Mexico Xalapa (part 2/2)

My second day in Xalapa was a day on which I continued walking around, to make sure I would experience the real life more aswhen I travell in a bus. Walking between the local people, smell the food they prepare and sell on the street, listen to their music on the street with instruments a size I´m not used to see with street musicians, not being extra protected as a pedestrian in traffic, that´s what is the real life to me. It´s also special to get on busses that are more than full, I admit, but I think that needs a lot of skills to survive. But I´m willing to try on this trip. Walking also brings me in contact with the local people, as I ask them the road and try to improve my Spanish in that way. What caught my attention was that people at first don´t seem to respond on your quetsion, but it seems that they do. It´s like they don´t expect you to ask them something and the reaction is a little slow. Not that it takes 10 seconds, but the reaction in their face even occurs mostly after you aked the question, but than they respond very friendly and really try to help you. They are really nice and that gives me a nice feeling. A warm feeling and it brings a smile on my face. The trip lead me to the highest hill the city is build on, to Macuiltepec. It´s not just a hill, because nothing in Mexico is just something. On top of the hill is a nice park, with several interesting places. There is a museum about the fauna in Veracruz, a tower on top where you have a view over the town, a big "sunclock", the Aztecs used to have, places where you can BBQ, walking iles, and ofcourse there are the trees and flowers in all colours, as well as birds and other species of animals. It´s a place that breaths peace, and I love it. You can find people from all ages and status there, as well as people with all different interests. That´s what made it also exceptional. People jogging, people walking around, people sitting and just relaxing, people having a romantic time, maybe people skipping school, people feeling like a child surrounded by all that beauty. It sounds like a normal park, and propably it is, but to me it was a place where I found that inner peace again. The smile rising on my face, totally one with myself and nature, shining maybe even harder than the sun. It was my little moment of heaven again. On my walk back I got surprised by rain. And when I say rain, it´s an understatement. The city and the whole area seems to be known for its strange weatherchanges. One moment you are sweathing in the sun and the other, you are hiding for the rain. As unpredictable as it is, so beautiful it is. It´s just another wonder of nature, and another sign that we don´t own or control nature, but that we are part of it. I don´t feel like nature has bad meanings with us humans, when it was raining back than, it had its reason for nature. Even though I was out with short sleeves, no jacket, and not knowing how long this was going to take, it was nice. The street changed into a little swimming pool in no time, people hiding on the front steps of the stores. It brought people closer together, because standing there hiding for the rain, people talked, even though they had never seen eachother. The people like me who kept on walking trying to hide under whatever there was to hide under going further and further also made eachother smile. Passing eachother, not knowing who´s going left and who´s going right: it gives funny situations, and people laugh at eachother. A smile is so beautiful and even more when there is wet sunshine all over the place. People didn´t seem to care, they didn´t get upset, they just took it as it came, and that´s relaxing. I seemed to be the only one getting a little bit nervous when I wanted to cross a big place where there was no possible way of hiding. While I write this I think: What was so important to me that I still wanted to go on, that I couldn´t wait. I don´t know the answer, but next time, I will remember this question and take my time. Xalapa was my first solo tour and it worked out very well. I was set to go to Oaxaca and really looking forward to it. I was told that Oaxaca was a beautiful place, but most of all I loved the travelling. Taking the bus from one place to another (the big distances, like 8 hours), finding a hotel, discover what there was to see and feel, meet the people. It made me feel like an adult, and sometimes I even think I am an adult, but than I realise that I´m just 32 and that there is still much time to play, before groing up. Bodhi

Mexico Xalapa (part 1/2)

As I wrote in my last blog the short time in El Carmen was the beginning of 24 hours of welcoming the experience of fear again. I arrived in Xalapa (also Jalapa), which is the capital of Veracruz, somewhere around 11pm, found a hotel and went to bed. I was happy to be travveling on my own. But this time it was really on my own. The past weeks, Dina had been there somewhere all the time, but now I was really on my own, and to me that was another new step. A step which made me grow, again. The next morning, I started walking to Coatopec. It´s a little village next to Xalapa, and it was a two hour walk. Most people might take a taxi maybe, or a minibus, but I just looooove walking. Watching what´s around me, taking little paths between the trees, walking by the highway like I´ve only seen it in movies. Cars passing by very close, finding a path to walk on sometimes, because I don´t think many people use the way as one to walk. It gives me that wonderful feeling of living my own life at that moment. Walking from one place to another also gives you the opportunity to stop, when you see something that makes you laugh, cry, something that you want to see a little closer. It also gives you the chance of checking things out from different angels. In Coatopec, I sat down at a beautiful Zocalo. It was a small one, but there were so many nice things to see and feel. Many people talking in small groups on benches. Trees and flowers, surrounded by nice colourful buildings. A man, another Carlos but this one was 26, came up to me. We started talking about Mexico, it´s beauty and it´s sadness. We talked for over an hour and it was nice talking to someone I didn´t know before, and talking very open at once. Back again it made me realise how fortunate I am in so many ways to be born and raised in a "wealthy" country as Belgium. People complane everywhere, I think, but to me it´s what the complain is about. You can complaine because your life standard is really below a human level, or you can complane about a lack of even more Luxuary things. It´s up to everyone to see in which category he or she belongs. After talking, he showed me a mural in a building at the Zocalo. It was the life of Benito Juarez, painted on a wall. Not only the painting was a piece of art, also the love that Carlos used to describe everything and show his admiration for Señor Juarez was pure art that touched my soul. Carlos even walked me to my bus, waited with me, gave me even the CD that was in his Diskman and left, without anything else. I only know what he told me about him. No adress, no last name, but a CD and an experience that gives me a nice shiver when I think about it. Somewhere it feels like he was an angel. Being there at that time, coming up to me, make me feel at ease on my first day as a solo traveller. Hé will always stay special to me and have a place in my heart. Thank you Carlos, no mather where you are, I send you a lot of love! From Coatopec I continued my trip to Xico, where I could find "La Cascada de Texolo". People who saw the blogs on my Nepal trip, may remember that I´m crazy about Waterfalls, so I really wanted to see this one. It was hot and the walk from Xico to the waterfall was a beautyful 45 minutes walk in between the bananatrees and the trees with coffeebeans. I thought, if there is ever a bushfire here, would it smell like coffee????? Arriving at the waterfall, it was another special moment in my life. My heart was so open that I could realise that the past 45 minutes where another little life lesson. Sometimes the road is difficult and tough, but many times there is a reward called beauty waiting at the end. A waterfall is not only its sight, it´s at least as much its sound. The power coming out of it...it goes right true my vains. I started walking around the waterfall, coming at points with magicall views over the villages next to the waterfall, and before I knew I ended up in a little town, where they didn´t have a real road of stones, but everything was still just sand. Having the experience from the evening before still a little bit in my nerves, I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable. You see people watching at you, talking to eachother, go into the house, come out again,... At least I saw that, and at such moments I start making my own stories with it, so that´s how it was for me. I entered again the vegetation of bananatrees and coffeebeans. I recovered of my little feeling of fear, and admired the vegetation in all its beauty. The colours, the smell, the quantity, the relation of the colours to the sky, everything was just pure and beautiful. Once I realised that I had entered a forrest, which was like a labyrinth to me. I was right in the middle of it, and had no idea where my way out was. To make my feelings even more mixed up, I realised that the forrest had snakes as its inhabitants, as well as wild dogs. I never really paniked, but I must admit that after asking the road to two men working in the forrest and walking the wrong way again (that language problem again), I started to feel really uncomfortable, because darkness was starting to come. Lucky for me I found the two men again and one of them walked part of the road with me, to show me the hardest part of the road. I ended up ok, ofcourse, and darkness didn´t seem to fall as quickly as I remembered, but the fear was there at that moment. The fear was even bigger than the day before, because of my holy fear for snakes. I must admit that the fear is already less than one year ago: but the tought of being there in the dark, with the snakes coming out from under their trees?????????? Noooooo, thank you! In the evening, back at the hostal, I met another nice and special man. Kirk, travelling around the world, at least untill the next presidential elections in the United States. Why? It´s not up to me to tell you, but he pissed of some important people, and that made him a citizen under surveillance. I know I wouldn´t feel good anymore. Kirk, if you read this, thank you for the nice talk, we missed eachother the last day in Xalapa, but I didn´t forget about you. I think the rain drove us apart at that time. Believe in yourself and I wish you all the best with Valentina. My first day in Xalapa was one with many surprises. Surprises that made my trip even more colourful, and there was even more to come!

As I said before, the returning of the feeling of fear, I consider a good thing, what has changed with that feeling since the last times I had it is my reaction: I don´t panic anymore. I think I already took some big steps the past years, and I´m willing to walk on!

Mexico Cuetzalan and the trip to Xalapa

Well as you might remember, I showed you in my last blog a picture, of which I thought it might put me on the street. So, after one week I´m allowed in the house again. During that week I had a wonderful time. I visited Cuetzalan together with Dina, than drove to Xalapa (by bus and without Dina), and after that I also spended two days in Oaxaca. First of all, Cuetzalan comes in my top 5 of most beautiful places on the earth. (those I have seen anyway) It´s a village, I think, and the nature there is won-der-ful. It´s really undescribable. We visited pyramids, a cave and a waterfall, guided by 10 years old Carlos. He guided us from one place to another, and we had the impression that he was happy with us as his "clients". In the cave I had one of these moments of inner happiness. Everything was just perfect at that time. I was amazed by the beauty of nature, while actually feeling free. It was like another prove to me that I´m part of that bigger thing, I don´t have to carry it all. We went 80 meters under the ground, but every one of them was worth it. The trip to the waterfall was a little trekking. It felt like home. Once we reached the waterfall, it was just relaxing and enjoying the beauty over there. It was one of those days you hope you will never forget. Everything was right, everything in balance, and Dina even got beaten twice in a running contest by Carlos. What more do you want? Going from Cuetzalan to Xalapa, Ghostboy had an experience of which he hopes they don´t happen to much in his life. I had to change busses in El Carmen. No problem, I just go up to the busstation and ask for my ticket to Xalapa. Perfect plan, if there would have been a busstation selling tickets to Xalapa. El Carmen seems to be a place where truckers have a quick snack, drink a beer, and that´s it. It was dark, I was walking there with my two backpacks, and no one who spoke a word of English. It´s necessary that you know that I can speak a very tiny littlelittle bit of Spanish, but understanding...that´s really something else. It was getting later and I still didn´t know how to take the bus. Some busses passed by, going to Xalapa or Veracruz, I waved to them to stop, but the drivers didn´t even look at me. I had seen it a lot here, just wave at a bus and it stops. Asking the people around what I must do went ok, but understanding there answers didn´t work. I began to get a little nervous and turning around I even hit my head against a traffic sign. Right when I thought it was hopeless, a family of streetvendors helped me out. They were so kind explaining me that the most busses went directly to Xalapa, but some were non-directs. They were waiting for that one to, so I waited with them and as sign of gratitude I bought one of their breads, which was finished before I arrived in Xalapa. I´ve got no pictures of this place because I was just to scared to take my camera out, but believe me, it had something from a movie. What will stay with me from that evening is that I really have been scared, something that didn´t happen to me for a long time. Being scared is not a nice feeling, but to me it´s a good sign. I think being scared is part of life, and I lost that part for a while. Being scared is like a signal preventing you from danger. As with so many things, it´s the way you handle it, that makes the concequenses, but there´s nothing wrong with the feeling. I´m happy it´s back, but on that evening, I didn´t think about it like that. And that was just the beginning of 24 hours of welcoming the emotion of being scared home again.

Mexico DF update 1

Well, this city really has it all. The diversity between all the places you can find here is so wonderful. In a few 100 meters you can walk from a place, being surrounded by so much traffic and buildings to a nice park, where you can feel a calm amd relaxed atmosphere. I´ve never experienced this in so little distance. It´s just wonderful.

The places I´m talking about are the places around the Zocalo, in downtowm DF and the Alameda Central, that´s the Park I was talking about. The police even walks around wearing a sombrero, which only makes it more nice and relaxing to me. (those who think all Mexicans wear a sombrero all day and eat a kilo of tortilla a day...I have to dissapoint you, because it´s not true)

Another place that is on its way to steel my heart is Bosque de Chapultepec. It´s on of the biggest parks in the world, I think, and there is so much to see. You are walking between so much green, there are museums, like the un-be-leavable interesting Museum of Antropology, there is the Castillo on top of a 15 minutes climb, which is beautiful on itself, but since a long time it is also used as a museum of history. If you are around, I would certainly advice it, also because of the wonderful views you have over the city. There is also a zoo, an amusementpark,...shortly there is something for everyone, and very much for someones.

In this park I can find so much contact with myself. I can walk around for hours, enjoying what I see around me, because I´m so happy between all those wonderful surroundings. There I can let myself get into a kind of higher atmosphere. It feels as if I´m just energy and emotion flying around there. Everyone is equal, the people, the animals, the trees, the garbadge cans,... right then I get that feeling that I like so much, that inner happiness. It is something that I can not describe completely, but to me it´s a big lesson in life. Being happy by being in touch with myself. Being able to live my complete life like that, is a stage I would really like to reach, because that is true happiness to me, and I was already lucky to experience it a few times.

In the beginning it sounded strange to me, but now it feels quiet normal. To see, feel, smell,..., to experience what is happening around me, I need to be in touch with myself. I have to be deep inside myself, to see what´s around me. It sounded like two opposites to me, because I used to turn into myself closing my sences and emotions. Now I try to to it an other way and experience myself to the deepest, but keep my sences open.

Being in a place like Chapultepec made it easier to achieve that level of communication with myself, and now I hope there will be more places to do so, and more and more it will become a naturale thing that I can experience no matter where I am, or who I´m with.

If I really experience these moments on its fullest, I know that is possible. It will take a long time, maybe a whole life, but the path to enlightment is a wonderful path on itself, filled with lots of unexpected happenings and people comming your way. It´s a matter of keeping your eyes open, and believe in youself!

This trip seems to be very interesting again to the exploring of my emotions and sences.

To end this blog with, there is one picture that I really couldn´t keep from you. Ghostboy meets Cinderella! (this picture might put me on the street, but it´s worth it)

Take care and enjoy being (because I know I do),

Bodhi

Mexico DF

Hola, Ghostboy Bodhi has arrived in Mexico. So far no one got hurt. I´m staying with this wonderful friend of mine, Dina. She opened her house for me to stay in and even lets me out sometimes. It feels wonderful being around people like her. People who are open, with knowledge about life and a nice vision on life and the world. I don´t mean that you can only find them outside of Belgium, because over there are also people who can touch me very much. It´s not the quantity of the touches that counts, it´s the impressions they leave. Together with her, her two doggies live there (here): Kuas and Kafki. They really are so nice, and Kafki is always the first one to come and say hello to me. This morning he even came to sleep in my bed with me. And yesterday when they went out for five minutes, he enetered my room, looked at me and left again, like he wanted to say: We´re back! Kuas is also very nice so don´t think I only like Kafki. After two days I even thought them "synchronised laying on the bed"!

Being here on my third day I noticed how much in love I am wit Nepal, and maybe Asia in general. I catch myself comparing, but Mexico is completely different, and I certainly do hope I can open my heart and eyes to let Mexico enter in me as itself, and not in competition with any other place. Today I really start walking around, descovering Mexico city "down town". Saturday, march 2nd, Dina already took me to Taxsco, it´s an old city, very known for it´s silver mines. We went there on saturday, because that´s the day the big markets are there. I think I will never see as much silver in my life again as I did that day. At that time I had only 4 hours of sleep in two days, so I didn´t get to enjoy the environememt as much as I would. That propably explanes why I didn´t like the atmosphere at the time. Something I immediately noticed is that Mexicans like colours. They paint their houses in the most wonderful colours. And Taxco was no exception to that. As colours colour my life and heart, that is an aspect of Mexico I will enjoy, that´s for sure.

To go to Taxco we had to take a three hour bus trip. Here that´s pretty normal, where in Belgium that would be a big trip.

Yesterday we went to the supermarket. No big deal you would say...weren´t it for the fact that it was a sunday and that is was midnight. For those who think I typed a mistake, I will type it again: Yesterday we went to the supermarket. No big deal you would say...weren´t it for the fact that it was a sunday and that is was midnight. I just loved it.

Well I´m of for some more discovery, and I´ll keep you updated on regular bases!

Hasta luego,

Bodhi