The story continues from the entry on Mexico City, and starts with

The bus ride to Jalapa:

I left Mexico City the next morning on the 18^th of November, 2004, hoping for some rest on the bus. It didn’t take long to climb up the mountains and leave the smog of the city behind. The pallor of the smog was almost a purple color. It lay like a blanket smothering the city. The higher we climbed the more the air became clear, pristine and warm. We started encountering tall pine trees growing on the sides of the mountain. Much of the valley was still farmland and once we crossed over the ridge we found more farming. Most of the fields were of harvested corn. There were men in the fields taking the corn stocks and loading them on to flat wagons pulled by donkeys. Haven’t been able to find out what they do with them. As we traveled along the volcano appeared. I knew at once it was the female companion of the other active volcano Popoteceptal. Long story, but one is male and other is female, a type of myth like the Shakespeare story of Romeo and Juliet, lost love and death. I watched them for a long time and as we passed by Puebla they faded into the background. As soon as we crossed over on the gulf coast side of the ridge, the trees and scrub brush and cactus changed into lush vegetation. The small towns on the way had browsing cows, goats and some sheep, even a few turkeys and chickens. No ducks or geese. The houses were all the same, no matter where they are built. Cement blocks. Tin roofs, or flat cement roofs. Some were in better condition than others. Each house had a water tank on the roof. The poor are really poor and the more well off have painted houses and cleaner yards. When we finally made the descent into the valley I could see the city of Jalapa sprawled everywhere. This is a very urban place with many red tiled roofs gleaming in the sun. I arrived in Jalapa bus station (or Xalapa) about 2:30 pm. The taxi took me to the hostel on my reservation and I settled in the Hostel Neibia. The room had six beds, but I was the only one occupying the room. I had to use the shower and toilet located outside the room down the hall. It wasn’t too bad. In fact it was very refreshing. The place was not very busy. Well, maybe this will be more restful.

I set off down the street looking for a place to get the pictures off the camera and on to a CD. This town is a pretty big place. Built on the sides of the mountains on the Vera Cruz side of the mountain range. Here there is more up and down movement to the streets, stairs and hills to climb. Going to be here two days. I wandered around to find where a few things were located. The hostel is in the middle of the downtown area. The streets run up and down, lots of steps and narrow one-way streets, very narrow sidewalks, and little teeny cars to go on them. If you could shrink San Francisco or Madrid, Spain you would get a grip on the size and flavor of it. Every block in the downtown area has an Internet, fancy shoe stores, Italian design clothes, many restaurants but no open markets. Ho hawking vendors on the sidewalks but some food vendors in the park abut 3 blocks down the street, but not on the streets. The corner next to the hostel had a version of a grocery store (stop and go) place to buy essentials. I bought a yogurt and roll and some cheese to go with the crackers I still had. They had several displays of breads and cookies. They were piled on trays and left in the open air. None of them were wrapped or covered in any way. While I was out on the street I found a restaurant and had dinner. I ordered a rib eye steak and a margarita. This is what was served to me: the margarita was served with the tequila in a shot glass, the lime in a glass with ice and a can of squirt soda. The steak was good but when I ordered rare it was almost cold. The mashed potatoes were good with butter and cheese mixed in and served with tortilla chips stuck in the top of the potatoes. I was served a salad with lettuce, tomato and some oil dressing. I was also given a plate of hot peppers, cooked carrots and sautéed onions. I picked out the peppers and ate the rest. For some reason I also was served a plate of crisp tortilla chips smeared with beans and some sort of cheese spread. It was good. I also had some fat French bread. It was too much to eat so I made two sandwiches to eat for lunch the next day. When I returned to the hostel, I went to bed at 8 p.m. I got up at 8:30 p.m. as the room next to mine filled up with some meeting and I could have sworn I had ninety people in my room. They were also very noisy. That lasted until 11:30. Being I couldn’t get any sleep I made some use of their Internet. When they all went home I returned to bed, worn out before the night even started.

Jalapa Museum:

It is Friday a.m. and I am going to the museum as it is now open. I rode the city bus up the hill to the top. The museum had beautiful grounds and a huge building. The whole thing was built out of marble tile. The exhibits were placed in spacious rooms where they were easy to see. Most of them were behind glass. I wasn’t supposed to use a flash, but I couldn’t turn off the camera and misjudged the light a couple of times and it went off. A little old man sitting on a bench jumped up and waved his arms, saying ‘no flash, no flash’. He didn’t take my camera, but watched me for a while after that. I wanted to take pictures of everything as they had some wonderful Olmec statues. I settled for a book, the last one for sale in English being I couldn’t use a flash in the rooms. I drooled over the ceramic bowls and figures. Some were quite large. They had to make the pottery in pieces and fire them, then assemble them. They were held together with some sort of mortar to glue them together. I got the impression that the Olmec may have been sea faring enough to influence the Samona people from the south Pacific. If they settled in Hawaii that would account for some of the features in art and carvings I saw when I lived in Hawaii, which were very similar to what was here. As I made my way through the museum I took pictures of the exhibits in the open patios and anything else I could get away with. They had funeral jars and braziers with carved faces. They had many of the heads from the La Venta Site in Tabasco. Jar after jar and figure after figure was very nicely displayed. I went outside and had my lunch of the two sandwiches I made the night before on the garden grounds. I encountered an old man with a hand made broom sweeping the sidewalk and a young gardener with an ancient hoe working the flowerbed. It was pleasant to sit in the shade. The grounds were like a park, clean and well groomed.

I saved the bread for the pigeons I saw in the town plaza and when I returned I sat and fed them. When I was finished with lunch I wandered back through the museum again, trying to absorb as much as possible to memory to use when I start my session of working with clay when I returned home.

I took the bus back when I was dropped off further down the street I found a shop that put my pictures on disk, I fed the pigeons in the park, I had a whole flock of about fifty gathered around. They sure were hungry. I walked around a bit and took some pictures of the streets. I also found a ceramic art exhibit under the plaza and liked the way the artist manipulated the clay to make a series of pieces that fit together with such fluid movement.

The town sure was a quaint place, but I don’t know what I would do if I lived there. As I was coming down the street I met a guy that helped me in one of the Internet cafes the day before. He was from New York. He spoke fluent Spanish so he helped me with translation. I was surprised when he spoke to me, but I recognized him when I turned around. We chatted for a few minutes. He has a girl friend from town and is returning to New York for 6 months to work then come back to Jalapa. He told me he was a stripper but I thought he was a pretty skinny guy to do that. I also asked him if the town had many ´gays´ as I saw some posters in a store that suggested that. He told me that about four blocks down the street were many ´gay´ bars and there were many in town.

I spent the rest of the evening on the slow computer until it was time to take a taxi to the bus. I had to pay for the room for the day, but was glad to have a place for my bags even though I didn’t spend the night. The hostel staff helped me load my bags into the taxi about 10.p.m. and I left for the bus station and the night ride to Villahermosa.

The story continues in the section for Villahermosa