Mexico City
9/4/2001
Here I ended up in Mexico City, the start of my big Central America
and South America trip. My arrival was pretty quick - in 5 min I was
through customs and immigration. After Aman arrived half an hour
later, we took a taxi to the hotel, the "El Presidente International".
Supposed to be a five star, but the badly needed wirlpool was non-existing. After settling down, we found a nice (and expensive)
restaurant with some good food. It was great walking through a big
city again and the restaurants reminded me of Italy. Overall, I was
suprised how few people speak English here - considering that we were
in a tourist spot (Polenca). And, suprisingly, my very poor Spanish
skills helped a lot and were very essential. Still I have a lot to
improve.
9/5/2001
The next day was the first day of the conference, and Aman and I had
our presentations, which went ok. Overall, the conference is not that
exciting for me as there are mostly control papers and almost no
software papers. For lunch, we found an Indian restaurant, After the
conference we walked around the area here, to a shopping mall. My
impression of the area here is that it is "americanized" to some
degree - we found an Office Depot, a Sears, etc.
9/6/2001
Aman has a lot of presentations today, so I walk to the shopping mall
by myself. I use the crappy internet terminals there that work with a
phone card - very annoying.
At night, Aman and I use the subway for the first time which turns
out to be comfortable and quick. We go to an area called "Zona Rosa"
which is a nightspot and has lots of restaurants and bars. After
finding our way through the crowd (people offering us to show
us "striptease" places ;)). Finally we find a good bar with good life
music. Funny thing: Aman wanted to give a suggestion for the band to
play a song - so he got a napkin from the waiter and wrote "With our
without you (U2)" on it. Half an hour later the band started to play
exactly this song. Surprise in Amans face. He pulled out the napkin -
He hasnīt given the napkin to anyone!
9/7/2001
No presentations today for us - so we take the chance to go to the
Pyramids. After a bus ride from the north terminal, we arrive at the
spectacular site. Having been in Egypt, I think the pyramids close to
Cairo are bigger, but the ones here in Mex City are really beatiful,
especially due to the nature around them - big cactus plants etc.
Also having fun bargaining with many Mexicans who try to sell us
stuff.
Itīs a long and rainy day, pretty exhausting. Aman in the end gets
sick and throws up all evening. Too bad, he has to leave Saturday
morning at 5am!
9/8/2001
I move to hotel Amber - a place that a guy from the conference
suggested. Itīs only 200 pesos, and very nice and clean. Itīs in the
downtown area, which is very lively. Around here there are zillions
of people in the streets, selling stuff. I sleep long and then take a
walk to the Plaza de la Constitucion. A little further I suddenly
spot the youth hostel. Itīs great, they have an internet area where I
have been now typing this travel report!
9/9/2001
The area where I moved to is very lively, day and night. Hundreds of
people crawl along the streets on narrow sidewalks, like lots of
ants. Most of the sidewalk is taken by people selling stuff, clothes,
watches, anything, things to eat like almost burned ears of corn,
tacos etc. On the placa de la constitution, you'll find street
performers with hypnotic drummers and dances.
Driving in the subway is pretty straightforward and feels pretty
safe. Typical are salesmen walking through busses or trains, praising
products like superglue or candies in motoneous, repeating speaches.
I also have to learn that there is rain season right now. Which means
that it rains heavily everyday, not long, maybe for one hour, but
every day. Right now it does in the afternoon.
9/10/2001
My friend Irenee joins me on the trip. Leaving the metro
station "terminal" does not lead to the airport terminal as expected.
Instead, I reach some street.... Well, finally I figure out that I
got to walk some distance to the terminal. Irenee arrives in time,
aleady waiting for me. He is a guy I met in Clemson two years ago,
and we stayed in touch for that time. He will join me only for two
weeks, having a normal vacation from his job in France.
9/11/2001
Just leaving the shower in the morning, I hear Irenee calling me...
The TV shows pictures of a building and explosions. What is "Nueve
York" which is shown as the illustration to the pictures, Irenee asks
me. Well, the sad truth is, these are pictures from New York.
It takes us a while to figure out what's going on since all the
reports are in Spanish. It does not need much Spanish to figure out
something really bad is going on. Actually, at this time I tried to
convince the people from the hotel to return my clothes from the
laundry I asked them to do, but instead everybody starts asking me
where I am from and if I'm from US or if I have friends there. We
keep watching... We watch live as the towers collapse. It is
unbelievable.
Finally arriving at the Internet place at the youth hostel we get the
whole story. Some people at the internet cafe are shocked, holding
the hands in front of the faces, while watching the news on TV. On
our way back, more police can be seen on the streets. Somewhere
somebody might have started a demonstration, but we are already on
our way back to the hotel.
A nice thing is that we are able to get in touch with a Mexican girl
that Irenee has met on the ICQ. We meet here and she shows us some
things in Mexico city, like the "Belles Artes" museum. In the evening
we are ready to leave Mexico city. Our plan is to take the bus
overnight to Oaxaca (pronounce: Oahaca), a town in the mountains.
Oaxaca
9/12/2001
The bus ride is six hours long, the bus is nice, but the road is very
curvy, in the mountains. We arrive in the morning and take advantage
of the best information system for backpack travellers: Other
travellers! Right on the bus stop Irenee and I meet two travellers
from US who want to stay in Oaxaca as well. Together we find the
youth hostel and get rid of our big luggage.
Time to go and explore Oaxaca. It is built like many Mexican cities:
Small one way streets in rectangular layout. In the center of the
city is the so-called "Zocolo", a big place with many benches, nice
plants and people enjoying themselves. Around the Zocolo are
restaurants, banks, etc. Usually a curch or cathredal is right at the
Zocolo. The cathredals of Oaxaca are rich with lots of gold inside,
actually, for my taste too much gold. Especially since the artwork is
not very fine-tuned, rather rough. Still interesting to walk through.
Walking to the cities planetarium and observatorium, we get a good
view over the city.
By walking through Oaxaca it becomes clear that staying online is not
a problem in Mexico: Many internet places are in the streets. They
usually cost around $1-$2 for an hour, and the speed is ok, sometimes
even fast.
Puerto Angel
9/13/2001
Continuing our hectic schedule, we only stay for a day in Oaxaca.
Badly missing a beach, we are heading for Puerto Escudito towards the
south. The bus leaves early in the morning, and an expected 5 hour
drive stretches and stretches, and the bus driver does not seem the
go the route we expected. Hence we decide to shorten the trip and
already leave the bus at a smaller place at the coast, Puero Angel.
You can really call Puerto Angel a relaxing city, since everything is
really slooow here. It is located in a kind of bay, with a nice beach
and a nice sourrounding landscape. One main street goes along the
beach, and the other side of this street is packed with small houses,
and many hotels. Well actually they are rather simple guesthouses. We
find a cheap place quickly that is run by a family, and a big dinner
there at night is very welcome to fill our stomaches.
The best traveller information system abroad is - no, not the
internet, rather still other travellers you meet on the way. At the
place we stay there are three guys from France that travel the
opposite way than we do, being able to give us some information which
places are nice. It seems like there are many travellers from Germany
and France, and Irenee and I start to make a new sport - spotting
tourist and identifying the French and German ones.
9/14/2001
The beach of Puerto Angel is nice, the water almost too warm (!) and
a little dirty. Event though it is quiet and nice, it is also
touristic...
The beach of Puerto Angel is nice, the water almost too warm (!) and
a little dirty. Even though it is quiet and nice, it is also
touristic. However, it is also possible to see many hotel-ruins -
unfinished buildings, probably resulting from high hopes in the place
that were finally disappointed.
Our plan is to leave Puerto Angel in the evening and go overnight to
San Christobal. However, arriving at the bus terminal, we don't get a
ticket - and it is not clear whether the non-working computer system
is the reason or the bus is full. A traveller at the bus station
gives us the golden hint: To take the local Bus to the next town,
Huatulco, and try there again. Just when leaving the busstation, we
see the local bus and jump in...
This bus is in a terrible state. We find a seat that is not broken
yet and enjoy the cool breeze that comes from many open windows. It
is night, and the bus is racing through the curves of the mountains,
it sounds like sitting in a rollercoaster. Between hoping that the
bus does not break into two pieces or hit one of the passing cars and
trucks, and the struggle of talking through the loud noise of the
ride, we finally in Huatulca. And guess what, we get the last two
seats to San Christobal.
San Christobal
9/15/2001
San Christobal is similar to Oaxaca, but more lively. There are more
travellers here. After a big rain in the afternoon, which turns the
streets into rivers, we arrive at a party organized by people of our
hostel. Tomorrow is the Mexican Independence Day, so this Saturday is
party day. At the party, there are many people from different
countries, and also Mexicans, who tell us about their country. Tacos
are served, and of course, Tequila.
Later, at the Zocolo (the main plaza), many people come to celebrate.
Speeches, music, and fireworks bring live into this night. We spend
the rest of the night dancing in a nightclub with lots of beer and
great live music, mixed from Latin dance music to classic Mexican
songs. All supported by frequent "Viva Mexico" shoutings.
We should have, however, thought about the next morning and our bus,
which leaves at 8:30, and about the fact, that the only alarm clock
we have is broken... Arriving back home in the hostel at 4am, the
only solution not to miss the bus is to stay awake for the next 4
hours ;)
Palenque
9/16/2001
The bus arrives in Palenque in the early afternoon. The main
attraction of Palenque is the archaeological site. The Maya temples
of Palenque are very impressive and very well preserved. The whole
site is in the forest with a rich vegetation. Our trip is terminated
by a strong rain in the later afternoon.
Our hectic schedule continues... without staying overnight in
Palenque, we take the night bus to Merida, to arrive on the Peninsula
Yucatan.
Puerto Progresso
9/17/2001
Merida is not our finally destination, we want to stay at the beach
of Puerto Progresso. Puerto Progresso turns out the be a little
disappointing - nobody is here, however everything is touristic and
prices are not very low. The beach of Progesso is ok, but not as nice
as the one of Puerto Angel. However, the day ends with an impressive
sunset. At night we fight (like in many places of the trip) with the
heat and many mosquitos...
9/18/2001
We decide to stay two days in Progresso to relax a little from our
tight schedule. However, in the afternoon we visit Merida, which is a
big city less than one hour from Progresso. Merida is nice, but more
fun is the drive back to Progresso in the evening: Irenee finds some
English students in the bus and gets excited about finally being able
to talk to people. He starts to entertain the whole bus when he asks
the students about the difference of Tacos, Enchiladas, and
Burritos ;).
Valladolid
9/19/2001
On to Valladolid, which is a place east on Yucatan. Our youth hostel
is a really beatiful place with a nice garden, and the city is also
nice.
9/20/2001
The thing we want to see in Valladolid are the so-called "cenotes",
little lakes in caves. The cenotes of Valladolid turn out to be the
nicest thing of our trip so far - a couple of steps down in the cave,
there is a lake of beatiful crystal clear blue water. On the ceiling
of the cave is a little hole, and the sun shines through, creating a
beam down to the water (almost like in the Indiana Jones movies ;) ).
The really great thing is that it is possible to swim in the lake, so
we enjoy the break from the hot day outside, in the cool water.
The rest of the day is our bustrip to Tulum, our first beach at the
Caribbean sea.
Tulum
9/21/2001
We stay at so called "cabanas", little huts made of trunks, right on
the sand, close to the beach, and surrounded by palm trees. The beach
is small but without any "hotel fortresses". The water is amazing
Carribean-blue, where dozens of shades of blue meet. The beach of
Tulum is without electricity, so little candle lights are used to
light the place, which creates a certain "nature feeling".
I try to sleep at the beach with my sleeping bag, becoming witness of
several lightnings in the distance. However, later at night, a
thunderstorm comes up and I seek shelter in the cabana.
Cancun
9/22/2001
Irenee's vacation starts to come to an end - we are heading to
Cancun, from where he will fly back to France.
Cancun is the expected ugly artificial place made only for tourists.
Standing at the beach at looking at the beautful Caribean water is
nice, but once you turn around, there are hundreds of big hotel
buildings, one after another. The situation we have experienced in
other places in Mexico is very strong here - there are very little
tourists, most of the hotels and restaurants are empty. It is low
season, but probably the Word Trade Center tragedy attributes as well
to this fact.
9/23/2001
9/24/2001
Irenee leaves back to France. I stay in Cancun for the weekend and
Monday to get some things for my further trip. Among other places, I
encounter a Mexican Walmart, which is pretty funny.
The nice thing about my time in Cancun is the youth hostel, which is
a cheap cool place. I meet many other travellers here, among others
two guys from Brazil, a couple from Canada, two guys from England...
Rather than losing money in the bars from Cancun, I spend the nights
in the comfortable "living room" (?) of the youth hostel, which is at
the top floor, having many interesting conversations.
9/25/2001
My last day in Mexico. The bus from Cancun to Chetumal leaves in the
morning. I go to Chetumal, because from here you can easily cross the
border to Belize, where I want to go. At night I continue my trip to
Corozal, Belize. Crossing the border from Mexico to Belize goes
pretty uncomplicated and quick. I arrive in Corozal in the night and
make plans about my stay in Belize.
On to Belize...