mexico – Page 2 – pmoroni.it

Mayan world

10 October 201718 September 2006 by moro

In the Yucatecan peninsula, every aspect of community life is influenced by Mayan culture. Although the strong presence of tourism, or maybe thanks to it, this feature suddenly appears very evident… and it will be more and more evident, travelling towards Chiapas and Guatemala. The ancient history of Mayas reflects itself not only on the impressive ruins, craftsmanship, flavorful cuisine, traditional clothes and dances, but also on the smiles and looks of the people we meet around, at the same time curious and ashamed. A history full of pride and love for freedom. The truth is that after 500 years of submission, Mayan people faces the chance to recover its dignity and consciousness of being carrier of an incredibly refined culture. Its power is demonstrated by the fact that a major part of population (inclusive young people) still speaks the native language. It is the best condition to guarantee the socio-cultural continuity of Mayan people, even though discriminations and conformation attempts are still going on.

Sometimes we feel Mexico is proud of its extraordinary cultural variety just to strengthen its touristic attraction, but it is not ready to completely accept the ethics of equality.

Tulum, Caribe!

10 October 201714 September 2006 by moro

After visiting the incredible archaeological site of Chichen Itza (where we saw the well-conserved pyramid of Kukulkan, which represents the Mayan calendar, and the “Gran juego de pelota”), finally we reached the Caribbean coast, by the village of Tulum. Far from being wild, this place showed us its best part with its paradisiac beaches: white sand, coconut trees and turquoise sea. Just what we were dreaming from a long time! Here we met a lot of people, above all local fishers and long-time travelers, and we shared with them lovely days and funny nights.

The most exciting experience has been to snorkel just over the coral reef: we had never seen so many colors and marine life, so many tropical fishes…

Yucatan: from the highlands to caribe

10 October 20179 September 2006 by moro

Arranged so quickly the consular issue, we restarted our nomadic travel: from Mexico City to Yucatan peninsula… after seeing the legendary volcano Popocatepetl (5500m of altitude), we went down from the highlands to the tropical jungle and we passed through the maritime cities of Villahermosa, Ciudad del Carmen and Campeche. The following morning we were already touching the hot waters of gulf of Mexico: a red sun, endless white-sandy beaches and a green forest, remembering us that we finally reached the land of Mayas… for the moment we are having a break in the Yucatecan city of Merida, but the Caribbean is too close now!

Mexico city and resistencia civil

10 October 20176 September 2006 by moro

We were fearing the contact with one of the biggest cities in the world, but we found an even welcoming metropolis. We will keep an unforgettable memory of a dramatically chaotic traffic… luckily we can enjoy kilometers of roads free of cars, thanks to the “bloqueos” organized by Lopez Obrador’s supporters. Basically they call for the recount of votes expressed by the people on July, 2. The pacific nature of this demonstration is particularly pleasant: thousands of people coming from any Mexican region are occupying the main streets of the city center (Zocalo and Avenida Paseo de la Reforma), trying to change the public opinion. To be honest, this target seems to be unreachable, but it’s a pleasure to see so many people, who believe in their ideas and endlessly organize concerts, film and documentary viewings, and any sort of artistic activity (murales, satire…).

Mexico city is a megalopolis extremely vivacious and dynamic, where all the tremendous contrasts of Latin America are clearly visible… society is based on hierarchies that mirror the skin colour: the most luxuriant quarters are surrounded by suburbs of huts, where water and electricity are still something for lucky people. But there’s no resignation, on the contrary a great willing to emerge through arts and creativity, that seem to find endless energies here.

Teotihuacan

10 October 20171 September 2006 by moro

The visit to one of the most impressive Mexican archaeological sites, it’s a very exciting moment for us. We admired the great pyramids (called Del Sol y De la Luna), which were built about 3000 years ago: their geometric perfection and symbolic nature, show the human desire to continuously exceed his own limits.

Nomadic people of the desert

10 October 201731 August 2006 by moro

Deserts have always been stimulating the human survival instinct and the development of complex and mysterious cultures. We are just learning to travel, but we suffered the fascinating attraction of drought, thirst and desperation, too… it’s not a challenge against nature, but much more: it’s the attempt to approach as much as possible the silence, the memories lost in time, the nomadic soul inhibited by a sedentary style of living. In the heart of northern Mexico many ethnic groups have been adapting to extreme conditions, developing complex cultures and nomadic habits to tame the strength of nature. Peoples like Seris (Pacific Coast), Tarahumara (western Sierra Madre) and Huichol (central Highlands), still live in isolated territories and maintain almost untouched their traditions. The most symbolic expression of them is a complex of rituals, chaired by a shaman, where the consumption of psychotropic substances, such as peyote, is fundamental. From the Mayas and Aztecs to the European domination and the North American mediatic invasion, no one has been successful in influencing those cultures. The history of its peoples represents the most mysterious and interesting side of America.

Zacatecas

10 October 201725 August 2006 by moro

Zacatecas is the most beautiful town we visited till now, something like an open-air museum full of churches, buildings and monuments. Unfortunately it’s sad to think that all that we saw it’s result of indigenous people’s sacrifice working in the mines. They enriched the old Spanish lords with gold, silver and anything else.

Here come many tourists, but after almost two months we are happy to meet travellers in order to share stories, experiences and some funny night… The market of Zacatecas is particularly big and coloured, developing along very small “calles”.

Another adventure in Durango

10 October 201719 August 2006 by moro

From the beaches of Mazatlan, our travel went on through the interior region of Mexico, along a very exciting trip. After passing luxuriant tropical forests, the road began to rise, following the heavy valleys of the Sierra Madre. Suddenly we came to an almost alpine landscape. A splendid picture of Mexican life, finally outside the city borders: children playing with animals in the yard and young woman washing clothes or selling delicious hand-made tamales.

We are now on the Central Altiplano and it seems a place completely different from the north-western Mexico. Durango, situated at 2000 metres of altitude, is a cool and pleasant city to be visited walking along its streets in the historic centre, around Plaza de Armas.

Mazatlan and Mexican friends

10 October 201717 August 2006 by moro

During the last few days we are making strange encounters… it can happen while we walk along the streets, while we seat down at a restaurant or while we drink a beer, but the strategy is unfailing: we just wait for someone approaching us! The rest is in the hands of the Mexican colorful behavior. Preferably our friends are in couple, but there are no rules of age, sex or social condition; they are always good drinkers of Tecate or Modelo (popular Mexican beers),. Everytime it sounds like we find long-term friends, who make us feel completely relaxed: questions result more and more frequent and personal, but so natural that they are never fastidious. When we see that the issue “Italy” (and relative salaries) becomes the main one, we try to put again the discussion on exotic themes. Successively, following a typical Mexican social scheme, a disturbing element arises to definitely brake the atmosphere of complicity.

Even if these experiences generally last the short time of a night, we know that only the people met in this way will colour our travel of memories and funny stories. And Mexico seems to be very, very promising in this direction.

From Alamos to Mazatlan

10 October 201712 August 2006 by moro

Alamos is a picturesque town, a labyrinth of streets and Andalusian-styled houses, linking to a colonial past… as frequently happens in Latin America, their inhabitants take advantage of the beautifulness of the place (which was a mining center) to host travellers in their own apartments or, as they are called, “casas particulares”. After a short stay in Alamos, our nomadic travel started again following more or less chance stages. We went along the coast as far as Los Mochis, where we waited for the train to Copper Canyon (Barranca del Cobre), but we definitely lost it. Finally we decided to take a bus to Mazatlan, where we are still now. It is a port city with a sandy beach, nothing unforgettable. The Tropic of Cancer line is a few kilometers north from us: from now on, we’ll travel in the tropical region!