Back to Mexico

As I've mentioned my last time to this part of the world ended poorly. After a serious dose of radiation at the lake I got sun poisoning (something I had never heard of) which seriously knocked me out.  I painfully followed through with the next few days of my trip as the burn got worse, eventually leading me to a Mexican hospital in San Cristobal De las Casas.  

I'm in San Cristobal de las Casas. 

After a very restless hostel sleep last night I woke up super early and caught a shuttle for the Mexican border. The shuttle wound around the lake, and stopped briefly in Xela (where I will hopefully spend a day or two on the way back). 

As we got further and further into the Guatemalan highlands, the winding curves and tiny colorful towns reminded me of the last time I was there. I remember an almost hallucinatory experience, completely nauseous and hoping around each bend we would  finally stop. I thought it was car sickness mixed perhaps with altitude sickness... I didn't know the sun could poison you. 

This time I watched as the hills grew larger,  turning into a mountain chain instead of a series of volcano points. It reminded me at first of the Andes, the vast wall of slopes covered in various types of vegetation.

As we drove, memories played out in my mind. I remembered accurately the Guatemalan border area, the plateau street with shops on either side. I remembered it being lively, and extrnely hot, and today was the same...but the Mexican side didn't hit me till I got there and remembered at the time how desperate I was for a bathroom.

How I worried people would think I was on drugs. How I was fading in and out of full consciousness, desperate to sleep and to ease the nausea. 

When in Mexico, the roads smoothed out and I must have slept because I didn't remember the countryside. 

The mountain towns that in there wood and cement block construction look more and more like the monotone desert towns of Mexico rather than the coastal lively colorful ones. 

The farms inbetween pine forest covered hills, the ewes and Rams running around. 

The turkeys and chickens and the life style that paints images of the black hills or the Appalachians in my mind. 

I remembered accurately the many military bases, the clean smooth facades, sometimes in the middle of a forest and at other times like malls on cleared suburban looking cement. 

As we approached San Cristobal I got excited. Things started to look familiar  in a really intense way.  I   Remembered the feeling of desperation. Of wanting to see everything and knowing I couldn't. It's a beautiful city and I was confined by immobile feet, so I pushed myself, straining through an ever present pain, a gritting, a streaking, a on the verge of tears kind of pain.  I remember the pain almost enhanced the magic of the place. It was a colonial city like Antigua which at the time I had just seen, but felt even more vibrant because it seemed to serve locals as much as tourists. 

As we drove in today, I felt confident. Readin for a stroll through the cobblestones, ready to relive and fill in the gaps... And so far the city has not disappointed. 

I leave tomorrow night for Oaxaca (an entirely new experience). But today and tomorrow I am going to try to take it all in.

 

Also I made a friend, we've decided that this guy (yet to be named something other than ugly lion) will do some exploring with me. 

More soon.