mexico, final thoughts...
what a country. huge! we've spent nearly 8 weeks and covered some 4,500 miles but barely feel like we've touched the surface. the diversity is amazing - tropical jungles to barren deserts to endless beautiful beaches. the best roads in the world to the worst. amongst the worlds richest people to the poorest. 8 main languages and dozens of dialects.
mexico feels very much like a country in transition. a country with first world aspirations but struggling to get there. especially in the south-eastern states, it seems the general population has given up on what they see as ineffective and corrupt government, still very much under the influence of the three drug cartels. Talking to people reveals a deep anti-capitalist/NAFTA/globalisation sentiment - it is a smokescreen of democracy, they tell us. driving through dirt tracks in the states of chiapas and oaxaca, the motionless expressions of men who sit in the shade staring at us as we pass by tell of a hard life. chiselled from hard work, their faces are wrinkled and tired, and their eyes show desperation and disillusionment in a government which, according to the ubiquitous billboards promoting candidates for next year's general election, promises so much, but clearly delivers so little.
in the trendy bars and restaurants of condesa and la zona rosa in mexico city, the mestizo youth are self assured, fashionable and educated and couldn't be more different from the indians we've seen in the villages of chiapas and oaxaca. currently 7% of mexicans declare themselves indian and have chosen an indigenous language instead of spanish. these people belong to a world not dissimilar from prehispanic mexico, living it tightly knit villages which prioritise the community above the individual and which still follow traditions thousands of years old. these indians may be baptised catholics but their religion has nothing to do with the pope. when the spanish came, the church was the provider of social services and education and non-catholics were persecuted, so to survive the indians adopted a facade of catholicism. we witnessed rituals performed in their churches involving chickens and shamen. the gods they worship behind the icons of catholic saints are their own gods. we visited one village on the day they were celebrating san lorenzo, that saint chosen because its saints day falls nearest to when they would have celebrated their own festival before the spanish arrived. the crosses in their churches and in their graveyards do not represent the crucifix of christ, but the tree of thw world - a commonly used mayan symbol. one village we visited had its own elected spiritual leaders and village chiefs - who assigned criminals the roles of policeman. amazing that we've seen so much cultural variety without yet having crossed a border.
the term 'stylo mexicano' has stuck with us. used by a mechanic in baja california, he was referring to the makeshift tools he used to remove the large nut in wheel hub which was leaking oil. he didn't have the genuine toyota tools, but he was getting by with what he had and i interpret the term stylo mexicano as 'fudging it'. every man was a mechanic and every mechanic claimed to know what was the problem but seemed incapable of fixing it. five doctors have diagnosed exactly what the problem with mg's hand is and prodded and poked and sewed and strapped it up, but none have been able to fix it until now. the fireworks display in oaxaca which launched into the crowd, our trip on the turtle boat and the venomous snake, e-j going for a leg wax but the shop running out of wax after one leg (!), are a few examples of a country which, unless you are paying top dollar, doesn't seem to do anything professionally but gets by with what it's got in a way it can.
certainly a country of surprises, and invariably good ones. the number of times we've been reluctant to leave a place until arriving at our next destination. the people are generally friendly and random eye contact is customarily followed by a smile. we've had the luxury of staying in air-conditioned suites as well as sharing rooms with cockroaches but looking back we've enjoyed every moment. (especially the air-conditioned suites)
bring on guatemala!
ps and for our next update... please download and install google earth, as some photos will be linked to it