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Gerbie on tour 6
Feb. 13th, 2000 07:58 pmGerbie on tour (6)
This is my second attempt, after yesterday having a lot of my disk destroyed, hopefully this time it´ll work. Since 3 weeks I am travelling through Mexico, much longer than I had anticipated and I have only just gone south of the capitol. Improvising is very important and I do adapt my plans regularly. This country is very big and has so much too offer!
On arrival in Nuevo Laredo I was hoping to take the train down south but found out that it is used for cargo only since about half a year. Adapting my plans, my first destination was Chihuahua. Not only does the city lends its name to the tiny dog, it´d a nice town as well. But most importantly it is the starting point for the train leaving to Los Mochis. An 18 hour train journey, straight through the Barrancas del Cobre (copper canyon), considered as one of the best railway journeys of the world. And I can only confirm this claim.
Next stop was San Blas on the pacific coast, a sort of hidden favorite according to my guidebook. And indeed there weren´t as many tourists as in Puerto Vallarta, where I left a day and a half after arriving, having seen the tourist getto´s on the outside of this town. Back in the interior I arrived first in Guadelajara. Sizewise this city is the second of the country, blessed with a beautiful old innercity. Every night there was something happening, as this city celebrated its 586th birthday.
In this city I did see a footballmatch as well (I still refuse to call the Beautiful Game soccer) , and not just any match, but the classic in Mexican Football, between the Chivas de Guadelajara and the Aguilas de America. These are the two biggest teams from the two biggest cities. It was difficult enough to obtain a ticket, as for the hundreds of fans queueing up for one, they only had available about 150 tickets, the rest obviously been bought already by the resellers, who make a lot of profit. Eventually I found myself inbetween 80.000 other lucky ones with a ticket and saw the home team beat the favorites from the capitol 3-0.
Also in the interior is Guanajuato, recommended by many. None of them were exaggerating as this city has so much too offer. Natural beauty through the hills surrounding the city, an old inner city, where the richness, once provided by the silver mines, is still visible and an athmosphere that is always good, courtesy of the ever present music and students crowding the streets at night. Apart from that an important part of Mexican history was created in and around the city. Very interesting all of it. But I still considered strolling through tiny streets and alleys, without knowing where I was going to end up a highlight of my visit to this town.
Next destination was the town everybody knows as Mexico city, tough its inhabitants tend to call it D.F. (distrito federal). The capital is so incredibly big, not in a couple of years one would be able to see all there is to see. So choices had to be made, as I had to do all the time in this country. In the archeological museum one could get lost for a couple of days easily. So much information on all the different cultures all around the country, it is incredible. After two hours of facts I couldn´t read any more infosigns though, which was the only disadvantage of this impressing museum.
Other things I saw in the capital were the Zocalo, worlds biggest square, and its surrounding building, some of them on their way down into the earth, having lost a couple of meters in the last century alone. The bosque de Chapultepec is very big and there is a lot to be seen there as well. Funny was to see that in the church, where the virgen de Guadeloupe once made an appearance, the crowds are so huge, that they had to install rolling pavements, like in airports, to make sure everybody can see the picture of the virgin.
On day 100 of my journey I went to Teotihuacan, about an hour north of the city. The complex derives from Aztec times, in those days a big city. Nowadays a lot of the complex has been rescued from oblivion and it is very impressive to walk around the area, especially the two pyramids are huge, apparently the third biggest in the world, on top of the pyramid of the sun the sight was breathtaking (not only because of the effort at this height, with this heat, to get on top of it). Definitely worth a visit.
Since yesterday I am in Oaxaca, about 6 hours south of Mexico, D.F. After a couple of weeks in which I have walked great distances, I have decided to take it easy around here. First get some extra sleep, do some reading and in between find out what the city is like.
I do realize that this letter has been another list of places I did see, but with my way of traveling this is inevitable. Someday I hope to write a lot of more extended stories on this journey and publish them on my website. Until that day these letters will have to do. To keep on mailing me, I always like to know what is happening in the rest of the world, as that does get past me often while traveling.
Until next time,
Gerben
This is my second attempt, after yesterday having a lot of my disk destroyed, hopefully this time it´ll work. Since 3 weeks I am travelling through Mexico, much longer than I had anticipated and I have only just gone south of the capitol. Improvising is very important and I do adapt my plans regularly. This country is very big and has so much too offer!
On arrival in Nuevo Laredo I was hoping to take the train down south but found out that it is used for cargo only since about half a year. Adapting my plans, my first destination was Chihuahua. Not only does the city lends its name to the tiny dog, it´d a nice town as well. But most importantly it is the starting point for the train leaving to Los Mochis. An 18 hour train journey, straight through the Barrancas del Cobre (copper canyon), considered as one of the best railway journeys of the world. And I can only confirm this claim.
Next stop was San Blas on the pacific coast, a sort of hidden favorite according to my guidebook. And indeed there weren´t as many tourists as in Puerto Vallarta, where I left a day and a half after arriving, having seen the tourist getto´s on the outside of this town. Back in the interior I arrived first in Guadelajara. Sizewise this city is the second of the country, blessed with a beautiful old innercity. Every night there was something happening, as this city celebrated its 586th birthday.
In this city I did see a footballmatch as well (I still refuse to call the Beautiful Game soccer) , and not just any match, but the classic in Mexican Football, between the Chivas de Guadelajara and the Aguilas de America. These are the two biggest teams from the two biggest cities. It was difficult enough to obtain a ticket, as for the hundreds of fans queueing up for one, they only had available about 150 tickets, the rest obviously been bought already by the resellers, who make a lot of profit. Eventually I found myself inbetween 80.000 other lucky ones with a ticket and saw the home team beat the favorites from the capitol 3-0.
Also in the interior is Guanajuato, recommended by many. None of them were exaggerating as this city has so much too offer. Natural beauty through the hills surrounding the city, an old inner city, where the richness, once provided by the silver mines, is still visible and an athmosphere that is always good, courtesy of the ever present music and students crowding the streets at night. Apart from that an important part of Mexican history was created in and around the city. Very interesting all of it. But I still considered strolling through tiny streets and alleys, without knowing where I was going to end up a highlight of my visit to this town.
Next destination was the town everybody knows as Mexico city, tough its inhabitants tend to call it D.F. (distrito federal). The capital is so incredibly big, not in a couple of years one would be able to see all there is to see. So choices had to be made, as I had to do all the time in this country. In the archeological museum one could get lost for a couple of days easily. So much information on all the different cultures all around the country, it is incredible. After two hours of facts I couldn´t read any more infosigns though, which was the only disadvantage of this impressing museum.
Other things I saw in the capital were the Zocalo, worlds biggest square, and its surrounding building, some of them on their way down into the earth, having lost a couple of meters in the last century alone. The bosque de Chapultepec is very big and there is a lot to be seen there as well. Funny was to see that in the church, where the virgen de Guadeloupe once made an appearance, the crowds are so huge, that they had to install rolling pavements, like in airports, to make sure everybody can see the picture of the virgin.
On day 100 of my journey I went to Teotihuacan, about an hour north of the city. The complex derives from Aztec times, in those days a big city. Nowadays a lot of the complex has been rescued from oblivion and it is very impressive to walk around the area, especially the two pyramids are huge, apparently the third biggest in the world, on top of the pyramid of the sun the sight was breathtaking (not only because of the effort at this height, with this heat, to get on top of it). Definitely worth a visit.
Since yesterday I am in Oaxaca, about 6 hours south of Mexico, D.F. After a couple of weeks in which I have walked great distances, I have decided to take it easy around here. First get some extra sleep, do some reading and in between find out what the city is like.
I do realize that this letter has been another list of places I did see, but with my way of traveling this is inevitable. Someday I hope to write a lot of more extended stories on this journey and publish them on my website. Until that day these letters will have to do. To keep on mailing me, I always like to know what is happening in the rest of the world, as that does get past me often while traveling.
Until next time,
Gerben
