mexico: el final

i lazily left you all in GREAT suspense in the tiny ciudad of puebla.

here, i wandered round and found a really beautiful church of strange and unique architectural combinations (like ceramic murals with mustard yellow and rust-coloured concrete and crazy sculptures in marble), which then led me to the mercado gastronomico, a market of local food. i tried pozole soup and it proved to be extraordinarily bland without its meaty innards. the chef told me the price, i asked "even without meat?" and he immediately reduced it by thirty percent. need to try that more often.
at one store i was ignoring a staring mexican man when the shopkeeper gave him a funny look, so i looked at him. it was the strawberry juice man!! his eyes lit up when i looked at and recognized him, and we shook hands and bonded over old music and juice. i told him i would return that day for fresh-squeezed jugo de naranja, but when i tried to find his shop i could not!! i hope he knows that i tried... i really liked him and that moment had me smiling everytime i thought of it.
at the ex-convento de santa rosa i was forced to take a tour which i could not understand, but there was amazing artwork by locals and there was this strange outdoor and out-of-place hallway that was white but soiled and stood out in bright contrast from the stormy sky. from the top hung styrofoam heads and balls and at the bottom, styrofoam mannequins- it was all very strange... eerie... and interesting. beside this hallway was the nuns kitchen, at which, it is rumoured, mexican mole was born.
at another shop i asked the price of a shirt and the elderly lady told me ¨nono, that´s for fat people!¨ i have found that mexicans are very open about speaking bluntly of others´ size!
puebla was pleasant but i felt little connection other than with the sweet, elderly strawberry juice man.

oaxaca, the next stop, was quite nice. it is known for being particularly indigenous, but i did not find it more indigenous than the rest of mexico. i felt like the architecture was still very spanish. the hostel was packed with people, half of which i had met previously in mexico city! i went to the largest market in oaxaca, which i actually wasn`t impressed with. i had a fun time trying to find the cheapest running shoes. the boys that helped me led me to search for the drink "tejate". i was wondering through other markets and i kept seeing this big vat of disgusting looking light brown liquid with chunky dry power on top of it. finally i asked what it was and the girl started saying "milk, chocolate, almond..." and i blurted "tejate?!" and she said yes and so i tried it and it was absolutely delicious! so it shows how helpful it is to ask about things, because this junk looked like trash water as opposed to a deliciously sweet drink. at the markets and shops i also watched chocolate being made (walking by those shops is dangerous and heavenly- it smells AMAZING), and bought some chocolate with cinnamon from a really nice marketman who gave me almost as much chocolate in samples alone as i bought!!
after one too many mezcal samples, i wandered into the cathedral. it is strange because, for one, i was half-tipsy so it felt kindof sacreligious for me to be in there, and two, i never walk inside cathedrals because i feel out of place, but something told me to enter this one. i got maybe two feet in when a man eating said something to me and raised his eyebrows. i couldn`t understand him but, embarrassing to admit now, i just assumed he was hitting on me, so i gave a lame smile and walked past without responding. i got maybe fifty more feet inside when a mexican man named israel, with a baby on his back, asked me where i was from. we started talking and i learned that he had travelled to many different countries and he told me that out of all the countries he has visited he has rarely seen the main sights of the city because he prefers to people-watch, and through that- meet the people. i told him that i think that is the best way to travel and the best way to learn more about the culture. so we planned to go for coffee after i toured the cathedral. i met him at the entrance to the cathedral to find the eating man was israel`s friend! i was embarrassed for not responding to him, and i later found out that he had only said "oh that`s hot!" regarding his food, and the raised eyebrows were only for punctuation, and he said he only said it to me because i looked more open than other tourists! it`s all just... very embarrassing to admit. but i told him is because so many mexican men are constantly interested in foreign girls for no other reason than because they are foreign and then he understood where i was coming from. anyway, through a series of discussions we decided that coffee was all wrong, and that drinking my small bottle of mezcal (that i eventually felt forced to purchase after all the free shots) on the mirador (lookout) was key. so we took the long climb and atop the oaxaca mirador, next to the giant mexican flag, alberto and i discussed whether the tinman needed a brain or a heart, among other amazing conversation. he has had a vveerryy interesting life. he was among oaxacan tourist information personnel, so he spoke four languages, he was a french teacher, a drug dealer, and now a mechanic. very... colourful! after the talks we walked to another church, and more interesting than the church was the music going on around it! alberto left and i was wandering back to the hostel when i stumbled upon the contemporary art museum. the museum was not really interesting to me, but it started raining so i talked to the three guardspeople of the museum. we had HILARIOUS conversations about markets and my spanish and the meet ended in me getting my photo taken about four times with my overpriced scarf- on all their cell phones and on my camera. and then i bid them farewell. all in all, really awesome day. it felt really good to connect with so many people.
monte alban is an archaelogical site that was supposed to be really great and, since i still have faith that one day i might magically be interested in this stuff, i visited with a british girl named helena. as always, it was expensive and boring, but also as always it had some pretty great views and climbing the ruins in disgusting heat was a wicked workout. we went to a market that morning searching for my beloved embroidered bag and we went to about 7 wrong streets before i found it again because all the streets look EXACTLY the same.
that eve i wandered to the zocalo for fun and it was filled with people of all ages projecting plastic, air-filled missiles all over the place and listening to bolivian music and mariachis and it was peaceful and pleasant and lively. i randomly saw alberto again and he ended uop buying me a GIANT styrofoam cup of beer. he says the cops won`t arrest you for public intoxication if it`s in styrofoam heh. he also bought me four bunches of wildflowers (we felt sorry for the lady selling them), and then i rejected a trip to the bar and returned home. i gave one of the bunches to a canadian named nick. nick and kyle are from dundas- the town next to hamilton, and kyle goes to mcmaster. small world, eh?
the next day, helena and i went to hierve de agua- a petrified rock "sculpture" that was made by dripping water over centuries so it looks like a waterfall. the tops of the cliffs still have gorgeous, light teal, active natural springs bubbling up from the earth and you`re allowed to swim in a few of them. they look like the inspiration for those pools that are flat and fall right off the side... i don`t know how to describe them, but hopefully you know what i mean. they looked unreal. i was also super happy to be able to take a little trek- from the top of the cliffs to the bottom, along the bottom of all three, then back to the beginning. helena was hatin me for that trek, but i think she enjoyed it in the end (right, helena?). the trip was finished off with a delicious tlayuda- crisp tortilla topped with refried beans, avocado, tomato and cheese... mmm. hierve de agua was a refreshing change from the ruins and colonial towns, but it was a nine hour day- seven of which was travelling and waiting, and two of which were spent at the place of interest. oh well... one hour of the driving was extremely beautiful and it was one hundred percent worth it.
went to the bus station to get a ticket to san cristobal de las casas (s.c.) and not only were the tickets sold out for there, but for the ENTIRE state! sooo with the help of a man who saw me frantically and helplessly looking up all available buses in my guidebook, i got on a delayed 3:30 a.m. bus to puerto escondido (p.e.), which i had no interest in going to, but it was better than staying in oaxaca. i took that statement back when i arrived in p.e. and experienced the ridiculous humidity. okay, it wasn`t so bad that i regretted coming, but like... i don`t think i have ever sweat so much as i have in puerto escondido. it`s hard to keep track now, with all the really hot and disgustingly humid places i have been, but i don`t know.. it felt really fuckin hot.
met a german named sebastian who was my roommate and we hit the beach and discussed vegetarian food in mexico (he was a veg too). the waves were crazy high with a mean undertow and it was awesome to watch surfing. on my way back, without sebastian, i met a shop owner named julio. for some reason we immediately felt like friends i guess because after knowing him for two minutes i helped him set up shop and then chilled in his sitting hammock and tried to get him customers. he has been to whitby and has a kid in ontario!!! craaaazy canadian coincidences. that eve sebastian and i hit the rooftop with some beers and met a british-irish couple with whom we hung out for the eve. there were free drinks for ladies from 11-12 so myself and the brit took advantage of free, delicious mojitos and gin-n-limes. after that warm-up the couple left us for some reason and we ran in the rain across the beach. there were fireflies in my footsteps!! it was magical! i was mesmerized. i still don`t understand it. ended up at a beachside bar and we discussed the spanish terminology for "cute" and "sexy" with the bar owners`s son. then we ran to the next bar- full of foreigners. i met an israeli guy who looked spanish, so i started speaking to him in spanish and he said he couldn`t understand me so we could speak in english, and i insisted that nono, we keep speaking in spanish, disregarding the fact that he couldn`t speak spanish. he reminded me of this the next morning because i completely forgot that it had happened. then we went to barfly and for the first time in my life i tried a cigarette, and i was so intoxicated that for some reason i actually ENJOYED it. very strange. i made him stop offering it to me because i didn`t WANT to like it!! i woke up the next morning very naked, missing one earring, in a bed FULL of sand. good night.
although i went to bed at around 6am, i still woke at 9 and searched for my ticket to s.c. it was STILL sold out for that night!! i hate having to plan all my travels in advance- even a day in advance! it takes the fun and spontaneity out of travel. it`s like against the whole nature of adventure. it leaves no room for flexibility and random changes. anyway, i bought one for the following evening. when i ate breakfast a man and his family started talking to me, and when i left he ran to his car and gave me a handful of hard candies! i asked him why and he gleefully shrugged and walked away (?!). midday i went to a beachfront restaurant and was finally joined by a boatsman named carlos who was fabulous to practice spanish on because he spoke very slowly and made sure he was understood. at the beach that day i lost my bottoms a few times due to the wave power, but it was fun. that eve it rained like MAD, so the hostel enjoyed some beers and i met a frenchman named romain who, in his thick hilarious french accent, told me his name and then yelled ¨IT IS UNPRONOUNCEABLE [to english people]¨ when the rain calmed down, about four of us went to a bar down the street for one dollar beers. eventually we were joined by some mexicans who taught us about machismo in mexico and spanish slang and we watched old music videos.
the next day was very hung over and uneventful, but when i ran with my pack in the disgusting p.e. humidity to my bus at 6 the next eve i was drenched in sweat like never before. so i was soaking wet and minimally dressed, and about to board the coldest bus i have experienced yet. this made for an EXTREMELY uncomfortable night of bussing.

san cristobal is set in in a beautiful spot in the mountains, but because of its location it is cold and rainy at this time. in s.c. i was walking to my hostel of choice when some guy stopped his car and handed me a flyer for another hostel. it offered temascal baths (pre-hispanic steam baths), a forest environment, great views of the city, hammocks, and my own room and kitchen access for $5. sounded perfect. i took his car to the VERY edge of town (like he was so far up the mountain that he was the absolute EDGE of town) and he was such a nice guy that, although it was so far from the center and i never used the hammocks or kitchen or temascal bath and it didn`t matter if i had my own room because there was no one else at the hostel... i still took it. martin, the owner, was also perfect spanish practice because he spoke a lot and very slow and clear and i could ask questions after every sentence and he was very patient. it was perfect. martin took me on a free hike through the "archaelogical site" (it was just a bunch of stones in a pit now because everything had been stolen) and to a cave. i was just happy to hike, though my cheap shoes had no grip and were too large for me. (that just means i learned the words for to slip and to fall!) i also climbed up a million stairs to the church of san cristobal- lovely view. there was a festival going on when i was there so there were constant fireworks and those multicoloured banners EVERYWHERE! it made for lovely photos and always made me happy. i then ventured to the mayan medicine museum which was REALLY great!! i had a long talk with the guy at the entrance and it was so cool to draw the parallels between other medicine systems and the mayan system. i had so many questions. the man was actually from a mayan village and he told me that english was much easier for him to learn than spanish! apparently mayan is similar in structure to english! kindof random.
day two i went and saw a CRAZY cool grotto- you could walk 350m on its lit path. i had to follow a super cute kissy couple and their stupidly sweet romance out of the grotto, with her atop his back. lil jealous. i tried walking the trails around the conservation area but they were all covered in horse crap so i gave up. then went to the village of zinacantan. more festivals with awesome music and costumes. for dinner i splurged hugetime and spent as much as i usually do in a day for food! which is still only $9... but anyway, i had a beautiful vietnamese cashew and tofu stirfry with breads with amazing indian chutneys and a chai tea. it was delicious.. but still overpriced. booked a TOUR (it was cheaper than doing it myself, okay?!) for the next day and got my ticket for the bus (and four hours later decided to change it... gotta love my predictability and commital level to plans of any sort) and then hit the sack.
because of the decision to modify the bus and the fact that i was half an hour from the center of town i had to wake up at 5am and walk for a good hour in the rain with my pack. awesome start! (heh it wasn`t that bad). tour started late but the bus ride all day was STUNNING. myself and this danish girl were going crazy with our cameras- the mist was still sitting midway on all the mountains, and we were above it.. at some spots it looked like little mounds of mountains peaking out of icing and at others it was like all-over mist that made visible every layer of mountain... and still others looked like there were waves of mist cascading over the mountaintops... it was absolutely gorgeous and worth the money in itself! some of the mountains looked like mounds of play-do, poked by a fat-fingered child. that´s the best way i can think to explain it- they looked so cushy!! when i wasn´t taking pictures like mad i could likely be found falling asleep against my will.. and hitting my head HARD off the window. over. and over.
we went to agua azul (blue water), a waterfall. when it`s not raining like mad the colour of the water is bright blue, but our driver opened the door and exclaimed en español "ladies and gentleman, welcome.. but it is not blue water, it is water cha-co-latte!" you kindof had to be there but it was really cute and funny. anyway the falls were unswimmable and a huge tourist trap (the entire 1 hour walk up to the top was lined with vendors) and, as mentioned, not even blue... but they were still very beautiful. next was misol-ha, another set of waterfalls, this time much smaller, but the main attraction was the grotto BEHIND the waterfall. you run behind it, getting absolutely SOAKED and it is so strong that you can barely even look at the waterfall from behind.. but it was unbelievably cool. i couldn´t take pictures because it would have water-logged my camera, but like the power of the falls was unbelievable and the falling water would bounce off the bottom water and the rocks at you and i was just like ear-to-ear smiles as i watched it.. getting absolutely drenched... i cannot explain it but it was really super neat. unfortunately i was wearing my new bag, which had very impermanent dye involved, so i was now covered in yellow dye... but i got that taken care of after a few days.
the last leg of the "tour" (it was just that we had a driver.. he never toured us, thank goodness) was palenque- the ruins in the jungle. they were slightly cooler than other ruins, i guess, but my favourite part was still the waterfalls. there were a million little levels to them and they were quite small and very smooth with the "dripping rock" look. i zipped through the ruins, using them solely for their exercise purposes. i liked that you could escape the heat by running off into jungle trails to explore hidden ruins, all alone.. as if you were the one finding them for the first time. neato. i`m very glad that i do not see ruins with other people because i go extremely fast and the breeze i make with my own body is the only that exists! i cannot believe how incredibly disgusting i was by the end of that day.
while waiting for my night bus to merida i got an enchilada mole and had this HUGE spanish showdown in which i argued with the ladies at a restaurant about my order for wayyyy too long. apparently chicken isn`t meat in mexico, and when you screw up an order you tell them you`ll do it for half price and then when they finish you charge them full price. it ended with them confiscating my bag and me bitching and telling them calmy that their service was horrendous and i left feeling rather empowered that i could finally express myself enough in spanish to yell at them, when deserved. i´m not going to lie though... the mole was the best i`ve had in mexico.

in merida i walked to the hostel and at 6am was greeted by an extremely polite and helpful and charming young man. he allowed me to shower and sleep in the lovely hammocks while i awaited a room. i fell asleep for a couple hours.. it was all very peaceful. i went on a boring city walking tour because it was free and i was hoping for the quality of the free mexico city walking tour. i ended up leaving halfway through to go to the art museum. the MACAY art museum was free and one of the best i have seen in mexico. one artist hid crazy explicit sexual scenes amidst streaming colours and fish and beetles... very strange, but extremely provocative and interesting. i looked at five painting before even realizing there was sex in it, and there was a mother taking her young daughter through it without recognizing the same. i liked that. there was another artist who painted things from her dreams mostly and her work was AMAZING, and considering it was from her dreams it was still quite coherent. mostly involving beautiful faces and bodies and organic chapes... i loved looking at it.. it had amazing flow.
i tried to do the history thing with the city museum, but it was closed... so i went to the center for visual arts and i was really lame, with an exhibition by a canadian actually, but i had a really nice conversation with some guy that worked there. i wandered to the town square and sat down, awaiting random mexican verbal intercourse. i found this in octavio, who sat beside me on the bench and we discussed the bird crap upoin which we were sitting. he said it was dry so i need not worry, and i told him i was sweating so much that i´m making it real again, and thus reason to worry. i found out at the end of the conversation that he spoke english but he felt like i should be speaking spanish. i agreed and i was glad that he didn´t speak english with me. we decided to meet at 9 in front of the cultural center for a dance festival. i went and sat in the hammocks again for 2 more hours and met some hilarious female bat scientists. these girls made me laugh so hard at the intensity of their interest in bats. like they bonded (i brought them together, they didn´t even know each other before that night) over echolocation and bird identification. it took everything in me not to burst out laughing, but at the same time i loved listening to them so much. they were sooo excited about biology and i think that´s great. we moved to a restaurant and i left them soon thereafter to try to see a dance festival.
the ENTIRE reason i came to merida was to see the dancing. there was supposed to be a dance show put on by the university every friday and i felt so lucky that my merida date just happened to fall on a friday. i arrive in merida to find that the dance troupe is on vacation. so then i find out about this other festival and i´m all excited... but 2 hours before the show they blow a fuse and it is impossible to put on a show. so merida, the city of arts and culture, provided me with neither. at least in terms of dance. but at least i got to see the dancing ladies as they returned to their homes. i suggested to octavio that maybe they could put on a show just for me as i longingly stared at their brightly embroidered dresses and flowered hair. octavio, as most mexican men i meet, ended up creeping me out a little so i managed to escape back to the batgirls before they finished dinner and we finished the eve with good conversation. i had another conversation with a german woman about cancun. it was hilarious because i told her i didn´t want to go because it was too american, commercialized, touristic, and she said she noticed that when she flew into the airport. she said ït reminded me of...¨and she paused. simultaoneously we both said ¨las vegas.¨
in the bus windows in merida it says where th bus is headed to. one of them said siglo XXI. so i´ve concluded that merida must be awesome if for no other reason than because its buses double as time machines.
another reason is because random men on the street comment on how your haircut is ¨sweet... but not naive¨ as they pass by you. random and i love it.

next morn was off to chichen itza- one of the wonders of the world, which, as gareth noted, is kindof depressing (as you think to yourself "so this is as good as it gets?"). it IS the most ornate of all the ruins i have seen, and i really enjoyed the thousand pillars, plus the huge bright cenote, but other than that they were not particularly special. and were extremely expensive.

off to tulum, a beach spot. the hostel guy asked me whether my first language was english or spanish after talking to me for a few minutes. i was honoured.... but there´s no way i sound spanish. maybe he had a hearing problem. anyway, by this time i´m being warned of hurricane dean, but i decide to stay at least til the next day because it was expected in two days. i had a nice walk through the tourist strip that night, a jeweler told me that i should help him make jewelery when he saw my lame necklaces, and then i returned to the hostel to talk to my roommates. they consisted of a brit and two americans by the names of gareth, james, and ofer, respectively. they were hilarious and strange and interesting. we spent the night analyzing each other's social level, trying to swing 360s on the hammock, and calling the ritz in cancun to try to book a room for the hurricane (they were ACTUALLY going to do it- they're crazy). by the end of the night i had been laughing so hard for so long that i felt drunk. the boys were the ones who had actually consumed alcohol and they ended the night biting chunks out of palm trees and making me really mad by breaking branches. but i forgive them.
next morn i hit the beach with a chatty spaniard. we went to the tulum ruins, which i thought couldn't be much better than any other ruins, but i was entirely wrong. they were the most stunning i have seen thus far due to their immaculately manicured trails, beautiful flowers and bright oceanfront setting against a half-stormy sky. i couldn't help but continuously remark on how gorgeous it was there! i then had one hour at the gorgeous clear turquoise beach and i spent it standing stationary in the water, looking out at the ocean and reflecting on how all this could be destroyed by the hurricane the next day. then it went REALLY far and i started thinking if the destruction was necessary.. a cleansing? a renewal? a giant mother nature "fuck you" display of power? i felt very nervous about the whole thing because no one knew what to expect or where to go.
the bus station didn't help. it was PACKED with people trying to escape, since the hurricane was supposedly headed straight for us. buses weren't arriving and were arriving full, they would give tickets to some and tell others there was no space- it was crazy, hectic, confusing, and rather fucked up. i went into a strange leader mode and attempted to organize a private bus to chetumal but no one knew if they could actually get on a bus so they all fence-sat. i ended up getting a free ticket and the bus came soon after the guy left. i sat at the very front of the bus on the floor because the bus was absolutely packed. i looked out at the open road and did some more of the nervous, aforementioned reflecting in the high-tension, crying-baby atmosphere.

i was supposed to get off at laguna bacalar, but it was so small that it didn't have a bus terminal and everyone else i knew was going to chetumal and i didn't want to be alone for this, so i continued on to chetumal without the bus driver noticing. when there, we got a ticket to the small hamlet of xpujil (shpoo-heel). everytime we asked someone about it they started giggling. this really bothered james and he wondered if it was a jungle village full of homosexuals. we ended up switching this ticket for a ticket to villahermosa, and in the end not taking ANY of these buses.
we went to a hostel in chetumal that was very solid and safe and decided that was the best place to be for a class 5 hurricane.. even if chetumal eventually ended up in the eye of the hurricane.. which it did. luckily it changed courses a little right before it hit land so we just had a really heavy storm. i was in such suspense that i felt a little sick to my stomach, but the beers and wine (that were actually banned during the hurricane but we brought it over from belize illegally) eased my worries and made me pass RIGHT out. i think gareth described it perfectly by saying this was the most anti-climactic experience ever. we were expecting class 5 hurricane and we got a leak in the roof and all our winks of sleep (well, i did anyway). since i passed out so early i awoke at 6 and went downstairs to check out dean. the sounds of 6 inches of sloshing water, heavy winds and slamming doors outside reminded me of a gurgly belly of a beast. i kinda liked it. so ironically, in the end we caused more damage to the hostel than good- but just missing pieces of wall, damaged panels and sticky residue from taped windows. but we had a good night. we bonded.. people played cards... we were locked inside for like 24 hours or something (i didn´t keep track, i have no idea). i really liked everyone there.
the morning of the hurricane day we went to the beach to watch the sun come up, since we had stayed up the whole night before. there was a giant spiral in the sky. was crazy.
the danish girl at the hostel kept telling people i ate sand. i don´t know why people like making fun of me so much heh.
so in the end that was rather uneventful. for awhile i felt like i was CHASING hurricanes because it seemed to follow us, but all was well, for our area anyway. the last night in chetumal i had a nice dinner with one of the hostel folk and her friends from chetumal and the hostel owner. it was really nice, and much more intimate than it was with allll the members of the hostel.

and that concludes mexico! wasn´t that wonderful? i had a lovely time.
i would like to add that some mexican cheese does not melt, just incase you´re ever in mexico, trying to melt some cheese, and it is simply burning. then you´ll know. you´ll be ahead of the game.
i´d also like to add how much i love the sight of a young daughter (like maybe 7 years old) with her sibling lovingly draped in a cloth on her back. it´s a beautiful sight.
i´d also like to add that there is indeed somewhat of a mexico ¨circuit¨, as there was in southeast asia. not as strong as asia, but it´s still there. circuits are good, i guess, because you see people more than once, and very bad because you feel like we´re all being led- we´re straight tourists, not adventurers. dammit.
and that´s the end of my additions! tah-dahhhh.

so now i´m in guatemala, but that shall be saved for later! for now i need to get off this computer monitor before i lose my mind.. it is soooo blurry.
muucchh love!
shay
p.s. looootttts of new photos on the site: themillman.com/shayla-g
may take even longer to look through than to read the blog, though :)

mexico: parte dos

so once i arrived in zacatecas i decided that since i was so early and had been sedentary for so long that i would simply walk to the city center. after many ride offers from random men and people telling me i'm crazy to be walking, i was convinced to finally hop on a bus. i accepted defeat.

zacatecas was a beautiful, bright, quaint and charming colonial town set on rolling hills, like most of the colonial towns (which I love because there's something new around every corner and it makes for much more interesting photos than if the land were flat). these colonial towns are awesome because it is as if, when deciding on a colour for their house, they simply look at the houses nearby and see what colour isn't taken. i LOVE it! gorgeous, bright and happy houses. anyway, i fell in love straight away and had an awesome time in zacatecas. the beautiful and clean hostel was run by really young guys who loved saying my name for some reason, as many, many mexicans do (though they would call me "cheyla" because they don't have "sh" in the spanish language), and would just say my name randomly and frequently. they gave us free liquor, took us out on the town, were always friendly and helpful, and made my time there just lovely. this trip especially has shown me how much of a difference customer service makes at a hostel, since every hostel has a varying degree of service, and i see how it affects my trip and my number of days spent there.
that morn i ate in a place full of bullfighting paraphernalia. i later discovered the point of bullfighting is to kill the bull. silly me, i had faith in humanity and thought they were just playing a little game. i was shocked and appalled when i found that out. so naive. ah and apparently in colombia they get the bull right ready and then let him loose on horses, so that they kill not only the bull, but meanwhile a couple horses. all for a little entertainment. god that's sick. though i decided on a mountaintop in guanajuato with a guy named john that i'm almost still interested in seeing the fight from a purely cultural perspective. almost.
back at the hostel i met one of my roommates- fernando from mexico city. we chatted a little and since fernando has been to zacatecas four times, i jokingly proposed that if he wanted to give me the grand tour, i wouldn't complain. he agreed to it! we actually spent half the day on the phone with visa trying to get me funds since mexican banks are apparently against cash advances at the teller and i had no PIN for my visa, and $20 US to my name. fun. i was a little stressed and i think fernando could tell because he bought me a chocolate milk. chocolate milk makes everything better.
after that we trespassed on a beautiful bullfighting ring-turned-super expensive but beautiful hotel, and visited the old, picturesque aqueduct and a giant plaza with fountains splurting to classical music. i love how every mexican city has plazas- mini parks in the middle of it all that everyone relaxes at. beautiful. then fernando was determined to have me try sangrita (no, not sangria), a red tomato juice with spices concoction that follows a shot of tequila or mezcal. we ended up at this amazing, intimate, 1906 cantina with art covering every spare spot and a bartender who remembers fernando from TWO YEARS ago because that's how rough his night was.. hahah. fernando played banda music on the jukebox, which i LOVE, and the sangrita was absolutely delicious. LOVED that place.
back at the hostel a group of swedish students had rented a band for a callejoneada that eve. the mariachi-like band plays fun mexican music all through the streets while its followers (us) dance behind them and get little porcelain cups tied around our head that are filled with mezcal (sortof a member of the tequila family, but it's not made in the town of tequila, so it can't technicaly be called tequila). AWESOME time!! i danced and danced. i met my fiancee (the boss of the band, dressed in a business suit, asked me to dance, then asked me to marry him). the owners of the hostel, who are young and hip and call us all "the party people" were giving us quality tequila in our baby cups, and later took us to "the cactus club". my stomach felt funny (most likely due to the dirty cheap gallons of mezcal), so i stopped drinking, but i danced like i have NEVER danced before. i always love dancing, but i think this was like... the pinnacle of my love. it was amazing... so. much. fun. unfortunately the boys from the hostel were "hogging" me so i couldn't meet many new people, but that's alright. one of the swedish guys was super super sloppy drunk and at one of the chip stalls he was squirting hot sauce all over the road and into his mouth telling us he "could take it, bring it on..." until he went to the corner and was sick. he was really entertaining for all involved, including the cute little mexican ladies giggling at him and rambling in espanol.
next morn everyone was brought together by remarks of "wicked night, eh?!" philippe, whose name is actually phil but "hell, we're in mexico", danced with me the night prior and we had a hilarious time with the music, pretending we were awesome tango dancers, and when i joined them on the beautiful rooftop terrace i said hi and he said "after a night like that, c'meeerrreee!" and gave me a hug and cheek kiss. good energies. i found a lovely random, hidden market in the morn, which always makes me happy. fernando, rodrigo and i went to museums that day. i LOVE rafael coronel's art, do not so much like his brother pedro's art, loved all the contemporary art, and equally loved the building. as an example of the creativity of the building, there is one hallway that is four storeys high and three levels of suspended bridges with art at each of the four levels- i have never seen a cooler presentation of artwork. it was a former prison AND convent! rodrigo was looking at one painting and he inched a little closer and fell into a dip in the concrete and was SO close to putting his head through the painting and i happened to catch the whole thing and was in hysterical laughter for like ten minutes following. his face... was priceless. one museum had a collection of over 2000 masks. as you might imagine, that got old quick. started POURING while we were in the last museum, so we waited for about an hour for it to subside... unsuccessfully. then decided to screw it, and ran to a somewhat nearby taco place. i had the best bean and cheese tace i've had in mexico to date. we discussed the meaning of "poison tacos" (the guy who originally made them was thought to be crazy so the locals thought he poisoned them) with the taco shop owner. then we stopped at a streetside fruit stand and bought some tuna, a delicious cactus fruit. still raining, so we then went and got a jica-pop! i don't thiinnkkk we have it in canada, but jicama is a root vegetable that, in mexico, they cover in either sour, sweet, hot, or a combination of crystals after dipping the jicama in tamarind sauce. it's delicious! i got a mixture of carrot, cucumber and jicama covered in spicy sweet, and then the lady at the stand loved us so much she gave me free seconds. it was STILL raining, so we ran to the nearest convenience store, where i bought these delicious chocolate things and we talked to the convenience store workers. we discussed chocolate and tequila quality, and the state of mexico. the guy wants to move to the US or canada because you make so much more there, even in a lower quality job. i was about to give the "but the cost of living is so much higher also" argument, but i realized it really isn't THAT much cheaper here! food is cheaper, but lodging is expensive (though renting is much cheaper than hostels/hotels), clothes are expensive, and gas is expensive. so we ended that conversation with "sucks, but you mexicans are in a real shit situation, aren't you?" afterwards i thought to ask him if he was happy though. this guy was busting his balls with three different jobs, had no spare time, and wanted to move to a different country just for a better job. i obviously don't know his whole situation, but it's possible that making lots of money is what's 100% important to him, as opposed to just making enough to live and be content.
anyway.
THEN, it was STILL raining so on the way back i took a picture of a really cute restaurant and fernando's like "let's go in!", so we split a chile relleno (chile stuffed with cheese and fried in batter then covered in a salsa). delicious! he explained the menu to me in terms of what vegetarians can eat, which was awesome and extremely helpful.
three hours after leaving the museum on our food adventure, we returned to the hostel. still raining. i ate my chocolate things, even when i misread them thinking they were 40% of my caloric intake for the day. fernando uploaded all the mexican and brasilian bossanova i could ever need to my mp3 player and we listened to it til i fell asleep. fernando left on a night bus and i missed his presence! it was super cool to meet a traveller that's part of the culture. there's kindof an unspoken general rule, i feel, that you can almost always trust fellow travellers because they're in your same situation. so i could trust him, while at the same time he could tell me all the cool intricacies of the culture and the language and whatnot... it was perfect! and he was a super nice guy with an admirable disposition.
so i was determined to get to guadalajara the next day, so i BOOTED it through the remainder of the zacatecas sights. art museums, the mine, teleferico, then hit the bus station.

i got to guadalajara super late and was super pissed that, because of this, i had to pay for a $10 taxi to the center of town (but the taxi driver calmed me down with conversation.. he may or may not have told me i was fat haha), and then was doubly pissed because the hostel was 50% more than the book said and it was too late to go wandering the rainy streets (but the hostel inhabitants eased my worries with a beer, an amazing quesadilla and good conversation). good conversation especially came from vincent, regarding medicine and science, and adam, a new yorker who did my trip, but in reverse, and gave me toonnns of tips and was really witty and hilarious.
got a veggie burger and steamed vegetables and celery alfalfa juice (SURPRISINGLY tasty!!!) the next morn and, in the meantime, everyone i was supposed to spend the day with accidentally ditched me in all sorts of directions. so i went to the theater with bill and he got hilariously pissed when he discovered it was closed. so we split up and i hit the markets. i didn't buy anything material, but i ate until i could eat no more. favourite thing to do, really.
drank a lot that night and didn't feel drunk. we went to a ska bar that was extremely disappointing considering i was expecting to dance that night (and didn't help that i was sober). i guess everyone else felt the same because we left for another bar that eventually played really wicked music. we left at 5. in the taxi on the way to bar number two nicole was lying on top of three other people and i was sitting on top of her, and my head was out the window. safety comes second. the night ended at the hostel with a very interesting chat with the boys about sex while travelling that stemmed from yoav's bitterness about not getting any that eve.
next day was pouring rain again so i gave up and left guadalajara. in my GIANT rain jacket.

in guanajuato i cursed myself for going to guadalajara because i JUST missed an international film festival. and my hostel owner constantly called me senorita which made me feel like a princess. i watched another callejoneada, this time with a sing-along and better costumes, but lacking the intimacy of callejoneada numero uno, then wandered the very safe and warm streets. i then bought a spanish book that translates to ¨the thirst beside the river¨(sounds cool, doesn´t it?), after deciding not to purchase ¨this man is dangerous¨, which i found to be a really funny title. then i sat on a sidestreet beside a market and ate a torta and had a carrot juice and had a woman offer me a room in her home because she thought i didn´t have a room for the eve, and a guy wish me a ¨buen provecho¨... it was so homely. guanajuato's almost as lovely as zacatecas.
on monday, every museum is closed... so i went to the callejon de besos (little street of kisses) and asked the boys sitting there if they could take my photo there. i THOUGHT the guy asked for a peso, but i was mistaken "nono, beso!" he said and pursed his lips. through hysterical giggles i refused to kiss him but he took my photo anyway. i then wandered up to the pipila monument on the hill and found an american playing guitar. he reminded me of comedian demetri martin and had me in CONSTANT, teary laughter. we talked about cave day in zacatecas and in his dry humourous manner he said he was going to go dressed up as a cave.. call himself a caveman. and that's how i spent my day, on that sunny hilltop overlooking the city listening to songs about aliens teaching people to get down.
that eve i wandered looking for something to do and ended up being conned into a really nice restaurant because the doorman said he'd keep me company (liar). with severe lack of company i was forced to flirt with my cute waiter until he asked me to go dancing that night. then a guy sat beside me and, as i was dancing in my chair to the mariachi band, i looked over at him and he smiled so i said hi and we talked and he joined me for 2 for 1 drinks. his name was dennis and he's a cultural psychology prof and extremely knowledgeable about mexican history and everything under the sun, so we had awesome conversations. he thought i was super cool for some reason and said he was going to dedicate an entire lecture to me. awesome. dennis once had a taco of baby eels and as his mexican friends were trying to remember the name for ¨baby eels¨, he chowed down, unknowingly, thinking they were trying to think of the word for ¨bean sprouts¨. yuck. by 1:00 we were both starving and went for food (unfortunately, no dancing with my latin lover). i had the best queso fundido of my life, which was white and i put green and red salsa atop it (colours of the flag) and pretended i was the eagle with the snake in its mouth from the mexican flag and sent dennis into drunken hysterics in the extremely posh restaurant. in the thunder, lightning, and pouring rain i was walked back to my hostel and passed right out.
by the next day i had lost interest in all museums but one- museum of the mummys. it was very interesting and creepy, and i wish i could better understand the spanish descriptions. there was one that they think was a fat lady buried alive. another with a guy biting his tongue. another stabbed to death. another was a mother and fetus (smallest mummy in history). very strange. after awhile of looking at these papier-mache-looking creatures i began to imagine them as real people, since every skull shape and body was different. thank goodness the museum ended because i imagine that could drive a person a little mad.
diego rivera grew up here but i couldn't muster up enough of a care to go to his old house. tried to go to the art museum but after three misdirections i found it... closed. so that day was the "dia de la cueva" (day of the cave) festival, so i climbed the mountains and roads, and through what could be considered a trash site to get to, essentially, a fairground. a very very hot fairground. not quite what i was expecting... too large to feel community-like and no drinking and dancing and being happy like the hostel owner told me (or at least that's what i heard with my poor spanish skills). oh well. on the way back, the sight that made almost the whole day worth it was seeing a skinny, small mexican teenager with huge black sunglasses and slicked-back hair pumping iron beside his quesadilla stand and taking himself far too seriously. you had to see it... so funny.. i wanted to take a picture so bad. anyway, after i climbed back down, in a sad spanish showdown i tried to leave my hostel at 4 without paying for the late leave. i failed. so i stayed there the night.
went out looking for fun and found a good eve with sergio and richard at the restaurant next door. i ate WAY too much and in my bloated state we talked about synchronicity and luck and art and so on. real deep stuff. they said my disposition welcomed people, which made me really really happy because that means a LOT to me. i really liked sergio, and i liked richard too but he was a little strange. he said he had four doctorates and was a master in holistic medicine and is writing a book and going to be on oprah and... i dunno.. and when i asked him what he was doing in mexico, he oh-so-modestly remarked ¨improving the country¨. i was a little skeptical. but if you ignore that he was a really cool guy. sergio was super knowledgable which was wicked.. he told me how there are three parts of mexico- spanish, american, and indigenous, and how mexico city is built from pyramid stones and on and on... fascinating.

next day went to san miguel de allende. i'd been visiting colonial towns for the past week so san miguel wasn't anything particularly new and exciting for me. and it's more americanized than the other cities. anyway i hiked up to the jardin botanico right as a storm was pulling in. i got whistled at for a very long time as i walked past an enormous construction crew. gardens were, of course, closed. i have awesome luck for things like that. anyway, i saw a lot of cacti from outside the entrance and got an awesome view of the city. the cathedral in the middle of town is AMAZING- probably my favourite thus far, from the outside. went to some galleries and wandered around and around and got lost and wandered some more. that night i asked the hostel owner where to go out and he told me the zocalo (center) was where da party at. the highlight of the zocalo was watching this poor kid belt out the most beautiful songs in front of a coffee shop. he was amazing. since nothing else was happening though, after an hour i went back to my hostel and had beans, tortilla and chocolate milk with the owner and his daughter, then watched the witches of eastwick with him. so in other words, i spent three nights in a row with old men. i'm soooooo cool.

next stop was mexico city! met heaps and heaps of people at this party hostel. met two indianian (people from indiana?) vegetarians with whom i ventured to the super soya with. i got free fruit because they were closing. wicked timing. we wandered and i blew bubbles in the streets. that eve we watched pool and i had many bottoms in my face, which became somewhat of a running joke. mike, one of the indianians, made the funniest faces when he was concentrating on the ball and i would erupt into hysterical laughter (what's new?) every time it was his turn and he put on his game face.
next day i got moved to a new room which smelled remarkably like dirty feet. i decided i would need to be inebriated that eve in order to go to sleep without that smell bothing me. the hostel had to move my stuff for me, long story, but in the process my running shoes were lost and i was mighty pissed. not only do i HATE shopping for shoes, but they're expensive and mexicans have tiny feet. oh well. i convinced the hostel owner to give me a free night because he lost my shoes... so at least i was somewhat reimbursed.
we went for a free walking tour of the historical district of mex city and our guide was awesome and extremely knowledgeable and had really pretty eyelashes. the most interesting part was his explanation of diego rivera's murals in the national palace because i always look at murals and can only evaluate them on an artistic basis because i have no idea what the mural is about! so hearing about the background of the mural was really neat and gave me a MUCH greater appreciation for rivera. he spent 20 years on just the murals in that palace. can you imagine? anyway we also saw the "palace of the post" (some guy commisioned the building of "the best post office in the world" and it is... stunning), as well as some ruins, the sinking cathedral (damn spaniards sucked up all the water and then built mex city on a swamp so everything's sinking, especially if it's made of marble), and the palace of fine arts. the palace of fine arts makes me SO happy. usually marble buildings kindof bore me, but this one is white marble with the usual sculptures intertwined in it and then accented with black iron AND there's a dome atop it that has stained glass going from yellow to orange. it's so happy!!! and classy and gorgeous. i love it. then people ate grasshoppers and i ate some peanuts. everytime our guide said something he had a habit of lightly agreeing with himself in a little "mmhmm". which made us laugh to ourselves. and then kyle, a history teacher, started agreeing with him with a loud "mmhmm! yep" when he knew the information himself. which made us laugh WAY harder. the guide also told us that the top ¨money-maker¨ in mexico was the money sent from migrants to the U.S. back to their homes.. which actually made my arm hair stand on end and sent a shiver down my spine, thinking that that´s how much one country depends on another. the flag in the mexico city center is gigantic: fifteen by thirty-five METERS. he also taught me about the revolution, which i was really happy about.
after the tour i was supposed to have a "day of Ss" with the indianians (snip snip {haircut}, super soya, and sex plaza). we made it to super soya, where i enjoyed more free food, to andrew's dismay (the guy working the super soya LOVED me- winked at me and everything). we also made it to the sex plaza, which was much less thrilling than we expected. there were just like.. more dildoes than i ever needed to see in my life. the snip snip did not work out. we couldn't find a estetica unisex, so we gave up. i went to the torture museum by myself, which was fascinating. like, the awful things people think up can be brutal. i mean there's the usual guillotine, water torture, etcetera.. and then there's this contraption that raises the tortured and drops them repeatedly, in the groin, atop a pyramid. god, like... who thinks of these things?! there was creepy vampire (i dunno, it reminded me of vampires) music playing while i was in the museum, and, to make it even better, it started thunderstorming like mad outside... so it made for a perfectly creepy experience. i left feeling like humanity was super awful. but it was cool to see, not going to lie.
as promised, i got myself a lil drunk and then i tried my spanish on some italians. let's not talk about how incredibly pathetic my drunk spanish was.
was moved to another, even smellier, room the next morn. i sprayed the boys in the room and they let out loud, exaggerated "SSHHH"s everytime i made a noise and we had fun. i hit the largest frida kahlo exhibit in history. honoured to be a part of that. the lineup was an hour long and in my bitter waiting stage i thought that maybe frida was a bit overrated. i was bummed out that i could barely read the long explanations about frida's work. that's probably the most i've ever wanted to speak good spanish!! that would have been wicked, but oh well, at least i got to see a lot of her work up close. there were also a ton of photos of her and you know... there was just something crazy magnetic about that woman. you look at her and you know she's something interesting and unique.
in my frida mania i then proceeded to "the blue house", the frida museum. trying to navigate the metro station was a little crazy and i ended up being helped by an old man. he then told me he was going to go to the museums with me and then bring me back. and you know what... i've stopped asking questions, and just accept these strange, fateful occurences. what the hell, take me wherever you want. i practiced my espanol, and for once, his english was worse than my spanish. i'm moving up in the world. he took me to the proper metro stop and when he realized i was WALKING to the museums he decided to leave me haha. he offered to pay for a taxi and i declined. so he left and i went to the supertaco chupacabra stand. this place did have SUPER tacos! i had cactus, potatoes, lime, salsa, and beans in my taco. it was delicious. the four men working the giant stand were all flirting with me. they found out my name and when i went to the juice stand they'd yell "cheyla!" "i love you!" and then when i turned around they'd pretend they didn't say anything. they made my day- hilarious. the one guy was nuts and his friend said in english "excuse me, he's crazy". i got 4 tacos for a dollar... half price. lovin life.
frida museum was beautiful, but uneventful. in their kitchen, there was a headless mannequin dressed in frida's clothes just standing there. that was super eerie. met a nice taxi driver outside the museum. i took a photo of a chip vendor. then the taxi driver took a photo of me. then i took a photo of the taxi driver heh. i walked around and fell upon a cheap hairdresser. okay, so my spanish is getting better, but i have NO knowledge of haircutting terminology. i know the word for hair. and "up". and i looked up "bangs". and the rest was body language and a lot of me saying "porque no?!" (why not?) to whatever she said. it was hilarious... pretty entertaining for all involved. she cut off a LOT, but i'm pretty happy with it!
on the way home i bought a nice bottle of chilean wine and then this reggae-dancing mexican came up and started talking to me on my way home. he was very friendly and i miraculously understood everything he said. i ended up not going out that night because i was too exhausted, which is ironic because i arranged the night out for the ENTIRE hostel bar. i told kyle i was going to bed and he yelled "but you're the ringleader!!"
forced to move AGAIN the next morn, but this time to a giant, airy, smells-neutral bedroom!! woot!! then diana and the colorada girl and i went to the museum of anthropology. i generally, though unfortunately, have zero interest in silly old artifacts and sculptures and all that.. but everyone RAVED about this museum, so i figured i'd give it a shot. and nope, i was right- not my style. luckily the other girls were tired of it too and we ended up skipping half of the GIGANTIC museum. there was a cool fountain from the sky and faces-turning-to-skulls hollogram thing... but other than that i was just really bored. diana touched a mexican blanket and an alarm went off, which was entertaining. i got my photo taken with a giant stuffed lady. and those were the highlights. outside of the museum were not one, but TWO, traditional ceremonies going on!! i was so excited! and they did not disappoint. there are times when travelling that i just look at or watch things from a purely "cultural interest" stance... but this i could watch for the rest of my life!! the dancing was AMAZING! the drumming was AMAZING! the costumes were AMAZING! wicked, powerful drumming with rhythmic dancing to match, plus stunning, classy costumes and they had shakers covering their ankles so with every stomp and move they made music themselves. amazing. amazing. i took a video, so hopefully that will be up soon. also, there was like a shaman ceremony going on in the middle so there was like sweet-smelling smoke and... loved it. the other ceremony was extremely peaceful and serene. these guys in cool costumes make music at the bottom of a GIANT pole, then four of them climb the pole and at the top they sit on a rotating piece and they make circles at the top, with ropes trailing behind them. then another guy climbs up and starts playing tranquil, rhythmic flute tunes while they bring the ropes in, still rotating, then wrap the ropes around the pole. then the bodies DROP from the spinning piece and as it's still rotating these men lie, upside down, in peaceful, yoga-like postures with colourful ribbons trailing from their bodies. as the rope unwinds from the pole they drop lower and lower, then eventually land, right side up, on the ground. it was beautiful. sooo peaceful. we then went to the museum of modern art, which was really awesome. we had fun annotating the paintings. returning to the city center i saw an even better traditional dance while the girls left for naps. i then wandered the largest open-air market in the world and had an uneventful night at the hostel.
next day hit teotihuacan- pyramid ruins north of mexico city. i was in a rush to get to puebla so i BOUNDED up the steep, high steps, enjoyed the view, descended. it was quite stunning. i have a feeling i'm going to get sick of ruins fast, though. and they mean nothing to me. i should read a book about pyramids. i went off the trail attempting to find a palace and although i did not find the palace i did find a beautiful view and a secluded place to pee. the hawkers at the ruins were making goat noises in order to get people's attention (although people still ignore them). i started laughing at them and then they started laughing and then we were all laughing at their ridiculous goat sounds... brought us together.

i arrived in puebla in loads of rain and, with the help of six different mexicans, found my way to the city center. soaking wet, i found a $5 room with no shower, toilets that don´t flush, and a bed that forced me to sit in its middle because it had a mean dip to it. i wandered the streets and got a strawberry juice from a really nice man in a really nice old-school shop with SUPER old-school music. lovely atmosphere. puebla has a very nice central plaza.
next day i decided to do the city in a day so i went to multiple places that were closed (which helped my time restriction, anyway) and then to the artisan stands and got an idea for the prices of things. saw some amazing artists in their little shops.
and then i got tired of writing about successive occurences.

so now for random thoughts:
- i've had some hilarious reactions from mexicans lately. for example, everyone that finds out i'm a vegetarian in mexico gives me, essentially, an ¨aww hun! im sorry...¨ also, men in the streets- i've had ¨omiGOD¨¨wwooooww¨¨i love you¨ and a powerful ¨hmph!¨ as the funniest reactions.
- fresh fruit juice here is eeevvveerywhere (and delicious), but as expensive as a cheap meal. does this mean that fruit juice is for the upper class? that mexicans value their vitamins? or that i´m overanalyzing jugo naturales?
- i really wonder how vendors feel. they´re even more ignored than in canada... that can´t feel good. so much rejection.
- in terms of travel, big cities scare me... they´re so hard to manage and overwhelming because there´s so much to do and such a large area. they stress me out.
- in trying to replace my shoes i went to the shoe store to find that the only sizes they carry are between 2-4.5. omigod. i later discovered they have different shoe sizing than us.. but not by much.
- my spanish is getting a little bit awesome.. but only a little bit.
- i had a guy tell me with a completely straight face that his name was ¨horsebox¨. it´s almost pathetic how uncontrollable my laughter was, even as he asked what was funny. in the end i´m glad to hear that he was, in fact, lying to me.

i´m still about a week behind but it´s something. i´m presently safe and sound in san cristobal de las casas and tomorrow moving to some waterfalls, lakes and ruins on my way to palenque.
mucho mucho amor!!
shayyy