Mexico DF

About to leave Mexico City after a couple of excellent days here.

I arrived on Thursday night after a long series of flights to be met with a storm! Looking out the plane window the weather resembled something I´d have expected from Glasgow rather than Latin America. The taxi driver promised me they were experiencing freak conditions as a result of Hurricane Wilma and it wouldn´t last long. After dumping my bag at the hostel I was too knackered to check whether he was right and quickly passed out.

I woke, checked my watch (it said said 10am), jumped out of bed, showered and ran down the stairs to head out.The hostel was silent and I figured the other residents must all be on Mexican time already. It was only when I got to the exit and saw it was pitch black outside I realised I´d failed to reset my watch. Duh!

Several hours of sleep later I made it out and started exploring the city. My original intention was to take a 30min recce and then return to the centre and take a bus tour. Instead my short stroll metamorphosed into a 12km walk through the cenrto historico, zona rosa and the posh barrio with expensive shops whose name I can´t remember right now.

Mexico DF is a city of contrasts. Huge shiny new skyscrapers sit side by side with crumbling cement abandoned taped up buildings. The world-franchised fast food restaurants compete with cheaper tastier street vendors selling their wares metres outside - everything from fresh corn on the cobs cooked over coals to spiced grasshoppers. Abject poverty is a ten minute walk via Chapultapec park´s avenues from the lush embassies. Mexicans dressed as Barney the Dinosaur and Disney characters try to tempt families to buy from stalls as columns of army recruits jog past chanting Spanish songs. The new tourist police officer sitting astride his horse wearing a huge Mexican hat metres away from the Romanesque sculptures fronting the Palacio de Las Bellas Artes.

Walking where the mood took me with irregular reference to a map was definitely the way to appreciate a small sample of the city´s richness. By 8pm my feet were aching, my mind boggling and the city was getting dark.

Having heard all the stories about how dangerous the capital I had never felt the least bit unsafe during the day, but as the streets started to empty the dimly lit historic centre started to feel a bit more threatening and I decided to quit while I was ahead.

I´d booked a place on the tour to the Teotihaucan pyramids for Day 2. I´d originally planned to spend a second day exploring the city, but had been told the tour was a MUST by the girl I´d travelled round Argentina with and it was excellent advice. The mexbus tour was supposed to leave at 9.30am from the nearby Hostel Moneda but by 10am the bus had still not arrived to the clear discomfort of the tour guide. No problem as it gave the 9 of us who´d booked places to chat and have a few laughs.

The group included a French-Canadian, two Israelis on the last day of their tour, a very chilled out guy from San Francisco, an English guy, a Norwegian and English girl who were travelling together and a German. Quite a mix.

From our point of view it was a brilliant day - starting off with a visit to the church housing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe followed by a visit to a carvings factory with free shots of tequila and then the pyramids themselves. From the guide´s point of view it was a nightmare. The first bus never turned up, the replacement got moved on by the police when it was supposed to pick us up, members of the group kept going AWOL (incl an unscheduled visit to McDonalds) and we started asking probing questions about the veracity of the pyramids.

It seems the site has undergone major reconstruc- tion with the pyramids now higher than they were and possibly with steps that were never there in the first place. Whatever the accuracy the views were fantastic and it was a fascinating day out.

In the evening several of us met up again, grabbed a metro and went to grab some beers . Walking back on my own at about midnight I was suprised that it didn´t feel particularly dodgy. Certainly it didn´t feel more risky than a walk home in Glasgow or London would.

I stayed at Hostel de Los Amigos and would highly recommend it - very clean, 2 very relaxed areas to hang out in, its own bar, a single free internet terminal, hot showers and a very friendly owner. I stayed in a double room paying about 40 pounds/70 dollars for a double private room 3 nights including a pick up service from the airport. It´s based in the centre of the historic centre, right by the local ticketbus office (so I could easily book my onward travel), a bank and loads of shops and just 5mins from the main square.

Anyway after a short sleep in this morning I caught the bus to Oaxaca (I reccommend booking a window seat on the right hand side for the best views)and some stunning scenery later found myself in the smaller-town Mexico I´ve been looking forward to.

I´ll write more later but the town put a huge smile on my face as soon as I began to explore. There´s live music playing in the zocalo (main square) outside the internet cafe I´m in at the moment and I´m stil digesting a delicious meal of tacos and tortas.

Am now going to take a brief walk and head back to the appartment I´m staying in to have a quick look over my books in preparation for tomorrow´s Spanish school.

It´s only just started but this is shaping up to be a classic vacation.

Destruction

Will post more later but needless to say the news from the Yucatan isn't good. The hurricane stalled over Playa del Carmen and Cancun causing major damage and a number of deaths. Casualties seem to have been limited by a co-rodinated evacuation and use of storm shelters.

Isla Mujeres suffered badly - there are reports the island is now divided in three parts by the water. However resorts south of Playa del Carmen seem to have got off lighter with some hotels reporting that they will reopen for business in just over a weeks time. Presumably it will take longer to fix things in PdC and Cancun.

Flights to Cancun are scheduled to restart around 27th Oct, but it all seems a bit up in the air. TV here in the UK has shown pictures of basic rations being handed out as well as all the expected pictures of devestation.

The manager of one of the PdC resorts has posted a series of pics showing the kind of damage at the following link:

Playa del Carmen post-Wilma

I haven't had a chance yet to decide exactlly how this is going to affect my plans but I strongly suspect I'll have to scratch the Yucutan tour from my itinerary. Not really sure what the new plan will be although possibly more time travelling around
Chiapas, a trip to Veracruz and maybe even Acapulco. Might cancel plans for a second Spanish school. Probably will leave a final decision until when I get to Oaxaca.

Obviously my travel plans fade into insignificance compared to the fate of the Yucutan residents - but personally it's a big shame that my trip up and down the east coast has become incredibly unlikely.

Not Good

Just read the news that the strongest hurricane ever recorded is heading towards the Yucatan coast.

Hurricane Wilma (bbc)

Hurricane Centre Advice

The predictions are that it will change course but recent history suggests forecasts are pretty innaccurate when it comes to judging where these storms will hit.


Parts of Mexico, Cuba and Florida are being evacuated. Preparations are also being taken in Jamaica, Nicaragua, Honduras and the Cayman Islands. Isla Mujeres (just off the coast by Cancun) is reportedly one of the most at risk places. Meanwhile MTV have cancelled their big Latin American Award Ceremony that was planned to take place in Cancun. Tom Cruise was also planning to marry Katie Holmes there in a few weeks so guess that may also be postponed.

The storm is category 5 - and raging at up to 175mph/280kmph. It's the 21st storm and 12th hurricane of the season.

In the UK the hurricane isn't a big news story yet - here's hoping it dies down and never makes land.

UPDATE:

The hurricane seems to have slowed slightly to 165mph but still rates as the strongest to date. It's moving north at about 7mph


The map on the left is the latest from the Weather Channel at 23.15pm GMT - looks pretty fierce.

You can get the latest weather map at:

Weather Channel Wilma Map

And you can track its progress at:

Hurricane Tracker

Dr Jeff Masters WunderBlog

PdC Wilma Discussion Forum

Nice Break

Just back from a very relaxing very long weekend (Wednesday-Sunday) at Grasse, near Nice in the South of France.


The town is famous for its perfumeries, but to be honest I spent very little time exploring the area outside the residence we were staying at because it was way too blissful to make the effort! Swimming pool, kitchen, balcony, amazing views, good company and some of the best food I've eaten in ages. Swear I must have put on kilos.


It also meant the opportunity to play LOADS of drinking games including Mafia, Wink Murder, La Di Da (with several squashed madeline/fairy cakes as a result), The Vegetable game, Trotsky and many others - good revision for Mexico I hope


The weekend was organised by an old university buddy called Martin who used to head up the team developing a sequel to Tellytubbies but since has gone it alone as a freelance photographer for reasons too complicated (and far fetched) to detail here.


He's very talented - and has been booked to do a couple of magazine shoots - but seems to be developing a career in children's photography which seems to involve an unhealthy amount of time passing out leaflets at the legal distance outside of school gates. He's also available for weddings!

Check out his stuff at:

Martin Usborne

And here's a couple of pics I grabbed of him:
















Anyway the house belongs to his father who rents it out as a bed and breakfast (highly reco- mmended!!!) and Martin's been organising a group of friends to visit every year - this is the first I've succumbed to the temptation and I'm glad I did. Although it means I've potentially a few days less leave to enjoy in Mexico I'm now completely relaxed for the first time in ages.

Amazing how even 5 days away can give a bit of distance and the ability to disconnect from everyday crap. The time away also gave me an opportunity to do tonnes of Spanish revision (the other reason I didn't venture out much) and in particular a chance to wrestle with prepositions which I've always found quite hard to get right.
















No one grammar book seems to contain all the necessary information, but I'd highly recommend combining:

Juan Kattan-Ibarra & Christopher J. Pountain's 'Modern Spanish Grammar 2nd edition'

(the best grammar reference book out there by far - and I've bought loads)

AND

The Oxford Spanish Grammar Guide

For some reason sitting out in the afternoon sun with a glass of wine and open books is so much easier to do than when scrunched up against a radiator in cold Edinburgh ;)


Meantime the weather in Mexico has un- fortunately been a lot more rough. Having been away from the papers for a few days I only discovered this afternoon that Hurrican Stan has wreaked damage across the Chiapas region as well as the awful mudslides in Guatamala

BBC News - Hurricane Stan overview

BBC News - Hurricane Stan Tapachula Report

BBC News - Hurricane Stan Initial Report

It seems awful to be worrying about what impact this will have on travel plans when there are people out there injured or dead. The best that can be said is that at least it didn't slam into the city of Veracruz as first forecast.

I guess this is one of the problems with blogs - you don't want to come across like a selfish idiot, but of course events like this do make you wonder whether your planned travel route needs to be amended. Discussion boards like the following seem to suggest the major bus routes are now working again.

Thorn Tree - Hurricane Impact

As I understand it hurricane season is usually lasts from early September to late October - for the sake of all I hope this year's overactive weather has now done its worst in the region.