School Break In Colorful Mexico

I had a couple of weeks break between the end of spring quarter and the start of summer research work. A fellow coursemate, Henrik, had nothing to do while waiting for his flight back home to Sweden, so we decided to terrorize Mexico together.

We had no time to learn any Spanish - while boarding the plane, the only words I had in my head were "Hola", "Adios," "Buenos dias", "Como estas?" and, oddly enough, "Jugo de naranja" (orange juice). Henrik probably knew a few more words. Between us we had two mini phrasebooks and a couple of travel guides.

Cramming on the plane didn't accomplish very much. Upon arrival, we quickly realised that although Mexico City is just 4 hours flight from San Francisco, nobody there speaks English.

The Metro (underground train) was touted in the guidebooks as being the most efficient and cost effective way of getting around Mexico City, so we decided to take it from the airport to Centro Historico, the historical heart of Mexico City.

We walked up to the lady at the Metro counter and said "Dos billetes, por favor" (two tickets, please) and handed her a 100-peso note (about US$10) since we weren't sure how much tickets cost. We got back 60 pesos and were very surprised that tickets were so expensive.

The lady tried to tell us something, but we couldn't catch a word of what she was saying despite her trying repeatedly, so we left it at that. We later found out from a very helpful young resident of the city (who could speak English) that Metro tickets only cost 2 pesos regardless of distance.

By the third day, we came to the realisation that our mini phrasebooks just weren't going to cut it. They were missing basic phrases like "safe deposit box", but had an unhealthy preoccupation with what to say before, during and after sex. We were clearly a different type of tourist, so we hunted high and low for a bookshop that stocked English-Spanish-English dictionaries. Before long, we got hold of a great little mini dictionary (Oxford!) that served us well for the remainder of the trip.

Mexico is a large country with people and cultures as diverse as its geography. We had just 11 days so we confined ourselves to the area around Mexico City, Oaxaca, a relatively touristy town/city 6 hours south-east of Mexico City, and the silver town of Taxco to the southwest.

MEXICO CITY

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

Mexico City is large. Very large. Population estimates vary from 16 million to 24 million, depending on the definition employed by the census when determining the effective city limits. Regardless, this makes Mexico City one of the largest cities in the world.
Remarkably, its average elevation is a lofty 2,240m above sea level, which helps keep the climate agreeable in summer.
Lots have been said about Mexico City's air pollution. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the air wasn't as bad as is often made out to be. Indeed, the parts of the city we saw (admittedly, just a small fraction of the whole city) were quite green, with a number of large landscaped parks.
Then again, levels of air pollution regularly exceed safe limits according to official readings, so there must be more than meets the eye.

CENTRO HISTORICO

We stayed at the historical centre of the city - Centro Historico, an area with narrow roads and massive old stone buildings with ornamented facades. It is a charming place with restaurants and eateries at every corner, and shops selling a large variety of wares.

Street vendors selling hot food are popular with the working crowd; you often see men in suits standing around munching on a taco or two.

ZOCALO

The heart of the city, located in Centro Historico, is a large concrete public square known as the Zocalo. Flanked on all sides by historical buildings, it is a popular gathering place for the locals.

In the short period that we were there, the Zocalo played host to a political rally, a pop concert, and the regular weekend market. It is a constant buzz of activity, with a quite overwhelming kaleidoscope of colours, sounds and smells. The perfect place to watch the locals unwind.

CATEDRAL METROPOLOITANA

A magnificent cathedral, the Catedral Metropolitana, flanks the north side of the Zocalo. This is the largest colonial cathedral in the Americas - work on the foundations alone took 42 years, and the church ended up taking two and a half centuries to complete.
Its size is immense, but what makes it all the more overwhelming is the profusion of architectural and artistic detail throughout the whole interior (and exterior). It contains a total of 5 naves, 14 side chapels, a central choir and a sacristy. Oh, and two organs. As Charlie Brown would say: good grief.

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

TEOTIHUACAN

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

The ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacán, about an hour's bus journey from Mexico City, is the most visited archaeological site in the country.
The main causeway spanning the city, the Calzada de los Muertos (Avenue of the Dead) stretches 4km long and ends at the Pirámide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon). Along the way lies the imposing Pirámide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun), one of the largest pyramids in the world. Teotihuacán means "place where gods are born" - the Aztecs used Teotihuacán as a pilgrimage centre. Its beauty and grandeur is surpassed only by the supreme balance and harmony with the environment that the city exhibits.
One aspect of this harmony escaped my eye while I was there and only made itself evident when I looked at my photos. The shape of the buildings mirror the natural hills in the background. Or perhaps I subconsciously chose viewpoints that "looked" right somehow. Accident, or by design?

OAXACA

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

Just 6 hours away from Mexico City by bus, but a whole different world. In many ways, Oaxaca is far more obviously a tourist destination than Mexico City is (some people there actually spoke English, for instance), but it is nevertheless a beautiful place and embodies a more quaint, charming Mexico.
The whole city consisted of old stone low-rise buildings painted in the most vibrant colours imaginable.

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

MONTE ALBAN

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

An important archaeological site, situated on a hill just outside Oaxaca City. Monte Albán is large and grand, befitting its status as a centre of civilisation.

MITLA

Yet another archaeological site, about an hour away from the city. Mitla is religious in nature, and is impressive in its form and clever use of geometric patterns.

While Monte Alban is all about scale and grandeur, Mitla emphasises economy, harmony and ingenuity.

HIERVE EL AGUA

A ride up into the hills brought us to Hierve el Agua, site of hot springs and a petrified waterfall.
I'd never heard of a petrified waterfall before. I soon found out that the waterfall is said to be "petrified" because it isn't really made of water — it is formed by the deposition of dissolved minerals in flowing water (mostly calcium carbonate) over a course of many years. The resulting structure looks like frozen water from afar, hence the term petrified waterfall.

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

TAXCO

From Oaxaca, we took a bus back to Mexico City, made a quick run across the city on the Metro to another bus terminal, then took a 3-hour bus trip to Taxco.

The bus driver forgot to turn on the air conditioning for the first half of the trip, and we were all suffocating as the bus rolled up and down hills in cheerful abandonment. Half the passengers must have passed out before somebody thought of telling the driver that the air wasn't circulating.

By the time we reached Taxco it was past 10:00 pm, and boy, were we greeted with a magical sight.

Taxco is an old silver mining town built entirely on hillside, with extremely narrow streets snaking their way through the town. Our big bus was limited to the main road, and even then it was a tight fit in some spots.
Arriving at night, we saw only the yellow sodium lights dotting the hills with the occasional flash of detail as we trundled past roadside buildings. It was quite surreal, almost like something out of a fairytale.
From the bus station, we got on a tiny Volkswagen beetle taxi which brought us up and down seemingly narrower and narrower streets until we reached the motel where we would stay for the next two nights.

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

© 2002 Khai Weyn Ong

Daylight confirmed that Taxco is indeed one quaint, charming town. It was a joy walking around the complete jumble of streets and buildings, getting lost but never for too long. Again, Taxco is considerably touristy, but that did not detract from our enjoyment.
The narrow streets did mean that walking around was an exercise in life preservation (those Volkswagens are fast), plus the air was actually worse than Mexico City's because the close proximity of the buildings effectively trapped the vehicle fumes, forming corridors of bad air.
Nevertheless, it was all great fun!