Ok, strange title I know but is basically the direction of travel I have taken so far in my just over 1 week of Mex style adventure. From Pachuca to Mexico City to Cuernavaca to Guadalajara and now I am 17 hours south of Guad in Oaxaca (Pron. Wah-ha-ca). But more importantly see the wiggerly line in the above picture that is the strengthening Australian dollar against the Mexican peso, not so important to most but it was at its highest level for a long time on Thursday.
In continuing, Mexico city an absolutely massive city with a population similar to the population of Australia (23 billion) but in a space a hell of a lot smaller;
- City 1,485 km² (573.36 sq mi) - Metro 7,854 km² (3,032.4 sq mi)
But an efficient and functional metro system (that Melbourne could certainly learn something from) helps to ferry you around quite easily to pretty much anyplace in the city that your heart could desire. If not take on of the ever present taxis or autobus's. The other major feature of Chilangolandia is the Zocolo, blogged about previously, but this time when I was there, the worlds largest ice rink happened to be there too. And the first night I arrived I spotted a line up next to the rink, thinking that skating on the worlds biggest rink could be a bit of fun, I lined up too. But it turns out I was wrong, when I finally got in, I discovered much to my surprise that I was to watch The Nutcracker on Ice, performed by a Russian ballet troupe accompanied by the Mexico City Orchestra. An interesting night to say the least. Other sights visited by your worldly author include Frida Kahlo house, The Anthropology Museum and the UNESCO listed national university UNAM home to a student body of 100,000.
Also performed a day trip of sorts to the Chilango paradise of Cuernavaca, where DF residents escape the smog for the weekend and gringos infest the shops. I was in the town for only a couple of hours then I made my escape to; Xochicalco a fantastic example of a early Classic period religious and trading centre and the ball courts were pretty sweet to boot.
The next resting place of my well used backpack was the slightly northern city of Guadalajara birthplace of the legendary Mariachi, where 4 days were spent getting to know the very people friendly city. Also there I met some pretty cool other backpackers, such as Lina a Korean girl I had met in DF and Meg a fellow Melbournite, both of whom where making a solo trip all the way down to South America. Various sights seen like the ridiculously large market, that two friends got lost in, and I got slightly disorientated for 2 hour and food poisoning from. But a new pair of sunglasses was purchased there as the black pair of Cervantino had finally died a couple of weeks before after being superglued back together 5 times. I felt yellow to be an appropriate colour. Day tripped from here to the town of Tequila home to the mexican recognised drink, nerded it up on a factory tour, asking all sorted of steam, water treatment and pressure related questions. Had had our 10 free shots at the end of the tour, a good 7 more than any other members of the tour group. Also got to quite naughtily taste the 65+% pure tequila before it was cut down to sell-able quantity, good times.
And now I am in Oaxaca, for a couple of days to sample the local food and no doubt have my way with some of the vast quantities gringa.
Musical sample this week is from of course mariachi (well, kind of),
Finally have finished work and now the travel has begun. The vague plan at the moment is to go from here in Mexico City, south to Chiapas and Yucatan and then onto Belize and Central American adventure.
Musical post is from Kinky a band from Monterrey, whom played in Pachuca last weekend, I did not actually go to the concert but to the after party where the lead singer and some other local DJ's played sets until 5.30am, it was a good night.
With work finishing this week and leaving Pachuca next weekend I felt it to be a fond farewell to knock out some notes and highlights of my time working in Tizayuca and living in Pachuca.
Weather While the end of summer and the beginning of autumn was a dreary and wet occasion, autumn this far above sea level (2400m) is a wonderful dry cold, topped off by the thin as dust and sand everywhere around work, every time a bus or other vehicle goes past a quality noseful is inhaled accompanied by distinct level of temporary blindness. Mmmm you don’t know winter in Mexico until you get to cough up a lungful of silt and wiped the sand out of your eyes for the 50th time. But on that note, temperatures in Mexico have actually been at all time lows, with some areas being -3C and other places being at a record -10C and winter has not even began yet.
Work So it turns out not being fluent in Spanish was slightly against me in working over here, due to only about 6 people at the factory being fluent enough in conversation English. But I can say I am now the master of my own domain, which was proposal review and economic comparison in the latter half of my contract. Thus my technical Spanish has improved 10 fold, but I still have the occasional difficulty in deciphering a menu when going out for lunch.
Working in the project engineering department, I discovered I may not be cut out for this type of engineering, Most days I felt like an over qualified accountant, making numbers look pretty to decide on the cheapest proposal. One of my favourite time was this month where I had a mild disagreement with one of the Project Managers over the use of BioGas from Anaerobic reactor for the mill’s wastewater. He was adamant that the cost of flaring was not justified and we should just vent the 400 m3/hr of gas (80% methane) directly to the atmosphere…. (mainly because in Mexico there are no regulations or requirements in the emissions of methane) Apart from the devastating environmental impact of all that CH4 contribution to the greenhouse affect, the explosive risk of that much methane was fair mad. With a Flammable Range (Explosive Range) of 5- 15% while now where near the range of Acetylene or Hydrogen there was a definite safety issue looming should the direct vent go ahead. If anyone want to know, burning the biogas to generate electricity is relatively clean (as long as the exhaust gases are scrubbed for H2S) and safe way to make a positive use of the generated BioGas.
It was definitely good to get the experience working in Mexico, not just with the cultural and language differences but as further self improvement to see if I could work professionally in a foreign country. While not a absolute success story I feel I contributed meaningfully to the company, they got to practice their English in reading my (quote: very useful) reports and I got to learn how a recycled paper manufacturer operates.
Español My Spanish definitely did not improve as fast as I had expected, I can read alright now, the extent of my writing is MSN and sms’s, I can understand most of what I am hearing but speaking is a whole other ball game. Main reason being with the student wage I was being paid I could not afford to get any sort of lessons, so I bought a Spanish language book and dictionary. This obviously was not the most ideal way to learn the language, but it worked kind of, I just had to guess at the pronunciation of most words. The other major hurdle was my accent, a challenge in itself for the locals to understand, at first I just though it was because they were unused to an Australian accent, then I heard another Australian speaking Spanish and decided, it was definitely the accent.
Pachuca With a population of 250K it is a little big town, but still the ever gargantuan shadow of DF (Chilangolandia) just up the road reflects upon the ‘Windy City’.
Things I did in Pachuca: - Got a mexican girlfriend - Friends with some Cartel (Narco) kids, we discussed their gun collections (AK47, 9mm, antique shotguns, 50 cal pistol) - Did not get arrested - Lived in 2 different houses over 4 months - Went to a random after party in an unfinished garage, DJ´s from the bar set a complete sound system with decks and it went off - Drank tequila y beer - woke up in strange houses - went to just about every bar in town - saw the sights and generally enjoyed my time here
About Pachuca: - Old silver mining town - Football in Mexico originated here from the Cornish Miners - The Cornish pastie (paste) and its Mexican variants sold absolutely everywhere, with a town up the road (Real de Monte) renown for the quality pasties. - Giant French designed clock tower in the middle of the town - All the hotties migrate from here to DF, could explain why the quality is way low to the ground - People buy a bottle of spirits and then dance around their table at bars - My first house was near the hooker pick-up area, funnily enough close to one of the universities
And off to travel I will go in exactly a week, time to see Mexico.
En el Camino To be a backpacker that has not read ‘On the Road’ is akin to being a child star in the 90’s and Michael Jackson not touching you in the bathing suit area, I just felt I missing out on something.
I first heard of this book when I was in a little fishing village in the northern reaches of Norway back in 2004, at least 3 other backpackers at this hostel had the book, one of them was even a german translation. So impressed was I of the way they spoke of this book I decided that I must read this novel fellow traveler held at such a high pedestal. 4 years later I finally read an electronic copy during my lunch times at work was impressed, the tale books along at a very frantic pace. I would certainly believe the rumor that Jack Kerouac wrote “the scroll” in 3 weeks on Benzedrine, with such short sentences and the actions jumping, chopping and changing it makes you feel like Sal, always on the go to the next town. I’m not going to review the book, for that has been done enough times before , but I will say that I definitely dig the seminal Beat generation ‘manual’. The only thing I will do is present some choice quotes that I extracted while reading, as I felt some of them to parallel my own thoughts of travel and being in Mexico.
Kerouac, Jack - On The Road
"Mañana" she said. "Everything'll be all right tomorrow, don't you think, Sal-honey, man?" "Sure, baby, mañana." It was always mañana. For the next week that was all I heard -- mañana, a lovely word and one that probably means heaven.
- Living in mexico you can really get a love / hate relationship with this word since time being such a relative concept. Case in point, getting paid at work, I never thought it would be such a challenge for the bean counters to pay me on a regular date each month, clearly it was, on average they were between 1 week and 2 weeks late, yah. But, sexo in noche y mañana. love that wake up call.
This can't go on all the time -- all this franticness and jumping around. We've got to go someplace, find something."
- Sometimes you just get sick of all the moving, the new places, the next church, etc you just want to lie in bed and do fuck all. Static not flow.
Dean had a sweater wrapped around his ears to keep warm. He said we were a band of Arabs coming in to blow up New York.
- Prediction of the future….?
"Whither goest thou?" echoed Dean with his mouth open. We sat and didn't know what to say; there was nothing to talk about any more. The only thing to do was go.
- ‘cause sometimes talk is cheap, and action is what is needed
It's a Victorian police force; it peers out of musty windows and wants to inquire about everything, and can make crimes if the crimes don't exist to its satisfaction.
- Although in reference to US cops, this definitely applies to the pinche policia aqui
What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -- it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.
- What is written is the gospel truth
Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.
- Road is life, hells bells dat be it
Suddenly he bent to his life and walked quickly out of sight. I gaped into the bleakness of my own days. I had an awful long way to go too.
- Self development a continuous changing notion for me
We saw great stacks of pesos on a table and learned that eight of them made an American buck, or thereabouts. We changed most of our money and stuffed the big rolls in our pockets with delight.
- Based in the 1950’s (ha) now 13 peso to the $, thank you US economy collapse.
The musical post for this week is not mexican, but the metal giants from Brazil...Sepultura. They play DF tomorrow, so I thought it fitting to post.
Of late I've decided to try and travel locally as much as possible, so this is the summary of some the places that I've checked out in the past couple of months. Huasca y Basilica A relaxing Sunday of local travel
Huasca is a town of somewhat more classical style as far as mexican towns go, unlike the more modern style of concrete boxes mascaraeding as a habitable abode for people. This basically means the the beautiful looking town is packed to the gills with tourists from DF admiring the wonderous nature of the cobblestone streets, the colours of the buildings and the sights and sounds of the market where every single vendor sells exactly the same things. Clearly the modern sales approach of product differentiation and niche marketing has not taken off in this town of old world charm.
Then we traveled onto the local example of ecotourism, the Basilica, an interesting array of hexigonal rock formations (see the pics for a better view of poorly described rocks). With a large waterfall running through the middle of this unique natural attraction, it made for some very picturesque photos. And after a hard day of doing relatively nothing, it was time to sit down and relax with a nice cocktail of Clamato y Cerverza (tomato Juice and beer with a dash of chilli, lime and salt), which unusual as it sounds tastes alright.
Veracruz aka why hurricane season is not a good time to travel to the east coast
This trip was one of the rare examples where it was planned more than just the day before, Anna my ex-corridor compadre from Sverige happened to be studying monkey's in the little town of Catemaco on the east coast. Thus it was decided that we should arrange some sort of old style meet up to reminisce and discuss our shit lack of spanish skills. Being the eternal cheapskate that I am I opted for the cheaper 2nd class overnight bus from Pachuca to our destination of choice, Veracruz. Rather than paying 100 peso more and being comfortable I decided to make this sacrifice, and figured sleep would kill off any badness that could occur. (Mind you some overnight bus routes in Mexico occasionally get held up by bandits, I forgot to check if this was one of them). But yet again being the over 6ft foreigner has yet again worked against my sexy self. As soon as the bus left the station the overtly kind person in front of me decided to recline their seat back as far as possible leaving me with a semi permanent imprint of the indentations from the seat in my knee caps. The bus also managed to go from boiling hot when we left Pachuca to fucking freezing cold on arrival to Veracruz. As per usual the 2nd class bus was an experience in itself, music blaring all night and the lights going on and off as people entered and exited the bus. It was reminiscent of one of the many bus trips i took in Thailand, just lacking the chickens.
Onto the actual weekend itself, when I arrived it was drizzling, humid and generally pretty damp this continued for the entire 2 days we were there. A side note, at the time I had a cold which had manged to block up my head well good, turns out it is not a good thing to go from 2500m above sea level to normality. I couldn't hear out of my left ear on arrival, and it took 5 hours for the pressure to normalise and my hearing to return, and when it did it was quite a cause for celebration. I killed some time in the local cafe waiting for my amigo to arrive and my hearing to return, drinking a couple of very good local coffees which the state of Veracruz is renown for. When Ana arrived is turned out that she was just recovering from Dengue Fever, something I also got to experience when I was in lived in BKK, so it was decided with my cold induced lack of hearing and her recovering medical condition that we would take it easy for the weekend with nothing to strenuous. Due to the hilarious level of rain, the large majority of this weekend was spent inside cafes drinking coffee to avoid the precipitation and when it did stop for the occasional hora we would rapidly see some sights around town or by the seaside. Some highlights definitely were seeing the locals busting a move in the street, eating the specialty of the region Filete de Pascado veracruz style, checking out the local bar scene and speaking in english. The return bus trip was not as entertaining as i opted for 1st class this time and got to see some quality movies on the 7hr bus ride back. Now anyone who has not taken a bus in mexico will have missed out on the cultural experience that is 3 Jean Claude Van Damme films. something everyone has to do at least once in their lifetime.
One of the more hilarious things in Mexico that the tourist may not experience too often is the road repair by the man on the street. Essentially the large majority of roads near my place of work are fairly rooted due to trucks, the weather and potholes, one of the more ingenious methods of money making that the locals engage in is non-council sponsored road repair. The process is fairly simple,
1. Aquire suitable medium to place into road divets, aka dig up the side of the road so there is now a 1 m3 hole in the ground, and next to it a large pile of ex-footpath dirt. (side note , also preferable to dig hole near long grass, increases likelihood of pedestrian ensnarement)
2. Place dirt into bucket and proceed to fill in pot holes as traffic weaves around both you and non-filled pot holes. Once all holes in your local vicinity are filled proceed to indicate to passing vehicles that 'yes it was me that has filled in these holes thus making your journey easier and considerable less hazardous for the next 10m'. Tips will come flowing in from grateful drivers as they pass. profit handsomely.
3. Await rain, repeat process.
And near where I live and work it rains on average about once every 2 days, creating muddy holes where once stood proud achievements of civil engineering.
The key to this exercise is knowing the machista culture that is mexico, when a pretty girl walks down the street, half the cars driving past will toot with appreciation. And now begins the exercise at hand, compared to some asian countries where it may look like there is no road rules and you will most certainly die crossing the road, where all you need to do is boldly march out into on coming traffic at a constant pace, completely ignoring all vehicles and they will miraculously avoid you every time. Sadly mexico is not like said countries, if you tried above method here, you would get about 4m then become a road pancake due to a car avoiding another 20 potholes has taken you out by driving on the wrong side of the road.
Here it is rather simple, wait until the traffic dies down into another traffic jam or await a pretty young chica to cross the road as due to the large % of male driver in about 10sec one car will stop so the senorita can cross the road, the other lanes of road following suit. It could be because of some sort of manners towards women that were killed off in Australia by Germain Greer, or it could be that all the male drivers just want to check out her arse as she walks past. Basically, while they are all ogling, one just does the old Harold Holt and successfully traverses to the other side of the road.
This 2nd update will detail my time in mexico for the time being, for the lazy or faint at heart this update will include mentions of beer, nudity and general shenanigans.
Cd. Juarez Dodgy ass boarder town no one should be stuck in longer than 5 min, and of course I was there for 2 hours attempting to find the immigration office to track down this elusive tourist card and get my passport stamped. With many a official sending your kindly author in the wrong direction, when all I had to do was find the other bridge, easier than it sounds when there is only 2 bridges, 300m apart.
Pachuca (new home town) For a Mexican city Pachuca is somewhat on the small side, with a population of about 300,000 it is of a reasonable enough size for me. The town itself is ringed in by hills on all sides, which is pretty cool as each morning when i take my 2nd minibus to work i get to see the sun rising over the hills lighting up the town, if i remember there will be photos.
(continuing on from Part 1 my introduction to Pachuca......) After arriving late Saturday night into Pachuca, Sunday was show the Australiano the true mexican experience day. First there was breakfast of tacos, then we were to go to the sauna, which i thought meant a bit of a swim and a lazy sweat and steam. Not exactly. Alarm bells should have started ringing about the point where a request was not made for me to bring the swimming trunks, maybe we were going to a classy venue which supplied trunks for perplexed gringo's. Sauna did not really mean swimming as I so wrongly thought it did. In the car to the 'sauna' the dictionary was brought out again, mmm, undress was the word in english. ok, when in pachuca, do as..... yes it was the fully nude sauna experience i really wanted to experience on my 2nd day in Mexico. there was most sausage than that time we went to the wiener festival in Austria.
The rest of the day went rather smoothly as we traveled to various location in Pachuca, my landlord and his friend making sure i sampled as many local delicacies as possible in the one day. So I would be round and fat ready for work the next day.
Random points of note about Mexico so far......
Cerveza – Mexican beer an experience in itself, light and tasty enough that it is perfectly normal to flavour with various substances such as with salt and lime, and don't get me wrong, all those wankers in Australia with their lime'd corona are still wankers. but the ¾ beer ¼ lime and salt mix works so well.
Work - Just some quick points I will allocate some more details on this another time. I live in another town 30km away from where i work so each day is an adventure. I must take 2 minibuses (combi) to get from my house in the hills, to the centro, change to the next one to the bus station and then take a long distance bus to Tizayuca then take another combi to Rey Cartonera (work). Oh the fun times I have. For those not in the know I am working at a paper manufacturing facility, which recycles old cardboard to make the paper rather than pulping woodchips, it is one of the biggest paper manufacturers in North America.
Public Transport - They are all over the public transport business here like white on rice in a snowstorm. With mini vans (Combi's) serving the general population as a faster, cheaper and smaller alternative to buses, I can get to most place around town in about 20min. But when these fine devices of human evolution stop running for the night one can always take one of the many taxi's of Pachuca. for $6 i can get 25min across town to where the bars are at, tis pretty sweet.
Road Trip 1 A couple of weeks or so ago i went on a bit of a road trip with a friend of a friend to, 'the mall' of DF (Mexico City), basically an epic mall of outlet stores, where I made the purchase of Calvin Klein jeans for ½ price and at $30 I could have easily have fed 40 staving mexican children for maybe a month if they began cannibalism early on in that period of time. Yes I am a label whore.
more road trips as they happen, stay tuned for more exciting updates from the whitest aussie in mexico
After spending a fantastic week in New Zealand with friends I had not seen and others I had not seen since the Linkoping days. My time spent there included touring the heady sights of Auckland and Wellington, and damn was it cold there. Had a brilliant time there seeing the night life of Auckland and the museums of both the capital and down south. But then came the time for me to leave the cold for the burning heat of LA (first day in LA I got sunburn).
Onto the glitz and glam that is LA and oh the antics that did occur once I crossed that pond. I stayed down by the beach in an area called Venice and it was an interesting experience to say the least. In the 3 total days I stayed in Venice I was mistaken for being homeless not once, not twice, but 3 times. It must have been all that walking I was doing. No one walks nor takes public transport in that city, except for the Mexicans, homeless and Alister. Venice beach was full of colourful and wild characters, Santa Monica Pier was well smick and on the day I did venture into the unknown world of public transport into LA I can report back that the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Bvld. has way more sex shops and tattoo parlors than I imagined one street could contain (and i did consider combining both, nice tat' of a blow up doll, then i imaged explaining that one to the parental unit....).
Point of note to anyone visiting LA, the greyhound bus station is truly on skid row, it was dodgy as hell while waiting for the bus to vegas, drunks, addicts and homeless as far as the eye could see.
Vegas Where LA was plastic fantastic, Las Vegas can only be described as fucking madness. Zombies playing the slots all day and night, people blind drunk on $1 Margaritas at 10am, this was truly the town that doesn't sleep. And by the beard of Zeus, there were more telly tubbies on the strip than Australia can possibly dream of, I want a recount on the obesity rate business. I managed to stay 2 days in this town of debauchery at the Sahara Casino, which was easily 1 day too many.
Flagstaff 'Kicked Arse' Fantastic student town, brilliant hostel in the Grand Canyon Youth Hostel, and the people were well chill . The Grand Canyon and Sedona have to be some of the most awe inspiring and wonderful natural scenery that I have every seen in my life. Just to be able to say that I have hiked the Grand Canyon makes me proud.
And let it be said, Native Americans are an angry bunch, and rightly so, went to a local metal gig in Flagstaff and saw the craziest pit I'd not seen the likes of since the younger years in the 'rat.
Santa Fe I met up with Andrew 'the man' Norskog and proceeded to explore the night and day side of Santa Fe for 1 week. In the sobering light of day I did managed to explore the very different town of Santa Fe, with more art galleries than one can poke a stick at and only having a modest population. It is was like a giant artistic commune as a town, filled with Texan tourists and locals who liked to party a lot.
One of the more interesting things I gained from my time with Mr Norskog was how to make bloody beers.
Bloody Beer 1 can/bottle of mexican beer (Tecate as used in this case) 0.5 part V8 juice dash of Hot Sauce lime, salt to taste
The perfect way to continue the drinking the next day, fighting the hangover and contributing to your ongoing health all at the same time.
We also managed to do a hike of sorts around some beautiful natural scenery in the form of an area called the 'tent rocks' which are these conical shaped rock formations which have been formed from the elements. And through some forrestry area.
But like all things again the party had to end, and on Friday the 25th of July I boarded the 9am bus from Santa Fe to Albuquerque the first of many types of transport to make my way to Pachuca, Mexico. From Albuquerque I took the LA El Paso mexican Limo to El Paso Texas. I would highly recommend this to anyone over the crappy greyhound service, on this bus I got an assigned seat, the bus left on time and it was half the price of greyhound, winner in my book. 5 hours later it was time to walk across the 'friendship bridge' into mexico with the highly expensive charge of 35c i made my way across into the unknown, with a couple of thousand mexicans. Cd. Juarez is as dodgy as it is describe everywhere, the cartels do truly control everything and there is no police that i saw there, just the army rolling around in Hummers with mounted .50 cal. I got out of there ASAP onto a bus bound for DF (mexico city) for a 24hr journey in a very nice 1st class bus. From DF got a bus to Pachuca, which is relatively close at 90 km away.
At 11.30pm on 26th July I finally arrived in Pachuca, I was tired, I smelt like a walking armpit and I had eaten twice that day so I was ready to eat a horse and chase down the jockey, beat him with metal bar around the ankles and dine on his entrails. This tale will be continued in the next epic adventure of 'Alister Tour of Dignity in the Americas', Pt. 2 The Kangaroo of Pachuca.
Like the rest of the world I have started a Blog...now my mindless and self bemusing tales can be spread far further into the tubes of the internet. To begins I will will lazily repost some other keyboard dribble I have knocked out previously, but the idea of this blog will be one of travel and music of that region, thus like a phoenix rising from the ashes...TrackPacker is back. To the large majority not in the know, this was the name of a short lived, highly underrated radio travel show featured on Melbourne's own Syn FM.
Since I am currently working and occasionally traveling in Mexico at the moment, here is something I will be checking out this weekend in the 500 year old town of Guanajuato.Should be an interesting weekend from what my friends have told me it is kind of like a giant street party, I'll post a trip report and some pics whence I return.
El Cervantino (Cervantino International Festival)
This yearly festival is organized during October and normally lasts three weeks, Guanajuato becomes a living theater and museum. The festival features avant-garde artistic performances and exhibitions of fine, classic and modern art. Countries from around the world are represented, with over two thousand national and international artists displaying their works of art. You will find classical music and electronic rhythms, along with folkloric and contemporary dance, as well as plays and multimedia shows. Cinema, visual arts, workshops and activities for the kids can also be enjoyed throughout the festival. Be prepared to immerse yourself in folklore, jazz, DJ's, poetry readings, exhibits, conferences, puppet shows, concerts, and hundreds of activities that represent the very best of the international arts.
