Our preference when travelling is to make just a few plans, and alter as needed depending on circumstances. Sometimes that works well. Sometimes that leads to the unexpected. We’d meant to stay in Mexico City for three or four days before heading onwards, but we didn’t book a hotel for all of those nights ahead of time. As it turns out, every moderately-priced hotel near to the Centro is sold out tonight because of a large baseball-themed event happening in the Zocalo. Rather than shifting to a different hotel further from the centre, we decided today just to leave Mexico City.
So here I am, writing my first blog entry of our trip on an ADO bus headed towards Heroica Veracruz. It’s been at least 15 years since we’ve taken a long distance bus in Mexico, but not much has changed. The buses are still frequent and comfortable. There’s still a video playing for the benefit of the entire bus (go Aquaman!), but there is one improvement: the volume of the audio is much lower than I remember. It's not blasting my eardrums. In fact, the movie's soundtrack is so quiet that I can simultaneously enjoy the mariachi music the bus driver is playing.
I am a little sorry to be leaving Mexico City after a single day. Mexico City is an amazing place, full of history, culture, and impressive architecture and art.
But yesterday exhausted us. After 3 years of pandemic, it’s tiring to be in huge crowds – and the population of Mexico City is about 9 million. The sidewalks were crowded everywhere. This shot of a pedestrianized street unfortunately doesn't really show the density of people wandering about on a Wednesday afternoon. It was a lot.
It also didn't help that we were operating on only 5 hours of sleep in a language that we speak in only the most fractured way.
So, on to Veracruz. Harvey managed to find a half-day kayaking trip in a mangrove swamp south of Veracruz City for Saturday, and on Sunday we’re doing a pre-booked birding trip to an ecotourism site to the North. Let’s see what happens.
Spoiler: what happened was we had a lovely time kayaking with Francisco in La Mandinga on Saturday, then spent a very pleasant morning with Raphael and Enrique at La Mancha and Cempoala. We added a few birds to our life list both days and very much enjoyed our guides' company.
ReplyDeleteSo jealous of swamp kayaking!!!! I don't know why but I love love love wetlands and the idea of kayaking through one fills me with joy.
ReplyDeleteIt was really lovely. Our guide picked us up at 6am, and we hit the water about 6:40am. The water was perfectly still, and it was so quiet and peaceful.
DeleteI appreciate all of this, and yet the part that has stuck with me the most is the bus drive across Mexico watching Aquaman set to mariachi music. As an aficionado of super hero movies I've considered at length which ones would be improved by mariachi music, and the top one that comes to mind is always _Avengers: Infinity War_. _Aquaman_ I would have tied at third with _Thor: The Dark World_.
ReplyDeleteAll of them are improved with the audience operating on only five hours of sleep.
My son recently steered me towards an improved collection of super hero movie blooper reels. For context, he has listened to Uptown Funk twice a day for the last seven years. It's one of his few favourites not related to Muppets. One day he found this on YouTube. I believe whoever put this together for a film school editing project has a bright future and lots of talent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlr082xfz8c&ab_channel=ALCHEMY
That Uptown Funk blooper reel is really something! My thanks to your son for the discovery. I agree that the creator shows talent.
DeleteIf only I had a contact at ADO (Autobuses de Oriente). I could pass along your expert seal of approval for the musical accompaniment to Aquaman. :-)