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. |
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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.
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.
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