Mexico – Si, por favor

25 December 2019 2 of 4

We have traversed a fair bit of Mexico and learnt much about this lovely country since I last wrote.

One fact that boggles my mind is that Mexico City is sinking. The Aztecs established the city almost 700 years ago on tiny islands in a lake. As the city grew, they connected and extended the islands by using reeds, dirt and plants – an early form of land reclamation. But now the city is huge and the buildings are heavy. The sinking is quite startling in some areas with buildings having significant leans and paved city squares which were once flat surfaces now with steps or slopes. The floor of one church we entered had a phenomenal slope angling toward its front left corner – there was no way you could place something on the floor and expect it to stay upright and in place! Gravity was going to take control!!

We have enjoyed visiting museums of Anthropology, History, Culture and Art in the different places we’ve been. In Puebla we did 5 churches in 2 hours and now I’m consciously avoiding them – which is actually quite difficult because Mexico is full of big, shiny, elaborate churches. The Spanish brought Christianity with them in the 1500s. Interestingly, some indigenous communities integrated Christianity into their traditional beliefs rather than switching 100% to the bible. Religious ceremonies used by these communities can include sacrificing chickens, drinking the local liquor to be closer to the gods and different forms of parades and festivals.

The food has been great. My tummy is coping well – hoorah! We’ve had grasshoppers 3 times – twice accidentally because we hadn’t learnt the word yet! Turns out that cactus is quite nice as a juice and as a vegetable. And mole (a chocolate sauce for meat dishes – not sweet) is Abhi’s new favourite food.

Tequila hasn’t really been a thing – it’s all about mezcal. Mezcal is made from the agave plant and takes a long time to brew but is much nicer than tequila. Also interesting, is that the tradition of serving lemon/orange and salt/chilli with your shot of tequila/mezcal is only there to get rid of the taste if you’ve accidentally ordered a crap one!

A number of the archaeological sites that we’ve visited have turned out to be almost completely reconstructed by excited archaeologists as was the way old things were treated in the early 1900s. Also, when the Spaniards came in the 1500s, instead of using the existing Aztec and Mayan structures, they tore down the structures that were there and repurposed the materials to construct churches on the same sites! Having said that, we have also seen some awesome original Aztec and pre-Aztec ruins with stone carvings and wall paintings still in tact.

Two things that are annoying me are the lame American action movies that are shown on long bus trips at high volume, and the apparent national pastime of ignoring the beep of the fire alarm battery needing to be replaced. Positives of these is that the movies are dubbed in Spanish so I can’t understand how really stupidly bad the movies are, and that I save money (and dying by a fire) by avoiding the shops and restaurants that have beeping fire alarms.

It’s been really quite cold for the first 2 weeks of our holiday – beanie and scarf weather most days and lots of cups of hot water to warm me up. The final two weeks of the trip will be the opposite which I’m looking forward to. Although with warmer temperatures comes mosquitoes which are my No.1 dislike in life. Apparently at one of our planned destinations, 310 types of mosquitoes reside there… argh!

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