On my first trip to Mexico years ago, I remember my friends telling me that it was unsafe, full of drugs, hookers, bandits and that everyone would try to take my stuff at every turn. In Trinidad, the bandit copied the “Colombian” kidnapping habit, hence my Trini friends would tell me that they knew someone, who knew someone else who was kidnapped or murdered in Latin America, about how their favourite pastime ”is kidnapping tourists”. Of course, the media sensationalizes everything today and has a pesky habit of accentuating the negative aspects about different parts of the world.

It’s like when I go to US every other week to work. The average American client person thinks that Canada is cold all the time and that there are marauding polar bears everywhere and that we have rogue weekly avalanches  – I’ve never seen a Polar Bear outside of the zoo … but it is about what generalizations will spread.  As ridiculous as some of the assumptions people have about parts of the world, there are some very simple things we can do to ensure that we don’t become a part of other people’s stories.  Here are my quick tips to traveling safely in the Latin America or even in Trinidad – but they are applicable generally everywhere.

1. Take the taxi around – they’re cheap, especially if you can haggle!
   During the day, I am usually pretty confident about just walking around, however at night, taking a recognized taxi is always the safer approach. For instance, In Buenos Aires, I walked around as much as I could, especially since taxis are a chore but at night I always took a taxi. In Rio … I always took a taxi, even in the day… Rio is rough … ! In Morocco, I had the best tour of Fez ever for a couple dollars. Although it might seem like overkill at times, especially if your hostel or hotel is just blocks away, taxis generally are much safer than walking, above all at night.  We hear horror stories all the time about taxis taking people for all they have, but in reality this is a rarity.  If you want to be extra careful, have the bar call a certified taxi and make sure you are not alone. We all know the stories where drunk tourist decided to walk .. got robbed and lost hundreds of dollars/cameras/shoes etc … when they could have spent 2.50$ a person and gotten home safely.

   

2. Spread the money around … your body
   Simple and easy tip, yet I read travel forums and horror stories all the time about people being robbed of everything and their religion. Don’t keep all your money in one place. Do however keep “enough” money, in case you ever get robbed … hence walking with 20 pesos in Mexico per pocket is stupid … if you do get robbed, handing over only 20 pesos will get you beaten up plus robbed, and probably strip searched by your potential bandits.

   

3. Always keep a copy of your passport and never your actual passport
   When traveling to a foreign country, especially one where you don’t speak the language, never take your passport along with you. Have multiple photocopies and scan a high resolution copy and email it to yourself, in case you lose your copies.

   Repeat after me : Your passport is your life. Say it 100 times. Losing your passport in a foreign country, is akin to you being in a non fatal car crash. It’s serious, stays on your record if your embassy has to get involved and will absolutely RUIN your trip. Photocopies will quickly prove who you are, and get you back on the road quickly. Plus in some parts of Latin America, it is the law to at least have a photocopy.

   

4. Walk it, like you invented it
   Do you ever question a guy who said he invented something? Nope .. why? Cause he said so. When going to anywhere new, act like you’ve been there before and walk with confidence. This is a difficult trick to master for the inexperienced traveler – it only comes with experience and that certain “screw you” attitude that some people naturally have.If you stand around looking like a hyper-vigilant, paranoid tourist; then you will be treated like one. Do you see locals staring around? No .. cause they know what they are doing … even if you have no clue where you are going … you can always simply ask to get to somewhere interesting. I’ve done it enough times and it’s worked 100% of the time for me.   

   
   

5. Talk to the locals
   They know where to go and where not to go … simple, easy … now write that down <scribble> “Talk to locals .. check!”  The locals are hidden in this picture!

   

6. Don’t fall asleep on buses … unless …You’re at the back of the bus, by yourself.
   I’ve met too many people who lost their stuff on the bus. Food, bags, shopping … all gone with a little nap.   
   
7. Trust your insincts … if it doesn’t feel right, it isn’t right!
   

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Well long day getting from Cancun to Miami… almost missed the plane in typical style and all…. but of course in the end I got the plane but I lost a 100$ bottle of tequila because the flight attendants from Cancun didnt remind me to check the bottles in the luggage. Anyway now I am here in the plane and of course we’re completely delayed and all. So I guess I have time to refresh the last couple days of travel since I dont know how long I will actually be in this plane stopped here.

However, walking around Le Meredien was really nice and the moonlight made for some great pics

With the wind blowly strongly,  it made for some great photo effects

…..

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Well got in this morning quite early, right after midnight into Le Meridien. Nice hotel and lots of pools. It has been about 8 years since I was last in Cancun and I will say that it has changed a lot since then. Very very developed and chains and franchises everywhere to be seen. The hotels themselves were rebuilt after Hurricane wilma and you can definitely tell. Most of the hotels are completely new or newly renovated.

Le Meridien is one of those hotels, with a number of pools and very good facilities. So of course, when i checked in Got the usual Platinum room for 50$ but the concierge desk was closed (?)… since the concierge should always be up and all. Anyway they arranged a tour with Cancun Tours. Quite pricy though for the tour, about 1000 pesos, so about 100 USD.

7.30am:
Well the tour came on time and there was breakfast and juice on board as well as a waitress on board to serve everyone. I was most impressed by this…

The trip from Cancun to Chichen Itza was about 3 hours with the mandatory stop at the tourist trap to buy stuff. I did find a great machine made Mexican rug, and I had to barter the price down from 900 pesos to 325 pesos. Man must these guys make some money when I could hit them down that low for the rug.

11.00
Once we got to Chichen Itza, it was everything that I read about i.e. it being a tourist trap since everyone from Merida, Cozumel and Cancun do day trips to this place, so it was like a tourist bomb has exploded there.

I do recognize the irony of me talking about this, since I myself was doing the tourist thing and all, but I was backpacking my way through and I have seen all the temples, so I am allowed to get on my high horse for a little bit. The structure and the complex itself is impressive but in my mind, it really wasn’t as impressive as Tikal at all. Tikal is the largest pyramid of all the Mayan temples, but yet since Chichen Itza has all the tourists, it was voted on the new 7 wonders. I dont completely agree with the choice but in the end, what do the little tourists really know.

It was scorching hot and reminded me of angkor Way in the way that the heat radiated of the rocks and structures. There was also one long structure that had a snake end like the apsara heads in Angkor Wat.

Kukulcán pyramid

The massive Kukulcán pyramid called “El Castillo” (the castle) is roughly at the center of the site. Climbing it is quite a challenge and those who make it are rewarded with a spectacular view of the city and surrounding country side.

From the other angle

The construction of the Kukulcán Pyramid at Chichén Itzá was planned so that each Vernal Equinox the dying sun would cast a shadow of a serpent writhing down the steps of the pyramid. Every year over 40,000 people make the trek to the great pyramid to watch in awe as the snakes diamond backed body slowly appears.  

If you stand facing the foot of the temple and shout the echo comes back as a piercing shriek.

Also, a person standing on the top step can speak in a normal voice and be heard by those at ground level for some distance. This quality is also shared by another Mayan pyramid at Tikal.

The Temple of the Warriors 

The Temple of the Warriors and its adjacent Temple of the Jaguar are the most awe inspiring ruins on the complex. A massive temple structure, surrounded by hundreds of columns is carved with reliefs. I wandered into the rows of columns with the sun just coming up and hard.

The columns continue on into the jungle, that part of the temple still has not been restored. It’s an unsettling sight to see how easily the forest has reclaimed the area. What unanswered questions lay under the canopy of leaves and beneath the twisted roots.

The Observatory

The intense interest of the Maya in the annual travels of the sun across the sky is evident in many structures at Chichén Itzá and other Mayan Sites. South of the Castillo is a strange round building known as the Carocal. Several of its windows point towards the equinox sunset and the southernmost and northernmost points on the horizon where Venus rises.

One of the nice things about Chichén Itzá is that you can go in almost all of the ruins. Many have the musty smell of the past, still present after over 1000 years. Dark portals await those that dare walk through. After walking into one pitch black room a startled meter long iguana charged through my shaking legs and out into the jungle. It felt like a seen from “Indiana Jones” It’s nice that despite all the reconstruction and tourists, the place can still grab hold of you like that.

The great Ball Court at Chichen Itza

The Mayans were great sportsmen and build huge ballcourts to play their games. The Great Ballcourt of Chichén Itzá is 545 feet long and 225 feet wide overall. It has no vault, no discontinuity between the walls and is totally open to the sky. 

Each end has a raised “temple” area. A whisper from end can be heard clearly at the other end 500 feet away and through the length and breath of the court. The sound waves are unaffected by wind direction or time of day/night. Archaeologists engaged in the reconstruction noted that the sound transmission became stronger and clearer as they proceeded. In 1931 Leopold Stokowski spent 4 days at the site to determine the acoustic principals that could be applied to an open-air concert theater he was designing. Stokowski failed to learn the secret. To this day it has not been explained.

The more of these temples and structures across the world that I see, I realize that there is a certain similarity about all these structures and really does make me question the revisionist Catholic history that we have been subjected though time. When you go to Palenque and you see the carving from Hindu, Hebrew, and Egyptian cultures, and you look at the relative timelines of what they say the new world was discovered, I think there are some really huge holes in the history of what has been told.

Anyway touring the structures in Chichen Itza was complete, again nothing really profound to think about, got the usual good pics and all. Then it was off to the
Cenoté which  deep water filled sinkholes formed by water percolating through the soft limestone above. Since the porous soil held little water, these underground bodies were extremely important to the city.

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Well got up this morning bright and early, headed to the gym in town after a swim. The gym was a quaint old thing, with lots of weights, but all rusty and what not – a real man’s gym, without the acoutrements of the modern gym and all. It was nice and I hit the workout hard… after grabbing some empanadas in town, got back to the hotel for about 11am and then it was off to the waterfalls.

Just like Trinidad, everything here operates on Mexican time but the thing is that my time here is of the essence, so I was getting a little antsy about the whole thing. Eventually the bus came for us and we were off to the falls. Getting from Palenque to Misol-Ha was about 20km.. but it took about 15 mins with the crazy driving these guys do around the bends and everything and I must say that when I got to the falls, the drop and the power in the DRY season was astounding. It is a gorgeous sunny day, so of course it causes all sorts of problems with flaring on your camera…

Now once you hike the 15 mins to the falls, there is a huge area to swim within the pool, but of course, since I’m travelling alone here, there wont be any of that. I’m a little disappointed not to be swimming in the pool but hey what can you do?? The nice thing is that within Misol-Ha, there is a clear path behind the falls and there are some caves at the top of the falls area, where there are even more falls through some caves, but as I have clearly learnt in Mexico…. I am claustrophobic!!!

The hike behind the falls offers some stunning drops of the water in front of you, but I am thankful I invested in the Merill hydro sandals before I came, since the footing was treacherous and everyone was slipping in front me, one dumbass girl tried walking in platforms and sprained her ankle quite badly… note to anyone, falls climbing isn’t a fashionable activity and nature doesn’t like being mocked.

Once you traverse behind the falls, there is a steep climb to caves at the top, where there is another waterfalls within the caves, but the view of the falls from this side is amazing

Once you’re behind the falls and going up the climb

You get to the caves and once ur inside you can take another little tour, but for me, this was enough caves for me this trip, so I chose to look from the inside out…

Then it was back down, past the view and to the bus to head over to Agua Azul

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Well getting into Villahermosa from Mexico City was kind of a trek, especially when these little airports are out of thw ay. This was a painless trek though, and my luggage came on time, unlike the episode in mexico city. So once I got my lugagge, I then had the task of finding a taxi to Palenque from Villahermosa, not getting ripped off in the process. The hotel has quoted 1200 pesos for the transfer… to which i polited told them on the phone to F@@$ themselves. When I got to the taxi depot, I saw that the price to Palenque was 1000 Pesos.. i resolved not to pay more than 800 pesos, and even then I knew this was too much, but not speaking Spanish, in a Spanish speaking country leaves you with slightly less bargaining power – after walking outside, I indeed found a taxi, with the help of his calculator and me going yes/no to his typing on the calculator, we met me my price after walking away twice.

The ride to Palenque was non eventful, but this was a 170 km ride though… for 800 pesos… man.. in Toronto, I would have needed a second mortgage to afford that ride. Lots of great jungle to pass through but eventually I got the hotel here in Palenque : Maya Tulipanes . This is looks like a decent enough hotel with a pool, no gym but thankfully very very reliable FREE Wi-Fi service. Hell the internet at the Sheraton in Mexico City cost me about 25% of the room there. Speaking of that, lemme go check how many SPG points they deducted for that 5 night stay there. Ok, so no real extra points gathered and no stays credited Anyway so the program for the next three days is as follows

So after getting here to the hotel now at about 6pm or so… dinner was passable. The food definitely isn’t 5 star but the mexican stuff is pretty decent. So now off the to the pool for a swim and then some sleep, it’s been a long day getting here to the jungle, but the air is clean, the weather is warm and I’m ready for some waterfalls…..

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Well this is another small but quaint town. The streets however are a nightmare to navigate… and there is no way, someone who is accustomed to regular roads would be able to drive here – of course seeing that I don’t drive right now is a great thing!

Upon arrival, we proceeded to the usual tour of a store, I lasted about 6.2837 mins in this store, since there was nothing I wanted to buy here, but we did get a little presentation of how the silver is mined and some drinks! Oh yes! The drinks, every store you go to, you can drink. Hell you could go window shopping in all of Mexico and get drunk I think. Since every store I went to I got drinks… and not like crappy shit tequila, but decent tequilas. This trip has definitely taught me that my principles of alcohol stand…you buy shit alcohol, you get sick… the good stuff is the good stuff for a reason! Don Julio and Herradura have become very good friends of mine, but only if they are Resposado or Extra Anejo!

The town square is nice and small… with everyone milling about. One can see that this is somewhere where the clock hits 7 and eveything closes up, however everyone is so friendly and willing to show you around.

The Church here which is the San Sebastien Cathedral. The church is decorated by Miguel Cabrera….. lovely it is!! Si!!!

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Day 3 started with a tour to Cuernavaca and Taxco….
First thing is that while Cuernavaca is pronounced the way it looks, Taxco is pronounced “Tas-co”.. so it took me a couple minutes to get that down pat…it wasn’t as hard as Xochimilco, but you learn the rules quickly. Cuernavaca is a small little town really, but there are some stunning view of the two volancanoes to the east is Ixtaccihuatl and the to the southeast is Popocatepetl

There are many lovely haciendas around here due to the eternally nice weather, and of course Cuernavaca means “Land of Eternal Spring”. Since this was a shared tour, we went to three of the four “things to do” listed in the guidebook

•  Robert Brady House :
  Firstly, was a tour of this very eclectic house set with about 1200 pieces of art. My thoughts about this house… this dude was eccentric but there were some really great pieces of art in here. No theme, though, he just collected lots of stuff and of course was filthy rich, so he didn’t really care what people thought

  The house is lovely and well maintained, but this dude had no kids and never married…. hmmm????
                 

  

   He did have an eccentric style though as evidenced by his living room and bedroom.

  

  

  And an original Frida Kahlo self portrait… I don’t know but even in the movie with the unibrow…. I don’t know why people like this woman… seriously!

  

• Cuernavaca Cathedral:
  The one thing you are struck with when you come to Mexico, is the depth of the Spanish influence. The Churches, fountains and promenades are so very European. The Cathedral here isn’t as ornate as others I have seen, but it was explained that this cathedral was built by the Franciscan Order and the Bishop here didnt believe in huge ornaments and decorations. In addition, the cathedral has two sections : one for Catholics and another for natives who were Christian but didn’t convert…. who said religion was fair eh?????

  

  

       

• Jardin Borda:
  Gorgeous garden that commorates the life of Maximillian. There are lovely man made lakes and scenes depicting the union of Maximillian and his lover : La India Bonita. I didn’t really spend that much time in here.. since a garden is a garden, but my cameras seemed to be very temperamental at this point… don’t know why it was like that.. but the shots just didnt come out right.

  

  From there it was on to Taxco…… city of all the silver and jewellery around…..the number of shops selling Silver and jewellery would amaze me…. seriously…. I don’t know how anyone makes money in Taxco!

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There really isn’t much I can say here except by starting off with a couple of my favorite widescreen shots.

Dont I look like a Mexican hombre – Piramide de la Luna is behind me

Shooting the Piramide del Sol from the Piramide de la Luna

Walking towards the Piramide Del Sol 

At the top of the Piramide del Sol

 

So not really much to say here, that the pictures would convey in a more effective fashion. The plan once we got to Teotihuacan, which by the way consists of 5 zones and we were only concerned with the main zone, since that is where the Piramides were. Once again, I will refer to Wikipedia to provide a nice concise description of the site and what is in the main galleries

The city’s broad central avenue, called “Avenue of the Dead” (a translation from its Nahuatl name Miccaotli), is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense Pyramid of the Sun (second largest in the New World after the Great Pyramid of Cholula) and the Pyramid of the Moon. Along the Avenue of the Dead are many smaller talud-tablero platforms. The Aztecs believed they were tombs, inspiring the name of the avenue. Now they are known to be ceremonial platforms that were topped with temples. Further down the Avenue of the Dead is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent. This area was a large plaza surrounded by temples that formed the religious and political center of the city. The name “Citadel” was given to it by the Spanish, who believed it was a fort. Many of the rich and powerful Teotihuacanos lived in Palaces near the temples, the largest of these covering more than 3300 m².[12] Most of the common people lived in large apartment buildings spread across the city. Many of the buildings contained workshops that produced pottery and other goods.

The geographical layout of Teotihuacán is a good example of the Mesoamerican tradition of planning cities, settlements and buildings as a representation of the Teotihuacano view of the Universe. Its urban grid is aligned to precisely 15.5º east of North. The Street of the Dead, in particular, seems to line up with Cerro Gordo to the north of the Pyramid of the Moon. Pecked-cross circles throughout the city and in the surrounding regions indicate how the grid was managed over long distances.

The idea basically was to wander around and revel in the magnificence of this place. One interesting note, our guide swore by the fact that we would not be tired after climbing the Pyramide de Sol. This was in fact true, since we almost died climbing up, coming down was a breeze once you kept your footing and all.

View of Temple of the Sun and the Avenue of the Dead from the Temple of the Sun

Posing as usual with the regular pose

Piramide de La Luna

Getting ready to tackle the beast of the Sun

Looking at the Piramide de la Luna from the Piramide de Sol

Finally at the top … nuff said

Conclusion : Great day, tired legs, good food after at some campy restaurant and looking forward to doing it all again tomorow morning in Taxco.

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So the morning got off ot a nice start with brekkie and gym. It is nice to hear from the folks about how much trimmer I look in these pics from the pics in Cambodia… pfftt… yeah as if!! Anyway, Ximena got to the hotel around 10 am, and I had a tough time trying to negotiate a car to go Teotihuacan. The concierge who was very helpful and friendly, politely suggested that I go with the tour, to which I initially refused but after some prodding and thought, I relented and went with the tour. It was a good decision.

One of my pet peeves with tours is that there is always a shopping “expedition” at the expense of the main attraction of the tour. So upon meeting my tour guide Roberto, I wanted to say this, but I didn’t until later. Our first stop on our journey was the Shrine of to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Although, this was not a religious tour, upon getting there, I was astonished by the number of pilgrims lighting candles and processions while we were there. Masses occur every two hours, and the mass that we saw was packed.

Outside the main church in the Shrine

Inside the Main Church looking at the mass

The story of Guadalupe goes something like this (which i have copied straight out of Wikipedia)

According to traditional Catholic accounts of the Guadalupan apparition, during a walk from his village to the city on December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw a vision of a Virgin at the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in Nahuatl, Our Lady of Guadalupe asked him to build an abbey at that site. When Juan Diego spoke to the Spanish bishop, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, he asked him for a miraculous sign to prove his claim. The Virgin asked Juan Diego to gather flowers, even though it was winter when no flower bloomed. He found Castillian roses, gathered them on his tilma, and presented these to bishop Zumárraga. When he presented the roses to Zumárraga, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe miraculously appeared imprinted on the cloth.

We toured around the area for a while, taking pictures and discussing the procession as well as going to see the cloth that has a couple moving walkways so that you can see the cloth enshrined with the Mexican flag also.

Once done there, it was on our way to the Maguay shop to see the process of Tequila and Pulque as well as to be hit with a fast, high pressure sales pitch. On the tour here, it was quite informative to get details about the Agave plant. What a wonderful plant that thing is, with Medicinal properties, makes good papyrus, the tip being used for needles with associated thread as well as giving the raw stock for Tequila, which is the use we best know it for right now.  In addition, we got the whole process of making figurines from different types of Obsidian.

Agave plant with the center hollowed out, so that the sweet Pulque liquid can be extracted. A plant like this make 4L of the stock liquid a day!

Ximena with the associated needle and thread that comes directly from the tip of the leaf

After a couple sweet tequila shots, that were obviously meant to loosen your pockets, we were sent into the gift shop. I must say that there were some stunning pieces there from top grade obsidian, however, I was not tempted. I bought two small but practical pieces for the apartment and I relented and put on the tackiest of Mexican outfits with typical repose. I even got Ximena into it. No comments, please on how we look!!!

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I have realised that this is a phenomenal city with so many features that it would take a full week to really get eveything down here, unfortunately I don’t have that amount of time to explore this megapolis. So instead yesterday, I concentrated on walking directly from the hotel to the Chapultapec Castle down the Paseo De La Reforma. This was a good three hours to explore since it took about 30 mins to get to the Castle and associated museum.

While walking down the Paseo, we passed one of the most famous momuments in Mexico City, which was El Ángel de la Independencia (Angel of Independence).  El Ángel was built to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico‘s War of Independence, celebrated in 1910. In later years it was made into a mausoleum for the most important heroes of that war. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Mexico City, and it has become a focal point for both celebration or protest. It bears a resemblance to the Victory Column in Berlin.

So of course there I am looking at it… it is quite interesting since there are three plaques inside with a small little lady inside who implores you not to take pics….

So once we were done with the Angel, we continued walking down the Paseo, to find another wonderful fountain. It seems that Mexico City is a city of fountains and churches…all thanks to the Spanish who came before

 After another 20 mins, we reached the Bosque de Chapultapec

Once we got to the top of a long walk up the hill, the Castle was amazing with some great views and a fantastic museum at the top. Of course, the 48 pesos for me – tourist tax was a bit much, but in relative terms, this is really not much at all

Once past the view point, it was to the museum and some wonderful art depicting the Mexican revolution. It seems protest and revolution are really part of the cultural fabric here.

finally we left and continued till the Museum at about 2.30pm…..

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