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Monday 30 June 2014

Three of us in a van across the Yucatan

Uxmal
Our friend Béatrice arrived last Saturday at Cancun, with a huge heavy bag. I am still not sure what is in this bag; Stones? Cannonballs? Even when removing the tent and inflatable mattress, is it still impossibly heavy. After spending one day snorkelling in the Caribbean Sea we started our seven days tour of the Yucatan Peninsula. We did a combination of Mayan archeological sites and colonial towns. Everything was worth visiting, but the further away from Cancun, the better: less people, less souvenir shops selling made in China trinkets, more authenticity. We particularly enjoyed the Maya site of Uxmal, where we were almost alone, simply gorgeous. 
 
Crowd of tourists

As we do not have enough space in the van, Béatrice usually sleeps in a bungalow/chalet at the camp sites; the tent is only in case there is nothing, but she has not used it so far. Some campsites are very good, some others are really substandard, but there are not too many of them in Mexico so we cannot afford to be choosy. It is still better than sleeping at a gas station anyway… Today, we are resting in a very nice place south of Cancun, with a beautiful beach, pristine and turquoise sea, and a swimming pool. We wish we could stay longer, but we still have some way to go until Tierra del Fuego… Our stay in Mexico is coming to an end, soon we will go to Belize (an English speaking country, what a bliss!!!) and further down to Guatemala and so on. Béatrice is very happy to share with us a part of this unusual journey towards the Southern tip of South America.

Coccinelle


Nous avons commencé à voir au Mexique pas mal de vieilles coccinelles et de bus Volkswagen.  Et puis quand je me suis mis à les photographier les coccinelles on en voyait partout : des blanches, jaunes, rouges, roses, noires, vertes, à raillures, des décapotables etc… Il y en a qui sont très bien entretenus et d’autres qui sont de vrais ruines. Volkwagen à mis une usine pour contruire des coccinelles au Mexique dans le temps. Je crois que c’est un petit peu comme notre deux chevaux ou 4L, elles sont pas chers, facile à entretenir et elles roulent très lontemps.
Vous pouvez voir mon album de photos dans la galerie.

Tuesday 24 June 2014

A ticket with no receipt is no ticket!

We almost got our second ticket of the journey in a small town of the Yucatan peninsula. The first ticket was in Santa Barbara, California, a few weeks ago, when we parked inadvertently in a no-parking space. So we were crossing this small town, when a policeman on a motorbike signalled us to stop. He told us that we were speeding and asked for our IDs. We did not challenge the speeding although we knew very well this was not true. How can a 19 feet long van be speeding on a narrow street with topes (humps) every 20 meters, really? The policeman told us he was going to give us a ticket of 500 pesos (about 45 USD). We said OK, but we want a receipt. And this is where things started to become a bit complicated. The policeman said he could not give us a receipt right away, but we could go to the police station the next Monday and retrieve it, but of course we had to give him the money right away. His explanations were a bit convoluted and he did not seem to be very sure of himself. He was not aggressive at all. We said we were not going to pay anything without a receipt, I even proposed to make the receipt myself for him to sign. We asked for his ID and he said he was called William Americano…but did not show us any ID of course. We were saved from this somehow cumbersome and time wasting situation when a police patrol appeared. All of a sudden, our policeman gave us our IDs back and said that we could go, we should all forget about this. So we went, very relieved. This was probably a failed attempt at getting some extra money for the weekend… our first such experience so far and done in a very polite way. And despite this, we were still in time to pick up our friend Béatrice at Cancun airport. Béatrice is joining us for three weeks to visit the Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala. 

Friday 20 June 2014

Premier site Maya : Palenque


Nous avons visité hier le premier site Maya du Mexique : Palenque.

Palenque se trouve dans la jungle et c’est ça qui rend le site extraordinaire!
Les mayas étaient des mathématiciens, des artistes, des constructeurs, ils ont inventé le zéro, ils savait lire les astres… A Palenque ils vécurent un siècle avant Jesus-Christ et ils se sont éteint au Xième siècle. Il reste plusieurs Pyramides où étaient entéré les rois, un Palace, un jeu de balle et des sculptures.   

Xenia à fait une ballade dans la jungle et moi je me suis baigné sous une chute d’eau qui était délicieuse!

Nous allons visité plusieurs site Maya la semaine prochaine.

Modern Times Banditos

Well so far, we have not met any “banditos” on the roads of Mexico… Or, let’s put it that way, no traditional banditos, the ones ambushing vehicles to rob them. But there are new kinds of banditos, and unfortunately, our sprays are completely useless against them. Some lie undetected in the middle of the roads and destroy the suspensions of the vehicles, they are called “topes” or humps. Others are posted at regular intervals on the roads and empty our wallet, they are called “casetas de cobro” or toll barriers. The roads of Mexico are infested with them and there is no way to escape. We have two choices, either we take toll roads and face the “casetas de cobro” or we take free roads and have to deal with the “topes”. Difficult choice… We have tried both and do not know which is best, really… so we go for a Swiss compromise and do half half… There are topes everywhere on free roads, on average five or six in each hamlet. Some are very high and are not marked, so we have to be extremely careful and scan the road constantly. We have to slow down to a stop to pass them to avoid ending up with a flat tyre or a broken suspension. We did some statistics today and counted an average of one tope per minute of travel… completely insane. On the other hand, casetas de cobro are everywhere on toll roads. They rob you an average of one USD per twelve kilometres (more statistics), which is insane when put in proportion with Mexican average income. So only wealthy people and commercial vehicles use toll roads. So, one would think that toll roads are better than free roads, right?

 Yes, but unfortunately this does not prove right, specially in the south of Mexico. The toll roads are in a despicable state there, narrow, bumpy, patched, huge potholes, trucks zigzagging to avoid them, no emergency lane, and so on. Obviously, the money collected does not go into road maintenance… It is an ordeal to drive on those “highways”, we are completely knackered after 300 kilometres of this. We have avoided any major damage so far and decided to laugh about this (except the occasional swearing) as there is absolutely nothing we can do. And we reckon it is not going to improve further south…there will maybe be more topes and less casetas to cobro…or more…it is still better than traditional banditos anyway, but this is armed robbery all the same. Nevertheless, we drove today for 500 kilometres on a very nice road in the state of Campeche, with no caseta de cobro and very few topes; there are also some nice surprises!!!

Tuesday 17 June 2014

Des fleurs pour la Vierge Marie!



Hier nous étions à Saint André de Cholula, une ville avec plus de 2000 ans d’histoire. La ville est très belle. La société pré-hispanique a fondé cette ville aux alentours de 250 ans avant Jesus-Christ. La pyramide de Cholula est considérée comme la plus grande du continent américain en volume : sa base mesures 400 mètres de coté. La pyramide est composée de plusieurs superpositions de constructions et les plus notable sont les styles Tolteca et Teotihuacano.

Au dessus de la pyramide il y a une église dédiée à Notre Dame des Remèdes.

Cholula est aussi une ville hispanique et la légende dit qu’elle a 365 églises !

Sur le guide on en a vu que vingt-six.

Dans le couvent de Saint Gabriel, il y a avait une fête et l’église était couverte de fleurs, on est arrivée juste pour la messe… 

Ca chantait un hymne à la Vierge des Remèdes en Latin… 
J’espère qu’elle benit notre voyage…

Monday 16 June 2014

La terre s’arrête de tourner quand le Mexique joue!


Christ ensanglanté à Puebla
Nous sommes rentré dans une période ‘’Coupe du monde’’ et au Mexique le foot tous le monde le suit. Il y a des téléviseurs dans chaque magasin, ils commentent le foot à la radio, on vend des maillots de l’équipe nationale à tous les coins de rues. Quand l’équipe nationale joue, à l’école, les enfants et adolescents regardent le match et au niveau professionnel presque tous le monde regarde le match aussi.

Hier c’était une bonne journée pour nous : la suisse à gagné et la France aussi !
On verra bien le 20 juin quand la Suisse rencontrera la France, j’espère qu’ils vont égaliser. 
Aujourd’hui nous voulions regarder Etats-Unis contre le Ghana. Nous sommes allées dans un bar mais les droits des EU sont seulement transmit par la chaine SKY… Donc on est rentrés brouille-couille !  

Mes pronostiques : le Brésil ne va pas gagner la coupe du monde ni l’Espagne. Je regarderais plutôt : les Pays-Bas, l’Allemagne et l’Argentine ! A moins que la Suisse ou la France fassent quelque chose de bien…

Zocalo à Puebla

Sunday 15 June 2014

Traffic did not drive us ballistic



We have done it! We have been to Mexico City! 

Mexico City
We were not too sure about going there in the first place, traffic being our main issue: how to drive and park a 19 feet long van in the horrendous traffic of a city of 25 million people. And where to camp??? 
But we found a solution: we left the van at Ricardo’s place (a former colleague from Nestlé) a bit outside of the city and we booked a hotel downtown, close to the historical center. And we do not regret it. Mexico is definitely worth a visit. And traffic is not so bad after all… far better than expected actually, specially when sitting on an open-decked touristic bus. 
I know, this sound a bit mainstream tourism, but it is indeed extremely convenient when distances are huge. 

After the craziness of the city we chilled out for a day in Ivy’s beautiful ranch in Tenancingo and drove to the mountain to join Ricardo for a night at his cottage. 









 
We are now in Puebla, the fourth largest city of Mexico. Puebla is a gorgeous town, with beautiful houses and churches of all colours. We are expanding our collection of bleeding Christ (soon to be shown in our photo gallery). We took a “collectivo” to reach the historical center of Puebla, and it was really fun, much nicer than riding on a proper bus. A collectivo is the equivalent of a tro in Ghana, a van driving defined routes, there are plenty of them all the time and are the best way to get by. Soon, we will be on our way to the peninsula of Yucantan, where we meet our friend Beatrice next weekend! 

Monday 9 June 2014

Hermoso Guanajuato

After Guadalajara, we stopped at Guanajuato; the plan was to stay one night, but we decided to stay two nights as this city of 85’000 people is a jewel. Guanajuato was originally a silver mining town and there are plenty of mining tunnels running below the city. Some of them have been converted into tunnels to ease traffic across town. Our campground was outside of the city so we took once again public transportation to the center of town; everything went well this time. There are many beautiful mansions painted in bright colours with iron wrought balconies; splendid churches with various representations of Christ: bleeding on the cross; or carrying the cross on his knees (more bleeding); or lying dead in a transparent coffin (no more bleeding); there is also a beautiful university, a theatre and a very interesting museum dedicated to Diego Rivera, a famous Mexican painter. 
University of Guanajuato


The atmosphere is very relaxed, with plenty of people strolling around, eating ice creams or snacks and various entertainments such as clowns, musicians, etc. Definitely, Guanajuato is worth stopping by!!! Last night we left the windows open in the van and plenty of mosquitoes got in and bothered us most part of the night. It is fine, there is no malaria in Mexico, we will just make sure to close the windows from now on!

Saturday 7 June 2014

Des pyramides rondes !


Maintenant nous sommes en plein coeur du Mexique. 
Champ d'Agave
Vous connaissez la Tequila? Avant hier nous passions par Tequila, une ville très jolie avec plein de distilleries de cet alcool purement mexicain fait a partir d’agave. Le territoire est classé patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO et on voit des champs d’agave partout. La Tequila se fait avec le fruit de l’agave qui est une espèce de boule qui fait entre 60kg et 80 kg. Pour faire un litre de Tequila il faut 7 litres d’agave.  Il faut distiller 3 fois le fruit pour arriver à faire de la Tequila. Il y a plusieurs sortes de Tequila : la classique (celle que nous connaissons), la reposée, la vieille et la très vieille. Nous avons bu de la Tequila de plus de 7 ans d’âge et elle était très bonne.

Des pyramides rondes : Guachimontones !
Vous connaissez les pyramides triangulaires et bien on a visité des pyramides rondes à Teuchitlan. La société de Teuchitlan a vecu vers 350 avant Jésus Christ et s’est terminée vers 350 à 400 ans après Jésus Christ. C’était une société dynamique qui a débouché dans un mode complexe d’organisation sociale, politique, économique et spirituelle dont les traces architecturales se reflètent dans la région.
Ce qui se distingue avec cette société préhispanique d’autres sociétés méso-américaine c'est le style architecturale connu comme Guachimontones (centre de cérémonies fait de formes circulaires entourés de strutures rectangulaires). Cette forme est interprétée comme un hommage au Dieu du Vent. 
Ils faisaient des cérémonies qui réunissaient la multitude avec des banquets et des danses. Bien avant le football ils avaient un jeu de balle aussi. On ne pouvait que toucher la balle avec la hanche. Le terrain faisait 110 mètres de long et était formé comme un I. Cette semaine commence le mondial de football et moi je vais m’y intéresser fortement !

Friday 6 June 2014

The never ending elation of using public transportation

We are now in Guadalajara, State of Jalisco. Guadalajara is the second largest city of Mexico with about 3 million people. Traffic is quite horrendous, so we decided to leave our van in the campground, about ten miles from El Centro and take a bus to visit the city. There is a bus stop conveniently located at the entrance of the parking. So we took it this morning. Taking a bus here is a bit confusing because there is no information on bus routes or on which bus stops where. We have to rely on our good sense of seasoned travellers (we want to believe we are) and check that the bus is going in the right direction, using MapsWithMe on the Ipad (thanks to my brother Axel for letting me know about this great App). Going downtown was no problem, we spent the day sightseeing and took the bus back at around 5pm. At the beginning, everything was fine, the bus was heading in the direction of our campground, traffic was good. And then, unexpectedly, the bus left the main road and headed to some unknown area. We asked the driver, he said we were going to Santa Ana… could not locate this on MapsWithMe. We stayed in the bus until the end station, hoping that it would go back to the main road; it did not. At the end station we asked what was going on. Fortunately, it was not dark, else I would have completely freaked out…The bus driver explained to us that the next bus would take us back to the main road. It did, we were quite relieved and went safely back to the campground. In a way, it was a great opportunity to have a glimpse at an area of town we would never have gone to, but this experience is not going to change my opinion on public transportation, definitely… 
Casa de las Cabanas, Guadalajara

Monday 2 June 2014

Shall we speak suizo in Mexico?

Loreto, Baja California
Tonight, I write from the ferry that is taking us from La Paz (not in Bolivia, La Paz in Baja California Sur) to Mazatlan on mainland Mexico. We have driven down most of Baja California, which is mainly a desert, with beautiful beaches on the way. Mexico is big, bigger than most of us think; Baja California is roughly 1’000 miles long, and it is only a tiny bit of Mexico. Baja California is hot at this time of the year, very hot. Some places are quite poor, but others have been nicely developed for the tourists coming from north of the border. There are check points monitored by the Mexican army at regular intervals. Sometimes our vehicle is searched, sometimes not. Most of the time the soldiers are very nice. One could not recognise my passport, despite the fact it is in five languages, including English; but not in Spanish. So I told him “Suiza” and he asked if I could speak “Suizo”, and I said yes. Going into details about the specificity of Switzerland would have been to complicated and unnecessary at that point. Cannot blame him for never having heard of Switzerland either. 
We also had our first flat tyre experience… fortunately, and because we have been very lucky during that trip so far, it did not happen in the middle of nowhere, but in the campground at La Paz… we were relaxing and sipping a beer when we heard this whistling sound that no one wants to hear coming from the back tyre… We looked and felt some air coming out… that was it, our first flat tyre. We asked the owners of the campground to call a mechanic and were told he would come in the morning. In the meantime, in order to keep the tyre in a good shape and to allow us to sleep comfortably, we put the van on the jack, with the help of some very nice Brazilians who are travelling from Brazil all the way to Alaska. Of course, we were a bit stressed, because we had to catch the ferry in the afternoon and did not know how long in would take to fix the tyre. The mechanic arrived at nine in the morning. He fixed everything in a little more than an hour, removing a long nail from the tyre; he had all the gear, tools and parts needed in his pick up truck. That was great and far less complicated than expected. 

So off we went to catch the ferry. We had to be there three hours before the departure at 5pm. This is the hottest part of the day, and it was indeed very hot waiting… We had made the booking online but could not get any cabin because they were all already booked. The ferry takes 18 hours to reach Mazatlan. We had two seats, air plane cattle class size in a crowded room with TV blaring at full blast. We sat at the bar crowded with truck drivers watching some movie for some time. At that point I was a bit down at the prospect of spending some many hours in such conditions. And then, the stroke of luck: some people did not show up and we got their cabin. So tonight we are comfortably sleeping in a spacious cabin for four, but just the two of us, with a view on the sea of Cortez, a proper bathroom and AC. This is such a bliss! The ferry starts to rock a bit now but we will be fine and rested tomorrow morning! Viva Mexico!