Photos!

Here are some of the many photos I never managed to publish before. Some are from Mexico City, some from my working place, etc.

Shit, I'm Home!

Dear Readers (I think you are quite few at this point),

I returned to Finland just a few days ago. The culture shock I have experienced now in Finland has been greater than the one I had in Mexico. Who knows what that is supposed to mean - Did I love being in Mexico so much that I should have stayed? Is Finland as extreme in every aspect as Mexico is? Seeing drunken Finns on the public transport freezing to death for not having any warm clothes to wear was not the most pleasant start. But, I still felt a nice warmth inside me for returning Home. Home. Do I even have a home anymore? My home is where my heart is: all over!

But what happened during the month I spent travelling before returning to Finland?(I am not really dying to write a thorough explanation - a lot happened) But, Do let me try:

We started off in Oaxaca, the capital of the state of Oaxaca (Mexican imagination)
I got a stomach ache, vomited on the street,
payed too much for a hotel,
saw the Monte Alban Ruins,
Enjoyed the smell of hot chocolate, the sound of indigenous languages all over,
old streets, old women with their long, black hair tied with colourful ribbons,
Headed towards the coast.

Puerto Escondido,
American surfer-boys taking over the beaches every morning and every night,
the waves hit the shore and I thought,
"Here only the waves and the blue sky matter."
At nights smelled the tropical flowers, thought the people had to be happy -
they have it all: the sun, the sky, the sea, the sand, each other.
And again, we had to move on.

Huatulco does not deserve too many lines.
Expensive taxis, boring views,
too Americanised.
Took a boat tour around beaches, they didn't even let us Go on the beach, we just saw them.

Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state of Chiapas. Felt sick again. Nothing.
Chiapa de Corzo, a few minutes away: saw the canyon of Sumidero.
We took a boat ride to the canyon and saw monkeys, crocodiles and a lot of different birds.
The animal life was interesting, but the way we were introduced to it wasn't.
We took off to San Cristobal de las Casas.

I expected a lot from San Cristobal - it is in the Zapatista zone, with a biiig indigenous minority and with load of cultures and cultural heritage. It met my expectations. I almost fainted at the sight of all the handucrafts - the small, indigenous tzotzil and tzeltal women selling their hands' work with children in the laps and their traditional dressed stained by the Chiapas soil.
Met interesting people, walked on old, tranquil streets and visited surrounding villages. Mysticism was in the air and the history became the present.

From there we headed to Palenque.
The place is famous for two things: two cascades and the famous pyramids.
We failed to visit both.
Went to two ruins in the Lacandon Jungle instead.
Again, got disappointed by the lack of guiding.
Wondered around in both places.
Enjoyed the rain and the freezing wind,
finding out that it actually does get cold in the jungle.
The monkeys shouted at us,
the birds flew away once they saw us.
I felt like an intruder in the jungle world.
My shoes got wet and I got sick again.

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To be continued. It's Dr. Phil-on-tv-time.