The Rest of Mexico City

Photos of my walk with crazy guy of the Revolution and Independence Memorials respectively; rich people at the mall; crazy roads of the city.


So I guess it's been a while since I've updated this thing. I figured I should do it before I forget what I did. Anyway, after my strange encounter with Random Mexican Guy, I went to the Polanco mall where Leti had told me to meet her. This mall was mega-uber posh. While I waited for Leti I passed the time taking photos of rich people. When she got there I was so excited! It was so awesome to see one of my old Australia friends! She drove me all the way down to the south end of the city where she lives. I don' think I have ever seen highways like that in all my life... like out of the Flinstones stacked four high and criss-crossing every which way. It was madness. We stopped at Leti's friend Shajid's house on the way home and I got to experience some more upper class Mexican lifestyle. He lives in a gated community and has a maid and the trees in his yard are trimmed into the shapes of various animals. Then we decided we were hungry so they took me to a taco place that is supposed to be the best in Mexico. It was pretty delicious but I wouldn't say the best in Mexico. My vote for that honour still goes to the taco guy in Guzman. Next we went to a little cafe in a really pretty part of town near where Frida and Diego Rivera used to live. It was then getting pretty late so we went back to Leti's family's beautiful home for the night.

The next day Leti toured me around the city. We went to the Anthropology museum after driving around for nearly an hour trying to find parking. Then we went to the Chapultepec Castle and finally to the the Blue House where Frida and Rivera lived. That night we watched a movie at Shajid's house next to his pet duck! I decided I wanted to pet it and it bit me.

A ball court replica, a replica of a painting from Teotihuacan that anthropologists ruined trying to preserve it.

Aztec sacrificial stone, in front of the Aztec calendar

Burrial, Castillo de Chapultepec

Mural in the castle, Cinderella's coach

The tower from where los ninos heroes jumped, in front of Mexico City, Frida's studio at the Blue House

That night we were talking to Leti's parents about how I wanted to go to the pyramids at Teotihuacan the next day. Her dad decided that he would call his private driver (who coincidently also does tours) and get this guy to pick me up in the morning in his fancy SUV and drive me out to the pyramids where he would proceed to give me a private tour of the ancient city and then drive me all the way back for a grand total of $120 CAN. It was really properly awesome!!! The pyramids were breathtaking and I learned sooo much that I never would have known without dear Joaquin... and I felt totally posh out there with my private guide/driver! Joaquin took me out to this little artisan market where a guy showed me around and had me taste pulque (a traditional drink of the area that everyone drinks, kids included, even though it is alcoholic), mezcal (a tequila-like beverage complete with little worm in the bottle), and some sweet tequilas. I also saw a guy hand-weaving tablecloths and guys carving beautiful obsidian stone sculptures. It was a really great day. That night Leti, Shajid and I went to a movie at the mall (movies in Mexico are subtitled so us foreigners can still enjoy).


The next day Leti, Shajid and I went out to a little town south of Mexico City called Tepotzlan where there is this giant mountain with a little pyramid on the very top. So we decided to climb up and visit the pyramid. Around and hour or so later of climbing more or less straight up, we arrived at the top. The views were amazing and there were the funniest little animals up there (kind of a mix between a raccoon and a fox) that I never did figure out the name of. And amazingly I had cell service way up there in the middle of nowhere. They say all the skies in Mexico are Telcel skies. Telcel is the cellular company and the owner of which is the richest man in the world (or so I was told). On the way back down we bought lots of local goodies including a whole coconut and a michelada. Yes, you can buy booze and coconuts from vendors even on the side of a mountain in Mexico. Then we had some really awesome dinner at the market and some famous ice cream (you can find this stuff all over Mexico in every flavor imaginable). It was a really great day trip. That night was my last night in Mexico City so Leti got together a group of friends and we all went down to La Condeza for a night on the town. I had to leave bright and early to go catch a bus to Oaxaca so I said my goodbyes and my many thanks to Leti and her family for taking such good care of me and being so kind to have me in their home and Leti's dad called up Joaquin for me again and he drove me over to the bus station.

Goodbye Guzman, Hello Mexico City

Okay okay… so it’s taken me forever to update this thing. I’ve been home now for a couple of weeks and it feels so so so good. I’ve been spending the last couple weeks thinking about the future and not really wanting to look back into the past. But alas, here is what I got up to in my last three weeks in Mexico. I made part two of my donation to the centre and bought them all more socks, underwear, shoelaces, hair gel and Frisbees. It was so fun to see the smiles on my boys’ faces and to see them play with the Frisbees. Thanks again to everyone who donated!!!!

So Jess ended up having to leave on the tenth to go to Guadalajara and deal with the whole lost visa thing. This made me quite sad because that meant that I had to go through my last day in Guzmán without her. My last day at work was horrible. I had to say good bye to my boys and it completely broke my heart. I thought that I would be pretty teary but I was full on bawling. It was literally one of the hardest days of my life knowing that I would never see them again. I had come to love these boys as if they were my own and would have smuggled them all home with me if I had thought of a way how. I still tear up every time I look at photos of them. They were angels in my life and will be in my heart forever. When I got home from work, my host mum Sara took one look at my puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks and said “What happened to you!?!?!?” And of course I started crying again as I tried to explain to her how hard it was for me to leave and how much I was going to miss Guzmán. I then packed up the rest of my stuff and said another teary goodbye to Sara and Fernanda. Then Jous took me to the bus station and I had to say yet another goodbye to a dear friend. It was a really horrible afternoon.

I arrived in Guadalajara a couple hours later where Fernando and Aldo came to pick me up and took me to Fernando’s house. Fernando, being the awesome guy that he is, had offered Jess and I his home whenever we were in town. When I arrived, Fernando’s mum fed me a big meal that included SALAD!!! My first real salad in two and a half months! I was in love with his mum from that moment on.

That night the boys took Jess and I to this super-cool underground bar. No sign, no windows, just a big black iron door. We knocked on the door and a guy on the other side slid open the little window, peered out at us and told us to wait. It was pretty packed once we went inside but the music was great and the building itself was awesome. After that we put on our dancing shoes and went to a salsa club to shake our groove things. Good times!

The next day I decided to forgo taking the eight hour bus ride to Mexico City and booked a cheap flight for later that evening. I was meant to meet Leonor and Leticia in Mexico City who I had studied with in Australia and Leo had told me I could stay with her but about an hour before I was supposed to leave I got a text from Leo saying that she was out of town travelling for the next four days. Leticia was out of town too so I was pretty bummed and had to spend money on hotels for the next two nights until Leti got home and invited me to stay with her. But in the end it all turned out well because I got to stay right in the center of the city and do touristy stuff on my own for a couple days. On my first night I stayed at an awesome hotel for $50 that Jess had recommended me called Hotel Gillow ( I highly recommend it to anyone going to Mexico City anytime soon). So anyway, it was already dark when I got into town so I decided to just walk around in the Zócalo (aka town square). It took a grand total of five minutes to be approached by some random guy who wanted to be my boyfriend. Then about five minutes later another guy approached me, and then three seconds later another guy offered to take me on a tour of the city in his car. And so set the tone for the next two weeks of travelling Mexico. Needless to say I didn’t stay out too long that night. The next morning I meant to do all the touristy stuff in the zócalo but walked the wrong way and ended up in the Alameda next to the Palacio de Bellas Artes. I saw a Jose Luis Cueva exhibition, murals by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Roberto Montenegro, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano and Jorge González Camarena. I was in heaven. Next I went to the Diego Rivera Mural Museum where there was only one mural in the entire building. His most famous but still… I was expecting a little more. Next I paid a visit to the Franz Mayer museum. Mr. Mayer had way too much money and a massive antique and art collection so he decided to make his own museum. It was actually really cool.

Next I decided I should go check out the Jardin del Arte where all these incredible local artists sell their work. On the way there I got horribly lost but eventually found my way after asking several super-helpful Mexicans. Well actually, first, I thought I had found it as my map told me I was in the right place and I saw a bunch of tents and stuff that looked like it could be an art sale. So I walked into the parking lot in front of the Monumento de la Madre where, apparently, around 200 homeless people live. All the men made me feel very welcome in their little community by whistling and hollering every dirty word they could think of. I quickly realized my mistake and made a hasty exit. It was interesting that the moment I stepped over the curb out of the parking lot no one said a word to me or hassled me at all. It was like a separate world. On the other side of the monument was this beautiful park full of flowers and trees and some of the most incredible artwork I have ever seen. I went there intending to just look until I came across this little old man selling the most beautiful charcoal drawings. I couldn’t resist. I had to have one. And for only $90 I didn’t even try to barter with him. Then I went to Starbucks for a very much needed coffee fix where I forgot my $90 drawing on the table when I left. I was a couple blocks away when I realized I’d forgotten it and amazingly it was still there when I got back.

That night I decided to stay in Hotel Canada. I saw it and couldn’t resist (and it was quite a bit cheaper than Hotel Gillow). There was nothing Canadian about it besides the name… but it was really nice to have something familiar to hand. The next morning I explored the zócalo which included a massive cathedral stuffed with more gold than I had ever seen before in my life, some government buildings and the site that is believed to be where the Aztecs saw the eagle on the cactus with the serpent in its mouth and where they built a massive temple. Unfortunately, it was Monday and everything in Mexico is closed on Monday so I couldn’t go in the temple or even see the murals in the government buildings. I then decided I would walk back to the Alameda and walk down La Reforma to see all the monuments and cool buildings. On my way, a little Mexican guy was walking next to me and looks up and me and says, “Where are you from?!?! You’re sooo tall!!!” I’m a bit of a freak in Mexico and definitely stand out in a crowd. So this guy proceeded to follow me around for the next two hours talking at me in Spanish. He wanted to show me Chapultepec Forest but when we got there it was closed. (Who closes an entire forest?) So anyway, we walked back down La Reforma and then when I got back to the Alameda I crossed the street thinking he would follow me but he didn’t. He didn’t say goodbye or anything. He just walked on the opposite side of the street from me for a while and then disappeared. It was so bizarre.

Pics

Jess and I; a romantic walk down the beach; the sunset; giving the truck some gas; Erick tryig to make the clouds go away.

Jess and I at the beaches of Michoacán; a crab in the house; Maruata; Palapas; sunset at the other beach that I don´t remember the name of.

Put your reading glasses on. This is a long one.

June 27, 2008

I made part one of my donation to the centre this week. The boys are all in serious need of new shoes. Most of them wear shoes with holes in the bottoms and their socks are in much the same shape. So I asked the boys what kind of shoes they would get if they could have any shoes they wanted. They all said Converse All-Stars. So this week I bought them all new All-Stars and good quality sports socks to go with them. The boys had the hugest smiles on their faces all week. One of the new boys, Choco, refused to accept the gift. He has a lot of pride and doesn’t want to take charity from anyone. He made a bunch of excuses but I knew that was the real reason. They are going to keep his shoes at the centre until another boy comes along who needs them. I took my camera to get photos of all the boys and their new shoes and ended up with a whole pile of photos of the boys trying to look hot to give to their little girlfriends at the school down the road. Some of the photos are quite priceless. It felt so good to see the boys with new shoes… I felt like I was making a real difference in their lives. The shoes were quite cheap so I plan to also buy some games for the centre (so they have more to do than just play football and chess) and lots of underwear, more socks and coloured shoelaces for each of the boys. That will be part two of my donation. And of course a whole bunch of photos. I’m so excited! Thank-you to everyone who made donations and/or came out to my fundraising events. There is no greater reward than seeing the smiles on these kids’ faces.

June 30, 2008

As previously mentioned, I went to Guadalajara this weekend. Erick (one of the guys from Tapalpa) picked us (Jess and I) up from the bus station and then we went to a little Italian place for supper. Then we got an impromptu tour of the city trying to figure out where Brittany was staying so that we could pick her up and go out to Fernando’s grandmother’s country home/mansion. It is the most amazing place. It has a huge garden and a pool and even its own church! We spent the evening there relaxing with Fernando, Erick, Aldo and their friends, Rebecca and her boyfriend whose name I don’t remember. The next morning we went out to the very cool Tianguis cultural market where I bought some gorgeous hand-made jewlery. It was a funny little market full of contradicting shops of punky-emo clothes and music (and no lack of emo kids in skinny jeans and Sex Pistols t-shirts), traditional art, and religious paraphernalia. After spending all our money we went to Fernando’s house in a beautiful upper-class neighbourhood and I had my first shower in two months that had any amount of water pressure. It was like a dream! Jess and I met Fernando’s beautiful sister, cousin and grandmother and they fed us an indescribably delicious meal. They have the tiniest dog I have ever seen and parrots in the massive garden that say ‘Hola’, and a couple turtles and another two dogs… it’s like living in a zoo.

Then we all went down to the historical centre where I had an appointment to get a tattoo. A bunch of the Canadians who were studying in Guzmán were in Guadalajara a while back and saw this tattoo covered guy who had this tiny little Doberman puppy with him. So they were making comments about the puppy thinking the guy only spoke Spanish and then he responded to them in perfect English and an American accent. They all had a good laugh and found out that the guy is a tattoo artist who grew up in Chicago and decided to move down to Mexico a couple years ago and now owns a small tattoo shop in the centre. About six of the Canadians followed him up to his shop and got tattoos. He has over 15 years experience and I saw the awesome tattoos he had done on the Canadians. Then a week or so later I was playing soccer with the boys at work and noticed a beautiful hummingbird at bush full of flowers next to the field. After that day, I kept seeing hummingbirds around the centre and at the field where we go play soccer almost everyday. I decided I wanted a tattoo that would always remind me of the boys. The boys have become so special to me and I have learned so much from them. I love them to pieces. I’m going to cry like a baby on my last day of work. Anyway, I got a tattoo of a hummingbird hovering above a flower on the top of my foot with a vine wrapping around my ankle. It will always remind me of the boys and how beautiful they are and how they are fighting to survive in a world that has cast them aside. Carla (one of the Canadians) very accurately described the pain of a tattoo on your foot as a hot steak knife being dragged across your skin. It was viciously painful but definitely worth it.

So after the tattoo ordeal, Fernando, Erick, Jess and I drove out to Chapala where the largest lake in Mexico is and where their friend (the boyfriend of Rebecca) has a beautiful holiday home. On the way we stopped at the best burrito place in Mexico, I reckon. We spent the evening relaxing and the next morning went to the town for some yummy doughnuts and went to a little market where we bought tequila cocktails in clay pots (you get to keep the pot!) and corn-flavoured ice cream! I also bought new sunglasses for $5 that “make me look fast” as Fernando put it. We then went back to the house and watched the second half of the Euro final where Germany lost and made me owe Fernando a six-pack of beer. After the game we went back to Guadalajara and hopped on the bus back to Guzmán. We were welcomed home by pouring rain that turned the streets into rivers (they haven’t discovered storm sewers in Mexico yet) which made for a very interesting walk to the pub to see the Scottish girls who were celebrating their last night in Guzmán as they have now finished their placement here.
The lovely Mexicans that we spent the weekend with invited us on a camping trip to “the best beaches in Mexico” according to them, next weekend. I can’t wait. If this past weekend was any indication, it will be an amazing good time.

July 8, 2008

We have had quite the adventurous week here in Mexico. So on Thursday a new volunteer named Sophie came from France. She doesn’t speak English but speaks quite good Spanish. I think Jess and I both had headaches by the end of the night. It is so draining spending an entire evening speaking Spanish, French and English. I slept like the dead that night. On Friday at work some of the boys had their families there to visit. They were all wearing their best clothes (including the shoes I bought them) and were all very excited all day. In the time that I was there only three of the boys’ families showed up. I nearly cried because Güero’s sister was supposed to come to visit him but she never came. I have never seen that boy look so sad. He just sat by the window watching and hoping for the van to come with her in it. It was absolutely heartbreaking. I sincerely hope that she came after I left for the day. Adrian’s family didn’t come either. I don’t even know if he has family. Adrian isn’t usually very cuddly like some of the other boys who always want hugs from me. He’s actually generally quite aggressive towards everyone. But, on Friday he just curled up in my lap for hours asking me how to say things in English and asking me about Canada. It was a really emotional day.

One of the people who came to visit was an ex-patient named Jovani. He was really funny and I spent quite a long time chatting with him about nothing in particular. He is now 20 years old and so must have been a patient at least a couple of years ago since the centre is only for boys up to age 18. But, he was telling me that Cristian, Güero, Choco and Adrian were all there when he was. I can’t believe these boys have been at this centre for so long. I’m pretty sure most of them are like Choco who finished his treatment but relapsed and now is back but it still amazes me that they have been there so long.

So, Friday evening Erick and Fernando picked up Jess and I and we all drove down to Michoacán to the beaches trying to avoid crabs and frogs on the road. The heat and humidity there was unbelievable. It’s so crazy that you can drive for three or four hours and have such a dramatic change in climate. We got stopped by the military on the way and they made us get out of the truck and searched though all our stuff. I guess drug smuggling is a pretty big problem in the area. Anyway, that all went by without any trouble and we arrived in Maruata in one piece. It was pouring rain and sought refuge in a local guy’s house/beach hut until the rain eased off a bit and the boys could set up the tents under the palapas (little hut things made of palm trees on the beach). While we were waiting for the rain to stop a little crab wandered into the house and the guy told us that the only time they eat them is right after the first rain. I didn’t catch exactly why. There were crabs everywhere on the beach; tiny fast ones called Senoritas because they are impossible to catch; hermit crabs of all sizes and some bigger meaner ones that like to pinch. It finally decided to stop raining and we went to bed. It was amazing in the morning to sit up and have the ocean greet me. There aren’t many places in the world where they will still let you camp right on the beach. And this beach was spectacular. A bunch more friends came to join us on Saturday (Ricardo, Memo, Andrea and two others I hadn’t met before Mariana and Omar). We decided to move to a different beach that would be less crowded just down the road. It was just as beautiful as the first if not more so. We saw a gorgeous sunset and sat around chatting all night. As we were chatting a tiny baby turtle stumbled upon our camp in its search for the ocean. I guess it’s turtle season right now and the beaches we were at were full of nests. We saw two newly hatched babies that night and I got to hold one in my hand. It was an amazing sensation to hold a brand new baby in the palm of my hand. That night the tropical storm we had been hearing about hit in full force. The tent Jess and I were sleeping in was not exactly what I would call waterproof and we nearly drown trying to get out of the tent and into the truck fifty feet away. By morning the rain had more or less stopped but it was still cloudy and miserable. By the time we got everything packed up it was around 1pm and then we went for a leisurely lunch and hit the road around 4. We got pummelled by rain almost the whole way back to Guzmán. We were nearly out of gas when we left after lunch but had enough to get to the station. However, the first station we went to was closed. The second station was twenty minutes away but we made it. However, about ten seconds before we were going to put in gas the power went out and the pumps stopped working. And apparently gas cans do not exist in Mexico. I asked Fernando if they sell them and he asked me what you would need anything like that for. For a situation exactly like this, Fernando. So anyway, we waited there for a while hoping the power would come back on soon. It didn’t. Memo and the others were in his truck which had gas so they drove on to find the next gas station. It was twenty kilometres down the road. We decided to gamble and try to make it and if we didn’t they would come save us. On the way we got stuck in a bit of traffic as a tree had fallen across the highway and I haven’t seen rain like this since the storm that collapsed our greenroom roof in Australia. At any rate, we didn’t make it. So they filled up empty water bottles and whatever else they could find with gas and brought it to us. We had run out of gas about a kilometre away from the gas station. The whole adventure was really quite funny. We blame karma.

So yesterday I was terribly ill. My entire body ached: my head hurt, my back was killing me, my legs ached… it was awful. And I have never been so tired in my life. But today I feel fine. I have no idea what happened. But Jess and I decided we should start packing today and she was getting together all her documentation to get out of the country and discovered she has lost a wallet containing her visa and the equivalent to about $90. So she gets to go visit the police today to report it and then go to Guadalajara to go to the embassy to get a new visa. Good times!