EPISODE 12: (TOURING IN MEXICO-FINAL PART): HEADING TOWARDS "LA MEXICANA"
EPISODE 12: (TOURING IN MEXICO-FINAL PART): HEADING TOWARDS "LA MEXICANA"
In Cuernavaca, the "City of Eternal Spring" and capital of Morelos VINYL MINT visited the Palace of Cortes to see a fresco, the so called "History of Morelos, Conquest and Revolution", painted by Diego Rivera.
The State of Morelos is known for the revolutionary actions of Emiliano Zapata and his supporters under the motto "Tierra y Libertad". The main thing that VINYL MINT kept in her mind after digging into the history of Morelos was a quote attributed to Zapata "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir de rodillas"...
Afterwards VINYL MINT went to Puebla, a beautiful city built on an area which was called Cuetlaxcoapan that means in Nahuatl "the place where snakes change their skin". Puebla has many colonial buildings of architectural interest but what at the end caught Vinyl Mint's attention was a street artist with ethereal and exotic beauty who played a KISS cover in guitar.
The street artists that she had seen in Greece before were mainly what she called "beach guitarists" who had nothing to do with hard rock or metal. The beach guitarist is the plague of the Greek-non-organized beach, a pretentious guy with a classical guitar who plays 3 chords in a simple tempo or a sensitive melody while singing cloying lyrics around the Fire at a beach on a starry night surrounded by a bunch of women who are touched by his zero talent. Luckily, that species is slowly starting to be considered as endangered from the moment that women grabbed the guitar and learnt how to shred.
...It was time for a spectacular longlasting route by bus to start, so VINYL MINT put on her headphones in order to admire the dry landscapes full of huge cacti and agaves, while listening to old, good Mexican Heavy Metal...
After many hours on the road VINYL MINT finally reached Oaxaca. Oaxaca is a beautiful town where someone can find stores with exceptional works of Art and great places in order to taste high quality Mexican cuisine and of course the famous dish mole oaxaqueno. VINYL MINT and the METAL MISSIONARY visited the local market where they tasted oaxaca's string cheese "quesillo", tasajos, salchichas, chapulines, chicatanas, maguey worms and the most delicious cocoa ever.
The next day VINYL MINT visited Monte Alban, the economic and religious center of the Zapotec civilization, an impressive archeological site with temples, plazas, tombs,..., all of them structures unveiling the Zapotecs' evolved engineering skills.
Afterwards she went to El Tule to see "el Arbol del Tule", a Montezuma Cypress with the stoutest tree trunk in the world.
Noon found VINYL MINT in Teotitlan del Valle, a small village in the foothills of the Sierra Juárez mountains. She supposed that it was siesta time because there were no people on the streets of this village, except from 2 slowly walking old grandmas , and there was an embarassing silence everywhere. She mainly could see stores with traditional textiles and rugs. That moment VINYL MINT realized that as they were heading to the southern parts of Mexico, the trip was turning into a clearly traditional and cultural experience without any chances to find any more Metal. As soon as she accepted that any possible "metal" part of the trip was over for sure, she suddenly listened to a Malmsteen-like guitar solo coming from far away while she was walking on the empty streets. Was it an illusion due to the very hot weather? Was it the withdrawal syndrome? She tried to follow that sound which was getting louder and louder. She found out that the music was coming from a huge speaker standing outside an ice cream shop and the song that she was listening in extremely high volume was by the Argentinian band Rata Blanca. She went to the shop to meet the metalhead who had put the music but nobody was in there. She got disappointed that she could not meet the mysterious metalhead who gives life to his village through his great musical options but she took a photo of the shop just to remember that a metalhead can be found even at the most impossible places.
Heading to Hierve el Agua, VINYL MINT noticed the outdoor stands of a local mezcal producer next to a mezcal distillery. What caught her attention were the bottles of mezcal that had scorpions, or tarantula spiders, or even snakes in them.
Hierve el Agua is an impressive set of natural rock formations. Except from the waterfall-like stone formations, at the same region there are mineral springs with great view at the valley and the surrounding mountains. That was a sacred place for the Zapotecs, who used the water for irrigation or in rituals.
The next station was Sumidero Canyon in the State of Chiapas. VINYL MINT enjoyed the Grijalva river with the crocodiles and the monkeys jumping around but really got disappointed because of the huge amounts of garbage that were floating on a large area of the water's surface maybe due to the massive touristic invasion.
After a stop at Zinacantan, a village of Tzotzil Maya known for the production of traditional textiles, VINYL MINT visited the village San Juan Chamula where she watched a cleansing ritual, part of the Tzotzil Maya culture. Highlight moment of the ritual was a shaman passing an alive chicken over the head of the "ill" person in order to expel the negative energy and afterwards the consumption of a local alcoholic drink, the so called "posh" which caused burping and through the burping the evil spirits were also expelled. VINYL MINT was told that within the framework of modernization the traditional posh is often replaced by the most famous worldwide beverage, as the shamans noticed that it causes a deeper burping and therefore it is more effective in evil-spirit-expelling... The day ended with a walk in San Cristobal de las Casas.
In the State of Tabasco VINYL MINT visited the Parque Museo La Venta where she saw Olmec sculptures such as the famous Olmec Heads standing in a zoo area with Jaguars and other native animals.
One of the most impressive archeological areas of the Mayan Culture in the State of Chiapas was Palenque. Palenque was evolved into a powerful political, religious and cultural center mainly under the reign of the Mayan King Pakal the Great.
After Palenque VINYL MINT visited Agua Azul, a beautiful area full of waterfalls and natural lakes within a tropical forest and later the Misol-Ha Waterfall.
The next destination was the City of Campeche built on the shore of the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico. Like other by-the-sea-built cities the city retains the walls that were built for protection against the frequent pirate-attacks.
After the amazing archeological site of Uxmal, the economy, political and religious area of Puuc,
with exceptional architectural details on the structures such as the masks of the God of Rain Chaak, VINYL MINT went to Merida, the capital of Yucatan State. The city of Merida was built on an old Mayan area and the remains of the Mayan old structures were used as building materials of some of the today's colonial buildings. What caught VINYL MINT'S attention during her walk in Merida was a pure street rocker who kicked ass with his guitar...
Later in the Mayan archeological site of Chichen Itza VINYL MINT admired El Castillo, El Caracol, the "Gran Juego de Pelota", the "Templo de los Guerreros" and the Sacred Cenote, a natural water hole that was used for rituals and sacrifices.
The last destination was Tulum. VINYL MINT couldn't resist the blue-green colors of the Caribbean Sea, so she quickly stripped and jumped into the warm water.
It was the perfect way for the tour in Mexico to end after having tasted unique cultural experiences. What she enjoyed the most in this country was the friendly, nice and openhearted behavior of the Mexican people. She already knew that one day she would return for sure to Mexico...
As she was enjoying the waves during a sudden rainy storm, the METAL MISSIONARY appeared in front of her together with a Mexican Girl drinking a jalapeño Margarita. The Mexican Girl had shiny dark long hair and beautiful exotic eyes and such an attractive appearance that everyone on the beach turned their gaze at her : "Hola Vinyl Mint! Soy la Mexicana...Estas lista para los Estados Unidos?...Lleva tu pasaporte y vamonos..."
(...to be continued...)