Mexico Travel Diary Video

OK, this really is the last post about my recent holiday in Mexico, I promise! I made a short video with some of my highlights from the trip.



If you've been thinking about planning a vacation to Mexico, I'd highly recommend it as a holiday destination. You can read my overview of the trip here, and other Mexico blog posts here.

"I Want To Be Like the Others: Normal"

It's been ages since I've had the chance to go to the cinema and I know I have no chance of catching on up on this spring's new movie releases. However, I did manage to go and see Céline Sciamma's new film Bande de filles (Girlhood) yesterday afternoon, which is best described as Bande de filles as Mean Girls meets La haine with a generous helping of Boyhood. It's a brooding and often raw film, which follows 16-year-old Marieme (Karidja Touré), who lives in a Parisian suburb, as she tries to find happiness — and her true self.

As the film opens, we see Marieme celebrating with her teammates after a successful American football game. The music is upbeat, but Marieme seems sad, and as she goes home to care for her two younger sisters, there is an ominous note in the air. We soon learn that Marieme's mother works long hours to provide for her family and is rarely around. Meanwhile, her brother Djibril (Cyril Mendy) is occasionally protective, but more often aggressive and violent towards his sisters. Worse still, Marieme finds out that she won't be allowed to progress to the general lycée with her friends, as her grades aren't high enough; instead she will have to go to the vocational lycée, despite her attempts to persuade her teacher otherwise.

Marieme is initially wary when three girls — Lady (Assa Sylla), Adiatou (Lindsay Karamoh) and Fily (Mariétou Touré) — try to befriend her, but feeling vulnerable and trying to find somewhere she can fit in, she soon becomes the fourth member of their gang. They shop (and shoplift), they drink, smoke and dance in a hotel room funded by money stolen from their classmates, and they fight with girls from other gangs.

And Marieme starts to enjoy it all, even though her young teen sister Bébé (Simina Soumaré) is worried about the rapid changes in her sister, and Djibril is more concerned about the potential damage to Marieme's (and therefore his own) reputation, especially after she becomes closer to his friend Ismaēl (Idrissa Diabaté). The sadness and uncertainty in Marieme's eyes never fades and she begins to wonder whether her newly reclaimed life allows her to be any freer or happier than she was before, and begins to wrestle with the question of whether or not she wants to be une fille bien.

The film is told in segments, each of which ends with a fade-to-black while upbeat dance music plays in the background, followed by a time-jump and a further change in Marieme's appearance. First, her sporty clothes and braids are replaced by cooler, more trendy and feminine clothing as she spends more time with her new friends, but by the final act, she is back in her sweatpants. It isn't especially subtle, but it saves endless exposition and montages.

Sciamma's film is often uncomfortable to watch, but it is, by turns, honest and tender, and is anchored by Touré's excellent central performance as the troubled heroine. Touré's Marieme has a powerful inner strength that is often crippled by uncertainty and fear, and even as Marieme makes poor decisions, we can't help but empathise. The supporting cast is also strong, especially Sylla, playing a complex role.

How To Spend Two Weeks in Mexico

Ten years ago, while travelling around California, I hopped on the trolley from San Diego to Tijuana and spent half a day in the border town. Since then, I have been wanting to return to see much more of Mexico. It is impossible to 'do' Mexico in a two-week holiday and it was really difficult to narrow down my itinerary when so many places sounded fascinating but I still managed to see a lot of the country.

Mexico City Specialty Coffee Guide

When I was researching my trip to Mexico, I was pleased to find that Mexico City had plenty of the third-wave specialty coffee coffee bars I love so much. Mexico is a favourite coffee-bean region of mine — much of it is grown in Oaxaca and Guerrero, closer to the coast, but there are a lot of great varieties in DF (when I visited Cuba in 2005, much of the best coffee was exported, leaving only poorly-quality beans for the Cubans). 

Isla Mujeres: Bliss on the Beach

When I was planning my trip to Mexico, I knew that I wanted to end it with a few days on an amazing beach. A beach where there was little to do other than swim, sunbathe, eat and swim again. I also knew that after Cancún's zona hotelera wasn't for me after being disappointed by the blandness of the zona hotelera in Varadero, Cuba. I considered Playa Del Carmen, but ultimately, Isla Mujeres — a four-mile island about eight miles off the coast of Cancún won out. In particular, you couldn't really argue with Lonely Planet's description of the island's Playa Norte as a place "you will never want to leave".

Chichén Itzá: Culture, History, Crowds and Heat

Rather than taking a direct bus from Mérida to Cancún and then Isla Mujeres, I decided to stop at Chichén Itzá, one of the most famous Mayan archaeological sites — a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. 

Mérida: The Colourful Yucatán Capital

After a long bus journey, a flight, a long wait at the unlovely Cancún airport and another longish bus journey, I finally made it to Mérida on the northwest corner of the Yucatán peninsula. I had to book my internal flight from DF to Cancún before I knew my itinerary, so I ended up taking the bus from Oaxaca to DF, spending the night in DF and then flying to Cancún and taking a four-hour bus to Mérida. 

Oaxaca: Visiting El Tule, Teotitlán, Mitla and Hierve El Agua

There are various attractions within an hour or two of the city of Oaxaca, and the one that interested me most was Hierve El Agua (literally. ‘the water boils’), a natural mineral spring perched high in the Sierra Madre 40 miles south-east of Oaxaca. The only public transport option, however, involves hopping in the back of a series of collectivo pick-up trucks — a cheap and probably fun mode of transport, but I was hoping for something with a more certain timetable.

Oaxaca: In the Kitchen with Oscar

If you're in Oaxaca for a few days and love the city's food, I would definitely recommend that you take one of the cooking courses offered by many of the restaurants in the town. I booked a four-and-a-half hour class with Oscar Carrizosa of Casa Crespo, which cost US$65 and which was great fun.

Oaxaca: Food & Drink

One of the main reasons I wanted to come to Oaxaca was because of its rich culinary heritage; they have at least seven varieties of mole — a rich, dark, smoky sauce — alone, and whether you choose a casual comedor in one of the markets or one of the fine-dining restaurants in town, it's hard to have a bad meal. Here are some of the foods and drinks that I tried.

Oaxaca: City Centre Sights and Monte Alban

After a long but often scenic bus journey from DF, I arrived in Oaxaca on Wednesday night, just as the heavens opened. I decided to walk to my hotel, despite the rain, as I thought it would help me to get my bearings more quickly.

Mexico City: Chapultepec, Condesa and Roma

Yesterday morning, I went to the two last museums on my list for this trip: the Museo Nacional de Historia and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, both of which are based in the Bosque de Chapultepec, a huge park on the west side of the city centre. Chapultepec means 'the grasshopper hill' in Nahuatl, and the history museum is located in the Castillo de Chapultepec, at the top of the said hill. 

Mexico City: Teotihuacán Pyramids

About 30 miles outside the centre of Mexico City lies the ancient city of Teotihuacán, which was first established in about 100 AD. The origins of the city and the people who founded it (the name Teotihuacán, meaning 'birthplace of the gods', was given to it many centuries later by the Aztecs) remain mysterious. However, the site — famous for its two large pyramids, the Piramide del Sol and the Piramide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon) — is one of the most popular attractions in the Mexico City area.

Mexico City: Museo Frida Kahlo and Coyoacán

Making the most of the (relatively) cooler weather in Mexico City, I went for another run to the Bosque de Chapultepec yesterday morning. This time, I went further into the park, including the very steep climb to the top of the hill on which Castillo de Chapultepec is perched. 

Mexico City: Exploring the Centro Historico — and Coffee

After almost missing my connecting flight from JFK to Mexico City (my first flight was late,and I had to run through the airport and sweet talk the guy at the airline desk into letting me check in even though the flight had closed), I made it to my hotel safely on Friday night. I decided to stay in the Roma area of DF (Distrito Federal — AKA Mexico City), partly because it's a lot calmer than the centro historico, and partly because there is an abundance of good coffee shops.

April Favourites

As this post goes live, I will be on the way to Mexico for some culture, history, sun, fun and especially food. In the meantime, though, here are some of the things I enjoyed in April.

1. Bron (The Bridge). I had overdosed a bit on Scandinavian and/or crime dramas, but as soon as I watched the first episode of Bron, a Swedish–Danish collaboration, I was hooked. As the show opens, a body is found on the bridge between Malmö, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, and because the jurisdiction is initially uncertain, two detectives — Saga (Sofia Helin), a brilliant Swedish detective with a number of Asperger's-like characteristics, and her jovial but troubled Danish colleague Martin (Kim Bodnia) — take on the case. The crimes are interesting, but it's the beautifully complex and subtle relationship between Saga and Martin that really makes Bron stand out. Oh, and season two is even better than the first season!

2. Quarter Horse Coffee. I stopped by Oxford-based Quarter Horse Coffee while visiting my parents last month. It's an awesome cafe with friendly staff and excellent coffee. I have been enjoying some of their beans, which they roast at their Birmingham location, at home for the past couple of weeks and it will definitely be my go-to place for stocking up on coffee when I'm in town.

3. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. This was easily my favourite book of the month. Ronson explores what public shaming means in the #hashtag age. He talks to a number of people who have experienced high-profile public shamings, explores the psychology of the shamers and the shamees and asks whether there is anything that you can do if a single ill-advised Facebook photo upload has done serious damage to your online — and real-world — reputation. The narrative is compelling and the stories are fascinating, although you do wonder if by devouring the book you are somehow participating in the continued attention to the featured individuals.

4. Smorgasburg. I spend a lot of time at street-food markets, but Smorgasburg — the weekly weekend outdoor feast held in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — is one of the biggest and best. A huge number of stalls sell a wide variety of food from breakfast sandwiches to barbecue and lobster rolls to lollipops. I gorged on an epic egg-and-bacon roll from Rise & Swine, a lobster roll and a couple of delicious oysters. But there were so many other things I would have liked to try, including Asian hot dogs, tacos and ramen burgers. I also bought a jar of salted caramel peanut butter from The 3 Nuts, which tastes great on a bagel or, you know, your finger.

5. Michel Thomas Method language courses. I'm a self-proclaimed language geek. I speak French and Italian with reasonable fluency, but I've also picked up some basic proficiency in Spanish, German and Japanese over the years. While I was revising for my A-level French and Italian, some 13 years ago, I decided it was an excellent time to start learning Spanish and I used Michel Thomas's eight-CD course. I've managed to maintain an elementary level of Spanish with very little practice, which will come in useful on this holiday. I also used the eight-CD Japanese course before my trip to Japan last year and I was impressed how much Japanese I learned — and still know. If you want a language course that teaches you the grammar and the structures, rather than giving you phrases to memorise by rote, check out the Michel Thomas courses.