Solotravel - Adham's Blog

AdhaMexiCovid 06: The Magnificent Cañon del Sumidero

Saturday 20.02.2021
No rain today, so it is the Cañon tour day. The bus collected the guests from different hotel and we had a bit more than an hour ride. The group was an interesting mix. I spent the way talking to Jenny from Switzerland, Agnieszka from Poland and Harold from Sweden. We arrived to a small port where we took a small motor boat with a guide and we set in the river in the canyon for around two hours.It was a magnificent natural formation of two mountain chains separated by a river. You feel hugged but also very small and vulnerable. We are small and insignificant. Oscar our guide stopped in different sides to show us crocodiles, monkeys and stone formations. With strong wind against our faces and somehow cloudy sky, I was immersed in imprining the view in my memory. Since I also have trust issues with my memory, I took a couple of photos.

Here is also a video from Youtube of a drone-video of the Canyon

Canyon de Sumidero

I thought about all these years I have not seen such a wonder. First, I didn’t know where such things exist. I also didn’t know how expensive it is to get there. This is why I would like to share with you a simple plan to experience this. First you need a flight to Mexico. Either to Mexico City or to Cancun. From Europe the flights are very cheap currently. For between 300 and 400 Euros. Then take another flight to Tuxtla. Could be around 40 euros. Then get a couple of nights in a hotel or a hostel. You can easily manage with 10 to 20 Euros per night. The tour itself including the transportation, the boat and the guide would cost around 15 euros. When your eyes are happy, satisfy your taste buds with delicious tacos for between 2 – 4 euros. I think such a trip combined with all the things you can experience in this great country is something for the bucket list.

***

After the tour I detached from the group and took a taxi to the airport to fly to Cancun. In Cancun, I spend some time having action with taxi drivers that tried to rip me off. I was pretty pissed off when I went to my very cheap hotel. The hotel was so basic that they didn’t even have a lift. The poor room service lady had to push the cleaning cart on a very long ramp between the floors. I was glad that I didn’t have to do this.
I went to bed early that night. The next day, Sunday, I will reunite with Marika who has discovered Merida on her own and will meet me tomorrow.

AdhaMexiCovid 05: Lovely People in San Cristóbal

Thursday 18.02.2021

I flew in the morning to Tuxtla Gutierrez with a layover in Mexico City. I didn’t visit Tuxtla but rather took a direct microbus to San Cristóbal de las Casas, an old city with colonial flair and cubblestone roads.
The one-hour drive there was curvy through beautiful mountains. Nature is gradually changing from hot desert to more green and forests. I was adviced to visit it by some friends due to its nice atmosphere. It reminds me of Risihkesh, India and slightly of Bali, Indonesia. It has the most number of tourists I saw so far. Besides, it is full of hippies, barefeet white guys and girls who have rasta hair, probably vegan and give you the impression that shower is not accessible. I have the feeling we have very little in common and often think it is a reaction to growing up in previleged societies. I rarely see this from people who were once forced into minimalism by poverty.

The town is colourful and like many places in Mexico abundant of beautiful corners. This is a nation that likes colours and making things look nice.

Looks like Cuba but it is Mexico I have never been to Cuba anyway

In the evening, I met Ivar, a local couchsurfer who took me for a walk around San Cristobal. Ivar was very interesting. He studies his Masters studying obesity in Indiginous communities and its relationship with gut flora. He hosts couchsurfers to be able to see the world untill he manges to travel outside of Mexico. Well, talking about our experiences in couchsurfing, we figure out that he hosted my friend Nenad. Nenad seems to be everywhere. We met first in Venice in 2010 and then he hosted me in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2014 and finally in Quito, Ecuador in 2019. He has been travelling the world for years and everywhere I go, i find his footprints somehow. You can read about our encounter in Jakarta here.

I have planned a visit to the Sumidero Canyon for tomorrow. It is supposed to be a marvel of nature and a must visit while in Chiapas.

****

Friday 19.02.2021

Eggs with mushrooms, toast and marmelade for breakfast. With eggs they always serve you some hot sauce. They also typically eat enchiladas for breakfast. I have no idea how they can tolerate such spicy sauces in the morning. I tasted with caution thinking about later consequences.

A morning walk at 8:00 am is always peaceful. It is dropping very small drops of rain making it in general a very pleasant atmosphere. I went back to the hotel to get to know that the Canyon tour was cancelled because of the weather. I didn’t have plan B. So Marika recommended I take a cooking class. Which I was lucky enough to find in the same day. I booked “cooking with Sofia” experience on Airbnb for the afternoon. Till then I went around the streets strolling and looking for inspiration.

Sofia welcomed me in her kitchen in her cafe/workshop place. Over two hours, she guided me in a culinary trip on preparing chicken tacos as well as her recipes for guacamole and smoked sauce. We cut the ingredients together and she gave me tips on how to choose different ingredients and how to chop or prepare them. Between the steps we exchanged some thoughts and conversations about our lives. She is a very energetic and kind person with passion for food and connecting with people. She also introduces me to pinolillo, a drink based on corn and cocoa. The evening was both enriching and entertaining.

Afterwards I went to meet Blanca and her boyfriend Marco. Blanca is a friend of my friend Aldo and he connected us today. She is a local who loved more than half of her life abroad and now working on a project building a house and hoping to sell it. She is doing it herself. Hiring workers, electricians etc. and telling the what to do. Well, she is originally a psychologist and has a PhD in history. While Marco her boyfriend is Italian who arrived here 9 years ago after other 10 years in London. He opened a coffee shop and also fixes coffee machines and gives Barista courses. We had a few drinks while we got to know each other. Lovely people with kind hearts. We discussed a lot about the pandemic and how each of us coped with it. I believe we have the conclusion that life somehow needs to go on.

Life is a journey where we breath, eat, move and do other things that make us human like love, connect and interact. I see no beauty in extending life per se without all the beautiful things that we can experience in it. What is the point of having a society eating, sleeping and breathing but having no pleasure, no movement and no experiences? A short full life is in my opinion superior to a long boring and depressing life.

AdhaMexiCovid 04: Tales from Oaxaca

Tuesday 17.02.2021.. time flies..
It is exactly 8:00 am and I am waiting in a parking lot for my carsharing ride. Joel was a bit late but he was nice. We both waited for the third passenger. Imagine this with me. A car with a couple came. The guy cmae first with the luggage while the girl stayed in the car. It seemed like masculine announcement of possession! Then he went back to the car to bring his lady, opened the door for her, she stepped off, and after a few steps walking together, he went on his knees to tie her shoes!! I am not sure if this is an act of gentlemanhood or if he simply didn’t want her to bend in public. I understand both motives, in a world where both being a gentleman /a proper lady are forgotten arts of living.

Four hours of driving in the desert among mountains, hills and valleys covered with dispersed cactus trees. Then we were in Oaxaca. The trip was paused here to watch the champions league games. I had both games playing simultaneously on two screens while I enjoyed a typical Oaxaqueño lunch. My afternoon was chilled afterwards. I met Chris from Couchsurfing. A half french, half finnish born in Sweden. He has been traveling Mexico for a year. We spend a few hours around the city eating mediocre cake, tasty street food and looking for some night-time action. We had no luck. Who parties on Tuesday?? Nobody in Oaxaca!

Wednesday 18.02.2021

Given the slow pandemic life, I decided to go with a guided tour, hoping to learn a thing or two, see a thing or two, and talk with person or two. It was evident from the beginning that I was the only non spanish-speaker. Our young guide was repeating everything in a bad English for me. I actually understood the same amount if he spoke English or Spanish. I told him to just go on in Spanish and I will be happy with whatever I get.
Our first stop was Monte Albany. A historical site with ruins dating around 300 BC. The ruins are not really magnificent in themselves. For me the stories around them are more interesting. I drifted with my imagination to how the normal life was in these times. Not hero’s or history makers. Just he regular hi!and like you and me who love, hate, fear and hope.

“Dear Rosa

I am sad I had to leave you in the small pyramid after our last kiss on the monkey day. I am even sadder that this might be our last kiss in case I win the flaming ball game tomorrow. As you know, it is a decisive game. If we win, we will be honored and sacrificed to the gods by our tribe. We will then be Immortal in the next life. If we lose, we will be enslaved by the opponents. It would be a shame. My heart, eternally loving you, is now ready to be placed on the sacred golden plate.
In either case, in glory or in chains, I love you till my last breath.

Yours, always,
Antonio”

***

The day included visits to a pottery workshops, a carpet workshop and a fabrique for Mezcal, a typical alcoholic beverage. I have been to similar workshops in many countries so my day in this aspect was not remarkable. Here and there I socialized with the group.specizlly a Columbian couple who lived in Austria and speaks German and a Chilean couple who happened to be doctors as well. For lunch we stopped at a local buffet for typical food. Giovanni told me he also does not eat pork because he gets an allergic reaction from it. We both ordered the same beef soup. It was delicious but I doubted that the pieces of fat swimming there might be pork fat. I just finished my soup and didn’t give the matter much attention. When we left the restaurant, Giovanni reacted allergically with red spots on his skin! My doubts were confirmed.

We also so a hug tree that is around 40m wide and also a similar height. Estimated to be 2000 years old, It is not the biggest, neither the oldest in the world. Still magnificent.

I concluded the day with a fine dinner in Zandunga restaurant. The consistency of the chicken was unmatchable in my experience. I felt peaceful and content. Tomorrow I fly to Chiapas!

AdhaMexiCovid 01: Resumption

I woke up tired after a long shift yesterday.. quickly packed my tiny backpack and headed to get an antigen COVID test before my flight.
Despite all the lockdowns, the restrictions and the blanket of sadness that has descended upon us, I have decided to travel again. It is dangerous indeed. It might be slightly irresponsible. But what is life without living? I guess this last sentence summarizes many of my opinions, also my advices to my patients.
I write these words on my first leg flight to Mexico. A new adventure I am very much looking forward to. I promised myself to indulge it into pleasures of the taste without counting calories.. I would like to re-establish my forgotten relationship with the sun.. and I hope to be enriched by meaningful encounters with special people.
For this trip, I have very few plans for two weeks. The first week I will be on my own discovering what life throws in my direction. The second week I will be joined by my beautiful and special lady Marika. Having received some insider travel tips from my good friend Aldo, I am excited.

Having fullfilled the requirements of the transit in Amsterdam ( 2 negative COVID Tests; one PCR within the last 72 hours and one negative antigen test within the last 4 hours), It is comforting to know that all co-passengers are probably COVID-free. It is impressive how we adapted to this new shitty situation to the degree that we forgot how normal life looked like. I bet you are like me feeling strange when you see a movie and two people come too close face to face, or shake hands. Anyway, I am going to get a taste of another aspect of life in the pandemic, traveling.

Long flights are boring. I would always prefer many connections rather than one long flight, even though it imposes a higher risk of missing a connection. At least I would move more and have more input.
I landed in Mexico City Airport. Crossing the immigration control was smooth and friendly and ended with “welcome in Mexico” from the officer. Me being a holder of an Egyptian passport, it’s not trivial to move between countries.
The airport and the metro stations were very clean. I don’t know why this is surprising.. I guess in this trip as well I would be confronting my prejudices.
The two metro stations that I saw were interesting. One was almost an exhibition about space, physics, history of the humanity and origin of the universe. They even had multiple diagram explaining the LHC and Higgs boson. The other station had a lot of art paintings and photography of graffitis. The people in the metro seemed to be regular tired citizens. Looking at their hands you could see they had manual jobs. In Arabic we say “Time has eaten and drank on him” or some like this. Which means he has undergone many time- and weather induced transformations, increasing entropy

So that the regular guy understands physics

I went directly to the hotel hoping for a moderate jetlag and not having to try pills. Tomorrow I will think about a plan for tomorrow. Good night for me, morning for most of you.