As I have come to love to say: ¨I simply couldn´t be bothered¨ (a phrase stolen from Brittish travelers) to write in Mexico City... I was having way too much fun/was too tired. We truly did not want to leave the great capital city of Mexico. The wonderful metro system, the cheap street food, the abounding museums and parks and interesting streets to stroll, and our amazing hosts kept us more than amused. All that you hear about the danger and pollution of Mexico City must be hodge-podge to keep annoying American tourists away. One of the city´s initiatives to keep air pollution at bay is a law that people can only drive 6 days a week, and is enforced according to the numbers on the license plate (eg if the last digit is 5 or 6, the vehicle cannot drive on Mondays). I can´t say how well it has worked specifically, but I can say that I found the city to be quite clean and pleasant.
Highlights in Mexico City (DF) included: tacos de canasta (really cheap tacos sold on the street out of a basket), weekend breakfasts with our amazing hosts of barbacoa tacos and soup with various vicera on sunny picnic tables along the street, the Frida Kahlo house/museum, trying pulque, taking a day trip to a small town to see the National Puppet Museum, Lucha Libre (Mexico´s very popular version of WWF), lots of fruit with chile and lime, and strolling around the many town squares and large parks. The experience in the metro was always interesting--we were either crammed into full trains or entertained by all the venders hawking anything and everything from home-burned CD mixes to barking stuffed dogs to sharpie marker sets to gun shaped flashlights. I always wondered how they decided on that particular object to sell and how many hours a day they spent doing it...was this just what the did on the way home from their other job or did they spend hours underground going from train to train every day? And was there a subculture associated with this world? Do the people who wander the trains all day with their crap get together for a beer at some point? So much to ponder.
From there we took a miserable 12hr overnight bus to Puerto Vallarta, which was just as miserable. Hot. Sticky. Way too expensive. Tacky-touristy. We only spent about 36hrs there before we got on our next overnight 12hr bus to Los Mochis. The reason we went to Vallarta was to see our friends who had recently moved there and had had a baby, and so seeing them did make it worth it. We went to a very nice beach, took a nice little barefoot hike around some abandoned mansions, and spent time lazing around with the 2month old baby. They also inspired us with their beautifully designed plans to create a community off the grid, which will incorporate all ages, organic farming, healing arts, meditation, private space for each family as well as shared common spaces, and lots more goodness. So we will keep that in mind as we start to settle down somewhere here in the very near future...
Now we are in Los Mochis. The 2nd 12hr overnighter was much better than the first, perhaps because we were exhausted enough to sleep or perhaps because we were so happy to get out of the latter town. So we showed up ready to explore our new town, which incidentally has little to explore, and so it was a great place to just kick back and enjoy sipping on some juice in the town square. We decided to spend an extra day just to relax before jumping on the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico (an impressive freight and passenger railway with 36 bridges, 87 tunnels, and 655km of track). Tomorrow we board the train at 7am and will cruise through the states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua to Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon), which is a series of 20 canyons which comprise a region 4 times greater than the Grand Canyon. I am super excited! Then to Chihuahua and finally...on to the US! We had originally planned on heading south all the way to Peru, but we wanted to see this canyon and we are super tired of traveling....so next adventure is finding a place to live...very likely in the southwest....very likely in Austin, TX.
I would also like to note that we have noticed an affinity for CCR music all around Mexico, which we´ve found both odd and delightful.
I super love Mexico....
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