Mexico City, 2009, 6

Sat., Oct. 31, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.

I went out for another walk that took me past Paseo de la Reforma and back again.  It is a wealthier neighbourhood with nice restaurants, shops, etc.  On the way over I had to dodge two youths who were  break-dancing for donations  on the crosswalk of a very busy street with at least eight lanes.  They didn't seem to care that I was coming and I had to yell at them, ¨Dejame pasar!¨ or let me pass.  Mexicans do not have a concept of personal space  so it is easy to get annoyed with strangers in my face all the time.  I have noticed today that my nerves are especially on edge from the constant noise, and I am wondering about the wisdom of staying  here for an entire  month, but as  my mother used to say, ¨You made your bed, so  lie  in it!¨ There was also a pleasant pedestrian mall, but I think I mentioned this in a previous entry.  Then I came across a small lump of matted feathers on  the pavement then  realized  from  the reddish-brown feathers of what used to be wings that it was the remains of one of the many little doves that live here.  They are tiny, just a bit larger than a sparrow, with a pointed tail and as I said these lovely red wings that show only when they fly.  They are everywhere and they are  so delicate looking. Upstairs at the RTH I was serenaded by a crying baby.  She is eighteen months old and the daughter  of a young English woman  who works as an anthropologist in Honduras.  Right now she is visiting Mexico City along with her parents from London.  Despite the noise from  the kid they are lovely people and I heard her mother playing wonderfully on the baby grand in the living room.  She is classically trained and her compositions sound a lot like some of the work of Philip Glass, who is also one of my favourite  contemporary composers.  Meanwhile I was in the courtyard working on a new painting, and it is freezing today.  The wind is cold and it feels no different from Vancouver this time  of year.  Afterward I went back to El Pendulo for dinner.  Frustrating.  A man joined the young woman at the next table and started noisily sucking face (kissing passionately) which is done quite openly here because, as I said, these people have no sense of personal space, and this wasn´t exactly great for my appetite, so I moved to a different table in what I thought would be a quiet corner, but it was also the dvd section, and suddenly different people wanted to browse nearly hanging over my head while I was eating, and one woman  started on her cell phone, which got me to dramatically move my table and chair to get away from her.  Then a couple parked on the couch right in  front of me and started sucking face and that´s when I asked for the cheque, which the waiter took his sweet  time delivering so no one got a tip tonight. I honestly don´t know how people can live in this city.  Yes it is fascinating with lots  to see and do, but this is insane.  I think this will be my last big  city visit  for a while. One pleasant couple from Seattle are sharing their docent with me, a lady who has been giving us all kinds of fascinating information about the history of Mexico City and the Aztecs, for example about how human sacrifice began as a way to propitiate the sun god into continuing to shine in order to guarantee good harvests, and that this happened on a cycle of every fifty-two years, and of how they would meticulously align their temples and other buildings in order to correspond with the positions of the sun, moon and stars.  Hey, in spite of my bitching I am glad to be here, and I will be bringing home with me memories that I will likely treasure for the rest of my life.  I just hope that I can  leave Montezuma and his revenge behind. Sun., Nov. 1, 2009 at 6:22 p.m. Today I spent two and a half hours over coffee with my contact person in Mexico City, Alberto, and his girlfriend Tanya.  A very lovely young couple. Alberto works as a financial advisor and Tanya is studying for the same profession.  I had many questions for them about Mexico City and Mexico and they helped provide me with some  interesting background and information.  I think our visit helped me get a better sense of the, shall we say, Mexican  Essence.  They explained to me that Mexicans tend to be very spontaneous and playful, they do not save money and they don´t think much about the future.  Enjoying the moment is particularly important to them.  This is why, I think, so many Canadians are envious of Mexicans.  (not me, I love being a stuck-up tight-ass prig.  Well, okay, maybe not always!)  Alberto has visited Canada a couple of times, I believe in Toronto and Calgary (not sure about Calgary)  His observations about Canadians are quite interesting.  He essentially finds us very admirable with our cultural diversity and openness and tolerance.  He also thinks we´re  kind of rigid and conservative and so goal-oriented and production obsessed that we´re not really that great at enjoying life.  He´s pretty smart, eh?  They also mentioned that the Roman Catholic faith is very foundational to Mexican culture and this also explains a lot.  They also confirmed my observation of the disproportionate population of indigenous Mexicans in the armed forces, and for the same reason as why generally people from poorer backgrounds here in Canada and the US enlist: to get out of the poverty trap.  I also learned that people in the military are very passionate about their profession here.  They also explained that the reason for the strong police presence here is because of the huge threats of crime, especially against tourists, though in  other parts of Mexico City one doesn´t have this sort of police presence.   Very few Mexicans, it appears, live away from their families.  You often have three generations under the same roof together and it is unusual for an adult to live away from home before marriage.  Also families tend to take very good care of their elders here.  It also appears that because families stick so close together here that there appears to be very little homelessness here.  We did the whole visit in Spanish which was great for me because I really need the conversation practice. When I got back to RTH I visited in the courtyard with some Mexicans who now live in Venezuela.  We made a deal: I won´t ask them about Hugo Chavez and they won´t ask me about the Olympics!  We were sharing the big marble table where I was also working on painting number two.  One of them lit a cigarette and I resolved for a change not to make a fuss about it since I really need to relax a bit about these issues (though I still haven´t changed my position about second-hand smoke).  They all went out for dinner and then the English lady who is here with her husband, daughter and granddaughter visited for a while with her granddaughter, whom regardless of her noisy little screeches is very delightful.

Mexico City, 2009, 5

Fri., Oct. 30, 2009 at 2:46 p.m.

For  the first time during my visit here at the Red Tree House I breakfasted alone this morning. I was the only one at the table then someone who just doesn't  seem pleasant or sociable sat at the other end of the table, and since I don´t enjoy sharing a table with people I can´t talk to I got up and took my stuff to the living room.  It was rather nice for a change, the peace and quiet, since things can get a little bit more social around here than what I´m used to.  It´s day three for the  dysentery I have been suffering, but I am feeling stronger today.  I just don´t really enjoy eating right now, which is fine with me since I want to lose weight  anyway, and this always happens to me when I travel. They have erected an altar for the dead in the foyer of the Red Tree House here.  It is quite  impressive, with marigolds and sugar and chocolate skulls and candles and fruits, and bottles of whoopee (booze) and two big bouquets of marigolds and some magenta flowers I don´t know  the name of but are shaped rather like marigolds flanking a statuette of the Virgin Mary.  The principal colours are orange and magenta.  It´s quite overwhelming.  Even though there is a certain creep factor about the Day of the Dead celebrations, for me anyway, it seems like a very healthy way of embracing the reality of death, while honouring those who have gone before  us.  This seems to particularly make sense in such a country as Mexico whose history seems particularly soaked in blood (well, whose  isn´t?) but you know, given the particular brutality of los Conquistadores, as well as the barbarity of the religious practices of the Aztecs (80,000 human sacrifices in one week, anybody?  Okay, when you try to work out the logistics of this one it must be an exaggeration, but still...) it seems only logical that they would have this mentality here about death.  But I think I might buy a chocolate skull and take it up to my room  and eat it!  I can only hope that the chocolate is Fair Trade... I went to Coyoacan today for the second time.  I skipped the Frida Kahlo Museum this time (it´s nice but once is enough) and I did a long walk in Los Viveros again.  The place has very much the feel of a sanctuary.  Lots of people go walking or jogging  there.  There are squirrels everywhere.  They seem a bit bigger than ours and they are grey with rust-coloured markings.  There are also geckos all over the place.  At the Zocalo,  they have converted  the Coyote fountain into an  altar for the dead, and it´s covered with marigolds, skulls and these images of skeletons wearing colourful floppy hats that  make me think of the Raging Grannies, though I don´t think any of the Grannies are quite that old yet. (for those of you who don´t live in Vancouver and have never heard of the Raging Grannies, it is a group of senior women who dress in outlandish floppy hats and colourful shawls and attend demonstrations where they sing satirical songs in support of progressive causes.)  I got back to the bed and breakfast just when it started raining and we´ve been having a thunderstorm.  I am told that it is unusual to have rain here this time of the year. Fri., Oct. 30, 2009 at 4:27 p.m. By the way, on my second walk in Los Viveros today, I encountered a sandy, grassy clearing where several young men were practicing their matador skills.  There were eight altogether I think.  One was holding a cape (pink, for some reason, instead of red) and the other holding a set of bull horns would pretend to be the bull and come charging at him.  Bullfighting, I have heard, is still a popular sport in Mexico, though no one here at the RTH has mentioned it to us.  Either bullfighting is not in season or they know how squeamish North Americans and Europeans tend to be about animal cruelty (though none too squeamish about tucking into their steak dinners.)  This brings to mind the song ¨Matador¨ which is by one of my favourite Latin American bands, ¨Los Fabulosos Cadillacs¨ from Argentina. Sat., Oct. 31, 2009 at 11:12 a.m. I took a walk this morning outside of the neighbourhood I am staying in.  I wanted to see what it looked like, how it felt.  There was nothing beautiful about it.  Traffic, ugly buildings, but lots of trees for compensation.I must have covered about three miles.  I ended up at Chapultepec Park, in the military zone.  No sidewalks, busy traffic and a pedestrian overpass, with guards and restricted to military use only. I could not understand the guard´s Spanish but his accent was dreadful.  He also looked rather silly in his white sailor´s hat.  Try to imagine what Venezuelan president and wannabe dictator Hugo Chavez must have looked like twenty years ago or  so.  There was a subway station  nearby so I returned by metro.  Even though it isn´t enjoyable I appreciate these walks as a way of getting to know a city better.  It is easy to get the feeling that most people who live in Mexico City really have to struggle to get by, much less  succeed in life.  If you have not been born into wealth, or blessed with good  family, social and professional connections, chances are you will wind up shining shoes  or hawking cd´s on the Metro.  Or selling drugs.  I have read in the newspapers that they are beginning to call Mexico a failed state.  I shudder to think how much Canada is beginning to slide in this direction as well.  I think we can still change the current if we act  now.

Mexico City, 2009, 5

Thursday, October 29, 2009, 11:50 AM

I am laying low right now.  I think the combination of rich, and occasionally contaminated food, the stress of travel and social  overload have left me feeling a bit delicate and having to make many unscripted trips to the bathroom.  Or it could be Montezuma´s Revenge.  Stress from constant noise seems to play a role as well.  I had to break up a party in the courtyard below my room (I was polite this time) so I could get to sleep last night.  It seems that I´m the only person in Mexico City who likes to be in bed by 10:30 or so at night, which makes negotiating rest time a little bit tricky.  Earplugs help, because in a place this small with so many people coming and going one can not expect a lot  of quiet.  I´m really not sure that I am cut out for travel because I am so affected by noise, but I  think it´s better at times to fight this  instead of staying at home  to rot  inside of my comfort zone. Over the meridian of Avenida Amsterdam for two or three blocks they have hung these colourful plastic banners that look rather like Tibetan prayer flags, only they feature cut out designs of skulls and sneakers.  I believe this is part of the Day of the Dead celebrations.  Rather odd this association of skulls and sneakers, unless it is a way of conveying that some people´s running shoes smell like death! One guest here who has visited this city several times has commented that the city seems a lot cleaner since the swine flu last spring and people are more diligent about keeping surfaces clean.  I have also noticed that some  people still wear medical masks in public, I believe because they may have flu and don´t want to spread  it. I just met two women from Calgary at breakfast.  One is in Mexico for six  months traveling around.  They seem quite enamoured with this city, but the Mexico City that they are in love with appears to be largely in the Polanco neighbourhood which is very wealthy with fine restaurants  and pricy boutiques.  I tried to tactfully suggest to them that they might try getting around on the transit system to give them more of a sense  of the rhythm of life and the people who live here.  Of course, not every tourist  is really interested in encountering the real people and life  situations of the countries they are visiting. I´m still feeling under the weather, though a bit stronger today, and got out to walk around in Chapultepec Park and then took a long  route back to the hotel.   I sat for a while on one of the exquisite green wrought iron bences in this city on Salamanca  Street, which has very heavy one way traffic. Across the street I could here a tenor practice his vocalize from  a window in the beautiful yellow  and grey building  shrouded in branches and leaves.

Mexico City, 2009, 4

Gentle Reader, I am extending my break from writing.  I cannot think of anything to write that doesn't somehow involve covid 19, unless I put out something that will be even a little bit offensive to the perpetrators of cancel culture.  So, I am going to entertain you over the following weeks with my travel journals since 2008.   I am sure that those who really want to be offended will still not be disappointed.  We are still in Mexico City.  Ta-ta!

Sun., Oct. 25, 2009 at 2:01 p.m.

We´´re having another thunderstorm with  rain this  afternoon.  I got back just in time.  This morning over breakfast I discovered that a lady staying here who lives in Delta has my cousin for an mla (she even voted for you, Guy).  Those six degrees get pretty thin.  We also had a lovely Olympics-bashing party, much to the puzzlement of  other guests. I  wanted to check out the rest of Chapultepec Park and walk in two of the wealthy neighbourhoods nearby, not because I like wealthy neighbourhoods  but for some peace and quiet.  Did another four hours or so of walking.  There is a nice bike and pedestrian trail that goes on quite a way, and also some of the streets on my side of the park have been closed to traffic for cyclists.  One of the traffic cops there told me they do this one Sunday overy month. There does  seem to be a thriving bike community in Mexico City.  I also came across  one of the local cemetaries.  I didn´´t go inside but  noticed that it was almost all mausoleums and it looked like a city of creepy dollhouses.  Polanco is mostly upscale apartment towers and expensive restaurants and shops. The Lomas of Chapultepec are something different altogether.  Mansions sequestered behind walls with armed guards in little  booths with mirror  windows  so  you can´´t see in but they can see out.    There is a beautiful planted boulevard there with a walking path down the middle.  It looks like the boulevard on Cambie Street.  There are also flower and beverage and magazine vendors stationed along there, who obviously don´´t live in the  neighbourhood but their presence keeps it real.  On my way back I noticed again the military presence in the park.  All the soldiers I have seen are dark skinned and indigenous.  I have not seen a single white person in uniform and very few Mestizos. I was also disappointed to learn that a huge part of the park has been fenced off from the public.  It looks overgrown and wild, just the sort of place I´´d  like to go hiking in. Tue., Oct. 27, 2009 at 5:46 a.m. So far this is what I like and what I don´t like about Mexico City:  What I like: 1. The climate.  In spite of the rain and cold mornings we´ve been getting lately it is often sunny and warm in the daytime, but not hot, with temperatures between 15 and 22 degrees.  The thunderstorms are an added treat. 2. Architecture.  Lots to choose from dating back to the sixteenth century.  I especially like the Baroque churches. 3. Statues and monuments everywhere commemorating the many figures who have helped form the nation and culture of Mexico. 4. La Condesa, where I am staying because it is quiet and peaceful. 5. The Red Tree House.  They spoil us here.  The dog is sweet too. 6. Parks, lots of them, especially Chapultepec, which is huge. 7. The museums and art galleries.  Lots to visit, especially the Museum of Anthropology. 8. Paseo de la Reforma.  Mexico City´s grand boulevard which makes  all others look like alleys. 9. Spanish immersion.  I only have to be out in public and eavesdropping and it´s like a free tutorial. 10. The Metro, which is their subway system.  Fare is very cheap, equivilant to less than twenty cents Canadian, and the trains are fast and they take you everywhere. Don´t like: 1. The traffic.  Chelangos should not be allowed ever to sit behind a steering wheel.  Not ever. Traffic is thick, steady, fast, and they treat pedestrians like roadkill. 2. The social inequality.  A few rich, an expanding middle class and lots  of desperately poor who have to struggle to survive. 3. The constant onslaught of hawkers and beggars (see #2) 4. The military presence.  (see #2) 5. The fact that people are allowed to smoke on restaurant and cafe patios,  thus limiting the options of people who are sensitive to smoke and concerned for their respiratory  health. 6. The Metro.  The many hawkers who come on board yelling and playing loud cd demos should be kicked off promptly and immediately. (see #2) 7. The crowds.  I have never seen so many people in one  place. 8. The altitude.  I have been here ten days at least and I´m still  not used to the thin air, which makes long walks  a bit challenging, but I go on them anyway. 9. The way this city is laid out.  It isn´t really.  Too much sudden and rapid growth has created a horrific urban sprawl where you have some very ugly parts jammed up against very beautiful places. 10. The autopistas (freeways,  see #1).  They are everywhere, and they ruin the quality of life for people here, and I think they should be converted into rapid transit routes.  A hard lesson we  are  learning in Vancouver is that the only way to get people to take alternative forms of transit is to make life inconvenient and downright miserable for people who drive cars. Tue., Oct. 27, 2009 at 6:49 p.m. The National Museum of Art is amazing, both for its content and for the building that contains it.  The building itself is a work of art.  It  was built  between 1904 and 1911 and was originally El Palacio de Comunicaciones for public communications such as telegraph, etc.  And what a palace! Beaux Artes style with Baroque, Neo-Classical and Rococco influences.  Marble columns and ceiling murals and I could go on.  It is all Mexican art from the sixteenth century to the present.  I have long been aware that this country has a rich cultural heritage but I was not expecting this!  I was in there for three hours.  On  the main floor they are exhibiting works by a Spanish-Mexican artist, Miguel Prieta who emigrated from Spain as a refugee from the Civil War.  On the way over I stopped in yet another beautiful church.  I am impressed with how many churches in this city remain open to the public every day of the week.  After my tour of the art museum someone stole my umbrella, which belongs to the Red Tree House.  I was careless.  I could have brought my humongous mutant golf umbrella from home but I figured I wouldn´t need it.  Rainy season is over.  And besides, given the crowds and mobs on the sidewalks in this city I might be indicted for carrying a deadly weapon.  On the other hand, it might have done nicely for crowd control.  Or maybe a cattle prod.  I sat outside the art museum on a bench looking at my map.  Then I got up to check out the street behind.  Then I realized I had left the umbrella and ran back to get it.  I had been away from it for less than two minutes and  it was gone, so then I went looking for a store to buy two new ones .  One was to replace the stolen umbrella and the other is going to be my own, because this way I am likely to take better care of it.  I mean, management  and staff here are wonderful and if I´d said anything to them they would tell me not to worry about it, but I really think I should take responsibility for my own mistakes, eh?   I decided to walk the three or four miles back to Red Tree House.  Eventually I got lost, and got super frustrated by vendor stalls making the sidewalks almost impassable and by traffic, especially these winners who block entire sidewalks by parking their vehicles on them.  Okay, I promise that´s the last time I´ll complain about traffic in this city, unless I get run over, and still have the use of my fingers. I mentioned  to Ernesto that he and his colleagues here are amazing with the patience they show towards some of us here, and that he probably has plenty of transferrable skills in case he wants to work at a job such as mine.  Staying here does in some ways remind me of Venture House (for those of you who don´t know Venture House is a small psychiatric facility where I work Fridays.  They are wonderful the way they treat the clients.  Hi George!  Hi Sue!) and as I said to Ernesto, there really isn´t any real difference between people with mental illness and the rest of the population.  The rest of the population simply hasn´t been caught yet!) In many ways, I think that my training and experience in mental health work has done a lot to prepare me for this kind of trip.  Without even knowing it I find myself  treating other guests, and sometimes staff here, like my clients, but I don´t mean in a clinical sense but with respect, sensitivity and discretion. And humour.

Mexico City, 2009, 3

: Saturday, October 24, 2009, 8:41 AM

While La Condesa is a relatively affluent neighbourhood, like Yaletown and Kitsilano, there are also plenty of poor people who come here to beg.  I was accosted by three yesterday while having dinner at a semi-outdoor cafe.  I was seated just inside when one of the local organ grinders came by to serenade us.  These organ grinders are all over Mexico City it seems, and instead of having a monkey there is another guy with his hat inverted to collect donations.  They all wear the same non-descript beige uniforms.  At first I thought they were bus drivers or something.  So I am eating and this guy signals to me with his hat from outside.  I ignored him, hoping he would get the message.  Then he came into the cafe from another side and approached me again with his hat.  I replied ¨Dejeme en paz¨(leave me alone).  So he and his friend left.  Then a little boy, maybe eight years old if that came running over to me for alms.  I told him that you should never disturb someone while they are eating, so he left.  He will likely grow up to be a drug dealer or similar.  Poor kid and there are so many like him.  Then a very sorry looking old man came over for more of the same.  I turned him down.  Not really that much different from Vancouver except that so far anyway we don´´t seem to have any child beggars. Of course it is difficult to not feel sorry or guilty,  but the fact of the  matter is, I am here on a tight budget, and I do not want to become a target to people in the area where I am staying.  Also I do not know enough about the social infrastructure here to be able to get an idea of what´´s really going on in these people´s lives. Next day, Saturday: This morning while finishing my walk on Avenida Amsterdam, by the fountain in the plaza I noticed an older street man crouched down eating with his fingers from take out containers he had fished out of the garbage.  Breakfast was interesting as always.  There are always new people to meet and talk with.  I am quite enjoying these times of meeting new people  from all over.  Among others I talked with a woman from New York City who mentioned to me how 9-11 had brought people  together.  I also met a man and his sister and their aged mother who are visiting from Victoria.   His sister lives in Delta. After breakfast I went walking, in one direction and ended up back on Paseo de  la Reforma. On several blocks were tripods on the sidewalk featuring poetry by local Mexicans, mostly on the theme of benches, as in sitting on park benches.  Mexico City is full of benches, most of which are beautifully crafted from wrought iron.  In the Centro Historico I stopped again in a number of beautiful churches,  including the Cathedral.  While inside the cathedral I was again contemplating  the vastness of this space and all the gold and ornamentation and I had a mental image of Jesus walking through there in poverty and great humility with an ironical smile on his face, as though to say, ¨Thanks you guys, but this isn´´t quite what I had in mind.¨ The first church I sat in was smaller, of Baroque vintage, and an elderly lady came over to tell me that I was inside El Templo de San Judas.  From the Zocalo was a huge parade featuring these bizarrely designed  floats of dragons and other fabulous creatures made from papier mache and marching bands and students carrying signs against rampant consumerism.  On top of one of these fabulous creatures was perched a young woman in black fishnet and wearing a purple top hat.  On a plaza off the Zocalo between the Cathedral and the Templo Mayor were huge crowds of vendors and other people, with scarcely room to stand or move.  There were also Aztec dancers dressed  in feathers and loincloths  with two drummers and a flautist. The site of the ruins of the Templo Mayor were open so I paid admission and explored the place.  Very impressive, with foundations, walls, stairs  and some sculptures of serpent´´s heads. They also have a fine museum with artifacts and dioramas, etc.  From there I wandered further into a poor and very busy commercial area with crowds such as one would only find in a city like Mexico City.  I made it as far as another church surrounded by construction debris then I turned back.  I stopped  in another church, Baroque era, that seems to be under restoration work. They were playing piped in Bach and Vivaldi which was great to hear while seated inside.  Outside, all along the sidewalk that flanks the church are seven pedestals supporting white statues of Mary, Jesus and various saints.  Each figure is life-size and flanked  by two shorter angels, some of which are missing a wing or an arm.

Mexico City 2009

 Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 6:26 PM

Today I went to Coyoacan, a small city south of Mexico City, but now a suburb thanks to urban sprawl.  The name is Aztec for Place of the Coyotes They can have ours too.  Apart from the relentless traffic from the autopista it's a beautiful town.  The autopistas, or freeways cross  Mexico City all over the place.  The traffic gridlock is incredible and one can wait for five minutes or longer before being able to cross the street alive in some places because traffic lights do  not favour pedestrians, are often hard to see or read for pedestrians and drivers often ignore red lights and walk signals and always ignore crosswalks.  A visitor here is more likely to get run over than to be a crime victim. This is where the artist Frida Kahlo  lived  and Leon Trotsky. Her house has been converted into a museum featuring some of her paintings as well as a few works by Diego Rivera, to whom she  was married twice and another artist.  Some of the rooms have been restored to look exactly as  they  did when she lived there.  There is also  a large and attractively planted courtyard garden with seating and a small photo exhibit and three wary cats.  From  there I wandered around and got lost.  For me getting lost is an important part of travelling.  I don't know why, but as I mentioned before, I think this is part of the process of remapping my brain.  Rather like walking a labyrinth writ large.  I stumbled across the central market which was quite a surreal experience with everything and everyone crammed in there (it's huge).  I also wandered across a  couple of parks and found the main city square where there was a vocal demonstration of local merchants who have been put out of work by bad city planning.  I went into the church, la Parroquia San Juan el Bautista which is huge and ornate and very beautiful.  My guess is it dates back to the early Baroque (1600's)  Again a  lot of gold covering and embellishing things.  I want to go back, because seeing it once is not enough.  Afterward I came across Los Viveros de Coyoacan, which is a tree nursery that serves also as a public park.  The space is enormous, maybe half the size of Stanley Park, with paths going everywhere and trees growing everywhere.  This is another place I want to return to. I have a similar problem with museums that I have with zoos.  No matter how authentically they restore something for public viewing it is still only an imitation of life.    Seeing Frida´s perfectly arranged bedroom I could only try to imagine how it must have really looked while she lived there.  How the bed looked with her sleeping in it, or with husband Diego in it, or Trotsky with whom  she was lovers.  Likewise the kitchen.  How did it look when food was being prepared in it and things being chopped, dropped and spilled?  On the other hand the market was teeming with life and movement and colour and sound, and I think that Frida's house while she lived there would have  had more in common with the market than the lifeless and pretty museum they have made to honour her. I am only beginning to learn the subway system here.  It is easy to get lost, the trains are usually packed with standing room only.  I am still struck by the rudeness and lack of courtesy in this city, though one on one I have found the Chilangos to be nice and courteous.  On the crowded car going back an elderly woman had to stand while very ignorant looking young people occupied the courtesy seats.  I tried to ask them, por favor la da su asiento a la anciana? (please give your seat to this elderly woman?) They pretended not to hear me and I  knew they could hear me because another fellow standing there looked on with ironical sympathy.  Es ridículo, I said to him and he nodded in agreement. You also see on the  subways, as I have already mentioned, a lot of evidence of the poverty that people are still trapped in here, and their different ways of managing it.  There are often beggars outside the Metro stations, in many cases  indigenous women and old women with children and grandchildren.  On the train going out to Coyoacan two musicians came on board playing Andean music.  They were very good.  On the way back there was yet another young dumbass hawking CD´s while serenading us with loud and awful classic rock.

Mexico City 2009

Monday, 19 Oct. 2009 I´ve been sleeping fitfully since I arrived here Friday, but that´s to be expected.  I also experienced this in Costa Rica last year and eventually I´ll sleep well.  I lumbered over to Chapultepic Park only to be told by one of the security guards that the park is closed Mondays.  Who ever heard of a city park being closed on Mondays!  I then tried to walk around the circumference of the park just to get a sense of its size and presence, but soon there was no sidewalk and nothing but oncoming traffic seeking its prey.  I nearly got run over earlier this morning because some idiot had parked right on the corner (a lot of people do this in this city, and incidentally almost no one uses their turn signals, and pedestrians are just as bad since everyone crosses against the traffic.)  I eventually made it to a network of charming streets near my neighbourhood but my objective was to find the Paseo  de Reforma which is the Grand Boulevard of Mexico City.  Think of Georgia Street on steroids.  Reforma has, I think twelve lanes separated by one, and in the part near Chapultepic Park, two planted boulevards with plenty of statues and monuments along the way.  I think it was about a two mile walk but I made it to the Zocalo, which is the central square of the city.  This is the world´s largest public square and it holds the legislative buildings, the Cathedral and the presidential palace.  This week there appears to be a book fair on in the square with white tents and pavillions all over under which books are being displayed and sold.  I would like to see the square empty in order to get a sense of its enormity.  It is also part of the historic district where all the charming old architecture is concentrated. Everything in this city, it seems, is huge and the distances  between places are vast.  The cathedral itself could easily contain four or five Christ Church Cathedrals.  The high altar and many of the shrines are covered in gold, likely plundered from the Aztecs, and who only knows from whom they must have plundered it.  Speaking of size, this also makes me think of what happens when everything gets too big and takes on its own life and momentum, killing and destroying every form of life that gets in its way, and so you have the phenomenon of urbanization.  This makes me also think of the myth of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to human kind, and was thus punished for thousands of years being chained to a rock while an eagle would come every day to feed on his liver.  And it turns out that humankind wasn´t ready for this gift. Almost across the street from the cathedral are the ruins of one of the Aztec temples, only discovered thirty years ago.  They are still doing excavations and access is blocked but there is still a viewing platform.  I´ve noiced some identical looking stones in some of the old buildings and it was probably taken from the Aztec structures. I would have explored the Centro Historico more but I´ve been very tired from some four hours of walking so I took the metro, which is their subway, back to my hotel.  The metro makes our Sky Train and Canada Line look like a child´s train set. The trains have many cars, too  many to count and the crowding is incredible.  Desperately poor Mexicans come on board to hawk their wares, in this case a guy selling early sixties rock and roll cd´s while playing at high volume some samples for us. When I returned to the hotel I was painting in the courtyard and talking with two other guests.  One had just returned from viewing the pyramids at Teotihuacan and mentioned that the one annoyance was all the hawkers there, and really they are everwhere here.  But he also observed that it is the desperate poverty for many in this country that drives them to do this, otherwise it´s the drug trade or worse. Despite the size of this city I want to try to walk as much of it as possible.  This means getting lost a lot, and so I have to carry a map with me or sometimes ask for directions from whomever.  Funny thing, on Sunday, twice someone stopped me in their car to ask me for directions.  Like yeah I really live here. There´s something about exploring an unfamiliar city on foot that I find hugely gratifying.  Rather like walking a labyrinth.  A city is really to me like a human brain in microcosm, and this is kind of like remapping my brain for me I guess.  Yeah a lot of the sites and some of the other stuff for tourists have their appeal but I want to know the city on its own merits, at least as much as possible in the short time I have here.  So I end up spending a lot of time in neighbourhoods and settings that tourists usually want to avoid, but its worth the trade off because it gives more of a sense of how people live here.  Living in a highly touristed city, Vancouver, in the downtown area I see every day what a pain in the ass tourists can be and usually because they seldom really clue in that people actually live here.   It is also nice having the luxury of four weeks to do this in.

What's Next? 55 Mexico 2012

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 7:06 PM

Today hasn´t gone too badly.  I´m feeling close to recovered though I did have a brief bout with dizziness and nausea earlier today  but this could be as much from the antibiotics as well as the infection they are fighting.  But on the whole I feel better each day, stronger and my appetite is almost normal again.  I walked outside the ciy limits again on a road that encircles and climbs up a forested hill with a view of surrounding pasture and farmland.  It was really nice to be out in nature and away from crowds of people.  I wanted to go all the way to the top but there was a strange dog up ahead and his body language suggested danger so I turned back.  Having had a good number of bad encounters with vicious dogs in my time I tend to be very cautious around dogs I don´t know, although I generally like dogs, despite their poor toilet habits and bad odour. On the way down I stopped for some rest and quiet in one of the many baroque churches and listened while an indigeneous family prayed in their native language.  Tzotzil, one of the several indigenous languages spoken in Chiapas has official or near-official language status here with Spanish, and many grow up speaking Tzotzill before they learn Spanish in school.  Adjoining the church is a museum of amber, which is plentiful here in Chiapas.  It occupies a sixteenth century convent that later in the eigheenth century was taken over as a military barracks and then was purchased by the government.  There were many signs in Spanish describing the history and different tyes of amber and its huge value to the Maya along with many beautiful samples and carvings behind glass and warnings not to buy amber from street vendors because it´s usually fake. I stopped in one cafe that looked really nice, kind of like a small version of my hotel, with a lovely interior garden but the vibe felt weird and the guy working there didn´t seem interested in serving me anything so I letf and sat instead in the place facing the zocalo where I go every day.  It is a lovely place inside a very old colonaded building.  In the back I usually sit in a comfy chair or on a sofa with a view of the arched doorway and white and red ochre coloured columns that frame the beautiful green leafy trees in the square.  I returned to my hotel just before the rain came where I sat in the restaurant reading over a glass of juice.  For a while it was just like Vancouver this time of year, drizzly rain and temperatures around eleven degrees.  On my way back outside I took an unkown route and discovered a bookstore where I bought a novel in Spanish by a Colombian author, Fernando Vallejo and it is supposed to be a long suicide note so I´m sure I´m in store for some cheerful and inspiring writing by which to remember San Cristobal de las Casas.  I am enjoying this place more but I´m not going to miss the noise, especially the constant whistling which I find maddening. Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 6:52 PM This is my last full day in San Cristobal.  I leave tomorrow afternoon for the airport to fly to Mexico City for three days, then I am home April Fool Day.  I have taken time today to explore previously unknown parts of this small mountain city.  Today, I followed a street that took me through an extensive covered market that seemed to spread out for several blocks like a labyrinth, then ended up crossing the river into a village of dirt roads and severe looking concrete buildings.  Then I found my way back, sort of, always looking for green space.  If I see trees ahead, I usually treat them as a destination, hoping to find a forest to walk in.  In the afternoon I went off in another direction.  There are many many hidden details to this city but for the most part they are known only to the locals or those who have been here much longer than two weeks.  I also was plagued a bit by native street vendours.  One, an old woman holed up right in the hotel entrance and accosted me on my way out, and I said to her that not all white people are made of money.  Well, relatively this is not exactly true here.  Even though I´m considered poor in my own country I am much better off than many people here and unlike the many here who have never been outside of Chiapas, I at least can afford the luxury of foreign travel.  But I also do not do ¨White Guilt,¨ and while I am happy to help out the beggars with a few pesos as I can spare them I am not about to pack my luggage with a lot of useless crafts that I´ll have nowhere to put once I get home.  Later another woman approached me to buy something.  I said no.  She persisted and I said, ¨Senora, por favor respecte mi respuesta¨, or Ma´am, please respect my reply.  She backed off.  Then later, while I was sitting on a bench in the main square an indigenous boy approached me to sell some stuff and once again I had to be firm.  And speaking of children, why is this kid not in school? I have also noticed in some of the suspermarkets school age children working as bag boys who really should be in school.   Anyway, even if my approach seems a bit rude or unkind I really believe it would be worse if I were to patronize them because at least I respect them. On my second walk I saw a hummingbird feasting on a bougainvillea.  I haven´t seen many hummingbirds here in Mexico. For me  San Cristobal is taking on a strange and intense luminosity right now, I think because I am about to leave and will likely never return.  But it also feels as if this city has laid a certain claim on me and this has happened as a result of my having been sick here.  I expect I will not return to this part of Mexico, and probably won´t visit other areas of this country outside of Mexico City.  Though time might prove me wrong.  It has in the past. Thu., Mar. 29, 2012 at 8:23 p.m. I am back in Mexico City for three days before I return home.  This morning in San Cristobal I went into one of the old churches at around seven twenty am and sat for the scripture readings then left.  There were a lot of people present so early in the morning, at least forty.  It is a six chandelier church, which like most of them has six ornate chandeliers suspended from the ceiling and a rough unpolished wooden floor.  And of course lots of gold and lots of statues and Jesus mannequins.  The church is very strong here. My flight occurred smoothly and without incident.  As my cab descended the mountains it became very hot and dry and the region resembles a tropical version of our Okanagan district in BC. When I was getting my cab from the airport in Mexico City a porter insisted on carrying my luggage to the taxi for me then demanded a tip from me,  Rudely.  This felt like extortion so I refused and he got quite angry and I explained to him that it is very rude to make that kind of demand.  Hopefully my karma won't bite me in the ass over this one.  I was generous with the cab driver.  It is nice to be here again at the Red Tree House, but everyone here, including the Mexicans seem to expect me to speak to them in English which is kind of weird for me since I've been speaking nothing but Spanish the last two weeks, literally, so I answer them in Spanish.    Once I'm home I will have all the time in the world for English.  Looking forward to coming home. Thu., Mar. 29, 2012 at 8:23 p.m. I am back in Mexico City for three days before I return home.  This morning in San Cristobal I went into one of the old churches at around seven twenty am and sat for the scripture readings then left.  There were a lot of people present so early in the morning, at least forty.  It is a six chandelier church, which like most of them has six ornate chandeliers suspended from the ceiling and a rough unpolished wooden floor.  And of course lots of gold and lots of statues and Jesus mannequins.  The church is very strong here. My flight occurred smoothly and without incident.  As my cab descended the mountains it became very hot and dry and the region resembles a tropical version of our Okanagan district in BC. When I was getting my cab from the airport in Mexico City a porter insisted on carrying my luggage to the taxi for me then demanded a tip from me,  Rudely.  This felt like extortion so I refused and he got quite angry and I explained to him that it is very rude to make that kind of demand.  Hopefully my karma won't bite me in the ass over this one.  I was generous with the cab driver.  It is nice to be here again at the Red Tree House, but everyone here, including the Mexicans seem to expect me to speak to them in English which is kind of weird for me since I've been speaking nothing but Spanish the last two weeks, literally, so I answer them in Spanish.    Once I'm home I will have all the time in the world for English.  Looking forward to coming home. Sun. March 31, 2012 Today is the first time I have spoken English in two weeks.  I visited with other guests over breakfast from the US, Vancouver and Australia.  Quite enjoyable, then I went out and did the usual in some familiar places and discovered an art museum I have never heard of before.  This place is amazing.  I have seen the building many times and felt curious because of its unusual design.  It is shaped like a seven or eight storey half formed mushroom and the exterior is all covered in hexagonal glass discs.  Inside are seven stories of sculpture and painting and religious and indigenous artifacts ranging from Rodin, to Ruebens, to El Greco, to Renoir, Van Gogh and many many others including old and contemporary Mexican art.  This has to be my best ever art >  experience here in Mexico City.  I even saw a seventeenth century portrait of a woman that I originally saw in Vancouver some eleven years ago during a portrait exhibition so it must have been on loan. Another piece that stood out was by an obscure seventeenth Flemish painter of life like monkeys giving shaves and hair cuts to equally life like cats seated in barber's chairs.  Kind of like Dogs Playing Poker.  Right now all my energy is being directed to going home this Sunday.  I feel badly the need to return to ordinary life. Tomorrow I leave here at the crack of dawn.  This is going to be particularly early because this weekend Mexico goes on Daylight Saving Time which means even though my plane takes off at 8:20 in the morning it is going to still feel like 7:20.  Even though it is late afternoon here I have already set my clock forward and am avoiding social interactions downstairs with other guests so I can focus on getting to sleep early.  Also one of the staff is back on duty who seems to have it in for me so it is always best to avoid him.  Hopefully his kharma will catch up with him and the owners clue in and fire his ass or at least that he changes his attitude a bit.  (Hola Jorge, el nombre de pilo de este tipo comienza de la letra "V" si tengas ganas de saber de quien escriba.) This morning I came down with another bout of food poisoning, this time fairly mild but still enough to knock me out for a while.  I am really having second and third thoughts about returning ever again to Mexico, based on the impact this trip has been having on my health.  I am feeling better now and I just bought a box of granola bars to sustain me till tomorrow.  I just had six up here in my room with a glass of milk I pilferred from the kitchen and they went down well.  They have chocolate chips in them.  Delicious.  The rest I'll have on the plane tomorrow if those idiots at Air Canada expect me to eat bacon or ham with whatever they wind up serving as breakfast. I'm not the only one here who got sick today.  A young lady visiting from Australia is also down with a worse case than mine. I found her lying on the couch in the living room this afternoon looking so sad and ill.  Fortunately her boyfriend is taking good care of her. I didn't go far at all today.  I walked maybe just over a kilometre to a coffee shop I really like here and nursed myself with chamomile tea while reading Narnia in Spanish.  I am almost finished reading the last book, "The Last Battle", so I should have it finished tonight, which makes reading it kind of an odyssey for me on my trip here.  I also saw a huge protest march and the protesters were almost all wearing identical t shirts and carrying brooms or plastic bags while boarding onto three or four buses.  It has something to do with the government but otherwise I'm kind of cluesless.

What's Next? 54 Mexico 2012

Sat., Mar. 24, 2012 at 7:33 p.m.

I am back in San Cristobal for the next five days.  It was hailing just before I arrived and there is still ice everywhere and it is cold, just like Vancouver this time of year.  I had an uneventful busride from Palenque where the temperature is well up into the thirties.  What a contrast.  In Palenque this morning there must have been dozens of police armed with machine guns doing a road check.  Seeing the ruins there has been a lifelong dream of mine but there is no way I´m going back.  Too hot, too many armed police and it doesn´t feel safe.  I´m back at the same hotel and there was some confusion about finding me a suitable room since my previous is being used and I was hoping for something away from the street and away from reception.  We finally have something that will work.  The cab driver taking me here from the bus terminal was a dork, talking most of the time on his cell phone.  I didn´t say anything and I didn´t tip him.  I´m still feeling whoozy and am probably still recovering from my health issues last week.

Sun., Mar. 25, 2012 at 3:16 p.m.

I actually walked into a glass door today.  I was walking through the hotel restaurant on my way outside this afternoon following waiting out yet another hail and rainstorm.  They must have just washed the glass because it looked like it was open, so I have a nice and rather sore little bump above my left eye now.  One of the restaurant staff came outside to see how I was doing (the staff here at this hotel overall have been fantastic!)  I told him that when people are on vacation, even someone as perfect as me, half the brain goes dead and usually stays that way till we´re back at home.  It´s been otherwise a day of small events.  I did a couple of walks and sat inside a cafe until it seemed pretty clear that the rain was coming then I just beat the storm back to my hotel.  For a while I lay down in my room, then I sat outside in the sheltered outdoor patio to watch the rain and hail come thundering down on the patio.  There was also a lot of thunder.  Nature rules supreme in this part of the world and all you can do is accommodate her power. I also stopped inside a couple of churches.  They all have beautiful chandeliers hanging from the wooden ceilings and often soaring columns and gilt work on the altars but very little stain glass except in the one I visited this morning.  What also stood out about this place was the relative absence of religious statues or Jesus mannequins which tend to make a lot of Mexican churches look like creepy wax museums. All of Mexico is abuzz about the Pope´s visit.  It seems to be for many a positive distraction from the many troubles that plague this country.  Regardless of what I might think of the Vatican I am actually glad for them that they have this.  It is amazing in this state of Chiapas, one of the poorest in the country, how well the people do here with so little.

Monday, March 26, 2012, 6:32 PM

I am waiting out my last days here in San Cristobal, but mostly looking forward to returning home.  Things familiar beckon me and I can´t think of a better time to return to Vancouver than early April, when Spring is just picking up momentum.  I have mentioned several times that the main focus of this trip has been to work on my Spanish.  I feel that there has been some success here, though it is still not the same as living here, which for me (thank God!) is not an option.  The people here in this city as other Mexicans I have encountered are great.  Noisy, but kind.  Noisy, but cheerful.  Noisy, but fun.  I am looking forward to peace and quiet living again among grumpy, dull and self-centred Canadians, though I also know that I will miss this place, because it is my experience that one often does not appreciate where one has been till sometime after one has returned home. My other reason for taking a trip this long has been that of self-assessment and self-exploration.  I am entering into a new phase of life, my senior years, soon, and I want a better grasp, or a better knowledge of who I am, and of what kind of accumulated baggage I still carry and if I can shed some of it.  To do this effectively there is no substitute for travelling, alone, for a few weeks, and putting yourself in a foreign environment.  I feel this has been very successful and despite some of the bumps and grinds along the way I would do this again, though maybe for not quite so long. Travelling alone can be a bit of an endurance test.  There but for the consolations of social media go I.  It has been great being able to stay in touch with all of you by e-mail and some of your e-mails have been very uplifting and strengthening for me.  What I find interesting about travelling solo is the way it forces you to accept your environment on its own terms.  If you are travelling with your family, spouse, lover, or friend, you always have with you that protective buffer of familiarity.  If you´re from Canada as I am, for example, you and your fellow-visitors are bringing with you a little piece of Canada that will safely coddle and envelop you while you season and spice up your beloved Canadian familarity with a bit of exotic warmth. Travel alone for a while and that comfort is no longer there.  You are more vulnerable and you have to somehow learn how to make yourself at home in this strange and foreign place. My hotel is a mixed blessing, as hotels often are.  Principally what I don´t like about it is it is often very noisy and noise echos throughout.  It is a converted colonial house, a big one, and it is designed along the same plan as the other houses here in San Cristobal.  It is designed like a quadrangle surrounding a patio or garden, with galleries of rooms on each side. There is glass over part of the patio, creating a lovely tropical garden.  Upstairs the patio is open to the sky.  But this design, as I said causes noise to echo and the chamber maids start their work early at eight thirty and they do not work quietly since they are Mexicans and they love to chat and socialize while they work together which rules out sleeping in as an option.  The other downside is my room is always dark and cold.  I think I told all of you that it gets very cold here at night, often almost down to freezing.  Here you have all four seasons within the same twenty-four hours.  There is no heat in the rooms and the last couple of nights I have had to wear my Mexican hoodie to bed, although my bed is covered with a thick comforter and two blankets. The staff however are very kind and there is not a thing they will not do that is within their power to make your stay enjoyable.  I was particularly moved by the care and concern they showed me last week when I passed out from food poisoning and electolyte loss.  The restaurant is also very good, specializing in whole natural foods with a generous vegetarian selection on their menu so there we have one less thing for me to complain about. Today I visited the local chocolate museum.  Chocolate is a local industry since it is grown on local plantations here in Chiapas and some of the local cafes serve up delicious chocolate beverages.  Among other things today I learned that there are twenty -four species of Cacao trees, all originating here in the American Tropics, and that only one is generally cultivated for the production of chocolate though a couple of other species are used locally and produce an inferior grade of chocolate.  I also learned that the chocolate drink that was enjoyed by the Mayan and Aztec rulers as the food of the gods was actually taken unsweetened, and that Cortez and his buddies wouldn´t drink it because they found it bitter and suspected that it was poisoned.