Be Careful in Valparaiso

After Christmas, I spent the next couple of days exploring Valparaiso and its surrounding areas with Tucker and Gina.
Having company was a good thing, considering that the city is well-known for is dangers. I didn't experience anything hands on, but I heard a lot of "be careful"s. The waiters, for instance, would tell us to make sure that we kept our hands on all of our things when sitting outside. The hostel owners would constantly warn us, telling us about those who'd been robbed in town the previous day. Incidentally, one guy on a bicycle unsuccessfully tried to grab Tucker's camera out of his hands riding by.

All the dangers aside, I had a fun time in Valparaiso. The port area wasn't very nice and appeared dodgy at all times of the day (as with any port town, I suppose). Everything else, though, was quite nice. Hey, it didn't become a UNESCO Heritage for no reason!

First day, we stayed in town to climb the many ascensores (tiny elevator-like things that take you up the hills for about 300CHP) and walk around the neighborhoods. Cerro Allegre (me thinks) is the famous one everyone goes up for the view of the port. I personally didn’t find it all that – it's a lot of shipment containers. But I did LUV this cat (although not a cat fan in general). He/she obviously thought that sunbathing on a book was a great idea. Looking comfy!!!
Second day, we took the bus to the beach side resort town of Vina del Mar. Nothing spectacular to mention. It was just an ordinary beach (deserted this day because of the poor, cold weather) with a bunch of high rise condos. You could be walking in Miami minus the sun. After a lunch of Mexican food (don't ask), Gina and I went for a
pedicure : ) It's been too long since I last had one! Wasn’t the cheapest thing (10,000CHP), but my feet definitely looked pretty afterwards. Waru was content and happy!
We returned to Valparaiso late in the afternoon to see Gina off. She was flying to her next continent (Oceania) tonight. Lucky, lucky, lucky... I would love to see Australia's western coast, Tasmania, New Zealand, New Caledonia, etc. There are just waaaaaaay too many fantastic places to visit on earth. But not enough time and money. Sigh.
That night, I went out for a pretty nice dinner at a hilltop restaurant with Tucker and another guy from the hostel. The food was delicious (ahi ahi) and we all enjoyed the night views. Happy to say we encountered nada problems on our walk to & from the restaurant.
Tucker left the next morning for a Chilean wine tour, and I was on my own for most of the afternoon. There was only one thing remaining in Valparaiso that I wanted to see – La Sebastiana. It's one of the homes where Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, lived. And let me just admit right here that I've never heard of his poetry... But I can say that he lived in a very cute house. Hehe.
Even though the hostel staff advised me to take a cab to the museum, I opted to walk. Since it was during the day, and I wasn't planning on carrying any valuables, it should be fine. And it was. Not that it was the most comfortable walk...the streets were deserted of people but full of stray dogs, there were lots of steep inclines, and you had to be constantly aware of where to step – poop galore!!! A father and daughter pair droving by in a van seemed a bit concerned about my wandering on my own and stopped to offer me a lift. When I declined, they advised me to "be careful and keep a tight grip on the camera"! What is it with this city and cameras?!?!?!
I didn't take my SLR along for obvious reasons, but I'm glad I had my old, cheap, can-be-stolen-or-lost camera to take shots of the typical aged, colorful houses that Valparaiso is famous for:

Natalie arrived in town later on, so we hung out for the rest of the evening and overstuffed ourselves with a huuuuuge chorrillana (French fries topped with steak and onions). She's spending the rest of the year here to join in on the New Year’s festivities; Valparaiso is apparently THE PLACE TO PARTY for New Years. Not really my kind of thing. Instead, I'm heading back to Santiago tomorrow for some more Spanish classes and then moving down south somewhere. Since we'll both be in South America for a few more months, we're definitely meeting up again! Hopefully.

Potluck Christmas

Since the school was closed for the holidays, I decided to do a long weekend trip to the Chilean coast. Initially, I had intended to go to the beach side with Natalie, but I wasn't interested in surfing or bumming at the beach. Hence, I ended up in a port town called Valparaiso, famous for its brightly colored, old houses along the hills.
It's about a 3 hour bus ride from Santiago. If anyone is headed in that direction, make sure to buy a return ticket (date can be open); it saves you some money.

I arrived at my hostel around the same time as two backpackers from Colorado – Gina and Tucker. Like me, Gina is on an around the world trip. Unlike me, she's on her first continent. I've been on the road for the past 9 months, but I'm totally not deterred by the idea of travelling for a much longer period. I wish I was still on my first continent!!! Lucky her!!! Tucker was tagging along with her for his 2 week holiday. Very nice people.

For Christmas, the hostel was putting together a potluck dinner. Each one of us (or as a group) needed to prepare something. Since we were rather late arrivals, Gina, Tucker, and I partnered up for our contribution.
We headed down to the supermarket with not a clue as to what to make. As with any city I've been to so far in my life, the supermarket was an absolute madhouse at this time of the year! After wandering up and down the aisles, we agreed on kebabs and French fries. For some reason, though, we couldn't find frozen French fries anywhere!!! So, change of plans – we picked up something that was made of potatoes and fried, but round.

Given that the hostel only had 2 stoves, cooking was slightly chaotic. And took forever. Our kebabs turned out excellent, but the potatoes...well, lets just say that they didn't work out. Somehow, it turned into a glob of mush that didn't resemble anything like fried potato. Rather wasteful, but we had to dump it into the garbage can.

Once the dishes were completed, the hostel owners and guests (I'd say about 20 of us) gathered around in the yard for a wonderful Christmas dinner. Our kebabs were a hit!!! Other dishes included the healthy salads, the greasy sausages, and the yummy tuna pasta made by an Italian guy. We also had a patisserie staying over, who contributed a delicious berry tart sort of thing. Mmmmm : )
Here's all of us having a great time!
This was my first time spending Christmas with strangers (usually I'm with my family or travelling with friends). Something different. Something fun.

Student Life

07:30 Wake up
08:15 Breakfast (cheese and egg sandwich, orange juice, and coffee provided by the hostel)
08:40 Leave hostel. Walk to Spanish school (Natalis Language Center)
09:00 Class
10:30 Break
10:45 Class
12:15 Break
12:30 Class
14:00 End Class

This has been my routine for the past few days. Pretty rigorous, huh?!
5 hours of Spanish lessons a day (and private lessons at that!) aren’t fun. There was no time to space out (like I’d usually do in class) since I’m the only one answering the questions...
I should’ve done the regular course (3 hours/day) rather than the crash course. By day 3, I was losing it... Especially since the class focused a great deal on grammar. I would’ve preferred learning more of the conversational side of Spanish, much more useful for my coming travels. Yes, grammar is important. But when my vocabulary is as limited as a dog’s, I don’t think perfecting my infinitives and tenses really matter.
Heck, I don’t even know my English grammar anymore!!! You know, I used to be an ace at it during my younger school years. Since then, I’ve totally forgotten what some of those tenses meant – past participles, reflexives, etc. Sad.

For the rest of the day after my classes, I’d eat (mostly empanadas and instant noodles), hang out with Natalie, and just be a lazy bum.
Oh, and "study" of course! Which basically involved doing my written homework and memorizing the tons of vocabulary and verb conjugations. The former wasn’t too bad - Natalie was around to help me out (she took Spanish classes in Guatemala before getting here, so was at a more advanced level), and I’ll confess that the answers were in the back of the book. The memorization part was a nightmare, though! Man, my brain cells just don’t function anymore. Or I’ve lost too much of them. The pains of aging.

During my brief stint as a Spanish student and my travels through Central & South Americas, I’ve really grown to love the language. It’s so beautiful. As soon as I complete my journey and settle somewhere with a job (hopefully soon), I think I’m going to take lessons again. Although I’ve slightly lost confidence in my ability to study...

Up the Rano Kau

So sad... Today’s my last full day here on Easter Island.
Before I got here, I’d thought that 4 days would be more than enough time. I mean, how much moai can you stand??? (To answer my own question, “LOTS”!) And I’d thought that there were only moais to see on the island.
But actually, there’s a load of stuff you can do here. I wish I had a couple of more days to go scuba diving (some moais were toppled into the ocean), horseback riding, and check out the other beaches. I would’ve changed my flight date if only I didn’t have the academic obligations (ie. Spanish class)...

The Residencial Miru guests (still only the three of us!) took the morning easy. We wandered to the coast to watch the flight from Santiago or Tahiti come in and fly right above us. I guess we were all a bit of airplane freaks. Hehe.
The flight must’ve been delayed, for we waited a while. We played with the stray dog that followed us from the village, looked for some shade under the rocks (only the dog would fit!), and admired the clear, deep blue waters. Not for swimming though. Too rough and wavy. Saw a bunch of sea urchins scattered all over the ocean floor, which might’ve seemed appetizing to some people, but not to Waru.

After a lunch of ceviche (yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmy!!!), we headed towards Rano Kau. It’s an inactive volcano with some village ruins (called Orongo) at the top. Incidentally, this is the only part of the island where you need to pay admission fees. 5,000CHP when I went.

The ascent is only about 300m, but not the easiest thing to do in the heat and humidity. I don’t know why none of us thought to climb the volcano during the early morning hours when the temperature would’ve been more comfortable. Oh well. Not everyone can be rational all the time, right?!
Well, the sweating was all worth it though. The view of the crater was incredible!!! Unlike the crater at Rano Raraku (the quarry site), there aren’t any moai statues. I just thought that the natural colors, especially the varying shades of green, were beautiful!!! We all sat on the grass, admiring the views, for some amount of time.

The ruins of Orongo weren’t nearly as good. For one, you couldn’t even really tell what the ruins were. We learned that the little round stone enclosures were dwelling places only after eavesdropping on a group of tourists with a guide in front of us.
That night, the guest house family invited us to a night under the stars. Basically, their daughter was going to New York on a Fulbright scholarship (wow!), and they wanted to have a gathering before she left. It would involve an outdoor BBQ and an all night chat session inside a cave. Sounded fun! It would've been a great ending to my stay on Easter Island. But then again, I wouldn’t be able to understand a word of what was going on (which would certainly limit my fun). Plus, I was exhausted from the hike and wanted to sleep in a warm bed instead of on rocks. So, the 2 Asians decided to stay behind while the Spaniard went to enjoy the festivities.
The sweet Korean guy cooked up a random meal (involving spicy red sauce of course) for us. How nice!

Inner Easter Island

For the past 2 days, I’ve been sticking to the coastlines of Easter Island. Only because that’s where most of the moai statues are, and also because the tour buses don’t go inland due to the lack of paved roads.
In order to explore the area, you’d need to rent a car, scooter, bike, ATV, bicycle, or a horse. Since my Korean friend (forgot the name already...) had rented an ATV last night, I decided to hop on the back. My Spanish friend (also name forgotten) took the healthier route and chose the bicycle.

Let me just say that I am extremely glad not to have chosen the bicycle. Not only were the roads unpaved, there were a LOT of uphill routes.
The ATV was rough going as well, though. That thing kicked up SOOOOO much dust, my jacket and backpack turned bright red. Myself included. I was covered head to toe in red dust when we finished! Not kidding.

I think that the primary objective of heading inland is to enjoy nature, to appreciate the nothingness of the remote island.
Easter Island has an extensive network of underground caves like this one. Since none of us had a torch, we didn’t get to go too far in. But I don’t think we really missed anything. A cave is a cave, right?!

Being a volcanic island, there are lot of small mountains/hills on Easter Island. My Spanish friend had the brilliant idea of climbing one. Even the highest one is only about 600m, so it’s not too bad. I agreed to go along.
We got lost trying to get to the foot path up the mountain, and ended up opening wooden gates leading to horse stables and farms. Must be someone’s private property… Since no one was around to kick us out, I roamed the area and discovered how pineapples were grown. Rather small, no? The only way up from here was through more gates. Obviously, we weren’t on the right path. The sun was beating down and Waru was getting hungry = Waru ain’t climbing up the mountain. The Korean guy wasn’t up to the climbing either, so the two of us headed back down, leaving the Spaniard to tackle the climb on his own.

On our way back to the village, we stopped by the one remaining moai site I hadn’t yet seen – Ahu Akivi. This is the only set of moais located inland, overlooking the ocean. Not many tourists make it up here; it was nice to have the whole place to ourselves.
Now, I think I’ve managed to see all of the moai statues on Easter Island!

As soon as I got back to the guest house, me and my backpack needed a very thorough cleansing. I was easier. The backpack had red dust embedded all over! Even though I wiped down several times, the dust remained. As a result, my white T-shirt the next day turned red wherever it touched… Sigh. Can't wait to do laundry back in Santiago!

The rest of the evening was quite relaxing. We individually cooked our own meal (pasta for me as usual), went down to the coast to catch the sunset (such a bright red/orange color!), ate taro ice cream once again, and had some entertaining travel talk.

The Countless Moai Tour

Really. I don’t know how many moai statues I saw today. But I didn’t get bored a single bit. Moais are so cute. Fun to look at. Eye pleasing.

The small bus picked us up at our guest house around 9am and went along one of the very, very few paved roads on Easter Island. Stops included:
Ahu Akahanga
Site of toppled moais. Looked as though they clumsily tripped and landed right on their faces. In reality, these moais were toppled many years ago when fighting between clans broke out. This family was probably on the losing side.

Rano Raraku
Moai quarry. This could possibly be my favourite place on Easter Island – absolutely beautiful and interesting!
On the outer side of the crater (yes, this used to be an active volcano), Moai statues were all over the place. These didn’t make it down to the coast to be erected onto the platforms. No one knows why. Well, no one seems to know for sure how these huge monolithic statues were moved down from the quarry and dispersed throughout the island in the first place.
Going up towards the mouth of the crater, there was a one of a kind moai – the kneeling moai. The only one in existence. And the coolest sight of all was the “moai under construction”. It made me think, “Oooooooooooh. That’s how moais were made...” While the other passengers were having lunch (my friend and I frugally brought our own sandwiches), we explored inside the crater. This crater here isn’t that deep, so you can walk around the inner rim. More coolness – moai heads everywhere!!! Combined with the blue water, green grass, and red sand. Amazing.
Ahu Tongariki
Probably the most photographed moais. 15 moais of all different shapes and sizes lined up on the ahu. BTW, the “ahu” refers to the pedestal blocks beneath the moai. Never step on those and the moai – considered very disrespectful.
When this group of moais were discovered, they had all been toppled down. But with the help of the Chilean and Japanese governments, they’ve been restored.

Anakena
Moais sunbathing on the white sand beach. The heat was unbearable. And no shade. After a quick look at the moais, I headed straight back to the bus and daydreamed, while the others were enjoying beach time. How was I supposed to know to bring a bathing suit???

It was near evening when we got dropped off back at the guesthouse. A friendly Korean guy had arrived during the day and the three of us went out for dinner. Not dinner really, but a highly recommended small restaurant with THE BEST tuna and cheese empanada. (BTW, Easter Island is famous among the Japanese backpackers for fresh tuna. They all go nuts buying fresh tuna for sashimi when the fishing ships return.) Followed by a cup of red taro ice cream. I thought they only had that in Taiwan...

Hola Moai!

Easter Island (official name Isla de Pascua) is a 5.5hr flight west from Santiago. If you keep going west, you’d hit Tahiti in another 6-7 hours. Very remote location.
I did think about going to Tahiti (who wouldn’t?!), but the flights obviously weren’t cheap around the holidays. And in all honesty, it’s probably not the best place to go solo. I figured it would be another Mauritius.

LAN Airlines has a monopoly on this route, making getting to the island quite expensive. Unless you’re on the RTW ticket (like myself), LAN’s South American airpass, or book way in advance.
Given that the island is located in the middle of nowhere, I assumed a crappy plane. Nope – a nice 767, topped off with a great entertainment system! From my experience so far, I think LAN has the best in-flight entertainment system next to Virgin Atlantic. I spent the entire flight watching episodes of House.

I didn’t arrange accommodations beforehand. The one place I tried to book online had no availability in the 6 dorm beds. There was a tent option, but that wasn’t my style...
No problem though. A bunch of people were waiting at the baggage area, offering rooms in their homes. I chose Residencial Miru @ 7,000CHP ($13) per night. Luckily, I had the whole room for myself during my entire stay.
When I was signing into Miru’s guest log, I noticed Nao’s name. Yeah, that Japanese guy who I travelled around Belize and Cuba with. Funny!
A Spanish guy on my flight also ended up staying at Miru. Since we were both going to be on the island for the same number of days, we decided to explore together.

First stop – Tourist Information Center to find out about tours around the island. The office was closed for a siesta when we arrived, so we headed towards a nearby shack to grab something to eat. I wasn’t too hungry and just had a glass of fresh melon juice (I hate melon, but that was the only option). My friend, on the other hand, ordered this amazing seafood chorrillana. Basically, it’s a mound of French fries topped with seafood galore! I couldn’t resist a bite...man, it was yummy!!! I can’t imagine the amount of calories in that dish though...

Back at the info center, we found out that there were 2 main tour routes – one that goes towards the volcano, and another that takes a circuit around the island stopping at various moais. Since the volcano could be done individually on foot, we booked the latter one for tomorrow.

From there, we thought it’d be best to check out the museum and some of the moai statues near Hanga Roa (the main village where most travellers stay) that would not be covered by tomorrow’s tour.
And finally.....HOLA MOAI!!!!! My first moai encounter was at the port. I can’t believe it took me a few hours since I landed to see one. (But I’m not sure if this one is real...)

On the way to the museum, we walked along the coastline for more. Authentic. Cute. I loved the one with eyes. There aren’t many of them around. Apparently, the eyes are made from white coral and black obsidian (learned at the museum). Surprisingly, the museum was very small and didn’t have as many artifacts as I thought it would. A piece of moai here and there. Nonetheless, it’s worth a go for the information. Hey, I came to Easter Island without a clue as to what the moai were. I just thought they were cute to look at : ) Hehe.
For some reason, I’d always thought that they were some sort of religious relic. (Where did I get that from??? ) In actuality, they are symbolic of dead ancestors and have something to do with hierarchy and lineage. That’s why many moai were toppled over when fighting broke out between clans/groups.
For more information, please consult Wikipedia.

On our way back to the guesthouse, we stopped by the tiny supermarket. Very limited selection and super expensive. Pasta was almost 4x what I had to pay for the same product in Santiago! But I guess it makes sense since nearly everything has to be flown in from the mainland.

What to Do in Chile???

I made it to South America. Yaaaaaaaaaay!!!

REALLY excited since this has been part of the trip I’ve been looking forward to the most. (Waru has a tendency to save the best for last.) 4 months to freely wander in the continent. Wow. Seems long, but probably not long enough.

Having bought the hardback Footprints South America guide in Vancouver (based on reviews that it’s better than the LP for the region), I knew the countries I wanted to visit, the sites I wanted to check out. But didn’t have any concrete plans…
It was nearing the holiday seasons, too. Which would mean long lines, crowded everywhere, and overbooked transportation and hotels. Yuck.

What to do, what to do, what to do……….

One of my dorm-mates at the hostel in Santiago was a German girl named Natalie. On a 6 month long trip around Central/South America, she was in Santiago to study Spanish for a couple of weeks.
Chile is definitely not the cheapest place to study Spanish, but it seemed like a good idea. I’d be needing Spanish for most of my time in South America. And, it would let me stay put during the busy holidays. A few days of intensive Spanish lessons before Christmas and New Years wouldn’t hurt!

With that decided, I needed to figure out activities for the remainder of this week. There was no way I’d be staying in Santiago; the city isn’t known to “happen”. Even the Christmas atmosphere here was BLAAAAAAAH.Seriously, Santiago doesn’t have much to offer for tourists. But on the positive side, what it does have, can mostly be done for free : )
Natalie and I spent a couple of days exploring the city together. Wandered around the Plaza de Armas (big, old cathedral), climbed the Cerro Santa Lucia (view sucked), ate seafood soup at the fish market (quite expensive), tried to get into La Moneda Palace (unfortunately happened to be closed for the day, but a side building had a free Frida Kahlo exhibition which was interesting), visited 2 museums (pre-Colombian and Bella Artes), and had a few Starbucks.
(FYI – Chileans don’t believe in normal coffee. An order of coffee will end up as a cup of hot water and a bag on instant Nescafe. Gross, right?! A cup of Starbucks, therefore, was heavenly!)

Now, back to the conundrum of what to do for the rest of the week. The 5-6 days I had seemed like a perfect time frame for a side trip to Easter Island.
I went to the LAN airlines office to set a date on my flights (I already had the tickets as part of my RTW). One of the bizarre quirks about this RTW ticket is that the Santiago – Easter Island flights (and there’s only one operated by LAN) can only be booked in economy class. As expected, all of the economy seats allowed in my booking class were full on the return date. Darn it!!! I’d need to think of something else…
But after a little bit of pleading, the agent grabbed my ticket again and gave it a long look. She let me get a booking in business class, and for both legs of the flight too!!!

Happy Waru now had a plan – Hola Moai manana!!!

A View from Above

My bumpy flight from Mexico City to Vancouver took me over Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon.
You know, I've been based in the US for about 75% of my lifetime and I've travelled to many, many countries and seen countless amazing sites, but I've never been to the major national parks in the US. Pretty sad, huh?
I've got to do that sometime... Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon looked beautiful from above! So red!

Anyways, I'm flying to Vancouver for no particular reason. Just a stopover. As you know, I wanted to see the northern lights in Canada. I don't think I'm doing that though...waaaaay too cold for my liking! Not only that, I think I'd rather spend the time in South America.

So...Mexico City to Vancouver today.
Vancouver to New York in 2 days. I just realized that my flight is a red-eye. Such a dumbo. I booked a hotel for the night, but I didn’t even need it. What a waste of money. Argh!!!!!
Then, I'm off from New York to Santiago de Chile. Wow, South America by the end of the week!!!

Mummies in Northern Mexico

Before I said my farewells to Mexico, I wanted to see one more place. Tasco (famous for silver) and Puebla (more food) were high up there on my list of “places I want to see”. But I ended up in a city called Guanajuato, about 5 hours north of Mexico City. No particular reason. Just word of mouth. Although one girl mentioned that it’s too “romantic” to go alone…
Unlike any of the other Mexican cities I’ve been to so far, Guanajuato’s bus terminal is quite far from the city center. From there, I had to hop on a local bus that didn’t really seem to have a defined route. I trusted the bus driver to tell me when we arrived at the historical area. Stupid me, however, listened to an old woman who told me to get off at a certain stop. Which turned out to be nowhere close to where I expected to end up. I walked around in circles for a while, trying to get my bearings straight.
When I finally walked by the city center stop (where I should’ve gotten off!), I actually ran into the woman who gave me wrong directions! I was so tempted to scream at her!!! Then again, I didn’t know how to express my frustration in Spanish, and really…maybe she WAS trying to help me out. Positive thinking.

For the rest of my stay in Mexico, I’ve decided to splurge on a single room. Only because I took out too much pesos the other day… 150P a night ($11-ish). Not bad at all : )

Guanajuato is a really charming city. Colorful houses lined along the hills, connected by narrow cobble-stoned alleys. I love the vividness!
The best place to see the city’s beauty is atop San Miguel hill. There’s a funicular running up to the top from the city, but it wasn’t functioning the day I was there. So, I walked up, following LP’s directions. A little freaky since the path doesn’t get much traffic, and stray dogs (possibly rabid) abound.
It’s good that I didn’t read the guide book carefully. A girl I met later in the day (when I safely made it back down in one piece!) told me that the path is supposedly quite dangerous going solo.

Some of the other sights I enjoyed in the city included the Universidad de Guanajuato and Casa Diego Riviera.
I didn’t actually go into the university, but I thought the architecture was impressive. Wish I could study Spanish here for a couple of months… (I did meet a few Japanese people in the Mexico City hostel who were doing that) And as the name suggests, Diego Riviera was born here. The house has been converted into a museum, with a great collection of his works like his sketches for the murals I saw in Mexico City.

I have to say, though, that my favourite site in Guanajuato was the Mummy Museum. Yes, the baby mummy was a bit disturbing. But everything else was really cool. And funny too! Basically, they dug these mummies out of the nearby cemetery and decided to build a museum. Because they didn’t have a clue as to who the mummies were, they created a personal story to go along with each mummy on display. For example, there was “The China Girl” – “Some stop to observe me and think out loud or discuss among them if I arrived with some of the Chinese, Korean, or Japanese colonies that entered this country during the 2nd half of the 19th century...Who knows? Perhaps I was in transit and therefore nobody returned to claim my body. What do you think?” (FYI – I didn’t memorize this line; I took a photo! Digital photography is so useful.)I took a bus there thinking it was far away, but I walked back to town. It took only about 15 minutes, downhill.

Random, but I had Japanese food in Guanajuato. One of my roommates from Mexico City told me about this place where she used to work. It was a tiny (think 8 people max) café run by a young Japanese couple. The menu is very limited, but the food was good and light. Especially the hijiki!

From Guanajuato, I had intended to head to San Miguel de Allende, a small, artsy colonial town. But the town is apparently full of American retirees and therefore pricier in comparison. Never mind. I’ll return a day earlier to Mexico City and chill.

Last Ruins

I promise. This is the last time I write about seeing ruins. Well, at least in Central America. I’m moving continents in a couple of days anyways. Hehe.

I don’t think anyone who visits Mexico City (unless for a quick work meeting) misses Teotihuacan. I certainly wasn’t about to either.

An hour bus ride from Mexico City’s northern bus terminal took me to Teotihuacan for 31P (one way). From there, I spent the next several hours exploring on foot. Tiring…
The area is quite large, with absolutely no shade, and located at a relatively high altitude.

At first sight, the structures appeared not too different from what I’d seen earlier. Lots of pyramids and rectangular structures surrounding an open courtyard.
Teotihuacan, however, belonged to an Aztec civilization, not Mayan. The structures, therefore, seemed more angular and boxy in comparison to the previous ruins. I also noticed differences in the relief sculptures as well. Definitely more detailed/fine. And I guess the Aztecs liked to make things grand. The pyramids were enormous!
The largest pyramid, called the Temple of the Sun, was climbable. As you can see, lots of steps. I did make it all the way to the top. Huffing and puffing...
But I think the Temple of the Moon (semi-climbable) provided better views of the overall complex.
While I was wandering around, a group of schoolchildren (on a field trip, I think) came up to me and started asking me random questions. I wonder what the survey was all about...

Museum Day

Not a name of a holiday. Just wanted to highlight 2 museums I went to today.

(1) Frida Khalo Musuem
My friend picked me up in the morning to drive over there. Good thing, since it’s pretty difficult to get to with public transportation. Another girl from the hostel joined us as well, since she couldn’t figure out a way to get there on her own.
The museum is housed in an adorable blue house (no wonder why it’s also known as Casa Azul). I think she lived here for most of her life. In addition to some of her art works, furniture, books, and various other trinkets in her house are on display.
I’d give it 3 stars out of 5.

(2) National Museum of Anthropology
This place is absolutely amazing!!! A zillion items on display. 5 out of 5 for sure!
The exhibitions are in chronological order, and highly educational. It was great to be able to read (in English!) about all the Central American ruins I’d seen so far.
It’s also the home to the famous Aztec calendar. We used to have a wooden version in our house…I wonder what happened to it.
Because this museum is massive, I only got through the first floor which goes over all the ancient cultures. The second floor is dedicated to indigenous cultures, like artwork and textiles. I could do without.

On an aside...I went to see Mexican wrestling last night. Lucha libre. How fun!!!
Left with a bunch of people from my hostel, but only 3 of us (all girls) made it. Here’s what happened – We first went to the wrong arena. All the guys (6 of them if I recall correctly) didn’t want to go to the other one. They were hungry!!! So, they left us on our own, preferring to grab a bite to eat instead. You know, Mexico City isn’t the safest place, especially at night. I can’t believe the guys ditched us!!! But whatever. We wanted to see the wrestling, so we took the metro to the other arena. And had to pay 34P (30P face value) to get in. But whatever.
Lucha was a looooooot of fun. Very fake, but entertaining. Not that I would go see it a second time…
I loved the wrestlers’ outfits. Thought about buying a mask, but then what the heck would I do with it?!?!?! Wear it on Halloween??? Decided on a more practical key chain instead.

Xmas-y Mexico City

There are several bus terminals in Mexico City, some convenient, others not. I had no idea which one I’d arrived at, or how to get to the hostel. Luckily, I saw a Japanese girl get off the bus from Oaxaca, and asked her where she was headed. Turns out the same place – Yup, another Japanese guesthouse.
There are 2 Japanese hostels in Mexico City, one for hippie backpackers and the other not so. I chose the latter not only because I wasn’t really a hippie, but also because that one was much newer. Hence probably cleaner.
A Korean woman decided to join us, and we all hopped on a cab.

I hadn’t heard very good things about Mexico City (why?!), but I was excited to be here and see some familiar faces.
My former co-worker moved to the city a couple of years ago. It was so nice to see her and the kids. Although the little one kept screaming her head off when she saw me… Still adorable nonetheless : )
Thanks for taking me out and feeding me well!!!

My first stop in Mexico City was the centro historico. There’s a whole lot of places to visit around the plaza. Including:
Cathedral. Huge, old, and beautiful (lots of gold inside). It’s sinking as well. Not kidding. Apparently, Mexico City was built on top of a muddy area, resulting in the gradual sinking of many of its structures. You really notice it when walking by buildings that are not level. There’s actually an instrument that measures the amount of sinking in the cathedral. Cool, even though I don’t know how it works. National Palace. Need to have ID to get in. Good thing I had a copy of my passport on hand (always with me!). The palace itself isn’t anything spectacular, but Diego Riviera’s frescoes make it worthwhile. I really like his works. Templo Mayor. Aztec archaeological site right next to the cathedral. You can see some of it from the plaza and it looks totally lame. I didn’t bother paying the entrance fee to see it much closer.
But what impressed me most about the plaza was the Xmas atmosphere!!! The Mexican government spends a load of money each year to transform the plaza into Santa-land. Very, very, very tacky decorations. But charming, in a way.
And not just Xmas trees, but a huge ice skating rink, snow making facility (for kids to make snowmen), and an ice hill for sledding. It was just so fun watching the lower class citizens enjoy themselves. Cute. (The mid/upper class citizens go to REAL snow).

Oaxaca - Allergy, Food & Ruins

Allergy
During my stay in San Cristobal, I started developing itchy bumps on my skin. Not rashes, more like insect bites. It couldn’t be bed bugs since the bumps weren’t all over my body. And since it was freezing there, I was wearing long sleeves and pants. What bit me?!?!
By the time I got to Oaxaca, the itchiness was at its peak. I couldn’t stand it any longer and I was starting to freak out!!! So the first thing I did when I got to the hostel was to ask for a doctor. The owner there recommended a “very good doctor, but he doesn’t speak any English”. Whatever, that was fine. (Can you tell I was desperate?!)
With Spanish-English dictionary in hand, I walked over to the clinic. I don’t particularly like taking cabs in an unfamiliar location on my own. Took me like an hour to get there on foot! The streets were very confusing (think - dead ending in one place, and then starting off the next block with the same name!).
Not that the doctor and I understood each other that much, but he diagnosed my bumps as allergies. Probably food allergies. Definitely not insect bites. The cause remains unknown… He gave me a prescription for some lotion and anti-histamine pills which I took over to a legit pharmacy (there are sketchy ones in Mexico!).

Man, healthcare is so cheap outside the US!
BTW – you can get a LOT of prescription-free medication in Mexico. Including birth control pills and painkillers like vicodin. Great!!!

Now that I knew what was wrong with me, I was in better spirits. Time to do some Oaxaca sightseeing!

Food
Oaxaca is Mexican food heaven.
I went out to the market a few times with my American roommates. Three very nice people, who met during a volunteer program in Mexico a few years ago.
We ate a bunch of stuff!!!
Chocolate seems to be the main staple here, resulting in a variety of chocolate dishes. Hot chocolate, tejate (also a chocolate drink), and mole (a chocolate based stew. Not sweet though. Just a mild scent of choco). Can I say, D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!!BBQ meat was also high on the YUM factor. Basically, you pick the meat at one of the many stalls and they grill it for you right there. Then, you choose the side vegetables, wrap everything together in a tortilla, and chow down!There’s also the spiced grasshoppers as well. Tried a few…rather bland.
I know. I’m having an allergic reaction to something I ate. But I keep eating more random stuff. Oh well. Food, for me, is one of the highlights of travelling. Can’t stop!

Ruins
The ruins of Monte Alban are located on one of the hills surrounding Oaxaca. Some people from the hostel invited me to go biking with them up to the ruins. I politely declined. Biking uphill was not my idea of fun. Instead, I took the local shuttle bus.
Monte Alban wasn’t nearly as remarkable as some of the other Mayan ruins I’ve seen over the past few weeks. The overall complex was pretty small, and each of the structures small and flat. But I did like this one. Unique. Or I just got a good angle… I thought about spending an extra day in Oaxaca to visit Mitla, another set of ruins outside the city. It’s famous for its walls, which are decorated with beautiful mosaics. Then it dawned on me…haven’t I had enough of ruins?!?!?! Probably.

Freezing in Mexico

Really. I’m not kidding. You’d think Mexico is a warm country throughout the year, but some places are freezing. Well, it is December… And some cities are located at very high altitude. San Cristobal de las Casas, for instance, is about 2,200m above sea level. Makes for a chilly night.

When I was back in Guatemala, I skipped the indigenous culture route. I’ve heard that San Cristobal was pretty similar to those Guatemalan towns. Why not check it out for a couple of days?!

I had to take my fleece out as soon as I stepped off the bus. Dreary and cold.
On the way to my hostel of choice, I ran into a Korean guy (Yun) I met on the airport bus in Cancun. He told me his hostel was pretty good (I was actually handed the brochure at the bus stop), but I wanted to check the other one out first. Which was closed…darn it. With nowhere else to go, I headed back to where Yun was staying.
BTW, there’s a popular Japanese guesthouse here in San Cristobal (サンクリ to the Japanese) as well. But it’s a bit out of town and I’ve heard bed bug rumours. Why risk getting bitten by those creatures. Major itch.

San Cristobal is relatively cheap in comparison to the rest of Mexico. The hostel cost only 50P a night, whereas those in Cancun and Merida cost me about 100P.
I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more if they’d provide heating, but that wasn’t an option. It seems like heating is available in only the higher end hotels.

Yun was soooooo nice! He made me lunch when I got there : ) Very random mix of everything. Very guy cooking. Yet, with the Korean hot sauce, everything tasted fine.

There aren’t any real tourist sights to see in San Cristobal. There are some churches of course, but the main thing to do is to stroll along the streets and shop at the markets. They have some adorable stuff at the arts market. I wanted to buy all of these handmade stuffed animals! And the food market is amazing! Fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices everywhere, neatly lined up. Loved it. Also had a variety of delicious tacos at a stall for 5P each. The locals shopping for some meat. I hope there’s no avian flu here…
One day, Yun and I took the collectivo to Zinacantan, one of the indigenous villages. Very quiet because we missed the market day when most tourists go.
They are highly religious here, and it is forbidden to take photos of the main church in the plaza. I sort of did though… The traditional costumes worn by these children playing ball was just so cute, I couldn’t resist. Before I left the town, I couldn’t refrain from buying a piece of textile either. I think it’s sort of like a shawl. I have no clue when it would ever see the light of day, but the embroidery was too beautiful.

What else… Oh, went to a dance show one night which presented Palenque’s history. Reminded me of The Lion King musical for some reason. Pretty entertaining, but overpriced for 100P, me thinks.
There’s also this Mayan Medicine museum outside of town. Herbal medicine, Mexico style. Here, I learned that the indigenous women give birth in the squatting position. Huh…

Unimpressive Palenque

Surprisingly, I got a really good night’s sleep on the overnight bus. Mexican buses are comfy.
While I was waiting for my luggage, another passenger came up to me and asked if I was Japanese. No need to lie, she looked like a fellow Japanese backpacker. We decided to look for a room together, and then head over to the ruins of Palenque.

That’s basically the only thing to do in this town. After a quick shower and an extremely filling Mexican breakfast (coffee, OJ, tortilla, avocado omelet) at a popular diner, we hailed down one of the collectivos to the ruins. Took about 20 minutes to get to the entrance, and another 5 minutes or so to the ruins on foot.

Having seen Uxmal and Tikal already, Palenque was rather mediocre. I didn’t really like it. Of course, it could simply be that I was completely ruin-ed out by this point… The fact that the locals were selling souvenirs all around the complex and along the paths didn’t help either. Who wants to be constantly harassed to buy something while wandering through the woods (?) where the ruins are located?!
I had no intention to buy anything, but I did look. All these colourful bracelets lined up looked so pretty! I’d hate to have to organize this setup every morning though…

One thing I found interesting about Palenque was its similarity to Asian architecture. Or is it just me who thinks this looks a bit Asian???

Given that my friend for the day wasn’t a ruins fanatic and I wasn’t in the mood for ruins, we were done with Palenque by early afternoon. We went back to the hotel and just bummed until dinner.
She gave me some great advice on seeing the northern lights/aurora. Yes, I’m thinking about heading north from Vancouver (that’s where I fly from Mexico City next month) to Whitehorse, which is supposedly THE PLACE to see the aurora in Canada. It’s extremely expensive to get there though. Only flights. But, it turns out that I don’t have to go all the way there. She went to Hay River, a tiny town far north of Edmonton accessible by a long bus ride, back in early October to see the lights. With beautiful photos to prove it too. If I do decide to spend some time in Canada, that’s where I’m going for sure!