After my trip

I can now add three more countries to the list of places I've travelled. I took more than 600 photographs on this trip and amazingly, wish I had taken more. I have virtually none of the day to day, the people, the streets...

It was my first time being in a third-world country. I was torn by the poverty and really struck by the people. This stands out most for me on the trip: the heartfelt connection I made with so many. That, and my efforts to learn and speak Spanish. I really loved this too – the feeling of inventing ways to communicate and connect, the risk and the unknown.

With this has come a desire to study Spanish in Antigua for three or four weeks in the next year or so. I met several people in Antigua who were doing this and raved about it. The schools are top-notch there and it’s just such a beautiful, easy place to be for a few weeks.

In my first blog I noted my intention was to experience more of the sacred in the everyday. This didn’t turn out how I expected at all. I was so busy with travelling and new experiences I rarely thought about this, let alone engaged in spiritual practice. Nevertheless when I look back I would say this was fulfilled in an unexpected and much more real way. Everyday I was taking risks that made me feel alive and connected. I used creativity and intuition to get by and solve problems. When things didn’t go well I focused on the positive and let go of the disappointment. Rather than separating the spiritual and the mundane in my life, I was integrating it. Not bad.

I would say that many of the people live in the moment. No matter how hard their lives are (and perhaps because of this), many are fully present and very much connected. I was privileged to witness their daily spiritual practice.

They simply put themselves into what they do (a karma yoga kind of presence) in a way that doesn’t question whether their job is good enough or someone else is better off.

It struck me that, rather than a duality or polarization between rich and poor, there is a multi-dimensionality to the social structure and day-to-day lives. It’s like several realities are occurring at the same time and interweaving. They all cross each others’ paths but not each others’ lives. This was particularly apparent to me when I entered a cathedral/museum on two occasions – one in Guatemala and one in Mexico. I stepped away from the narrow, crowded sidewalks, polluted cobblestone streets and crumbling buildings with their corrugated tin rooves and entered paradise: an entirely different scale : huge peaceful sanctuaries with exotic gardens, stunning architecture, endless rooms and endless places to explore. It was impossible to imagine the beauty, history and culture behind those walls from the outside.

I also had hoped to meet a spiritual shaman in Antigua. Strangely, I missed Elizabeth’s email reply in my Rotman inbox, only to discover it after I got home.

Returning to Toronto and waiting for the bus at the airport, I heard loudly in my mind, “What are you doing here? This isn’t your home!” A pretty clear message. It’s not that this isn’t where I need to be right now. Toronto has been a good place – it’s allowed me to go on this trip in the first place. But does it feel like home? No. I knew this before I moved here. Travelling home on the subway, I was distinctly aware of people’s self-absorption. I could feel their thoughts of wanting...their unhappiness because they didn’t have everything they wanted. I never once felt this in Guatemala or Mexico. From the ladies sitting on the filthy sidewalk sunrise to sunset chopping and bagging fruit, the children shining shoes and hawking in restaurants, and the beggars on the street. Their lives are really hard but I wouldn’t say they were self-absorbed. If someone was in trouble I would say most of them would help without hesitation.

I still don’t know what feels like home for me. But I have confirmed that travel is very worthwhile. I questioned this at the beginning of my trip, in Pana. Since then these experiences have helped me reach deep inside to find a vital person. I’m so happy I had my 49^th birthday down there because it has set the tone as I approach the next decade. It’s been a tough 10 years since I went to the Ashram in January 2000, left my marriage, lost my dad, moved a bazillion times, injured my back, got into debt, and got stuck in dead-end jobs in Nelson. This trip has showed me how alive and engaged I can feel when I give myself the chance to do what I yearn to do.

More than anything I learned greater compassion. For myself. If you cannot be compassionate with yourself you will never be able to be truly compassionate with others. Now my goal is to start applying this in my regular life where old patterns are more established.

To keep the new experiences coming, I’m looking forward to starting piano lessons, continuing my astrology studies and starting a fitness routine. I've joined a "meetup" group in Toronto and will do some events with them. I also hope to study TESOL at U of T this summer. I can probably do it for free so it’s matter of it fitting into my schedule and finding the time. Until I travel again this will be my way of continuing my journey – trying new things, taking risk and meeting new people. There’s a lot to look forward to.

Mexico City!

Everyone was sleeping as I unlocked the bolts on the hotel door of our Oaxaca hotel and hailed a taxi cab in the darkness of early morning. The cab took me across town where I boarded a bus to Mexico City alone. I was excited and terrified about heading to this monumental city. I fell into a deep sleep on the bus and swear I drooled sitting up. Luckily everyone else was sleeping too. It was a six-hour ride through mountains and surprisingly unpopulated.

As we approached the city I wondered what to expect. All I knew was it was very large and polluted. A hodgepodge of low-rise, semi-decayed buildings began to crowd the streetscapes as we hit the outskirts then made our way into the central part of the city. Traffic was lively and multiple lanes were partitioned like the commuter and express lanes on the 401.

I arrived at the train station around 1:30 pm and found a tourist info booth where someone spoke a bit of English. First we phoned the hotel to confirm my room. Yay!! It was booked for me. Then I asked if I could make it to Teotihuacan. Unfortunately she said it was too late. I had read in Karine's guidebook yesterday that you should only take taxis from authorized taxi stands as tourists can risk assault, rape and robbery. That may not actually be the case but nevertheless I had read it now. I couldn't find a taxi stand so I resorted to plan B and hailed a taxi was dropping off a business woman that belonged to the fleet of the highest number of cabs on the street. I didn't have much of a clue where I was. My driver didn't speak English. He did not know where my hotel was and I gave him my map (the girl at the booth had given me an excellent map and circled my hotel and the names of the neighbourhoods/landmarks). It really is a huge city and despite the hotel being so central, he had too stop and ask directions a few times. Of course he ended up being as sweet as all the other wonderful people I had met and delivered me there with great care. I mustered a 'buen nuevo anno' and squeezed his shoulder goodbye. He corrected my Spanish ('feliz neuvo anno!'), grinned and helped me get my bag out of the trunk.

I entered the hotel, got my room key and actually shed tears when I got to my room. Somehow it felt monumental that I made it safely to Mexico City and I was so proud of myself.

I ventured down again with lots of questions for the concierge, ate lunch at a nearby cafe (my stomach was starting to act up again), then got on a bus and went to the Museum of Anthropology - almost as exciting as Teotihuacan.

The bus cost 4.5 pesos (less than 50 cents) and it was a beautiful ride along this fantastic avenue, Paseo de la Reforma. Downtown MC is sophisticated and contemporary with modern sculptured buildings, hotels, banks, offices and museums gracing either side of the avenue, and an enormous park down the centre with fountains, gardens and outdoor stadiums.

Being New Year's Eve, the city was in preparation mode for the big party. There were thousands of police in blue/black uniforms crowded along the avenue for miles, as well as temporary stages with huge speakers, vendor stalls, and toilets.

By the time I got to the museum I was feeling rough, with cramping pains in my stomach. I was determined to enjoy myself and headed straight for the Teotihuacan display. They had done a phenomenal job of displaying some pretty huge artifacts from the pyramids and creating a sense of the site. I watched a few short movies and visited several sections of the museum.

Sadly I didn't take one picture in Mexico City. I was feeling too rough and there was too much to navigate in a short time. Another opportunity for next time.

It was 5:30 when I left the museum and I waited awhile for the bus. Frankly it was getting a bit deserted. Vehicles sped up as the roads emptied. Hardly anyone got on the bus. The driver forgot my stop but we all had to get off a couple of blocks further, so I was able to find my way back. I looked for a restaurant to get some dinner but when I finally found one that was open, they were just closing. Everything was closing! Even the Internet cafes were closed. The streets were deserted and all the buildings were padlocked and dark. I wandered back to the main avenue and found a Starbucks in a little mall. Between that and a 7-11 by my hotel, I picked up a dinner that included a cup of pink grapefruit pieces, rice pudding, triple chocolate cake, Perrier and peppermint tea. I ate this feast in my room, appeasing my crampy stomach (really) and opted for a quiet night watching TV.

I chose not to wander the dark streets on my own to find a New Year's celebration. It was mildly disappointing - there would have been some great sites - but sometimes it's just good to kick back, relishing the peace and sanctity of my hotel room after two weeks of rapid travel. I flipped between old episodes of Friends, Mexican countdowns and any other English shows I could find, before the final long trip home tomorrow.

Oaxaca

Arrived in Oaxaca around 10:30 am, relieved to find it warmer and at a lower elevation. The hotel had lost our room booking so I shared with two instead of the usual one. We all did our own thing the first day and I took it easy, exploring the downtown Central Park (zocalo) area.

The following day I went to Monte Alban - an Olmec/Toltec/Zapotec ruins built on the mountain above Oaxaca around 1,000 BC. We had another wonderful guide descended from the Olmec (the oldest group), whose distinctive facial features are quite difference from the Maya and Zapotec. "Like this..." Our grinning guide pointed to his wide flat nose and some 2,000 year-old Olmec carvings. Sure enough, they looked the same :-) He had a super thick accent and it was as if he communicated through his graceful and patient soul. He also told us the Olmecs weren't into human sacrifice and instead liked to sing and dance and that's what they did during their religious ceremonies.



The ruins weren't discovered by the Spanish so things remained relatively intact. Lots of carvings still exist there and the jewels are in a museum nearby. The location of the site is stunning, on top of a mountain with a 360 degree vista and nothing but blue sky above. The city of Oaxaca in the valley below was a lake at the time and their abundant source of water, so they had a pretty nice life.

The ruins have five layers, built one on top of the other by different groups. The first layer was built by the Olmec, then 4 more civilizations layered bigger pyramids over top. The site was used as a medical training ground and our guide showed us carvings of various medical conditions used for educational purposes. These were originally thought to be dancers and some people even thought torture victims writhing in agony! There was a hunchback, a breach birth, and other physical conditions. They documented the Caesarian section long before the Romans, and probably also performed brain surgery. They were incredibly advanced and we were blown away by the humble man who explained these marvellous things.

The site had a temple of the Sun and Moon, an astronomical observatory that showed the equinoxes and solstices for agricultural purposes (when to plant and harvest), another ball court, etc.

There were also carvings of other races who had arrived in the area long before Columbus. Our guide showed us carvings of Phoenecian, Viking, Jewish, Japanese and Africans. It certainly looked like it to us. He also pointed out the Olmec writing, which is pictographic and written vertically. It looks (at least to our unpracticed eye) astonishingly similar to Asian characters.

We took his word for it because after all, his family has lived there for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and sometimes what we see with our own eyes and intuition may just be more accurate.

At the last minute that evening we found out we were heading to our next location (Puebla) late...again. Matt had left buying bus tickets till the last minute and naturally the buses were full. We would arrive at dark, again. That would leave partying with the group on New Year's Eve then heading to Mexico City the next morning.

My flight was booked a day earlier than the end of the tour so I was scheduled to leave Jan. 1st. When I booked it I had mistakenly thought we would be in Mexico City on the 31st. But in fact we would be a couple of hours away. I had asked our guide early on the trip to help me figure out how to make my flight, and if there was a way I could get to Mexico City early so I could possibly see the great site, Teotihuacan...He said, no worries, he would. That night reality hit and I realized not only had he not helped me but he wasn't around and I had to make some quick decisions. Luckily one of my roommates had left her guide book in our room so I was able to do some quick calculations and read some maps. There was another Gap guide at the hotel - another bit of luck. I finally tracked her down and she was a real help. She told me to ask Matt to book me into the Gap hotel and get a bus ticket to Mexico City for early tomorrow morning.

When Matt finally showed up he was none too happy to hear my change of plans. He did agree to phone the hotel for me. I picked up the bus ticket - a small fortune - and basically had dinner with about half the  group then said goodbye! I got mostly packed, showered and then my two roomies and I hung out in our room, chatting and doing Tarot readings. It was a lovely way to end the trip with them.

San Cristobal de las Casas

Lovely sophisticated city high in the mountains (~2,000 metres). Dry and very cold at night (3 degrees) - a startling change from the moist, hot jungle. It was warm in the daytime, as long as you were in the sun. Spent a day climbing steps ("stairmasters" as one in the group called them) to see various cathedrals (Templos, possibly built on top of Maya temples). Also window shopped in a multitude of jewellry shops with sumptuous semi-precious stones - amber, jade, turquoise, lapis, coral.

San Cristobel is classy...beautiful streets, high end shops and great restaurants with healthy food and amazing coffee. It is a Zapatista town. Most of Mexico seems meat oriented and it's difficult to get a balanced meal. We ate at a fantastic restaurant with the best menu I saw anywhere. I think I ate there three times. The artwork featured people with their heads covered - to reflect the Zapatista insurgent values. There was a nativity scene where Jesus wore a black wool ski mask, like General Marcos. Our paper place mats had quotes by famous people like Indira Gandhi - "It is a privilege to live a hard life," and Batman, "the masked crusader!"

I've learned some stuff on this trip and reflected on this:

1. I'm capable of solving problems by asking for help - this helps reduce my anxiety and fear of trying new things

2. I get along with enough people to get by very well

3. I have something to offer people that makes for mutually beneficial and rewarding situations

4. If I am unhappy about something I am not the only one, and in fact my perception is totally on

5. I am strong and reasonable and can deal with more than I thought

My second day in San Cristobal I got sick. I couldn't hold anything down and spent the day in bed. Suzie thought it was altitude sickness but Matt, our guide, felt it was more likely a bacterial infection. I wondered about the water I drank in the jungle...I had to cancel the tour I'd booked to a Mayan town where we would learn about day-to-day village life and how they combine Christian and traditional spiritual beliefs.

Our hotel was freezing. I was in my down sleeping bag (one new thing that I'm so happy I brought - and didn't lose!). We were facing a 12-hour night bus ride to Oaxaca. I ended up using suppositories and recovered in time to make the trip!

Palenque & Christmas Day

Christmas Day felt like any other to me. I was glad I was spending it in a beautiful place. There was no Internet available here, so no contact with the outside world. In fact, none of the hotels we'd stayed at had Internet so I have to wait till I get home to post the rest of my blogs. Due to the loss of my journal, I started scrawling notes to help remember bits and pieces along the way...

Today I opted for an all-day tour, along with about half the group. First we went to another set of famous ruins, Palenque! We didn't get a guide on this tour so I don't think I got as much out of it as the others. Having said that, they have all become a blur since the trip. I'm glad I took so many photos. Thank goodness for Wikipedia...and all the books I'd already read about the sites...At least I can look up the info anytime I want.

I do remember it was a large site - actually much smaller than Tikal, but still. Much of it was still in the jungle. I stuck to the parts that were cleared. It involved a lot of hiking up pyramids. This was cool because it's good exercise, plus it's stunning to look down at the site and it made me feel good that I could do it. It was a cloudy day which was good because when the sun did appear it was hot and humid. It turned out to be not so good though, because maybe less than an hour in, it started to rain. I had lost my rain jacket which was bad news. My cotton hoodie got soaked and didn't dry until I could get to a lavenderia in San Cristobal a couple of days later. Nothing dries in the jungle...

Karine and I headed for the museum. It was a long walk and we each took a photo of each other absolutely soaked, along the way! We ended up going to a little anthropological museum. I was really excited because it was the first time I got to see all the artifacts that had been hauled off the sites. They were so beautiful. As fate would have it I noticed a glass door into a special area. The note on the door said it was only unlocked once an hour. Suddenly the door opened so of course I went inside. I was a little worried because no one knew where I was and we had to meet the bus in about 40 minutes. I didn't want to be locked in for an hour and find I'd missed the bus!

Inside I was treated to a set of 5-minute movies about the archeological discovery of a fantastic tomb of a king named Pacal. The movies had English subtitles (a rare thing!) so I was able to understand. The archaeologist recounted how he unsealed a vault, climbed down a steep dark staircase, unsealed another door and entered a beautiful white room that looked like glowing white ice crystal. The walls were covered in a smooth, shiny white mineral from the water that had slowed seeped into the room over hundreds of years. There was a sarcophagus in the centre - about the size of a double bed and taller. It had ornate carvings all over it. It had been moved into that room, so we got to see it. Stunning! It was in perfect condition, like brand new. The carvings and the pure whiteness of the stone were exquisite. On the lid, the "king" rested in the arms of the tree of life like a child. The idea of rebirth.

Here's some info on it, which you can skip over if not of interest: "The lid of the sarcophagus is carved with an amazing exposition on Classic Maya concepts of life, death, and resurrection. It also incorporates a wealth of astronomical information, including an image of the World Tree, which connected the levels of the universe. The imagery and text also allude to Pakal's role as a personification of the Maize God who, according to Maya creation mythology, died and was resurrected from the back of a turtle carapace. The sides of the sarcophagus were carved with images of Pakal's ancestors, all emerging from a crack in the earth with a fruit tree, as if forming an ancestral orchard."
(from: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://webspace.utexas.edu/jgk1102/images/49_palenque.gif&imgrefurl=https://webspace.utexas.edu/jgk1102/maya_palenque.html&usg=__m0AyperyIAD0v2F8wAi3Ag35CVI=&h=300&w=320&sz=70&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=4a6pU72EbQuZcM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpalenque%2Bsarcophagus%2Blid%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1)


I really lucked out gettin to see that. I had seen a drawing of the lid in one of my books. Seeing it for real was amazing.

From there a shuttle van took us to some waterfalls, then drove a long way through the steep mountains of Chiapas to go to a swimming place - waterfalls with cascading pools of smooth, polished limestone rock. I could hear my ears popping as we climbed altitude. The view was gorgeous - lush green mountains with stepped fields, palm trees and indigenous homes built into the mountain-side. I snapped some shots from the window as we zipped by.

The site is owned by the Zapatistas. A few of them with guns stopped us by a shed with some very cool murals. Someone in our van was able to get a shot of it before they indicated no photos! I would LOVE to have that photo. We paid them a fee and moved on. The place was packed. The weather improved but it was a little chilly for swimming. Some people were. Instead I walked up and up and up and the levels of waterfalls that just never seemed to end. Alongside, the whole way up, were indigenous handicrafts stalls and restaurants.  As a Canadian, used to wilderness and wide open spaces, all I wanted to do was find a quiet place to sit by myself and relax. I finally did when I got back down to the bottom, behind some restaurants and cabins, by the water. At that point I decided no more all-day tours that involved bussing to three different sites, two of them gimmicky, forced to buy lunch at expensive restaurants, and subjected to hordes of tourists. It's not that the waterfalls weren't beautiful, but I don't they would have been my first choice for how I wanted to spend my afternoon.

that night back at the jungle hotel, we had a group dinner at the outdoor restaurant again, and a secret Santa exchange - the idea was to buy a small gift for 20 pesos ($2) and have a bit of fun. I had picked a hand-painted bird - maybe a parrot or quetzal, and added a Mayan chocolate that looked like a number or letter from the Mayan alphabet or calendar. I received a beautiful painted heart box and necklace from Suzie. I was very touched as she had clearly exceeded our price limit and went out of her way to give me something special. She kept telling me I was a very special person the whole trip. I didn't quite know how to take this as I barely knew her. "I'll never forget you," she'd say. She sometimes brought tears to my eyes telling me this. It was a magical night.

That night I drank some water from my metal canteen. It tasted weird. It had been in there for two days. Maybe in the jungle, that's not such a good idea...

Palenque & Christmas Eve

After a 9-hour bus ride, we entered the foothills of the Chiapas mountains. And the jungle of Palenque. We were late arriving because our guide had difficulty getting bus tickets. Everyone was on the move! Mexicans are big travellers and make up by far the largest numbers of tourists. So we arrived after dark and were thrilled by our lovely room with a mural painted on the wall, lots of windows and a ceiling fan, not to mention a very clean bathroom and no smell.

Our hotel was a complex of two- or four-room buildings along pathways through the jungle. You had to be careful not to step off the path because there were leaf cutter ants busily carrying their leaves somewhere important alongside. Luckily I had my headlamp (although there were cute little lights in the ground along the path) and we mapped our way back to the main part of the hotel - an outdoor cafe/bar with partial walls along the bar and stage, lovely lighting and more painted murals of green leaves, vines and animals. The large seating area was arranged on a concrete base, covered by a vaulted thatched roof on posts.

The place was packed - Christmas Eve is the time for fun in Mexico. I stayed up late watching live music, guests salsa dancing and stunning fire dances with drummers from South America. I really wished I could have got up and danced but salsa isn't in my repertoire yet.

Chichen Itza, Merida, Uxmal and Kabah

The next morning we all hopped on one of the marvellous Mexican buses with all our bags and headed to Chichen Itza, one of the most famous Mayan ruins and was of the new Seven Wonders of the World. We checked our luggage at the site, had some lunch then had a great tour with a cool guide whose name I can't remember. It was a bright, sunny day and pretty hot onsite. We saw the pyramid (Temple of Kukulcan) that was built so that on the spring and fall equinoxes, a shadow climbs (or descends) the steps of the pyramids. It looks like a snake (feathered serpent known as Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl), moving up as the sun rises (or sets) and completing its journey exactly at the head of the snake near the top (or bottom) of the pyramid. It is so well-known now that 10s of thousands come out for the event, so it was actually a good thing that we were there on the solstice rather than the equinox.

There is also a huge ball court there. The Maya (and Aztecs and other indigenous groups) played a game, similar to raquetball or volleyball, usually lasting for several days, where the object was to get a rubber ball, weighing 5-10 lbs. into one of two stone rings extending from either of the stone walls, without using their hands. The captain of one of the teams was then sacrificed. Many speculate that it was actually the captain of the winning team - it was likely considered an honour. The ball courts are found all over Mesoamerica, but the one at Chichen Itza is by far the largest.

There is also a round observatory building called El Caracol (the snail), with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events. Wiki says: "Of 29 possible astronomical events (eclipses, equinoxes, solstices, etc), sight lines for 20 could be found in the structure. Since a portion of the tower resting on El Caracol has been lost, it is possible that the other measurements will never be ascertained to have been observed." Impressive.

After the tour, we got back on the bus and headed to Merida. It's supposed to be a great city but honestly, I was overwhelmed when we arrived. Once we entered the city, it took forever for the bus to navigate the narrow streets and heavy traffic to arrive at the bus station. On the way the view was pretty much shacks squished together and urbran sprawl. When we arrived at our hotel it was crammed packed with "art" like dismembered dolls and broken statues. Our room was on the lower floor and had no window and a smell of sewage and mould from our bathroom.

The next day some of us chose to go on a tour to more ruins (Uxmal and Kabah). The rest went to some waterfalls or cenotes. We had a lovely guide, Jesus, our first guide who is indigenous and grew up on the site. He had an unassuming and simple approach, telling us the stories of why the site was important and what the symbols meant. The information had been passed to him by his grandparents and he was clearly passionate about it, and very intelligent. It was refreshing to have such a genuine tour with someone eager to share the wonders of the site and virtually no ego :-) I felt very appreciative to be given information that was meaningful, engaging in the essence of the site. Everyone in the group delighted in this.

Uxmal's pyramids were less grand than Tikal and Chichen Itza but a lot more ornate, with stone murals everywhere, especially of Chac, the rain god. There were several long rectangular palaces. One of these may have been used as school for training healers, astrologers, shamans, and priests. It was built in layers so that we climbed up levels to get to the main quadrangles and had great views. The "Governor's Palace" occupies five acres. All buildings are exactly aligned with the points of the compass. I could really get a sense of a city here. Apparently it's one of the best restored and maintained sites. It was a powerful political and economic place in its day.

Jesus then took us for a brief look at another site close by: Kabah. There was no natural water source on site, so they built an aquaduct. An entire building was devoted to the rain god, Chac with multiple carvings of his head covering the walls. At the end of the civilization, the place was destroyed - whether by those who left, or by attackers is not known. The buildings are surrounded by rubble as well as hundreds of retrieved carvings lying in rows on the ground. It was slightly eerie.

Jesus drove us back to the hotel where I went for a quick walk to the market that evening with Karine. We were caught in a Christmas crush and the streets were full of shoppers and people selling everything from live birds to pinatas and firecrackers. LaterI faced a night alone in my creepy room. My roommate booked a room in a hotel down the road.

The next morning we left late for the jungle and Palenque. Unfortunately I left my journal at an Internet cafe that morning, so the details of my trip thus far were lost, along with all the entries I'd made since I started using it a few months ago. It was a beautiful leather bound book. Another reminder to avoid taking things I don't want to lose when I travel.