oaxaca

Mexican Computers Rather Frustrating

I'm back in Mexico nearly a week but haven't posted til now because of typical frustrations with Mexican keyboards and cybercafe computers.

There's also the not insignificant problem that Google has completely redesigned the ¨dashboard¨ of Blogspot, and I find it extremely difficult to navigate my way around.

I guess this settles it:  I'm going to have to get my own laptop!  I can't afford to spend hours relearning to blog on strange machines everywhere I go.

I arrived in Veracruz yesterday following a five hour first class bus trip from the capital.  Located on the Gulf of Mexico about halfway from Mexico City to destinations in the Yucatan, the climate here is hot and humid--a bit of a shock to my system following several temperate days and nights at Mexico City's altitude.

So I'm well on my way to the peninsula but already am leery of the idea of Cancun, where it's likely to be just as hot & humid as here.  I already miss the cooler mountain air.

I'll stay here another day at least to get my bearings and figure it out:  should I continue east where it will be just as muggy as here but where there are also ancient Mayan ruins to check out?

Or should I re-think this journey?  Maybe with an eye on points further south, perhaps to Chiapas state and northern Guatemala?

I'll keep you posted!

Museo Nacional de Antropologia

Om Thursday we made our way to the massive Chapultec Park and to the equally massive Anthropology Museum.

For less than $5 the visitor has access to 12 large salas on the ground floor with corresponding rooms on the second floor and even more in the basement.  Each sala is devoted to a particular region and/or indigenous people and/or period of history in Mexico.

We managed to cover only three salas (Aztec, Oaxaca, Gulf Coast) in two hours.  Even that was a bit overwhelming.

These rooms are filled with thousands of pieces from the tiny to the truly gigantic, and made from just about any material that was available during those times.

Household items, religious objects, weaponry, and jewelry seemed to predominate the displays no matter what period or people.  Jade, gold, bone, obsidian, alabaster, crystal, and shell comprised some of the more durable material.

My favorites tended to be the smaller, intricately carved figurines and jewelry pieces which include some fantastic gold items and even some coinage.

The cabeza colosal (Big Head) was a major attraction in the Gulf Coast hall, but it competed with other equally gargantuan stone pieces rising 20 feet high.

Befitting a culture that places so much importance on death, there also were some carefully arranged tomb displays, one of which featured the artifacts of child sacrifice victims.

The Double House in San Angel

Located even further away from the Centro than the Blue House, the museum of the Studios of Diego y Frida is deep in the tony San Angel neighborhood.  This is the "double house", made famous in the film Frida, two separate buildings connected by a roof top walkway.

Both house are rather small but three stories high.

At first we tought the admission charge, at 12 pesos per person ($1), was a great value until we discovered that Frida's house--also painted deep sea blue--was closed for renovations.

But Diego's studio was worth the long journey anyway.  Wide and spacious and blessed with windows covering about one third of the wall area, this artist's workplace is chocked full of his tools of the trade and has plenty of seating for Diego's many visitors.  Other rooms include a bedroom and a study, and featured sketches and other pieces by the artist.  This was quite obviously a wonderful place to work.

Inside the compound and surrounding it were young local art students at work sketching and painting this quirky and intimate site.

Following a walk back to Plaza San Jacinto--the center of San Angel--we found a nice menu del dia for about 60 pesos each ($5).

Back in Mexico City

I'm back in el defe for a winter visit, so check back for more news.

The weather here is very California-like with temperatures of 72 high and 49 low, though it is overcast today and looks like it might rain. . .

Mexico Rediscovered

It's my last morning in Mexico at the end of two weeks of rediscovering the attractions of this vast, diverse country.

It's been a chilly couple of days and nights here in the capital with gloomy overcast skies and some substantial rains.

Already I'm making plans to come back here--maybe over the busy Christmas holidays some year.

Before then I will try to get my photo software happening so I can share some of the thousands of photos I've taken of my travels in Latin America durimg the past two years.

Weekend Crowds Take Over in the DF

With el Chopo and Insurgentes visited in the morning, in the afternoon I took another Metro train up to the Tepito Market.  This turned out to be a huge affair taking up all the sidewalk as well as two lanes of each side of a six lane boulevard extending for at least six city blocks and spreading out on all side streets for that length.

This market not only had the usual pirated knockoffs, but stall after stall of jeans, shirts, underwear, socks, and almost anything imaginable.  The crowds spilled out into the street where six lanes of a one way boulevard were bottlenecked into two, creating a massive traffic jam for the length of the market.

Fairly typical of the "Third World" market, Tepito was reminiscent of the gigantic Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok or the equally large Marche aux Puces in Paris.

A walk from Tepito southwest took me past the Plaza Santo Domingo--sort of a mini Zocalo--to the Calle Donceles where, as advertised, I found at least a dozen used book shops.

In a country where new English language titles can set you back $40-50 even for paperback, it was refreshing to find prices more in line with the budget traveler:  $2-10 depending on the title and condition.

Not all the shops had English language titles, but I found a huge pile in the back corner of one place, and many of these books were from the 1970s or earlier.

Walking further down Donceles took me to both the national Chamber of Deputies and the Mexican Senate.  And on another pedestrian walkway, the Calle Condesa, I was delighted to find an unofficial used book market on the street, though there weren't any non-Spanish language books in sight.

My walk then took me past the UNAM university bookstore where next door there appeared to be an exhibit dedicated to "Instruments of Torture and Capital Punishment."  This reminded me that the Police Museum, near my hotel, has an exhibit titled "Serial Killers."

This morning I took the Metro way up to the northeast side of the city to check out the Virgin of Guadalupe.  Perhaps most simply described as the most important religious shrine in Mexico, this attraction apparently draws throngs of visitors 24/7.

I will admit that the crowds nearly defeated me today, and it took me nearly a half hour to find a less crowded way into the broad square where thousands of visitors came to pay their repects, some of them actually walking on their knees to do so.

A colonial relic of a cathedral, sinking into Mexico City's soft ground, is flanked by a couple of even larger modern structures where people flow in and out constantly to choral music piped into huge speakers.  A larger than life bronze statue of John Paul II overlooks the entire scene.

Back on the Metro, I faced my first experience with a transport breakdown and wasted an hour trying to get a train back downtown.  Apparently a bicycle race near the Alameda-Zocalo route completely messed up many of the major bus routes, but I have no idea what delayed the metro trains.

All I know is it was a bit scary to see the crowds pouring into the station platform with almost no trains arriving to ease the jam.

Back in Mexico DF

I'm back in the big city and spent this morning "following the young people", first to the famous El Chopo Saturday market which is where the kids go to get their favorite music and clothing. 

Every possible genre and subgenre of popular music from the last 45 years is represented:  rock'n'roll, reggae, ska, heavy metal, punk, and more.  Some stalls sell only classic LPs (remember those, kids?). 

El Chopo is also the place to get 10 peso piercings, tongue studs, leather pants, dog collars and leather bits and pieces, chains, tattoos,corn rows, and more.

Despite all the variety, Chopo Market--which has a history running back to the 1970s--turns out to be much smaller than I had pictured it.

Next I hopped a bus to the Glorieta Insurgentes, a large roundabout surrounded by dodgy looking medium size skyscrapers--one of them looks like a squat, so covered with graffiti it is--and this is where Mexico City's "emo" kids hang out.

Mexico City and Queretaro both were wracked by anti-emo riots a couple years ago.  Emos are said to be a youth subculture which draws style elements fom other subcultures but doesn't seem to have any further meaning beyond a vague striving for "heightened emotions."  Other youth groups reportedly were enraged by the emos' supposed superficiality and for "stealing" others' hairstyles and fashions.

Today I don't see many kids here, but there are a handful of police equipped with riot gear.

The Glorieta Insurgentes also has a number of very large, modern internet shops, some with as many as 50 cubicles.  I am writing this dispatch from one of them right now.

Again, this traffic circle is large but not as massive as I had pictured it in my head--certainly not as big as Arc du Triomphe in Paris or Bangkok's Victory Monument circle.

There is a metro stop, bus stops,  and a couple important throughfares, but this area is much quieter than, say, Alameda Park.

Next on my to do list:  there's a street I want to find that has a large number of used bookshops.

Then I might check out the barrio Tepito which supposedly has the largest "pirate" market in Mexico.  This is the place to get your DVDs, CDS, and other fake knockoffs.

Another visit to Plaza Garibaldi--mariachi central--will be in order before the weekend's finish.

And finally, tomorrow I'll try to run up to the Virgen of Guadalupe which has been highly recommended.

Check Out Blogs of Authors

If you haven't checked them out already, I have links to the writers and authors I've been referring to in recent posts:  David Lida, Daniel Hernandez, Jim Johnston, and Chuck Thompson.

You can find those links in the right hand column a little bit below.

I don't have anything for Tony Cohan, but if you're interested in some very fine, nearly poetical essays about two Americans' lives in Mexico in the late 20th century, you can buy his books at Amazon.

Walking Tours in the DF

Once again, I have to acknowledge Jim Johnston and his "opinionated" guide to the DF.  At first glance, I didn't think much of this slender volume, but when I realized he maps out several suggested walking tours of select neighborhoods, I decided that his book is almost written for me.   Since I really enjoy walking miles through Latin American colonias, I've found his book to be an indispensible companion for my visits yesterday to La Condesa and my trip to Coyoacan this morning.

Nine stops south on the Metro from my hotel near the city center, the ride to Coyoacan is the equivalent in length to a trip on Chicago's El train from the Loop to Rogers Park.  And from the Metro station it was another 20 minute hike to the center of the colonia, which feature's Frida Kahlo's Blue House and the fortress-like compound where Leon Trotsky lived out his final years of exile from the Soviet Union.

I had intended to pay 40 pesos to see the bullet scarred walls of Trotsky's villa--now a museum--but for some strange reason it was closed when I arrived.  History fans will recall that the Russian former resident of the place couldn't escape the long reach of Stalin's arm, and this is where he met a very gruesome end--by icepick.

Johnston gives a special mention to La Guadalupana, a rustic old cantina which was the local hangout of Kahlo, her husband Diego Rivera, and their friends (including, presumably, Trotsky).  The facade of the building today looks exactly as it did in the 1930s--offering a very real time-warpy feeling.

I have to give Johnston a big round of applause for his recommendation of Condesa tacqueria El Tizoncito where I thoroughly enjoyed a meal last night.  The tacos al pastor (spiced red pork) were absolutely to die for:  a huge plate of them, with about half a dozen different green and red salsas, for around five bucks.  I must revisit the place soon!

Colonia Condesa & the Zocalo

After a day or so of acclimatizing to the elevation here, I set out yesterday in earnest to acquaint myself on foot with some of Mexico City's neighborhoods.  In doing so I also familiarized myself with the city's fast and efficient Metro (subway) and a couple of electric bus lines.

Colonia Condesa is a quiet, pleasant, relatively wealthy neighborhood with tree-lined streets just 10-15 minutes by Metro from the bustle of the downtown Alameda area.  Condesa seems to be peopled mainly by upper middle class dog lovers, and the whole area has a large number of cafes and restaurants which were mostly busy with Sunday diners both times I visited.

Street musicians of all stripes compete for coins and peso notes--including a very fine instrumental trio of clarinet, accordian and contrabass who entertained the multitudes in the very cool and shady Parque Mexico.  These guys played very intricate arrangements at high tempo of what sounded like music from the Balkans, and they appeared to be quite popular as their "hat" was filling with green dollar bills and blue 20 peso notes.

While the boys jammed for the gente, I enjoyed a coffee break at a sidewalk cafe that featured plastic dandelions in water-filled salt shakers.

In the afternoon I went hunting back near the Zocalo for other, possibly cheaper hotels from the one where I currently reside.  The Zocalo's large plaza seems to be occupied by a permanent camp of anti-government protesters, but this didn't hinder in any sense the fun-seeking activities of the huge crowds of Sunday strollers.  I managed to find a couple other hotel possibilities to file away for future reference.

The Hotel Fleming, where I stay now, is perfectly fine but just a tad above my daily budget.  Its location is unbeatable, though, especially for the Metro and the Alameda park.

Sensory Overloads the DF

Thanks to Jim Johnston's excellent advice in his "opinionated" city guide about getting a sitio taxi from the airport to the Colonia Central, I had a very smooth transition from flying the unfriendly skies in the morning to getting situated in my pre-booked, conveniently located hotel early in the afternoon.

Although the heart of the capital is only six kilometers from the airport, it took nearly an hour to navigate through the city's notorious traffic congestion.  However, I was out and about on foot by around 2.30 for my first walking tour of this massive, colorful metropolis.

The Alameda Central, a green park about five blocks long, is only a couple blocks north of my hotel, so I made a beeline for it.  Though the sun was pounding the streets pretty heavily, there were people everywhere I looked, just as it is in Manhattan.

From the Alameda, I walked up a wide boulevard about six blocks north to Plaza Garibaldi which is mariachi central for the entire country.  Even though it was too early to catch any music--the place doesn't get hopping until late at night--there were plenty of costumed musicians (including several violinists) beginning to gather in readiness for the coming night's work.

At this point I turned east, intending to locate the Zocalo, the historic center of the city with one of the biggest plazas in the world, surrounded by dazzling colonial architecture of palaces, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and various government buildings.  

But after a couple blocks I began to feel the heat of the sun more intensively as I realized that the city's 7000 foot elevation was turning my walking legs into heavy lead.  I decided to save the Zocalo for another, cooler time period.

I found a good, albeit slightly pricey four-course lunch in the restaurant of my hotel.  This was just as well, for by that time I was running on very little sleep from the night before, and a siesta afterward took me til nearly 9.00 p.m.  Nightfall brought temperatures 20 degrees lower than the day's--a pleasant end to an exciting travel day.

Arrival in the DF

My arrival yesterday in Mexico City, the distrito federale of the nation's capital, was pretty much as I expected.

Thanks to much extensive reading over the past winter of such young American authors as David Lida, Chuck Thompson, and Jim Johnston, I had a remarkably amount of knowledge about the place before commencing my first trip here.

As all three of these writers point out--you can google them to find their books--Mexico City has attained an unfairly bad rap in the "Western"--read, American--press.

Thompson's book is his amusing account of picking three of the scariest places in the world and his subsequent journey to find out what the big fuss is about.  Somewhat facetiously he chose the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Mexico City, and Disney World.

A highly entertaining travel writer who despises the formulaic travel writing found in most newspapers and magazines today, Thompson himself was inspired by Lida's excellent "non-guide" book about the Mexicican capital.  Much of the factual info I pass along here comes from them both.

The DF is a massively huge area, perhaps definitive of urban sprawl in the developing world in this, the second decade of the 21st century.  Like many such megacities in the world's poorer countries, it has a large and rising population which is nearly impossible to document with any accuracy.  However, most agree that there are at least 20 million people living here, and probably at least 1000 more arriving every day.

That amounts to 1/5 to 1/4 of Mexico's entire population.  The reason so many live and work here is the same as why so many Mexicans seek work in el Norte, the U.S.--for the economic opportunities which are lacking in the rest of the country.

Probably at least 40% of the economy in Mexico is "underground" and therefore untaxed, and there are signs of this everywhere since so much of the economic activity is of people trying to sell something on the street.

Despite widespread poverty, Mexico's economy is large and robust.  It remains one of the ten largest economies in the world today, but the big problem is widening income disparity, with income stratification even worse than in the U.S.

After my reading last winter I realized that I've been missing out on a possible gem of a location for my continuing travels in the developing world, and one that's amazingly only a 3 1/2 hour flight from Chicago!  Because the DF is quite a bit like a New York City for all of Latin America--the undisputed center for culture, music, and the arts "south of the border"--I felt I had to rectify this hole in my lifelong itinerary.

And after only 24 hours here, I can say:  so far so good. . .

The Savior Saint is a Gritty Capital City

I've been to a few traffic-choked, chaotic and suffocatingly hot, polluted big cities in my time (Bangkok immediately comes to mind), but San Salvador comes close to taking the cake for its ability to exhaust the visitor after only an hour or so out & about the grimy central district. Like Mexico City the altitude here is already high while the city itself is surrounded by higher mountains. This tends to keep stagnant the noxious smoke & fumes from hundreds of belching buses that ply these city streets on a constant basis.

If the pollution wasn't so bad, the heat & humidity would knock anyone out by itself, but taken all together it makes for a health hazardous triple whammy. Every time I make an errand run I catch myself heading back to my aircon cool, cozy room after 60-90 minutes tops. But I've seen the usual sights: the one or two big cathedrals, the plazas, the parks, the markets, and the big colonial government buildings. This city makes you feel that if you've seen one Central American capital then you've seen them all.

So it's onward and outward again tomorrow, probably to the eastern El Salvador hub of San Miguel where I can catch a Tica bus to Managua. I went looking for the Tica terminal today but lost hope & gave up after an hour. I know I was close and maybe getting closer, but the locals I asked for directions from kept sending me in circles!

What more can I write about El Salvador and its capital? This country is the smallest in Central America--about the size of Massachusetts--and it has one of the smallest populations at around 7 million. It's the only country in the world named after Jesus Christ (The Savior), with its capital also named for "Saint" Savior. Salvadoreans suffered a brutal civil war in the 1980s, but now the country has been more or less at peace, at least politically, for almost two decades. Despite the fact that El Salvador has a somewhat dodgy reputation for crime & violence, I've noticed that the friendly people really seem to work hard to counteract that, welcoming the foreign visitor with goodwill & helpful advice.

It's definitely it a bit off the tourist's beaten path. You don't see very many Westerners here, American or European. But I feel it's worth a visit (it's my second in two years) to see how a remarkably tough, resiliant, vibrant people can climb their way back from such past horror & adversity--and with a generally cheerful & optimistic outlook for the future.