Reflections: Over the course of the past eight weeks or so, I have visited a number of strikingly beautiful and diverse cities varying in size and temperament. I have set booted foot in rain, snow, sand, and sleet, and marched across mud, marble, asphalt, cobblestones and pools of human excrement. I have swum in warm seas, crisp oceans, and wandered through air both freezing and arid. I have been healthy, have run and jumped, and have laid myself down to sleep wrapped in no more than my aches and pains. I have travelled alone, by two, and by three; have revelled in my freedom, and longed for the company of my friends and family.
I have shouted in anger, cursed my stupidity, smiled and laughed with strangers, wound myself tight and drunk myself loose again. Despite, or perhaps because of all this, I am inclined to think that I have been making satisfying use of my time so far, and am very excited for the coming months. I also wanted to write a little thank you to everyone who has actually been reading all this dross - it very encouraging to know that I have this resource at my fingertips whenever I need to feel listened to. Ok, so what next?
Dissections: I have decided, based on my present pace that I will likely need the month of February to make my way through the remainder of Mexico. (Exactly how that month will be doled out however remains to be seen, but that's what seems to be working: day-to-day openness set within a gently posited framework.) At that point, I should be ready to move into Central America. I have been thinking I would like to visit each of the countries therein, spending roughly a week on each. This may not sound like much, but timing it thus would have me approaching the doorway to South America at roughly the half-way point of my trip. This of course is not at all how I imagined things, but sits quite well with me at the moment, and represents what I am now calling "the plan".
So, South America is big, and in light of this bigness, my ambitious ideas of visiting every country therein have withered somewhat of late, making way for slightly more realistic ones. The biggest question on my mind recently was, when I enter South America, which way do I go? Shall I head South along the Western side, and skip out on northern Colombia, Venezuela and gigantic Brazil for the moment? Or head Northeast through those three countries, aimed at the Eastern coast of Brazil, and directly away from Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia? It looked like there was no way to avoid at least some back-tracking, and for a while I thought I might have to give in to considering flights around the continent.
However, I eventually devised a very rough, and very tortuous path zigging and zagging across the land, that I think would allow me to hit many of the spots I am interested in visiting, while minimizing the back-track factor. It's obviously still too early to write it down here, but I look forward to sharing it with you in the months to come, if I actually pull it off. Perhaps one of the biggest things about this new itinerary, is that it would have me finish my trip at the bottom of the continent, at which point I would likely have to fly back to Canada from one of the larger cities down there... assuming I have any money left at that point.
Anyway, enough of that talk for now. Thanks to those of you who had time to slog though it with me. Below are two stories from my recent travels.
Carcasses: After a week or so of touring around the beautiful state of Michoacan, I decided to zag North (gasp!) up to the neighboring state of Guanajuato, stopping first in the capital city of the same name - which, incidentally, comes from a phrase in the local indigenous language, meaning "Hill of Frogs", although I didn't see any about. I had heard many lovely stories of this place, and was not unimpressed by its history and beauty. Set in the base of a sizable valley, the smaller of Guanajuato's colourfully painted concrete structures clung to the surrounding ridges, while the center of the valley bloomed with all manner of larger buildings - churches, markets, museums, government offices, etc. many of which are well-known throughout the country - all exhibiting surprisingly ornate features. I observed this fact on my first day in the city - I stayed for four - when I managed to make my way up to the highest point I could find on the horizon, and sit for some time before a view spread out for miles before me - easily one of the best I have had so far, and I have had a few.But as good as it was, it could not reveal all that the city had to offer. I had from that vantage point, for one thing, absolutely no appreciation for the vast network of tunnels that wound about beneath the city. Full of bus, taxi, and other local traffic, these roughhewn brick tunnels are also outfitted with wee little sidewalks for those willing to wander their depths. They are particularly beautiful in the evening, when traffic dies down a bit and their modest lights cast a yellow-orange glow, making you swear you were in a castle dungeon.
But if it's spooky you're after, the real place to go is Guanajuato's famed Museo de Momias, or Mummy Museum. A couple hundred years ago, most of the city's dead were stored in a sizable set of catacombs on the outskirts of town. Some time around the late 1800s, however, the city decided it ought to be charging for this service, and instituted a burial tax, and when many poor families were unable to pay this fee, their relatives were dug up to make room for the richer dead. To the surprise of all, roughly 1 in 100 of the bodies buried there had, by some unknown means, undergone a process of natural mummification, among them some of the best preserved human bodies in existence. They were immediately placed on display in a specially built museum where, for a small fee, they could be observed, and have laid there ever since, peasants mostly, contributing even in death, to the city's revenue.
Having never seen a real live mummy, I paid this museum a visit one sunny day, and spent some two hours or so wandering among the various specimens, camera in hand, without so much as blinking. The museum featured men and women of various ages, often offering brief accounts of their lives and how they passed on. Some were old and had simply died of natural causes, others were not so lucky. There were drowned mummies, stabbed mummies, mummies of people who had been buried alive, their faces drawn taut into horrific eternal screams, their fingers and toes twisted into brittle curlicues. Some were displayed in their burial clothes, frilly dresses, and old leather shoes tattered with age, others naked, revealing shrivelled genitals and mottled skin stretched like old canvas across an easel of bones.
Perhaps the most astounding however, were the "Little Angels" or infant mummies. To my surprise, I found that the museum had a sizable collection of them, to which they dedicated an entire section to the exhibit. I cannot describe what I felt as I gazed upon their tiny little fingers, skin thinner than that of an onion, and fragile as burned paper, their little feet, often still wrapped in booties, as they peeked out at me with hollow eyes from underneath delicate bedclothes. Some wore little hats, other tiny heads were bare but for a few wisps of ancient infant hair. Never before have I experienced such shocking dissonance as that created by the inescapable comingling of birth and death exhibited by these mummified babies. So tiny, so brand-new, but without any of the moisture and plumpness we expect from tiny, brand-new people. On the contrary, their bodies were old and broken like so many burned-out cinders.
The prize of the museum however, is what they claim to be the smallest mummy in the world, a fetus, in fact, removed, if you can believe it, from the mummified body of its mother, who died while with child. The latter stands leaning on a post, the lengthy scar fom her posthumous cesarean section stiched up with some rough yellow thread in full view on the left, her face locked in a fierce maternal scream. Her baby sits beside her on a pedestal, his underdeveloped legs coiled beneath him, gazing out at his adoring public. He is perhaps 6 or 8 inches tall, no more than a head really, perched upon a tiny s-shaped spine. If you look closely at the last of these photos, you will see my silhouette reflected in the glass.
Circuses: After having explored the beautiful city of Guanajuato to my satisfaction, I decided to pay a visit to the nearby and infamous San Miguel de Allende, the same city that had eluded Eden and I some weeks earlier in Michoacan. I had been building myself a couchsurfing profile for some time, and figured this was a fine time to try it out, and so I emailed ahead of myself to see if anyone in San Miguel would have me. To my great pleasure, I was taken in by a lovely young woman from Canada, who had been living and working in San Miguel for some time. Jaz and the rest of her housemates welcomed me warmly into their home, and I was not surprised when what I had planned to be a two night stay stretched into five.
It all began on day one, when, after depositing my backpack and sharing a rooftop glass of wine, I was offered a pair of tights, and invited to the evening's circus training. As it happens, some months ago, Jaz had joined a local circus troupe with whom she had been training ever since - they were, she assured me, quite accustomed to her habit of bringing along couchsurfers. Well, I was not about to turn such an opportunity down, although I did pass on the tights, and before I knew it I was doing warm-up stretch-dance with a bunch of circus folk in the back yard of their head trainer, the trapeze rigging dangling above us. The opportunity did come for me to try my hand at some of the equipment, which I did, but I was more content to sit and watch these incredible athletes swing and twist and tangle themselves up and down for the few hours we were there.
As it happened, that day was the group's final rehearsal in that space, and so I also got the chance to help them dismantle and stow all their rigging which was to be moved the following day. They had been practicing at this location for some nine years I was told, and had made and assembled the whole lot by themselves, so it was understandably an emotional time for them, and many laughs were had as we broke it all down. It was quite a priviledge, I thought, to be offered this unique chance to observe the kind of prep work that goes into even a small circus show - their troupe consists of only seven people or so - and I left with a new sense of appreciation for the athleticism, creativity and patience of folks in this field.
While this evening concluded my involvement in all things circus, my remaining days in San Miguel were no less exciting. Friday and Saturday nights were both lively, to say the least, the former involving a thorough round of bar-hopping, live music and dancing, and the latter a sizable party at the home of my generous hosts. Everyone in our house had friends in town that weekend, and it was a pleasure meeting so many folks from all over, and sharing the wonderful space with them. Unlike some other portions of my trip so far, my time in San Miguel was far less about seeing the city, and far more about interacting with all the incredible people who had taken me into their arms, despite only knowing me a short time. I don't think I shall ever forget that place, and look forward to the future crossing of paths with many that I met there.
It was therefore with some sadness that I left San Miguel yesterday afternoon, in the rain, on a bus to Mexico city, where I am presently, having arrived late last night. The rain has persited and continues even now, punishing me it seems, for leaving in the midst of such good times, and among such good people. I think, however, that I have made the right decision, and will likely remain here for a few days more at least, exploring the bustling streets, and catching up with myself a bit.
That ought to do for now, I hope. Talk to you all soon with more news and photos! (Posting photos while on the road can be a hassle sometimes, but I have recently added a few to prior posts if you care to take a look.)
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