Mexico & Guatemala

Part 1:

Chicago, Mexico City, Pacific Coast, Oaxaca

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Introduction

So me and my pal Danny traveled through Mexico and Guatemala for three weeks. We had a plane ticket to Mexico City, a ticket that would bring us back to Belgium from Cancun three weeks later, and Lonely Planet guides of Mexico and Guatemala to help us get there. We actually visited four countries, as we quickly ran through Chicago during a transfer there and also passed through Belize.

January 8th (day 0): Chicago

We had a 5h30 transfer in Chicago, and wanted to use that to quickly check out that city. We weren't sure whether we'd get out of the airport, and American Airlines had said there wouldn't be enough time, but we did it! Getting out of the metro in the middle of a snowy Chicago was one of the best moments of this trip.

I'm a skyscraper nut and particularly admire the Chicago style of the 1920s, and I'd marked all the best ones on a map. When we got out of the metro we figured we had one and a half hour before having to go back, and we made the most of it, literally running all through downtown Chicago, roughly from the Sears Tower to the John Hancock Center, only stopping to take pictures. It was freezing and neither of us had brought a coat, so running was actually good :)

January 9th (day 1): Mexico City

Since this was going to be a high-speed trip we only reserved one day for Mexico City. It's a lovely city with lots to see, but somehow I didn't take many good pictures there.
We also visited the Museo Nacional de Antropologia which exhibits fantastic artefacts from all the pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures (Olmec, Aztec, Toltec, Zapotec, Maya, and so on). It is quite simply the best museum I've ever visited, though the chaotic Egyptian museum in Cairo has the most spectacular exhibits of any museum of course. Later when we'd visited many ancient Mexican cities we both wished we'd spent more time here. I can't get the pictures off my memory card for the moment; hopefully I can show some of them later.

We also chanced upon an exhibition by an artist (who we met) who made fantastic robot-like creatures from pieces of junk, but the same goes for those pictures.

Bullfight

This day happened to be a Sunday, bullfight day in Mexico. FYI, Mexico is the country where bullfighting is most popular. It may be a weird thing to do for a vegetarian, but I am fascinated by all the culture and tradition behind bullfighting (having read a lot about it in James Michener's novel "Mexico") and I wanted to see it in real for once, so in the evening we went to the Monumental Plaza stadion, the biggest bullfight arena in the world with 48000 seats, and saw the bullfights.

It was a good spectacle but apparently we understood little of it, because the audience often cheered or boo'ed without us knowing why. I planned to be the only spectator cheering for the bulls, but to be honest they were such frustratingly stupid animals that there was little to no occasion.

January 10th (day 2): Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan, 50km north east of Mexico City, is Mexico's biggest ancient city. It flourished in the first three centuries AD, but declined in the 6th century and was abandoned in the 8th, long before the Aztecs came. The eye-catchers are the two big pyramids: the Pyramid of the Sun, built around 100 AD and 70m high, and the Pyramid of the Moon, built around 300 AD.

January 11th (day 3): Acapulco

The ultimate cruise destination, but we just went by bus. Acapulco is famous for its resorts, but the city itself is an ordinary Mexican town. We walked around a bit and spent the afternoon on the beach where we played tsunami with the strong undercurrent.
In the evening we went to see the famous cliff divers (anyone seen that Elvis movie?), who put up a good show. The two American chicks yelling and pushing each other for the spot next to me were even more entertaining though. At midnight we took a night bus to Puerto Escondido.

January 12th (day 4): Puerto Escondido

Quite the opposite of Acapulco, Puerto Escondido is a laid back surfer's paradise. We stayed in a hostel near the surfer`s beach where the waves are high and strong. We can`t surf and were told this place was too hard for a beginners lesson, so we rented bodyboards instead and had a fun day on the beach.

January 13th (day 5): Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca

We spent this morning on the beach again and at noon wanted to take the bus to Oaxaca for which we'd already bought tickets. However, the hotel owner who had locked up my passport had disappeared and made us miss it. I was very pissed off coz it meant we'd lose a day, but when I finally had the passport we rushed to the road and guess what, our bus passed there and we could get on it after all. The road to Oaxaca (Highway 175) goes through the mountains and is an attraction in itself.

January 14th (day 6): Monte Alban and Oaxaca

In the morning we first went to the ancient city on Monte Alban. We had intended to skip this because it didn't look that great on pictures, but we went anyway when we found out it was right next to Oaxaca and easily reachable by bus, and it turned out to be very nice. In the afternoon we visited Oaxaca itself, which was definitely the prettiest town we visited on this trip - though somewhat too sterile.

Monte Alban

Monte Alban, the ancient capital of the Zapotecs, stands on a flattened hilltop 400m above the surrounding valley floor. It was first settled around 500 BC and flourished from around 300 AD to 700 AD, when the surviving monuments were built (with clear influences from Teotihuacan). By the 10th century, it was abandoned and fell into ruin.

Oaxaca

The Spanish founded Oaxaca on top of an Aztec settlement in 1529, and it still looks like a typical Spanish colonial town (we saw several).
Little anecdote: Mexico City`s central square used to have a big statue of the Spanish king, which was removed when Mexico became independent. The socle remained, which is why the square got to be called Zocalo (Spanish for socle), and that name came to be used for the central squares of all Mexican cities.

At the Zocalo stands the Palacio de Gobierno, the palace of the Spanish governor.
The main sight in Oaxaca are the splendid baroque churches though.
Near midnight we took a night bus to Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the province Chiapas, but that's for the next part.

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