Inland Mexico by Bus

Inland Mexico by Bus

March 1999

Tuesday March 16, 1999 - Bus ride to Durango

We caught an early bus out of Mazatlan and passed through the towns of Concordia and Copala. We visited these towns last fall when the area was rich and green with foliage. The area now is dry and brown and the creeks that had to be forded last fall are dry. The bus then continued along a steep snake-like road into the mountains following the side of a steep deep canyon over part of its route. The rock formations and the scenery were spectacular! We finally reached the plateau on the top where there were trees and lots of lumber activities. The dryness was apparent here too as the dirt had turned to a powder that blew in great clouds in the afternoon breeze. We arrived in Durango about 4:30PM and found a hotel room near to the bus station as our plans were to continue on the next morning to Zacatecas. We did take one of the city buses in to the town center where we found a nice little restaurant for dinner.

Wednesday, March 17 - Bus ride to Zacatecas

We slept in this morning and after breakfast returned to the bus terminal where we got on the 11:00AM bus heading south to Zacatecas. The bus stopped at many of the little farm towns along the way and the landscape we passed through was of rich farmland. Many of the villages were quite picturesque with adobe buildings and farm animals in the "back yards".

We arrived in Zacatecas late in the afternoon and took a city bus from the Centro de Autobuses to the city center. There we found a nice room in an old but updated hotel with a large, French door type window overlooking the street.

After checking into the hotel we wandered the narrow streets until we felt it was late enough for a dinner. The town has grown up in a canyon and the streets follow the land contours and are therefore not parallel and many of the triangles where they meet contain small parks, monuments or fountains. We found the remains of the old aqueduct that passes through one end of a lovely hillside park. We also walked past many old buildings constructed of a pink stone found locally.

Thursday, March 18

This is the day we explored Zacatecas, visited many churches and a few museums. The main cathedral contains intricate fretwork on its front exterior. The interior was pretty but not spectacular compared to the other active church that we visited, the Church of the Colegio de la Campañia. This church had the intricate exterior fretwork but it also contained the same intricate fretwork around its many altars and the interior fretwork was all gilded. We also visited two other churches both very old, decommissioned, originally part of Franciscan convent system and currently being used for concerts, plays and other such activities. One had been restored and the other only stabilized as a roofless hall.

One of the two museums that we visited contained some great examples of Huichol art; many different embroidered pieces and some yarn art. The other museum was that of science and was associated with the university there. It contained an exhibit of historic pieces of scientific equipment.

We also visited the theater. The entry foyer was beautifully decorated in a turn of the century style, but the interior was not as nice as the one that we have here in Mazatlan.

By late afternoon we were tired so we spent some time just sitting in one of the lovely parks, reading and watching the birds and the families. We had found a bookstore and purchased a short book on the history of Mexico as we had developed a curiosity about the order of events. While we were looking at the wonderful historic mural that graced the stairwell in the government offices, an older Mexican had stopped to chat and ended up giving us a short history of his country which left us with more than a few questions.

Friday, 19 March - Travel to Guanajuato

Today we traveled to Guanajuato. It was a two bus trip, as we could not get a direct bus from Zacatecas to Guanajuato at a convenient time. The bus change was made at Leon and from there it was a short hop to Guanajuato. We took a city bus to the center of town and then after much hunting around found the hotel recommended by the tour information booth at the bus terminal. It was another nice hotel close to the center of town and inexpensive by US standards.

Guanajuato is another city built in a steep canyon with twisting narrow roads, but this town also has several major arteries dug underground. They are still adding to the underground system and twice a day during our stay there was blasting. The blasting was preceded by all the police cars in town sounding their sirens to warn everyone and since our hotel was right next to the main police station it was quite noisy our first night here. We then moved to an inside room, which cut the noise down a lot.

Saturday, 20 March

Our first stop today was to visit the Granary. It was quite close to the hotel and contained a great museum of Mexican history. We spent until mid afternoon exploring its exhibits and by then were too exhausted to do much else. We did wander through a few of the many churches and toured the Theater which is very similar to the one here in Mazatlan except that the interior appeared to be original with the polished wood floor and old style seats in the main gallery. The walls and ceiling were intricately painted and decorative ironwork was everywhere. Above the main lobby, and separated from it by a glass block floor, was the men’s smoking room all done in red velvet and gold. The translucent glass floor allowed the light from the stained glass skylight above to enter the lobby below as well. There was even a separate wide stairway leading from the lobby to this room.

Late in the day we did some more street wandering and ran across the Cervantes Museum which contained whimsical artwork based on his Don Quixote story. We then ate dinner at one of the many outdoor eateries that surround the Plaza Jardin.

Sunday, 21 March

After all our activity yesterday, we slept in today. After breakfast we walked around the town some more and ended up at the currently unused train station. Then we wandered down to the market. Most of the shops were closed up, as it is Sunday, but it is an interesting building built like a English Victorian train station.

This is definitely a college town and we enjoyed watching a group of the students demonstrating for the rights of the Indians. Bill also purchased a German phrase book at the book fair that was set up in another plaza. This is a very clean town and has lots of amenities for tourists. Many other tourists were wandering the streets but most are Mexicans, as we are approaching their own tourist season.

Monday, 22 March

Our plan was to travel further south today, but we slept in and were lazy this morning so put that off for another day. We enjoyed sitting in one of the plazas people watching and reading. We climbed the narrow stepped street up to the statue of La Pipila and had a great view of the city for our efforts. We watched a group of preschool age children parade through town dressed up as flowers, bees, birds, and other animals of spring. We also finally visited the interior of the Basilica of Guanajuato where the Virgin stands on her silver base at the main altar. She was a present to the town from the King of Spain in 1557 and is a 7^th century statue making her the oldest Christian artifact in Mexico. The whole of the interior of this church is lavishly decorated.

Tuesday, 23 March - Travel to Tula

Today we were off early to Queretaro where we transferred to a bus that would take us to Tula. Tula is not a tourist town and is quite small. The bus station was not far from the city center where we found a hotel room in a very old hotel. The rooms had been modernized to have bathrooms and were quite comfortable, and it only cost us $10 US per night. The church plaza was across the street from our hotel and was a large walled off garden with the entrance to the church along one side. The church was vary plain compared to others we had visited but was clean and uncluttered looking. Its bell tower rings with the Westminster chimes and was the only one that we heard singing those chimes on our whole trip.

We spent the early evening in the main plaza with many of the locals. This plaza was across another street from our hotel and cattycorner from the church. It contained a large gazebo at its center where the children seemed to enjoy hanging out.

Wednesday, 24 March

Today we visited the Toltec ruins just north of the "modern" town. We walked the long way to the ruins as we were not sure where we were going, but after our return to town we realized that the tallest of the pyramids was visible from the main street of town.

The site contained two uncovered pyramids, two ball courts, a palace area and several altars as well as many unexcavated mounds of dirt. On the most highly excavated pyramid were carvings representing eagles, coyotes, jaguars, and serpents. Some of the original color still remained on the panels giving the impression that the pyramid had originally been highly decorated and colored. On the top of this pyramid were four gigantic figures and other carved round pillars that originally held the roof of the temple that topped this pyramid. The ball courts were impressive in their size; one was significantly much larger than the other. The larger one formed one side of the main square. Only the front side of the second pyramid, facing the main square, had been excavated. A third pyramid, which was still just a mound of dirt, stood on the south side of the square.

We spent most of the morning exploring the site and then spent another hour in the museum at the site’s entrance looking at the artifacts that had been recovered and reading the history of the site. It had only been discovered in the 1940’s although histories from one of the early conquerors had told of such a city. It had lived for many centuries under a farmer’s field undiscovered and much still remain to be uncovered there.

We returned to town to discover a band setting up on the stage just off the main plaza and right under our hotel window. We never discovered what the occasion was, but the plaza was full by early evening and we enjoyed the music and evenings activities. We even found hot dogs for dinner from a vendor in the plaza. Surprisingly, the music reaching our room was actually pleasant although it lasted until late into the night.

Thursday, 25 March

We spent another day in Tula while our legs recovered from the pyramid climbing yesterday. Upon the recommendation of the ticket agent at the bus station, we will be making several bus changes tomorrow, getting to Tlaxcala, in order to avoid going through Mexico City.

Friday, 26 March - on to Tlaxcala

Today’s bus trip had us changing buses in Pachuca, Apizaco, and then a short hop to Tlaxcala. Tlaxcala is an interesting town, being one of the first to be settled by the Spaniards, as well as having the three nearby archeological sites of Tizatlan, Cacaxtla and Xochitecatl. We arrived Friday evening and the artisans were just setting up their stands for the weekend market in the plaza near our hotel. We found the tourist information office open and they offered both Saturday and Sunday tours of different sites. We decided to join both tours.

Saturday, 27 March

We were up early enough to do a little exploring before the tour left at 10:00AM. We followed the street that ran past our hotel and the plaza all the way to its other end where a small church stood. Returning back we veered off toward the river and followed the river until we met crowds shopping at the outdoor market. We then cut back to the meeting point for the tour. Bill and I were the only two that showed up so we had a private tour and it was great!

We started out by visiting the pre-Colombian site of Tizatlan, where two war altars had been uncovered. The sides of each altar were highly decorated with reliefs and paintings. Right near to this site was one of the open churches that were originally built for the Indians to worship at. It is basically a structure to hold the altar with one whole side open so that the Indians could remain in the open and still worship, in the way they had been used to worshiping their old gods. The walls around the altar contained the remnants of paintings painted there by the Indian converts depicting Bible stories. Later in the day we visited two more of these open churches.

We visited two Franciscan ex-convents; one is abandoned and unused while the other now houses the local history museum and a parish church and the Basilica of Ocotlan. The Basilica contains the Virgin of Ocotlan on the main altar and painted down the sides of the sanctuary are scenes depicting her story. Since we were with a guide we entered from the back of the Basilica and first visited a small round baptismal chapel off the sacristy. It contained a large round table all carved from a single log. The ceiling arches were all carved in the baroque style but with an Indian flavor. The interior of the main chapel was also highly decorated in baroque but this was in more typical European designs. The many altars were all of carved wood and all were gilded to a bright gold color. The Virgin herself was in a glass case on a solid silver altar.

With the guide we also visited the government palace to see the murals there and he described many of the scenes pointing out interesting features.

After we left the guide, Bill and I ate a quick lunch so that we would have time to explore the museum. The museum gave a good description of the town’s history and displayed many pre-Colombian artifacts that had been discovered there. In pre-Colombian times the local area was occupied by four townships one of which was centered at the first site we had visited that day.

Sunday, 28 March

We were awakened about 7:00AM by much ringing of church bells. Today is Palm Sunday and yesterday, in front of the main church in town, palm fronds were being turned into elaborate works of art in the form of crosses. Today many people had purchased them and were carrying them around.

Today’s tour included a busload of tourists, mostly Mexican. The first site we went to was Xochitecatl. It contained several excavated buildings including one interesting round pyramid that had a spiral ramp from the base to the top (unique in all of Mexico). We climbed to the top of that one on interesting steep stairs made entirely of modern rebar. The view from the top was spectacular with the volcanoes Popocatapetal and its smaller neighbor on one horizon. The site also contained a more normal square pyramid that we also climbed. This pyramid was actually two, an older one inside of a more recent one. The stairs that we climbed up belonged to the original pyramid with parts of the stairs from the newer one on either side. The original pyramid was constructed of uncut river rocks cemented together with clay-like mud. It was abandoned due to an eruption of the volcano and when the area was repopulated centuries later, the overlaying pyramid was constructed of cut volcanic stone. The second pyramid was rotated about 10 degrees from the first so that on Sept. 23, from the top of the pyramid, the sun appears as a fire in the crater of the volcano as it rises. At the base of the stairs were two monolith pots one for each pyramid. The older one was buried up to its rim and the newer stood on the ground.

We then left this site and moved on to Cacaxtla, which is believed to be the site of the ruling class housing. This site is actually many sites, built one on top of the other, as new rulers rebuilt to suit their desires. The site contains many murals and parts of murals that are still in fairly good condition. Red, turquoise, and black seemed to be the predominate colors used but there was also some yellow and the white of the underlying stucco. What was surprising was how bright the colors were after all those years of being buried under the next layer of housing. The walls were constructed of stones and adobe plastered over in a white stucco made from volcanic dust, sand and nopal cactus juice. They divided off the many rooms and courtyards of the structure. Some of the pillars, from one of the later levels, were decorated with clay relief. The painted walls seemed to be mostly from the older levels. This main structure had some lesser pyramids near it but they had not been excavated and appeared only as mounds of dirt. The entire palace area was covered over with a huge modern metal roof to protect it from sun and weather.

After the rest of the tour returned to town, Bill and I spent more time exploring the ruins and the little museum on the site before we caught a Colectivo bus back to Tlaxcala.

Tuesday, 30 March - to Veracruz and Villahermosa

We dropped down off the cool high plateau to a hot humid Veracruz (on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico) on Monday and then continued on to Villahermosa today. Villahermosa was full of tourists, mostly Mexicans on holiday for Semana Santa, but also many Europeans and a few Americans. In Mexico, the week before and the week after Easter are big holiday times and everyone that can leaves Mexico City for tourist spots and we were now running up against that flood of people. We finally found a hotel room for the night, but it was pretty poor quality and we really wanted air conditioning. After dropping off our bags we continued looking for a better room. We found a vacancy for tomorrow at a more expensive hotel with air conditioning. Back in our room we settled down for a warm sultry night under the slow ceiling fan.

Wednesday, 31 March

Our fist activity of the day was to pack up and move over to the air conditioned hotel room; it was on the top floor and had a great view over the roofs of the city to the river about 3 blocks away. We then wandered off to the bus station to purchase tickets to Palenque and back for tomorrow. Walking back from there and along the river, we found the Archeological Museum. It was fantastic, filling three floors with Olmec and Mayan artifacts accompanied by good explanations. We made it through about half of the exhibits before we started to wear down. We did make it through the entire museum but the last half was at a faster pace with less time spent reading.

Thursday, 1 April, 1999 - day trip to Palenque

We started the day early so that we could be on the 8:10AM bus to Palenque. We arrived at the town shortly after 9:00 and caught a Colectivo, a small bus, out to the ruins.

The Mayan ruins in the jungle were incredible!!! They covered a large site part of which has been cleared and excavated and some ruins were still hidden in the jungle growth. By the end of the day our legs were sore from climbing up and down the many pyramids to view the temples at their tops. From the top of one pyramid we climbed down into the tomb of Pacal, a drop of 89 feet and in fact just below the base of the pyramid built above it. The steps were steep and just barely wide enough for two people to pass going in opposite directions. Everything going down the stairs and in the tomb itself was wet as the walls seeped moisture.

We spent some time exploring the hallways and rooms of the palace that is thought to have been palatial living quarters. The Mayans did not use the arch but stacked rocks that slanted inward forming peaked interiors with a capstone topping it all.

We also wandered on some of the many paths through the uncleared part of the site and it was most interesting to see corners of buildings sticking out among the vines and other foliage. We followed the trail down hill toward the museum. It followed along a stream and passed an area of waterfalls and pools being played in by many children. They were the smart ones as the day was rather hot and humid! By the time we reached the road and museum we were both fading so we picked up some ice water from a vendor there. It refreshed us some but after a quick visit to the museum we found a shady spot to sit at an outdoor restaurant in the cool and enjoyed a late lunch.

We returned to the town of Palenque with plenty of time until our bus back to Villahermosa left. We walked up to the plaza and enjoyed a few drinks in a streetside café, and then wandered around the plaza as the sun was setting, admiring the beautiful handwork of the locals.

Back at the bus terminal we enjoyed watching the many young European tourists with fancy backpacks and Mexican families out on holiday. We were back in Villahermosa by 9:30PM and collapsed into our cool beds after a quick dinner.

Friday, April 2

We tried to get bus tickets to Oaxaca this morning and they were all filled for the next two days. We got to thinking and decided that hotel rooms would be just as hard to find (including at any alternate destination), so our best option was to get airplane tickets back to Mazatlan. We were too late for today’s flight out so we have reservations for tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent resting in what cool shade we could find as we are both quite sore after all our up and down hiking from yesterday.

Saturday, April 3 - fly back to Mazatlan

We were up and out early today to pick up the tickets and be on the 8:30 AM flight to Mexico City. The major part of the day was then spent in the Mexico City airport waiting for our connecting flight to Mazatlan. We returned to Mazatlan about 4:30 PM and were back at the marina by 6:00. The traffic through the tourist zone was heavy and slow because of the same tourist overload that we had fled from at the other end of Mexico.

It was most interesting when we flew over Mexico City both coming and going, the roads were almost empty.

Saturday, April 24 - late Editorial Note

There was an item on the television news from Mexico City a few nights ago discussing very recent findings from Palenque. They have recently discovered a wall of glyphs (picture writing), some of which represent dates that archeologists know how to decode. These newly decoded dates are from the era of 3000 BC. This is much earlier than anything else found in the Mayan world, thought to be from about 300 BC to 800 AD. Exciting enough that the President of Mexico went for a visit.

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