Pacific Diaries

Cessna portal

Sorry for lack of updates - salt water has seeped deep into my brain and slowed any prevalent activity in the neocortex. It took me ages to write that.

Puerto Escondido

So after a few days in Central Oaxaca, Ben and I decided to split for the Pacific coast. We booked a flight in a 7 seater light aircraft - an old Cessna - I was concerned by its structural integrity. We wobbled, rattled and shifted through the air currents over the southern mountain ranges of Oaxaca. I watched the door latch next to my head with concern as it swung loosely from Locked to Open during the flight. The 30 minute flight took a turn for the worst when my blocked sinuses wouldnt allow my ears to repressurize. By the time we landed there was so much pressure in my head I felt like my eye balls were going to be pushed out of the eye ball grooves. Seriously. Aside from that, great flight....

The warm saturated air on the pacific coast hit me like a wet slap in the face, but it was a sure makes you feel alive. Jesus Christo! Its only winter here as well!




Fish beware


My initial impressions of Puerto was that it was a luscious paradise, and it is, but its just that its fairly developed compared to other places further along the coast. it reminds me of Byron Bay in NSW - very beautiful situation but becoming a real tourist trap. Still, swimming in the warm water while the sun set casting rosy hues over the waves was life affirming. I had another adventure in the Mexican Postal system (misnomer) trying to send back some little Oaxacan wooden animals with psychadelic paint jobs.




On to Mazunte...heaps more interesting and beautiful
More writing tomorrow

Escape from the city

On the road again

Finally we have broke away from Mexico City! I was starting to cling to that place like a barnacle and it's great to be on the road again, especially with my great travelling companion Ben. Ive been quite sick the last few days and feeling very grouchy and irritable, and Ben's patience with my foul moods and general spaced out, stupid slowness has been amazing.


The Church... on The Pyramid... in Cholula

We made a two hour bus trip to Puebla, a colonial town about two hours east of Mexico City. The night that we arrived there we indulged in some delicious street food for dinner (steaming hot cups of spiced corn for only $1) and watched some sort of amazin dancing circus act on a big screen in the Zocalo (main plaza o fthe town) Think like a Mexican Cirque de Soliel.


Christianity: under construction

The following day we made a short trip out of town to Cholula, where we visited a Cathedral that had been built on top of the ruins of the largest Pyramid in thw world (in terms of volume), with a stunning backdrop of a semi-active volcano in the distance. We journeyed into the deep belly of the Pyramid, exploring a series of tunnels which unfortunately only teased us with a series of closed off gates leading into the deeper depths of the huge structure.


Snow capped volcano on the way to Oaxaca

The six hour bus trip to Oaxaca city was the relief that my soul had been craving - the crowds, noise and urban sprawl melted away into a a shifting landscape of sparse desert, sheer mountains punctured with a million cacti, and a clear, ringing blue sky. The diversity of landscapes and plant / animal species in the state of Oaxaca is amazing.

*** *** ***

The last few days in Oaxaca have been very pleasant - the weather is much warmer here than in Central Mexico and the cheese is superb ;)

The central square of the town was full of federal police yesterday, armed with machine guns and tear gas launchers - it was surreal backdrop to the pretty christmas tree and cosy cafes. As soon as the federal police left town today there was almost immediately a rally against the government, locals marched down the streets spraypainting shops and restuarants in the street where our hostel is. We stayed inside but watched from the balcony as it was really pointless to be outside in the middle of it. Some other locals in our street gave abuse at the protesters, shouting in spanish that they should "work!" and "study!" if they wanted to improve their situation. I dont really know much about the political situation here yet but it certainly seems to divide people here very strongly - Oaxaca is almost one of the poorest states in Mexico with large Indigenous populations in the outerlying areas. Many Mexicans feel they are going to continue getting screwed over under the new government of Felipe Calderon.


setting sun

Tourism is way down at the moment in Oaxaca, and when Ben, David and I went to Teotitlan a few days ago it was like a ghost town. It was amazing actually becuase we were literally the only non-local people there!. This town is famous for its hand woven rugs, bags and clothing. Ben and David went nuts but I restrained myself and bought only a traditional Mexican longsleeve shirt for about 100 pesos ($12 AU) We had a very...leisurely Mexican lunch at the only restaurant that wasnt closed due too siesta or the general no-tourist lull. It took the ladies in the kitchen (what felt to my stomach at least) about an hour to bring out our meals - gaving us time to down some beers and talk about the state of the world (and its impending doom.) Due to a lack of buses leaving town we ended up getting a lift in the back of someone's ute which was hilariously fun and free entertainment for us.


In the woods

Yesterday we teamed up with some Israeli and German girls from the hostel and went on a tour in the Oaxhacan mountains with the owner of the hostel. We drove up to about 3000 metres and went for a hike in the San Antonio something National Park (I cant remember the full name)


On the spur

It was a beautiful walk but I was dead tired by the end due to a lingering cold and the high altitude didnt make friends with my blovked sinuses. I meet my first (and hopefully not only) Donkey (burrito), quite a charming chap you gave me a donkey kiss and proceded to try and eat my camera case out of my bag.


My oooonly friend

On the way back to town we stoped at a mescal farm, to see how they make the Mescal cactus liqour from the Agave Cactus. I thought the roasted Agave tasted like fruit jam, though Ben thought it tasted like smoked salmon. We sampled many different varieties of Mescal and I also got to eat a couple of the worms that they soak in the liqour, followed by a cone of fresh coconut & carrot ice cream on the way home.



Many other adventures have been had, and i will report back sooner rather than later. On Tuesday we will be taking 7 seater light-aircarft down to Puerta Escondida on the Pacific Coast - a short 30 minute flight rather than a 12 hr bus trip through the winding mountains of Southern Oaxaca. (and a bit dangerous too - lots of road accidents there)




























into the mountains


"The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet,

And whither then? I cannot say."

- Tolkien

Tula, Taxco 'n Trotsky

Inglesia de Santa Prisca


Hello avid blog readers (well, hey mum!) ;)

The following is a compression of the last 5 days or so.
Ive got some sort of nasty cold and am producing a healthy variety of phlegem (in terms of both colour and texture) Ive had three fairly good days of sight-seing interspersed with 2 days resting in bed / watching Mexican TV. I don't know how to seek medical treatment here so I guess Im just waiting to get better of my own accord.


smog on the way out of the city

Coyoacan in the southern outreaches of Mexico City was definately worth the visit. A bright and cheerfull little suburb that has for a long time attrcated an alternative crowd of residents. The one and two story colonial houses dating from the 1800's are painted in luscious shades of lemon, tomato, flamingo pink and electric blue. There are several parks which offer dappled light and boast some impressive sculptured fountains. If you had lived here 80 years ago you would have been sharing the neighbourhood with Frida Khalo, Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky amoung other residents. Today it appears to still be a slightly alternative but increasingly 'yuppie' area with special interest bookstores and a Buddhist Meditation and Yoga Centre - with the real estate and cafe prices to match.


Coyoacan


Zee dogs

I visited the house of socialist intellectual Leon Trotsky, who fled Stalinist Russia to finally end up living in Mexico with his wife; where he would pass the remainder of his life amoungst the support of the intellectual and artistic community in Coyoacan. Unfortunately, the Guard house and complex security systems he had installed at his house were not able to protect him from an assailent who put an ice-pick through his head in 1940. I don't know much about Trotsky and his life (and the Spanish information plaques werent that useful) but it was certinaly interesting to wander around the house of one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution. Everything had been left in place more or less how it would have been. It was interesting to look through his book shelf to see his copies of Karl Marx and some editions of his own books on Stalin and other historic figures. Unfortunately the Frida Kahlo Museum House was closing as I got there. Im not the biggest fan of her art but she was certainly an interesting figure and it would have been nice to take a look around.



Another trip out into the Central Mexican plateau lead me to the silver mining town of Taxco (Pronounced Tass-co] Its an amazing old colonial town where thousands of white houses cling to the side of a very step hill. A labrynth of cobbestone streets leads up the hill between the houses - I made for the large statue of Christ perched on top of the hill overlooking the town to get a better perspective on things. The town is a huge tourist trap though; and for good reason; there is something like 500 shops here selling almost anything you can imagine that could be made out of silver. People come form all over Mexico to buy silver jewellery here at fairly low prices, but for the high quality stuff you have to lay down a few more pesos (Still brilliant value though compared tot he rubbishy massed produced jewellery in Australia.) I met a nice relaxed aussie couple and we ended up having lunch in a slightly dodgy restuarant with a great view overlooking the town.






















Detail from Iglesia de Santa Prisca - Taxco


Taxco - late afternoon


A not so viscious dog


Looking down with Jesus

Walking alone through the upper parts of the town at dusk was a bit sketchy though; there were some rather vicious looking dogs which caused me to take a few longer routes through the labyrnth, as well as some entreaupenerial (spelling?) kids trying to charge "Don Gringo" a few pesos to walk through their street without coming to trouble. I was a bit warey when a local pointed me towards a dirt path leading into the woods when asked for directions to the Christ, but hey, i have travel insurance right so of I went into the shady woods. Turns out it was a great short cut to the Christ. You've got to be slightly paranoid for your own safety, but also not completely distrusting of people either otherwise you wont have much fun. Still, people do get robbed in the woods so gotta be carefull.


Hey-zues

Yesterday I went on a trip north to see the Toltec ruins at Tula. I was accompanied by Ben, my new Canadian friend. (Hey Ben!) We are thinking of traveling togther for a while because we both want to head in roughly the same direction and see some Maya ruins. Not much to say about the sight, it was really amazing but we couldnt help but wonder how much it had been "re-constructed". Photos are better to get a sense of the site.


The four warriors



sentinal


Ben - tuning in


hiding out in the cactus patch

take care y'all

;)

A view from the top

Mexico city is flat. Very flat.

It's also the largest city in the world, in terms of its urban sprawl.
To get some perspective, I decided to take a trip to the observation deck of El Torre Americano Latino (The Latin American Tower)37 floors up was ample height to remedy this problem of persepctive, and was worth the hefty $5 entrance fee (you can eat lunch here for $2)

You can click on the photos several times to make them bigger and bigger, as with all photos on the blog















There are huge sprawling markets on the edge of central historico where you can buy almost anything - I got lost in a multicoloured sea of sunglasses, dvds, shoes, candy, sweaters and mexican wrestling dolls.



I also went on a crazy journey deep into the heart of the 'electonics district', an area that feels about the size of Sydney CBD (Though im sure it cant be!) I wanted to buy a good pair of headphones but I was soon swampped in a neon jungle, trying to just find a way out by the end! I made it out with some headphones, my wallet and all limbs intact! Its actually pretty cool but not necessary a pleasant shopping experience.



I got offered a job by the ownner of my hostel, who is opening a restaurant underneath the hostel in about two weeks. He wants me to work as a waiter and also do some dj'ing in the lounge/bar of the new establishment. It would be pretty cool but I dont know if I should stop traveling after such a short amount of time.



Im starting to tire a bit of the city, mainly due to the air polltion which makes my throat hurt. Im thinking of leaving Mexico city in a few days.

A passing cloud

I spent two days looking around the Centro Historico. The oldest part of town that was built right over the ruins of Tenochtitlan (Destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores) In 1978 Mexican workers accidently discovered the foundations of the Templo Mayor of the Mexica ("Aztec") right near the main square whhile doing some maitenance work on the metro system. You can walk around the foundations now and look at some carvings of skulls in the walls.



The main plaza of the city, known simply as the Zocalo, is the second largest urban square in the world after the Red Square in Moscow. (Mexico City has a lot of second _______ in the world tags) It seems to be a focal point for Mexican nationalism of all different strands. At the moment there are protesters camped out there who are trying to raise awareness and support for the resistance against the government in Oaxaca state. There were also ingigenous groups doing traditional dances and heaps of poeple selling crafts and trinkets to tourists and Mexicans alike (Residents of Mexico city are called Chilangos by everyone else)



I visited a museum called the Palacio Minera. There had an exhibition of torture devices used in Europe during the Middle ages and right up until the 19th century. Ive always had a kind of macabre fascination with Draconian brutality of Europe during the medievel period, but actually reading about and seeing with my own eyes the horrific nature of these practicies was completely overwhelming. I just couldnt actually comprehend how any human being could inflict that sort of pain and suffering onto another human being (regardless of what crime, if any, they had commited) or the myriad devices that people invented to prolong the agony and suffering of another human being. What really suprises is how commonly people were tortured and executed during the middle ages, and often for the most slight of crimes.

What also horrified me was how readily the Christian church was involved in metting out the most brutal punishments to people. This is suspposed to be the church that is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, right? There was an especially noticable tendancy to torture women who would not comply with social expectations of what their place was in society (which was to bascially be powerless). Often women who had some small amount of power due to their wisdom and their knowledge of folk medicine were targeted by the male dominated social hierarchy of church and state. I see a long running conspiracy of patriachs who use the false pretenses of religion or just down-right rubbish charges (being a witch or consort of the devil) to systematically torture and kill millions who challenged their position of social dominance. I actually found it so confronting at one point that I had some sort of panic attack and had to sit down and calm myself down for a while! Unfortunately the only place to sit was next to "The Iron Maiden", a type of upright metal sarcophegus that people were made to stand in, and then have the doors closed on them so that hundreds of razor sharp metal spikes would pierce into their joints, internal organs, ears, eyes and brain. They would be left there for days to die slowly in agony. Yay for the human race!





Overall though, it was worth going to gain more understanding of the dark side of human nature, and also to learn that thousand of people today are still being subjected to torture - from non-democratic regimes where secret police have free reign to commit these atrocities, to Guantanemo Bay in Cuba, which the United States (supposedly the leader of the free world ) uses as a legal grey area outside the conventions of international law. Right now many human beings are being tortured there to extract confessions of their involvement with Al-Qaeda and their involvemnt with the 9/11 attacks, even though some are no longer suspected of having being involved.

Death by goat licking was definately the most unexpected form of torture devised by the medieval mind. 3 or 4 thirsty goats were unleashed on the hapless victim who had been rubbed with a salt solution. The goats would lick for hours and hours until your skin started to come off!

Back with something lighter soon!

x

Fietsa tonight

There is a party on tonight outside of the city "en el campo" (in the countryside)
Its called Forest Frequencies and Swedes Son Kite, Ticon and Minilogue will be playing, and also Sensient from Australia. Have to leave soon to get a minibus from El Monumento de la Revolucion.
..............................................................




A Day of Culture

Mexico city has some smells that make you want to eat and some smells that make you not want to eat (or worse) Unfortunately they are often in close proximity to each other.
I have been having fun trying to remember that toilet paper generally cant go down the toilet here . There are bins next to every toilet to put it in. I have had some nice moments fishing it out of the toilet with my hands. The new soap which I unwrapped came prepackaged with some thick, dark hairs on it. Must have been an accident at the soap factory...



Today I went for a walk around Bosque de Chapultepec (Forest of Chapultepec) I think it is the second largest urban park in the world. It was originally the private grounds of the Royal Mexica families that ruled Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) before the Spaniards sacked the city. It has an impressive castle (Castillo de Chapultepec)which was used by the Spanish Colonial Monarchy that ruled the country before the revolution. You can truely get lost strolling through the trees, the sun filters down through the slightly smokey air and makes shafts of light. Police seem to stroll the park in packs of either 10 or 20, power through numbers I guess. Above is a photo of one of the cute little squirril type creatures that thrive here on a diet of tourist peanuts.



Within the grounds I visited El Museo de Arte Moderno and El Museo Nacional de Antropologia. The are some great contemporary Mexican artists being exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, and also some stuff that had me scratching my head. The Anthropology Musem is world renowned and had an overwhelming amount of exhibitiions tracing the development of meso-american culture from neanderthals through to the multitude of pre-hispanic civilizations such as the Mexica, Zapotecs, Mixtecs and Mayan. I dont want to play favourites, but the Maya were like totally the coolest. Can't beat that mathematically precise sexigesimal calendar (By the way, the world might end in 2012 so make sure you make the most of it). The photo below is actually of a Mexica Sun Stone at the Museum




The smog that hangs permenantly over the city is truely terrible. Thats whats happens when you have a city with millions of cars which is surrounded by mountains (Same problem in L.A and Athens I guess) Mexico City is the largest city in the world and there are about 20 million cars, trucks and buses chugging around belching out deisel fumes and gritty shit that forms a thick, dirty blanket over the whole city. I have felt slightly sick from it since I got here but its hard not to love the city. It's like being in a relationship that can be painfull but which also makes you all these other good feelings too. Okay that was really bad..

Hola desde Ciudad de Mexico!

I've been trying to write something here for a few days now, but sleep and impromptu tequila sessions have defeated me each time. You can buy a 1 litre bottle of tequila here for about $6 Australian. Not that I am buying the stuff... I seem to just get swept up into these events.


.............Ascend the stairs...............

Today was spent climbing Pyramids at a very famous pre-Aztec city-complex about an hour north of Mexico city, known as Teotihaucan. It was built around 200 AD by a largely unknown people (way before the Aztecs), and supposedly had around 200,000 inhabitants at the zenith of its power (around the same amount as Rome at the time.) Even though it has been badly damaged or destroyed in some parts, you still cannot help but be awed by the mathematical, astronomical and aesthetic accomplishments of this site.




The vast courtyards in front of the Pyramids had been precisely constructed so as to have special acoustic properties. You can hear the most amazing sound reflections ricocheing off the opposing stone facades when you shout or clap your hands. (anyone who has studied accoustics would be impressed!) This site is famous for a solar alignment during the spring solstice, when the sun strikes the stairs of the larger sun pyramid and creates a play of light across the stairs which appears to the eyes like a serpent.


Human sacrifices to the gods were also de riguer here apparantly. It is a potent experience to walk up the very steps of the Pyramids where almost 2000 years ago, the (surely) unwilling subjects were dragged up the stairs kicking and screaming, to have the thoats slit on the temple alter aloft (The temples no longer remain on the top platforms) Supposedly, the drains that run down the sides were for letting the blood of the numerous sacrifies drip down and pool. The bloods runs through these channels almost like veins and arteries in a living structure. Blood and stone - organic and warm, monolithic and cold, intertwined in a complex pattern. Piles of broken bodies heaped up complete the apex of the pyramid as it reaches up to the baking sun and clear blue sky.



I imagine the whole thing would have been a rather macabre but amazing sight none the less! It´s difficult for me to try and understand the mentality of these people. How do you reconcile their richly symbolic and spiritual life, and the complex beauty of their art and architecture, with the horror of the temple ceremonies?
Then again, how will future societies judge us when they look back 2000 years from now? Under the thin sheen of modernity, how savage is our society?



My new British friend 'Reginald' accompanied me on this trip. We decided to take the metro out of the city limits and then get a bus to the site. This was a lot cheaper and heaps more fun than doing a tour. The subways here are pretty insane though. Hawkers jump on the train at every station selling everything from mix cd's to icereams. You can almost do your shopping on the way home from work! Today a guy ripped off his shirt and lay down on a pile of broken glass. I suppose its like an extreme form of busking. No one even bats an eyelid though - he gets some small coins and goes to the next carriage. The trip north on the bus takes you past thousands of squat, concrete houses that extend right up the steep faces of the mountains that flank the highway. These slumy areas around the city are home to millions of people, though some of them just look like the foundations of houses that have been bombed. This was the poorest housing I have ever seen in my short and priviliged life but apparantly its nothing compared to some other places.