Mexico City

I had some plans of continuing my trip to Querétaro after San Miguel de Allende but as I could not stand more churches, more colonial buildings and more collectivos (small jam-packed vw-vans bumping around on uneven cobblestone streets), I went straight down to Mexico City to encounter skyscrapers, people, places of power and a convenient metro system.

Mexico city is known as the largest hispanic metropolis and also often referred to in relation to crime and danger. Indeed, Mexico city is a large metropolis and with a population of 19 million in the metropolis area, it alone equals the combined population of Norway, Sweden and Finland.

That Mexico city should be dangerous is however somewhat exagerrated. In 2004, Mexico City had only 84 car thefts, 55 muggings and 4 express kidnappings per day. Considering a population of 19 million, one could remain in the city for 147 years and 5 months and it should still be more likely to not be a victim of any of the mentioned crimes.

One would be surprised how safe it feels to walk the streets and ride on the public transport systems. With normal precaucions one can also greatly reduce the risk for being a victim of pickpockets and petty crime.

Mexico City is a bustling creature that never sleeps and its citizens enjoy the the highest cost of living in the whole country. Here are ample choices for entertainment and endless number of food stalls, street vendors and music-makers. One could easily spend months exploring all its museums, plazas, murals, palaces, architecture and parks.

Here is a Mexico City experience in pictures:

5th of May is a regional holiday in Mexico and in most cities nationwide, there are monuments or streets referring to this important date in the history. On the 5th of May 1962, general Ignacio Zaragoza defeated French troops outside the city of Puebla. For a nation that almost lacks any kind of military success (not as bad as Poland though), this event is celebrated amongst Mexicans every year. What everyone seems to have forgot is however that the reinforced French came back one year later, took Puebla and controlled the city for several years.


In the middle of the main square in the historic centre, called the "Zócalo", there is an enourmous Mexican flag. Big flags are not totally uncommon in this country and being a guy with great taste and fantastic sense of design and layout, I always want to throw up when I see something like this. I have asked myself why mexican flags always have to be in such disproportion to their pole and it is seriously indelicate. Back home the length of a flag should be around 1/4 of the length of the pole to look good. Vulgar taste, that is what it is. Yacks!



The cathedral on the east side of the Zócalo is a beauty and well worth a visit. It was built on top of an Aztec temple complex and since construction, it has therefore been sinking unevenly, creating various cracks in the structure. Amongst other things, it features an altar with a black Christ figure. Legend says it obtained its colour by miraculously absorbing a dose of poison through its feet.




Dressed in khaki uniforms, they stand on street corners, in front of theaters and museums, at busy junctions and at any other place they fancy. They represent an evil force who with their creepy harmonic instruments (manufactured in Berlin in late 19th century) pollute the environment with the most obscure, the most horrific, the most indescribable and ghastly melodies ever composed. Unfortunately I lack the ability to describe the sound better. And they still want you to throw a peso in the hat. Yeah, right! (I reckon that the only reason this old man is able to stand so close is that he is probably deaf)


Palacio Bellas Artes is a theatre and concert hall, which also hosts an art centre that contains some important murals. The construction of the building started in 1905 under an italian architect but the revolution intervened and the interior was not completed until 1930s, by an architect who favoured a more modern style.
The art centre contains Rivera's famous "The Man at the Crossroads", which was commissioned for the Rockefeller Center in New York. The Rockefellers did however not appreciate its anti-capitalist themes and had the original destroyed. Later Rivera re-created it here.


The fantastic Museum of Antropology in Mexico City may actually be the most stunning museum I have ever visited. It contains an impressive collection of artefacts from different indigenous cultures and everything is brilliantly displayed and explained. In the background is the famous Aztec "sun stone". It was recovered under the Zócalo and was long believed to be a representation of the Aztec calendar. However, nowadays archeologists believe it was used as a sacrifical altar.



At these canals ("floating gardens of Xochimilco") the indigenous people used to grow their food. The gardens were created by piling up mud and vegetation in the shallow water of the lake Xochimilco. Much of the lake was transformed into canals and today around 180km of these waterways remain. Tourists and citizens enjoy this place as a weekend-getaway and on Sundays the canals are crowded with traditional boats containing all from foods, drinks, music bands etc.

Mattias the hacker

The rain period is here and the weather is normally rainy in the afternoons and evenings. This seems to have culminated at my most recent stop, the city San Miguel de Allende. The city is famous for its architecture, its many language schools and, of course, the birthplace of the city's favourite son Ignacio Allende. Allende became a strong believer in the need for Mexican independence and played a key role in the independence movement that started 1810.

I was not able to take in much of the city's beauty between the depressing showers so I hoped to use the hostel's free wireless network to finally throughly check my email and update MyEndlessWeekend. In order to connect, a network key was needed but strangely noone in the hostel reception knew about this. They only said that it was free, that it was just to connect and to do whatever I want. There had been some people with similar problems in the past however (reeeeallly???).

To resolve the situation, I used the stationary computer in the common room, managed to hack into the router by searching for default passwords on internet (the hostel owner didn't change it) and removed the encryption to give any computer access. Just to be on the safe side I also changed the password so only I can log in to the router. Therefore, there should until this day be a free wireless hotspot on the street.


Picture 1) A small street in San Miguel de Allende, featuring a local bar.

Picture 2) The shady central square with the cathedral's "wedding-cake tower" in the background.

Guanajuato - The city of the dead

Mexicans are indeed funny. On my quest for oddities I went from Zacatecas to the city of Guanajuato and came across the following story:

In 1865 it was necessary to remove some bodies from the local cemetery to make room for more as it quickly had filled up. What the authorities discovered were surprising as the bodies were not skeletons as expected. They dug up flesh mummified bodies with grotesque forms and weird facial expressions.

Research showed that the dry climate, the extremely dry soil and the mineral content of the earth combined had preserved the bodies in this unique way. It takes about 5-6 years to become mummified when buried here.

Since space is still tight, bodies are regularly dug up if the relatives can't afford to pay the fees for the space in the cemetery. So now to the big question: what should the authorities do with such a great amount of mummies? In most parts of the world they would be cremated but Mexicans got a better idea; why not put them in a museum and earn money on them? Aye! Said and done!

Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato (Mummy Museum) today exhibits more than 100 dead bodies. Only 1-2% of the today dug up bodies are of "display quality specimens" so only the best are chosen; the rest are sadly burned. The exibition includes some highlights like the first mummy discovered, a pregnant mummy, baby mummies (amongst them the world's smallest mummy) and plenty more.

If you decide to enter this place there is a tiny risk that you will feel a bit sick.

Zacatecas

The city Zacatecas is about as far north as the early Spanish settlers went. The Spaniards didn't pay this dry rocky region much attention until huge amounts of silver was found in the mountains here. The rich silver-barons then developed the city with a marvellous architecture and it today hosts one of the country's most impressive cathedrals. As one of the Unesco World Heritage sites, restauration has returned the historic centre to the architectual brilliance of its past.
Apart from the Cathedral, the surrounding cobble-stone streets, markets and impressive buildings, the visitor can also enjoy a tour in one of the silver mines, visit the nearby ruins where the Aztecs halted during their wanderings, or take the cable-car to a mountain crowned by a monestary. From the rocky summit, the climber can get pleasure from an amazing 360° panorama view of the city and adjacent valleys.
Some Zacatecas-pictures follows.

Climbing the summit of the mountain La Bufa and looking down on the monastery and surrounding valley.

The Cathedral and the impressive historic centre.


On a tour in the mine exploring where the region's wealth came from (and the terrible price that was paid for it). At one epoch, about five miners died each day. But thanks to the Zacatacas mines, Mexico has been the world's largest Silver producer since the Spanish colonisation.


The beautiful "La Quemada" ruins are located outside the city, overlooking a grand valley. A small pyramid remains amongst the structures.


Another angle of "La Quemada". This place was probably inhabited by the Aztecs but research shows that some parts was constructed before they became dominant in the region. It may well have been inhabited by other tribes earlier back.



Me at a club where you have to wear a mask. There are some really odd places around if you explore a bit. This mask was particularly successful amongst the ladies so I tried to sneak it out and wear it full-time as it apparently is much better looking than me. But I was caught and had to leave without it.

Nothing to fear

For natural reasons, I only stayed in Chihuahua one day and decided to go further south. I purchased a ticket via Ojinaga (a bordertown close to Texas), which became a 10 hour detour and cost me an additional £10. However, I had the opportunity to visit the immigration office and sort my papers out.
I simply approached the immigration office walking from the Mexican side, went in and asked for a tourist card. The official flicked through my passport and quietly assumed that I had just arrived from the US and gave me everything I needed without hesitation. I am still amazed that it actually worked.


The quiet bordertown Ojinaga had not much to offer tourists.

Budget travelling

I have experienced a number of minor problems that have delayed my journey until now. Also it has cost slightly more than I calculated so I was hoping to make it up by staying in the cheapest places, eating the cheapest food and re-organise my itinerary to a slightly straighter path to save on bus fares.

On arrival in Chihuahua i therefore bravely ventured into a super-budget place, hoping to find a real bargain. It surely was cheap but had much to desire.

The bathroom light was almost like new.

Excellent paintwork. That must have been one of the more expensive painters in town.

Amazingly, the room had a TV. But there was no electric plug so how am I supposed to turn it on?


I was also looking for a picture of the funny looking toilet without seat but I must have forgot to take this photo. Other highlights: shower without shower head and central air-conditioning that was out of order.


The essential writings on the bathroom wall. It appears that someone wasn't that lucky and may have ended his days here. But not me, I am the viking from the north. I was also greatly helped by living in English standards for a couple of years.

Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon)

One of the absolute highlights with travelling in northern Mexico is the CHEPE train (Ferrocaril de Chihuahua al Pacifio or Railway from Chicuahua to the Pacific). It is the train the goes through the Barranca del Cobre from the Mexican highland down to the Pacific Ocean. Barranca del Cobre comprises of 20 spectacular canyons in a region four times as large as Grand Canyon (and in several parts also much deeper). It is therefore somewhat of a mystery why so many people never have heard about this place but as the little brother is located on the other side of the border in the states, it may attract all attention as money talks in this part of the world.
One of the worlds most scenic railways passes 36 bridges and 87 tunnels while climbing the canyons, a trip that takes 14 hours with the express train (but as I was so stingy that I took the budget train, which makes more stops and arrives 4 hours later).
Below I post a few pictures from the journey.

Mattias the illegal immigrant

I am now slightly worried for my tourist card. All visitors in Mexico should possess a tourist card while in the country but the bus I was on just went straight across the border (only stopped for checking luggage and at the bus terminal on the other side) and there were no passport controls or places to get the card. I am not entirely certain about the rules but it may mean that I am in the country illegally. There are now two alternatives; either I try to contact the immigration office and ask them to have a card issued or I pretend like nothing and hope that they wont check it when I exit the country. I read that there may be a fee involved for lost tourist cards so it will almost certainly not be for free. Or maybe a few years in a Mexican prison would do me well. To be continued…

The journalist Nick Ellena lodging in a Mexican prison.

Sven-Land

Finally I arrived to Sven-land. Since the English FA was stupid enough to fire one of the greatest managers the football world has ever seen it was hard to watch McLaren’s England lose to Croatia in the last game. It was hard because I watched the game together with English people and suddenly I wanted to make the biggest smile I’ve ever made in my life. But I also didn’t want to be killed. We have seen God’s punishment for the mistreatment of a world-class manager.

Now I am in the new Sven-land, Mexico. I am certain Mexico will qualify for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa and with good management and a decent draw they may actually go quite far. Viva Mexico.

Sven-Göran Eriksson with his new jersey, Mexico-style

The Passion of the Christ

Time for departure to Mexico. I left the hotel in LA at 10 am on Thursday morning. The trip to Los Mochis lasted for over 30 hours and I only checked in to my Mexican Hotel at 5 pm on the Saturday. At least the bus had ample leg space and it was a super deluxe class compared to African buses. During the day it was very hot in the bus as the air conditioning didn’t quite keep up with the gazing sun and during the night it was very cold in the bus as the air conditioning was on full power at all time. I have seldom felt so fresh after a shower as I did when I arrived in Los Mochis. The bus from Los Angeles was also delayed so my two hour transit in Tijuana was reduced to a mere 15 minutes. I only saw the inside of the bus terminal and nothing of the drug dealing outside.

The funniest thing about the bus journey was their choice of films. On the Saturday morning we got to watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in Latin/Aramaic with Spanish subtitles on all five bus monitors. I thought it was a bit brave as there were lots of small children on board and in Europe, parents would definitely be opposed to let the children watch over one hour of non-stop tasteless human torture. Even I felt disgusted at one point; that is a very sick movie I tell you.

Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"

Tijuana

While in Mozambique, I was warned about the Tijuana border crossing by the project leader who had spent quite a lot of time in Mexico. He said that Mexico is beautiful and that all places could be visited. There was only one rule; avoid the Tijuana border crossing. This is the place where all dreg hang around; all from people smugglers, drug dealers, drug smugglers, hijackers, robbers, rapists, pimps and everything else you can think of. If crossing the border on foot you may be assaulted if unlucky and you should by no means buy something from anyone.

If you would be stupid enough to buy illegal drugs on the Mexican side, you are in deep trouble as the drug dealer may (after having sold it to you) tip the police that you are carrying drugs and he will earn some extra money on the reward.

Tijuana is the cheapest place to cross as it’s the closest crossing from Los Angeles and it is also the most busy border crossing in the world. Lot’s of people make it across the border without trouble by using normal precautions but if you are looking for trouble, any kind of trouble can easily be found. While on the other side you can get buses to almost anywhere in Mexico.

With this in mind, I purchased a through-ticket (probably more expensive) from Los Angeles to Mexican Los Mochis, which should save me from all the hassle at the border. Los Mochis is also located a bit more to the east so I though the bus should use another border crossing (Nogales cross looked more direct). I could however not stop smiling when I looked down on my ticket and it said I had two hours transit in Tijuana Central.

Grand Canyon

Something that has to be seen while in the area. I am not really sure about what to write about it. I am sort of speechless. Not really speechless of excitement from having seen it, its more like emptiness “á-la-was-that-all?” Now I have to say that Grand Canyon was extremely beautiful and impressively big. And it is fantastic watching how the rivers have cut through the earth, revealing geology worth billions of years and it is bizarre glazing down on the Colorado River deep, deep down beneath the cliffs. An incredible experience but was it extraordinary?

I have always thought that visiting Grand Canyon should be out of this world. This is the place where the ancient native Americans lived close to the earth, filled with wisdom of life, the universe and everything. And this is the place where the history of earth is displayed billions of years back, a quite grotesque thing to imagine. Something told me that standing there on top of it, staring out over the landscape, observing the forms and shapes of the cliffs and gazing out over the birds flying over the canyon beneath you would tell me something. It would allow me to take in the ancient wisdom and I should suddenly know the answer to everything. But I don’t; that’s where the emptiness comes from.

There are many ways to experience Grand Canyon but just standing on top of it was not good enough. If anyone is thinking of going there, please consider one of the following two options; either do rafting along the canyon, there are trips available between one to eleven days (the time it takes to raft along the whole thing) or stay in the canyon a night or two camping on the bottom. Don’t do a helicopter fly-over or walk along the rim; only then can the truth be revealed.

Gus Hansen and Barry Greenstein

Gus Hansen, “The Great Dane”, is known for his aggressive play in tournaments. This strategy of playing lower ranked hands and with a great talent at the poker table has proven to be a great success.

Gus Hansen

Barry Greenstein, a native of Chicago, was taught the game of poker at a very young age by his father, a notable Army card player. Barry is somewhat of an oddity among poker players, donating all of his winnings to charity, earning the title of the "Robin Hood" of poker.

Barry Greenstein

Mattias in Las Vegas

Las Vegas is truly fabulous. There cannot be another place on earth like this and everyone should go here at least once. Las Vegas has a population of about a million, most of who are employed in the tourism sector, serving the 42 million tourists (and increasing) who come to Las Vegas each year.

The only reason Las Vegas exists is that the place happened to be half way between Salt Lake City and San Bernardino, where a fort was once built as a stopover on the “mormon corridor”. The city was established only 100 years ago by residents in the Las Vegas Valley. At that time, the valley had a total population of 30 people. Then you could become a major of the city with only 15 votes.

Another interesting fact about Las Vegas is that it gets around 10 cm of rain each year. This is not even enough to keep grass alive so every tree, every grass field, every park etc in the city is generously watered every day.

Las Vegas is famous for “The Strip”, which is the entertainment street where all the fancy hotels and casinos are located. There is an incredible amount of money involved here and the hotels spend absurd monies on design, decoration, luxury, size etc, all to attract the richest and fanciest customers. All hotels do of course have in-house casinos, at least 10 restaurants, numerous bars, cafes, shops, health spas and so on.

At only one intersection, where the hotels New York New York, Tropicana and Excalibur are located, there are more hotel rooms than in the whole city of San Francisco. Only the hotel New York New York can host 9000 guests, served by 6000 employees.

So what did I do in Vegas then? Except from walking around in the fancy hotels, enjoying the Las Vegas Strip, visiting casinos and admiring all the luxury everywhere, there are mainly two things I’m proud over;

1) At the hotel Caesar’s Palace, I visited a poker room. In poker rooms, the cheapest tables are normally at the entrance and the further in you walk, the higher are the stakes. In a dark room at the back of the hall, they were playing stakes of ¼ million dollar per person and at the table sat Gus Hansen and Barry Greenstein, two of the world’s greatest poker stars. Particularly Gus Hansen is big. We were able to stand at the door and watch for a while before the staff told us to get out of there if we were not going to play.

2) In Vegas, you normally lose your money but I managed to beat the casinos of a total of $30 (not too much I know but it’s the principle of winning). I was particularly successful on the Roulette.

The hotel "Luxor", built like a massive pyramid

The hotel "New York New York", imitating famous sky-scrapers on Manhattan

The hotel "Paris" claims that "everything is sexier in Paris".

A street inside "Paris"

Mattias in Hollywood

There are a few places any visitor to LA should see. However, none really impressed me, except from one. Tourists normally visit places such as for example St Monica (uptown beach area), Venice Beach (where Baywatch was recorded), Hollywood (with its walk of fame and Chinese theatre and others), Sunset Boulevard (where all the fancy restaurants and nightclubs are located, often owned by Hollywood stars), Beverly Hills (expensive shopping), Disneyland (classic) and Universal Studios (worlds largest film studios). The only place I didn’t pay a visit was Disneyland California and the only place I thoroughly liked was the Universal Studios. Hollywood was an OK place but crowded by tourists who all go crazy and fight about having their pictures taken with the tiny Hollywood sign (many many miles away) in the background. And it is hard to enjoy the walk of fame with thousands of tourists who go hysteric every time they see the name of someone they have seen on TV. Anyway, Hollywood is the second on my list and the conclusion can be summarised as follows:

If your name is Kevin Kay or similar it is likely that you will end up in Los Angeles on “speed-tourism” with only a few hours to see the sights. Here is what you should do: Screw St Monica, screw Venice Beach, screw Hollywood, screw Sunset Boulevard, screw Disneyland, screw Beverly Hills and only go to Universal Studios and spend a whole day there. If you have two days; on the first day do a beach in the morning, Hollywood in the afternoon and in the evening, go to a restaurant and/or club on Sunset Boulevard. Spend whole of day two in Universal Studios. If you are Kevin Kay in 5-6 years or more, you may need to stay another day to do Disneyland.

And from Hollywood you need freekin' good binoculars to see the bloody sign. In this picture its about 4 pixels wide. Have a guess...

Sunset over Pacific LA

After a horrendously long flight from South Africa to Los Angeles via Heathrow I finally arrived safely in Los Angeles, California in the evening, just in time to see the sunset from the plane. After calling the free airport shuttle I was soon in the hostel which I carefully had selected. It was a great place that had free wi-fi internet, free pool, free daily champagne party, free breakfast, free all-you-can-eat food between 18:30-19:00 and free shuttles to airport, transit centre, beach and shopping centre. All for only $18 a day. Excellent.

English Annoyance

I was glad to leave all bus problems behind me and as soon as I exited the South African border in Johannesburg, I expected everything to go smooth like an oiled flash. I only had to cope with the English, who always do their best to annoy travellers in any way they can. No exception this time.

I used my last South African Rand-coins to stock up on a few drinks in the airport as I had a long wait at Heathrow. I tried to be clever and do it after the security control where they also check for liquids. About 10 hours later I was about to find out that even if arriving from international flights you have to pass another security check before getting into Heathrow Terminal 5. And no drinks allowed again. I had to sit down and finish all my drinks in the corridor. Lucky I didn’t buy that tax-free Whisky-bottle that was on sale in Jo’burg; that would have been significantly harder to finish.

Next task was to post a couple of books I didn’t fancy carry with me to Americas. One was particularly urgent as it was a library book from Basingstoke; which I had managed to renew online every couple of weeks without anyone filing a reservation (touch wood). I brought with me franked envelopes so it was just to put in the postbox.

When entering terminal 5 I was about to find out the next annoying thing; Royal Mail has fiddled with the postboxes in all London airports. They have mounted something in the hole that only makes it possible to post items that are 3 mm thick or thinner. And have you ever seen a Lonely Planet book thinner than three millimetres? Not even LP Farnborough would fit in there if it existed. To get it posted, I had to ask British Airways to escort me out to England, then take a train to terminal two, which had a post office outside, then take the train back and finally go through the !*&%*$ security again.

Pip, another super-annoying british person.