I am home. It's 5 degrees and sunny this morning, far from the mid-20s I left in Mexico City (where I found it chilly, at the time), and instead of this update coming from the regular internet cafe, it's instead coming straight from my kitchen table. Such is life, I suppose. Back to reality. So in order to minimize the pain of recalling my last few weeks of travel, I've decided to give only a general overview with highlights of my remaining time away from home.
Guadalajara
After Oaxaca, I headed to Guadalajara, where my good friend Francisco put me in touch with his buddy Hector. As it turned out, this would lead to four wild nights on the town, with Hector's hospitality allowing me to stay at his place free of charge and spend my money on alcohol instead of accomodations. There are too many stories to highlight, but to get the gist of it, one night we stayed at the bar drinking amber Coronas until 3am, and then got into a car with two of his friends to race across town on a search for one of the guys' ex-girlfriends. We ended up sucessfully finding her, albeit at 5am, after which I fell asleep on the couch at Hector's girlfriend's place. In the morning, upon witnessing a strange white guy sleeping on her couch, she kindly greeted me and asked me if I wanted breakfast. I love Guadalajara.
Guanajuato
What a beautiful town. Unfortunately I was there during the Cervantino Festival, so all of the hostels had jacked up their prices. I spent five days exploring the city, taking pictures of mariachi men, and checking out the Bicentennario Expo. Big win.
Mexico City
Everything I had heard about Mexico City made me a little nervous about arriving there. At the same time, I had passed through on my way to Guadalajara form Oaxaca, and even having only transferred through the bus station, I felt this raw energy that immediately made me want to spend time there. Sure enough, Mexico City is so vibrant and chaotic that it drags you into its grip and doesn't let go. Which is all good, because there is so much to do there that you explore it for a month and still not see everything.
The biggest highlight of my first few days was lucha libres, even though we weren't allowed pictures, where I saw a midget dressed up as a mummy get kicked in the head by a full-grown man wearing a mask and spandex speedo. Win.
I also saw a futbol game at the largest stadium in Mexico, climbed the third-largest pyramid in the world (in flip flops), and saw the houses where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived, but the best part of Mexico City was what I had been waiting for to see for over 6 months: Day of the Dead.
Without getting into too many details, as I am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject, Day of the Dead is when the people of Mexico celebrate the lives of those who they have lost. The night of the 1st of November commemorates the departed souls of children, while the 2nd is for those of adults. Instead of a sad day, these are both happy ones, with people handing out food and decorating graves with elaborate ofrendas. Needless to say, it was pretty incredible.
And so ends my adventures in Mexico. It's hard to be home and have people act so horrified when you tell them you were in Mexico. "But it's so violent there right now!", they exclaim, as if to be experts on the matter of whether it is safe or not to travel there. There's a lot of bad things happening in Mexico these days, for sure. But the media has blown the dangers for common tourists way out of proportion. Everyone I met in Mexico was warm and hospitable, and for the most part went out of their way to prove to me that their country isn't what it is being depicted on the news everyday. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't recommend a vacation to Ciudad Juarez to anyone (although I bet you could get a really cheap deal...), but I was lucky enough to experience what I feel is the real Mexico. Where people look out for you when they realize you're a white kid with no idea where you are going, and where the sketchiest looking bus drivers will tell you when you need to get off to go to a certain place if you simply ask them nicely. So go to Mexico, quit your worrying. If you're not affiliated to a cartel, looking to mule drugs, or have so much money that someone would decide it was worth it to kidnap you, you probably won't get into any trouble. Viva la vida.
Probably one more entry as a general overview of my trip, stay tuned!
