After 24 hours of non-stop traveling from Burlington driving to Newark airport, New Jersey, having a transit in Atlanta, Georgia, and taking the subway, cab and finally the bus from Mexico City, Alberto, Noemie and I finally arrived in Guadalajara at Emilio’s place, where we reunited with the other four with whom we split up in Newark. Exhausting, but happy (Christine in specific because she’s Emilio’s girlfriend, but still among us in the States), to be received by our ex-fellow exchange student from last semester, and his family with open arms and have a large and amazing Mexican breakfast at arrival.
GUADALAJARA
In the one day I had to explore the second city of Mexico, I’ve seen quite a lot. Riding a carriage through the old part of the city, which reminded me of Kota-area in Jakarta, and watching mariachi’s, the known Mexican musicians; even ‘to-go’ as they offer their musical talents along the streets as if they were hitchhiking. Usually they’re picked up for couples that need to reconcile, and they’re not cheap! It’s a cute, modest city, and I loved how the people, families and couples, gather in the many squares with beautiful old buildings the city has.
[Mariachi's-to-go]
Emilio’s house is located in a complex that has an excellent agreement with its natural environment, in order to maintain the green and therefore enjoy fresh air and a breathtaking view. Being in this mount-like surrounding rang bells of my time staying at my friend’s in Bogor, West-Java. I would say that Guadalajara is comparable with Bandung, and maybe even less ‘condense’. Yes, a lot reminded me of Indonesia.
[Emilio's house]
PUERTO VALLARTA
After Anca and Maja arrived later on the first day, we were finally complete and our group of ten (!!!) was ready to leave for Puerto Vallarta, the next morning.
Due to a special arrangement we had a ridiculous deal with a nice hotel on the coast: US$200 for five days, including the four hours bus ride from Guadalajara, and all-inclusive food and drinks during the stay. In other words: three proper meals a day, all-you-can-order served snacks and food when on the beach, and all-you-can-drink, including the alcoholic ones. Simply ridiculous.
Puerto Vallarta: just another beach resort. Like Australians would hop to Bali, this second most touristic beach in Mexico after Cancun is paradise for Americans. The average tourists were the sorority and fraternity-like White Americans solely aiming on partying, getting tanned, getting drunk and getting laid, and the overcooked retired couples lying on the beach all day. On top of that, signs in town of all-American crowded, although local-owned clubs pronouncing ‘Welcome Springbreakers’, made me really disgust of the whole beach resort concept. This was my first and last beach resort holiday to lie on the beach all day doing nothing. Of course it was very beautiful to lie down, relax and enjoy the sound of the blowing wind and the dancing sea -just like on any other beach, but I got extremely irritated by the idea of being idle and becoming numb while being served by the hard-working Mexicans. I couldn’t get any inspiration there, until my last day before leaving the country, after having seen Mexico City, which has been really inspiring and thus resulted in penning out a poem at once.
MEXICO CITY
As it used to be one of the biggest cities in the world I expected it to be just like Jakarta, but this false hope got me by surprise. One major difference is the high altitude of its location, which means it gets really cold by night, and I was not prepared for that! Then, the public transportation is very good, matter of fact, the Mexican subway and larger-distances bus systems are best I’ve experienced; it’s as neat and beautiful like in DC, fast, clear, and it costs only 2 pesos, meaning US$0.20 cents (0,17 Euro cents)! The informal work sector is of course also very common, apparent 3and musical! The underground pathways are not full of ads, but decorated with ‘educational’ posters on nature and life. There’s even a dark section of a tunnel with zodiac-signs on the arched ceiling.
The traffic was mad, but still not as insane as in Jakarta or NYC. The many Volkswagen vans and bugs in the royal setting the city made the area authentic and very adorable. Mexico City has no small, dirty and inconvenient public motor vehicles as common in Asia, and that makes such a different to the scenery and air: the pollution is by far not that bad.
Furthermore, I had a really rich, colorful, inspirational, cultural, and vibrant impression of Mexico D.F. (Distrito Federal) as is it also called by the locals. The buildings, even the subsidized houses, are very bright-colored, and the many parks and squares, with its necessary street vendors, make the city even more joyous and alive, and intimate! ‘Go to the park’ is the Latin-American equivalent of ‘Get a room’. Intimateness is not limited to private spheres, but can be over obviously found in every public setting; Mexicans, in every age range –from young teens to elderly, are not preserved in displaying public affection, from the usual walking hand-in-hand to (overstated) hugging and kissing.
It seems to contradict with Mexico’s main religion, but it makes sense to know that in the pre-Catholic state of Mexico, the people had very open attitudes towards sexuality. The churches and holy places I’ve visited were incredibly impressive, in the sense that it wasn’t merely a touristic attraction: people would also actually do prayers and confessions. There were people carrying large crosses to the mass or to the holy Maria statue.
The cultural sensation could be felt on the street as well as in the many museums and exhibitions the city has to offer. We only had the chance to visit the Frida Kahlo house, which have been extremely inspiring to me. We got to see, but not enter the huge and famous Museum of Anthropology; it would take at least two days for me to explore that place.
[Noemie, Alberto & I]
[El Museo de Antropologia]
We stayed in a very awesome hostel, and very known and visited by the locals for its bar and music, probably also because its perfect location; at Zocalo, the historically famous square where a lot of protests have taken place. During our stay there was some musical festival going on right in front of the door, so we could enjoy the concerts till late at night from the rooftop terrace of our hostel…
[Our hostel]
[The rooftop terrace]
[Zocalo]
The last day we took a hostel-organized tour to several Mexican cultural heritages. It was extremely crowded and incredibly hot (no trees, no shadows) at the huge solid Theotihuacan temples. I’m not a big fan of tour-guided sightseeings, but our tour guide was very good and gave us thoroughly, and beyond, information.
Funny detail: in the Theotihuacan-empire, little children would be sacrificed in times of drought, with the rationale that they would play on the clouds and thus cause rain.
Many ‘indigenous’ Mexicans still practice their traditional rituals and dances on main squares, parks and of course at the Theotihuacan temples, either alone, in small or in big groups. Confusing, but historically not odd, was to see many men were dressed in the typical ‘cowboy’ outfit, more in Guadalajara then in D.F. though. Logically, the boots need to stay smooth and shiny, and that’s probably why shoe-shiners, somehow informal, but in their most settled, equipped, and sometimes even sponsored stands, are common in the street scenery.
[On Zocalo]
Close to the business area, which resembles Jalan Sudirman in Jakarta, but without the street vendors, was the extraordinary Zona Rosa. This gay area was maybe a bit cocky, but still very Latin American flavored, though not necessarily machismo, it still caused a unique atmosphere.
From the Torre Latino America, an old but still the highest building in the city, we witnessed how D.F. changed from daylight glimmering into the dark from the 44th floor (around 182 meter).
On food I tried almost everything the streets had to offer. Churro’s, basically fried dough sweetened with caramel sauce for example. And Mexicans are as crazy as Indonesians can be on spicy sauce; they put it on everything! But their sauce consist of grinded chili smoothened with lime and salt, a very distinctive, and addictive taste! In addition they’re very fond of pork, which was of course very pity for me
Afterwards I’ve been told I was just very lucky to have experience Mexico (City) in such a ‘clear’ state, and that it had been raining and smogging before our arrival. I found this when we left Monday afternoon, and I was in the plane and looked down on a big cloud that divided the amazing view of Mexico City expanding up to the mountain hills, in a ‘clear blue’ setting from the polluted grey sky above the clouds.
Mexico showed me a rough and dry, but rich natural environment that I’ve never witnessed before. This country was an extraordinary anyhow, and unlike the places I’ve traveled before. During this trip I realized how regrettable it was to not have continued Spanish: most of the time Noemie (France) and I were completely dependent on Alberto (Spain). Thus, I’d really like to go back again, but only with a Spanish-speaking travel mate!
The way back was as hectic as our departure. When we landed in Atlanta, Georgia, we all had to go through customs, even though it was just a transit of one hour. At arrival in Newark, New Jersey, by midnight, Christine was already in awaiting for us. While our other friends left Guadalajara some days earlier, she stayed until the end with her boyfriend, so she could meet up with the three of us at Newark airport and drive back to Burlington. At 8 o’clock in the morning we finally arrived in our dorms, so that we all could still be on time for our 9am and 11am classes…
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