After the third alarm was snoozed, I knew it was time to get up and finish packing. "Wake uuup, we have to go." Indistinctive mumble came as an answer; another alarm.. "Now it's really time" I was worried that I will run out of water in the shower, especially on Sunday morning. Eventually, I made it to the green-tiled bathroom and opened the window towards the courtyard - Mexican sky was gloomy, as it knew that it's our last day here, I could hear the noisy avenida Chapultelec, but couldn't see it since the main part of the house was separating the street from the living quarters. As I was admiring the last morning in Mexico City my lungs were filling up with air and smoke and memories unwillingly one by one started coming back from the very beginning of our journey.
Enormous vast city scape framed by mountains on the perimeter suddenly opened up right in front of us. How did we end up here? - I was asking myself. We landed in Mexico City and after airport formalities we got in two vans and headed towards our first destination - Zocalo. First thing I've immediately noticed- incredible amount of shoe stores, filled with the most outrageous kinds of shoes one can imagine - sparkles, bright colors, cheap materials. As I was admiring the vitrines through the window, someone in our van shouted with excitement- "look ahead!" I couldn't resist that call and I saw how enormous Mexican flag unfolded in front of us on the main plaza right above the cathedral.
 |
| Zocalo. Mexico City. May 2018. |
In the beginning of the trip I decided to never look at itinerary. It was unnecessary since our every move was so well organized that I could just rely on day by day instructions, and surprise myself every time I get to a new place. Therefore I wasn't expecting that we're staying right on the main plaza, with windows facing it. Once we got out of the car I felt the exhaustion and lack of fresh air. Flying up to Mexico city you can see the thick coat of white smog, and at that point I realized that I'm right in it. High elevation was also contributing to the situation and I've noticed that most people from my group in one way or another got affected by it. The sun was high above our heads, burning every millimeter of exposed skin. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and went to find food and start exploring. Centro was very crowded and loud - every corner - obnoxious musicians, dancers, singers - everyone is trying to sell something and everyone is asking for money. The next striking thing we've all noticed was that building facades are crooked, and then we realized that buildings in their entirety don't have a single straight edge, unintentionally, yet forced by natural phenomenon. The city is sinking every year into the lake that was people's main enemy for centuries since the area became inhabitable. The lake kept fighting back against humans for years by flooding the city, sinking it and transferring the earthquake waves. The city is standing on a huge bowl of jelly.
 |
| Hotel window in Mexico City. |
Next day we explored a little more of downtown and the area where we would go to studio and live once we are done with our "grand tour." Of course I didn't make an attempt to remember anything from that walk because I needed to experience it on my own and I knew I would have that opportunity.
In the morning our plane landed in Campeche. We met our bus driver, Anjel that would spend with us future 3 weeks on the road. Campeche was a colorful colonial city, which for Mexico could be considered typical - every house is different color, tiny streets, all facades form continuous wall along the street edge and hide numerous courtyards, mazes of rooms and corridors. Absence of vegetation didn't help on our tour through the city; we had to jump from one isle of shade to another where it was possible. The city was set as a fortress and had a massive white wall around it, along with that several plazas opened up for public with porches with cafes, shops and a church on each plaza. That day alone we visited 5 local churches and realized that there will be abundance of those on the trip. After the tour we figured out that the Gulf of Mexico comes almost up to the city walls and I think it's a shame to get this close to the sea and not even attempt to see it. We wanted to keep this experience rather exclusive to our tiny group of three since leaving the city walls would carry a bigger responsibility for the group, especially when we didn't know what to expect, so we went. We set on the edge of the wall, the water wasn't a resort material, but it smelled like the sea, the sun was gently touching our shoulders and faces and we felt at ease. For the rest of the day after our return we went on drawing around town and completing our assignments for the day. At night the plaza filled up with families, children, couples, mariachi bands and dancers. We decided to pace the square to set up the proportions and draw the area. Team work saved us a lot of walking, although we realized that we could predict most of those proportions just by looking at the place - we've been trained for that for many years after all.
 |
| View from the city wall in Campeche. |
In the morning we've seen our first Mayan pyramid site - Edzna. It was the most brutal drawing experience of the trip - the sun was right above us, the site was covered with grass lawn and had almost no shade. Sweat was dripping of my forehead while I was trying to pick the colors for my drawing; the bugs were all around - ants and flies. They were biting, crawling on the sticky skin and flying all around us. These were the worst drawings on the trip, but they remind me of the place, which makes them priceless.
 |
| Edzna |
After Edzna we visited former fabric plantation - la Hacienda, which used to be a complex of residential units and amenities for plantation workers. They've worked with cactus to make a fabric out of it. Today the estate was remodeled and serves as a luxurious hotel, escape from the busy world. We've been told multiple legends that Mayan people believed, including the concept of the tree of life - hollow tree that contains water in its trunk was a life-saving wonder for those that happened to find themselves in the middle of the jungle.
 |
| Tree of Life |
We left Campeche on the next day and headed towards Palenque. I had no idea that Palenque would be so magical. But the road there was quite bumpy – three of us got food poisoning or “Montezuma curse” over us, I was one of the trio, and we had to make multiple stops along the way, but to our good luck we were traveling along the Gulf and the weather was fantastic – the sun was shining, sea breeze and the beach along the road. When we made it to Palenque I couldn’t believe that what I was seeing was real. I’ve asked multiple times if we are really staying here and if it’s not a joke, but when the staff at the reception desk warned us to check beds, bathrooms, our shoes and clothes each time before we use them for snakes and scorpions - I was thrilled! Finally at least something dangerous! (Before we left everyone was talking about how dangerous Mexico is, but that warning was as dangerous as it got for me on the trip).
 |
| Monkeys in Palenque. |
Our hotel was located in the most beautiful rainforest – things that you see in travel shows and adventure movies: banana trees everywhere, flowers colored in the most toxic palettes; intense deep green color surrounds you from every side. The air was so thick that you could almost touch it, yet it was fresh and sweet, filled with moisture and nectars of the plants. I was mesmerized by how within seconds perfectly bright day turned into an aggressive thunderstorm that soaked us all through as we were making our way to the only restaurant in the area. That restaurant had the most wonderful atmosphere – live music, young people, dancing, bittersweet performance and great food (at least it seemed great at that time).
We’ve visited two sites in the jungle – Palenque and Yaxchilan. Both of them developed around the mountains. Palenque had lots of tourists, while Yaxchilan strikes with its remoteness – all you hear there – monkeys screaming out hellish sounds, like if someone released a huge beast that will attack any moment. It’s been a lot of sketching and walking up many steps. Yaxchilan was only a river away from Guatemala, on the way there we’ve seen posters that are welcoming refuges from Guatemala and by the time we got there we received text messages that welcomed us to Guatemala, although we never crossed the border.
 |
| Palenque Archeological Site |
Chiapas, the state where Yaxchilan was located, looked very poor from our windows – tiny huts, barely dressed people, farmland and nothing around but jungle and mountains. Those people were real long forgotten Mayan civilization, that wasn’t destroyed, yet stopped its development. They don’t speak Spanish, they don’t have mixed blood in them, and they are the actual Maya.
 |
| Village on the way to Yaxchilan |
Tlacotalpan in Veracruz had a staged feel to it. As soon as we drove up there, we noticed empty streets, where the only people that were there stood next to our hotel. Local musician immediately came to greet us with music. As we walked the city everyone that was left there (not that many people since everyone is trying to move to the big city) were informed of our presence in town, therefore nobody asked – they knew everything.
 |
| Tlacotalpan. |
Next on the list was eight hour serpentine road through the mountains to Oaxaca with teacher protests; Monte Alban – Aztec site in the clouds on top of a shaved mountain; Puebla with the most wonderful rooftop on top of a very creepy hotel; San Miguel de Allende, with jazz and the coldest pouring rain in the middle of the night; Mineral de Pozos with the most Western landscape that one could imagine – dry desert with cacti and open horizon; archeological site in Cantona with black volcanic rock; and of course Guanajuato.
 |
| Road to Oaxaca |
 |
| Mineral de Pozos |
 |
| Cantona Archeological Site |
Guanajuato was a very different animal from the rest of the things we’ve seen – we were driving along the mountain range until we suddenly went into a tunnel, which we expected to be a short pass, yet we spent about an hour in complete darkness underground, questioning where are we being taken. Eventually we’ve seen the light and we were borne into Guanajuato. The city stretched out all around the bowl between the mountains. It consisted of three major layers: residential housing on top, public and central area at the bottom of the hills and the underground veins of the city. Due to endless rain we had to spend a lot of time in bakeries and coffee shops, which from there became a tradition for the rest of the trip. I fell in love with Mexican bakeries and had to try as much as I could.
 |
| Guanajuato: overlooking the city. |
Queretaro was our last stop on the tour. It associates with the smell of roses, geometrically trimmed tree canopy and the most comfortable bed on the entire trip. By the end of the trip we were exhausted from constant change of place. Each of us had a small carry-on bag that we took on the plane with us with no liquids and we had to manage three weeks of living out of that carry-on. There were countless hotels, pyramids, monasteries, churches, streets, navigation and food questions, countless hours on the bus with gas stations and speed bumps. It was an unforgettable trip, and in this exhausted but euphoric state we returned back to Mexico City for 7 weeks of studio work and exploration.
 |
| Bakery in Queretaro |
--
Polina Timchenko, 4th year Architecture student at Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Polina spent the summer 2018 term with our faculty-led program,
Latin America Urban Studio.
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at
http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
