The second part of our time in Mexico was spent with Yolanda and Murray Bindon who spend half their time there, and half in NZ. For non-Hamiltonians, Murray is a retired lawyer and occasional adventurer, and Yolanda is his lovely Mexican wife. They met on some enchanted evening, across a crowded room, on a boat on a big river in China. It’s a good story but this is not the place. At present Murray is using crutches because of a medical adventure, not because of anything exciting like abandoning a burning yacht in the middle of the Pacific which he did a few years ago.
Our time together started in Los Mochis on the north west coast, which we bused to and they flew in from Mexico City. There was initial situational confusion about meeting up but it didn’t last long, and we arrived at a restaurant in time to help drink Yolanda’s birthday bubbly. This was the start of an exceptional four day tour of the Copper Canyon. If you have never heard of it look it up. It makes the Grand Canyon look like a cool baby. And not only is it a huge spectacular geographical wonder, it comes with a special cultural ingredient. These are the Tarahumana people, who ended up living in this difficult to enter place to escape from persecution. You may have heard of people from Mexico who are the world’s best ultra-distance runners, they are the Tarahumana. Gustavo, our really excellent guide, is only part Tarahumana, but is/was one of these crazy guys who run nonstop up to 100ks on rough mountain tracks. They run up and down heights of over 2000m wearing homemade sandals, don’t do special training, have communal drinking parties before starting and it’s just part of their existence. There’s a book called Born to Run that tells you more. Their isolation has changed with tourism and roads being built, but they still have an arms -length existence with government. From what we saw their agriculture is pretty much for their subsistence, and selling their hand-made stuff to tourists is the main money making endeavour. Wherever tourists might stop they have little stalls, and in the major tourist stops there are almost too many. The government built a big marketplace building in one area which has never been used. Partly because they didn’t find out what the locals really wanted, and partly because it was built by the very people, in their opinion, who chased them into the canyon. There are other examples like that one. A train line goes through this area and at times goes very close to a part of the canyon. It is one of the more interesting train rides in the world. ( You could call it iconic, but if ever a word has suffered from overuse it is that one.) On the first day we went up to the Canyon area on it. The best part was leaning out an open window at the end of the carriage, right beside a sign saying the window must not be opened or leaned out. For the rest of the tour Gustavo drove us. Some of the places we went with him were more than a bit scary. Murray would be the first to admit he doesn’t like being too adjacent to big drops, and Yolanda is much the same. Kay seems impervious to such things and I am ok if there is something seemingly well anchored to hold on to. So Gustavo got plenty of on the spot guidance from some of us in the tricky bits of driving just above 1000m cliffs, and once from all four of us when he seemingly backed right to the edge when turning around. He showed me there was really nothing to worry about when we got out, as the tyre tracks ended about half a metre from the point of no return. I think in his quiet and very nice way he enjoyed that and probably had done it many times before.
There are about 200 canyons in this whole complex and it covers a huge area. We saw a great deal more than most tourists would and that was only a small part of it. It qualifies as one of the more interesting places I have been.
We ended up in Chihuahua, yes, the same name as the stupid little dogs, and then flew to Mexico City. We were on a buget airline which doesn’t hand out boarding passes because you can print them out or show them on your phone. We didn’t have access to a printer so I pioneered the phone approach. The documents came as a pdf and I have never known where they end up on my phone after being looked at. I carefully kept them in a sort of limbo and proudly showed them at the two checks into the final departure area. Then when needed, for boarding, they disappeared to the unknown place. The wifi there was useless and wouldn’t let the airline website reproduce the thing and I was saved by a savvy local who used her app of the airline. Lesson learnt, and I now have the apps of the next four airlines. I also fluked finding the stupid pdf, along with a great many more, the next day. But much more exciting was watching Yolanda at check-in, when she was advised one of their bookings did not include luggage and was to cost another $100 to rectify. Talk about latin temperament. Luckily the line behind them did not include anyone with a gun because it took quite a while before payment was made.
Not long after we arrived in the Bindon’s Mexico City apartment I tried to open a louvre window in our bathroom. It did a funny click and broke a piece off one louvre. Good start I thought, and then went to confess. It was no problema because there was a place over the road to get a replacement. This road was originally the main road through a village, and although the village has been hoovered up by the city it still has lots of little retailers covering most things needed. The glass place was there and my rudimentary Spanish resulted in an exact replacement for $NZ4. I also found my way to the man under a plastic sheet cover who squeezes orange juice for about $3 a litre. I do enjoy being in places like this country where if you don’t help yourself you will find it hard to eat. What I like is seeing the myriad of ways people are trying to make a dollar – juggling or gymnastics at intersections, little streetside bbqs, the parking “helpers”, up to restaurants on the footpath and road with tables, and the guy who sets up by the entrance to the apartment on weekends selling roast lamb tacos. A couple of years ago he turned up in a brand new red Ford pickup. That caused some local wonderment.
We did a few fun things in the city. One was punting at Xocomilco on the old canals left from Aztec times. This probably conjures up pictures of peaceful gliding along the water in your mind, but it was one of the most chaotic and noisy activities I have ever tried. You hire the very colourful punt which is about 10mx2m with the punter and his long bamboo pole. We only had 4 on ours but others seemed to be up to 20, along with plenty of beer and tequila, and there were a hell of a lot of others. It was like dodgems on water and bashing into other punts was all part of the excitement. Filling the small gaps were little punts selling food and other enticing stuff, and then there were the mariachi bands on their punts who could pull alongside and for a fee make a lot of noise. Our man had apparently fallen in the water 3 times in his career.
We also did a road trip north for five nights, two each in the beautiful old colonial towns of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato. The first is named after a leader of the revolution of 1810 against the Spaniards and like most of the other leaders he got executed, but they are now much revered. It is a lovely place with the requisite plaza and old churches and plenty of nice things for tourists. Guanajuato is the same but with differences. As we drove in we went through a seeming labyrinth of road tunnels most of which had cars parked along one side. It’s a hilly place and the book says these tunnels were underground rivers. This approach caused a us fair amount of concern, but eventually we popped out above ground not far from our hotel on a thin oneway street with no parking. So it was pull up and whip out the luggage so the car could go on to a distant parking place. This city has a population of 160,000 of which 20,000 are students so the centre of town is very lively at night. It was fun just being there, especially the bit where you join a group, lead by moonlighting student, to walk around parts of the town with a noisy mariachi band leading the way.
Yolanda was the driver and Murray had the phone with the directions. Yolanda had no faith in the lady who says where to go and Murray was very patient. On the first day she stopped to ask for directions three times, and each time the lady hiding in the phone was correct. So Yolanda seemed to accept the possibility that there might be something useful in the instructions . But on the second day the lady made an obvious error and we were back to disbelief. The following day Murray admitted he has mispelt the destination the day before and the pendulum swung back a bit. Overall it was probably a draw, but subsequent driving in Mexico City seemed to indicate that the lady was gaining acceptance.
We covered a fair amount ground and two things impressed me. Firstly the scale of industry we saw, from petrochemicals to vehicle parts and lots of huge buildings with no signs. Secondly, the extent and intensity of the agriculture. Maize, or corn, is the big one which is not surprising given the local diet. This is not a country of people sitting around under sombreros. These people know how to work.
At present there is a great detail of uncertainty about the future. Late last year a seemingly socialist President was elected, changing the polical scene completely. His name is Obrador and he has promised lots of things apart from stopping corruption and decreasing violence. The old political class never did too much about the very obvious inequality in Mexico and it is hard to see how the change should have been a surprise to the locals. Those with money and businesses are more than a little concerned about the future, and it seems that investment is not happening while there is this uncertainty. I will be watching with interest.
Is Mexico safe? The murder statistics are awful, but they largely relate to drug cartels being splintered by the removal of leaders and the consequences of the turf wars that follow. These gangs have the money to recruit militias better armed than the police and to buy off just about anyone. It’s all down to drug demand from USA and it is hard to see anything changing that, apart from legalisation of all drugs in the USA. Which is probably a while away. In the mean time Mexico is 23rd on a list of murders per head of population according to a list I just looked at, and it has 7 out of the top 20 most murderous cities in the world . We saw nothing of this. What we found were polite and considerate people who are very welcoming. It’s like anywhere – if you want trouble it’s not hard to find. Actually this country appears to have always been a place with a streak of violence, as shown in the many murals in museums and other public buildings that illustrate the history of Mexico. Most of the scenes seem to show someone being killed in a lurid way.
Finally, there is some very drinkable wine made in Mexico.
Adios.
Dennis