My friend Asbestos Bitch only blogs once a year, to publish her “books read” list. I thought it might be nice to try the same, actually writing down the titles I’ve read. Over 30 years of near-constant reading I’ve never made the attempt. Here’s Q1’s list, whose winner is…. Running in the Family by Michael…
Since 1518
San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas: the second oldest colonial city in the Americas, epicentre for the making contact with the zapatista movement, a cool mountain refuge from sweltering capital Tuxtla, anthropologist capital of the world. If you head straight east from here you end up in Mauritania. The picturesque colonial-style city centre is dominated…
Swim review: a brook at Arcotete
Park, climb up the rocks by the brook, have a dip, have a picnic.
Swim review: lagoon and waves at Boca del Cielo, Chiapas
Bathwater, scary towering waves, mozzies and seafood strip.
Swim review: bad vibes in pretty Tulum
Tulum was my first taste of the famous dream beaches of the “Riviera Maya” in Quintana Roo. The beach certainly was pretty and the water lovely. I stayed in an unambitious concrete hotel in town for MX$500 and rented a bike for $100 to hit the beach. Thinking back, that bike ride was probably the…
Pre-roadkill
I just got my first look at a Chiapas state driver’s license. On the front it has your organ donor status in big letters, standing out more than the personal information above it. On the back it has your blood type and emergency contact. I can’t decide whether the authorities are morbid, in the pay…
Swim review: Hunucma cenotes
One of the best ways to swim that I’ve come across! These are the cenotes on the former sisal plantation in Hunucmá, Yucatán state. It’s close to Acanceh, about an hour east from Mérida. Around there you can just cruise along the road and you’ll see people with colourful placards advertising cenote visits, also good,…
Book review: A Supposedly Fun Thing…
My ebook version of “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” by David Foster Wallace came with three essays: one on David Lynch, one on professional tennis, with the titular one last. I gave up halfway through the tennis essay: Lynch gives me the creeps and I’ve never had an interest in tennis, so…
Ruin city review: Tenam Puente
Yeah! All we do here for weekend trips here in Chiapas is swim and climb pyramids, sometimes both on the same day. If you head towards Comitan with its historical town centre, tasty food and own-label agave spirit you’re within easy reach of at least three archaeological sites and four swimming spots. Pyramids: Chinkultic, Tenam Puente…
Swim review: Las Nubes
Las Nubes is one of the furthest swim-and-chill destinations you can reasonably hit on a weekend from San Cristóbal: a cottage hotel next to the swift Santo Domingo river, just upstream from some spectacular rapids. In the dry season the water is a delicious chalky blue and the swimming “beach” lets you swim across the…
Swim review: Chukumaltic
There’s so much outdoor swimming to be had in Chiapas that I´m becoming quite the connaisseur(e?) of southern Mexico’s waterfalls, rivers, cenotes and lakes. And a few beaches. So much so that I’m hereby inaugurating the tag Swim Review! This is in spite of not being an enthusiastic fan of swimming*, but my partner’s merman-like…
Book review: Housekeeping
I didn’t get this book. It’s all about the lake and how it sort of seeps into the lives of all the characters… I guess… I forced myself to finish it and came away with an impression of wading through a sucking swamp with smelly cold water wicking through my clothes. I couldn’t empathise…
Lead by obeying
The zapatista movement’s leadership principles – in chain-stitch embroidery!
Dog transport
Mexican doggies get rides.
