Dear friends,
with mixed feelings in a few days I will leave this beautiful country in which I have had so many interesting experiences in the last nine months. I hope all of you are well and maybe I will see some of you again soon.
But let's start at the beginning:
After leaving the orphanage I stayed in Mexico City for two days. I have visited the national museum for anthropology which even increased my respect and admiration for precolumbian Mexican cultures. And more than ever I am wondering how it was possible that Spanish conquerors could eradicate whole cultures like that and left almost nothing of the richness of this land.
Then I met with my loved friend Anny, who ís a volunteer with Streetsoccer Mexico, which sent two teams (mens' and womens') to the Homeless World Cup in Paris, both of which achieved the second place in their categoies. And once again Anny gave me one of her special tours through the captial and completely changed my view of the city. I very much hope that she will come to visit me in Europe next year and I can give her something in return for all that she'e done for me.
Then I left Mexico City for the state of Veracruz (where Anny is from). Supposedly Veracruz is one of the nicest states of Mexico and the one with the best beaches. And I was lucky enough to arrive in a tiny village next to the beach. Luckily the village was close to a somewhat bigger "town", which at least had some stores, bakeries and internet cafés and even a bus "terminal". The Wwoof-farm I worked on was specialized in the production of litchi and neem-tree-products. However, I worked mainly in the garden and on the field in which they plant corn, beans, potatoes and other things at the same time. And I also had the task to feed goats, chickens and rabbits every day and collect the chickens' eggs.
But the best thing about the farm was, that it was really close to the beach (about 10 minutes by bike), and the beach was like in paradise: Several kilometers of beautiful sandy beach with hardly a person. The only "dirt" there were some trunks that were left on the beach after the last severe hurricane a year ago. It wasn't ideal for swimming because the water was very shallow even several hundred meters away from the shore, but it was perfect for long walks on the beach. And even better: to the south of the beach there was a river with lots of herons and other birds, I even saw frigate birds, and further up the river you could swim in it too; and to the north there was another river with mangroves. The first mangroves of my life and they left me very impressed! And even more: dozens of kilometers of these beaches are where turtles come every night to lay their eggs in the sand. I had the pleasure to experience this amazing spectacle. Just to give you an idea: these animals are almost as big as I am. Their carapaces are about 1.2 metres long and including head and fins they are almost as long as the standard Mexican.
I stayed on the farm for about three weeks before I finally left to go to the long awaited bird ringing place. Before getting there I stayed in the city of Veracruz for two days, which isn't really the nicest city ever and it was waaay too hot. But I had the opportunity to go snorkeling in a coral reef off the shore of the city. It definitely isn't the world's most beautiful reef because it is highly disturbed by tourism and ships, but it was the first time I saw corals like that so I really enjoyed the day out in the sea.
And then finally I left for Minatitlán, where the bird ringers work. Minatitlán is known as one of the hottest and ugliest places in Mexico, and even though I didn't find it very ugly, it defenitely isn't nice and smells of petrol and it really is hot! Awfully hot! But I was somewhat disappointed with the work there. This was partly because of the people - who, for me, were just like typical Americans (which is the same as rich Mexicans) - and because of the birds which we did catch a lot but far fewer species than I had expected. Also we lived in the city rather than in the area of the oil refinery where we worked, which was actually a good thing because of the milions of mosquitos in the ringing site. The first few weeks we got on really well, but after a month I was actually glad to leave.
The birds were nice and I did learn something about American birds but by far not as much as I had hoped for. However, I handled my first hummingbird and almost fainted because of its beauty.
Instead of the planned two months I only stayed one month and then I left to go to Chiapas - another of the states I had very high expectations of.
And as far as the beauty of the countryside is concerned I think Chiapas really lived up to my expectations. There is forest everywhere - from various types of rain forests in the centre to mangrove forests at the sea. I think when I arrived there I only realized just how much I had been missing the rain and the vegetation that it enables while I was staying in other parts of Mexico. While I was there it rained every afternoon, just as it is supposed to be in the tropics. (There also is a dry period here but it is shorter than in the rest of Mexico).
I first went to Palenque to visit the famous Maya pyramids and the rainforest. I was a little disappointed by both. For the pyramids I think was mainly because I didn't have the time to visit them all and to see all the details. And the rainforest there is just too disturbed to be seen as a proper rainforest. However, I did see my first monkeys in the wild, which was a very nice experience and for the first time I also saw lots of parrots (in Minatitlán we only saw one or two on two or three occasions, but there I had a whole morning of bird-watching with constantly seeing and hearing parrots overflying. I only stayed in Palenque for one night and then moved on to San Cristobal de las Casas. The busride was a torture moving through the mountain roads of Chiapas but somehow I survived and arrived at this famous town.
Again I was slightly disappointed by San Cristobal which definitely is a nice little town, but just like Cuzco it is very touristic. For example I made the mistake to sit on the main square on the terrace of a café to drink hot choclate and eat a cake (at an altitude of more 2000 meters and with the rain coming from hot Minatitlán I was actually quite cold!). I sat there for about 20 minutes and during that time at least 7 people passed who wanted to sell me something. Other than in Cuzco though, in San Cristobal more than half of these people were little kids (around 10 years old). So while spending less than 40 Pesos on hot choclate and cake I spent at least as much again on these street vendors.
Also I was disappointed to not see anything whatsoever of any Zapatistas (who are part of the reason I wanted to go there). Still I stayed one more night than planned because I had been adviced to go on a tour to the canyon de Sumidero. And it really was breathtaking and I saw crocodiles and it was definitely worth it.
Finally I left to go to Tapachula, almost at the border to Guatemala. Close to this town I worked on a finca for two weeks (which is a huge coffee farm). The landscape there is absolutely fantastic. There is forest everywhere and with the hills and mountains it almost reminded me of home. The finca is halfway up the mountain in a place with hardly any people. Still, I had mixed feelings about the place and my work there. On the one hand, they produce organic coffee and it really looks very nice, there is no monoculture at all, the coffee trees are spread all over the place growing underneath tall trees so for me as layperson it looked almost natural. However, the finca has also a luxury hotel, which already is something that I don't like very much but what's more: only about 500 metres away from the luxury holiday homes are the rooms for staff and they are the exact opposite. Some of them have running water, in some you have to shower using buckets. The water is far from clean and bathrooms are generally shared between several people and outside. Some people share a little room with all their family and you can hear every word when people next door speak. For me it was an interesting experience to live under such circumstances but I wouldn't want to live like this forever. I am sure you can get used to it, but I really like the luxury of a real shower and an indoor bathroom once in a while.
Also the people with lesser jobs don't get paid very well and often work terribly long hours. I talked to the girl who was cleaning the offices. She is not yet 18 years old, has two children and has never gone to school because as the eldest daughter she had to help her mother to raise her siblings. Her parents also work at the finca and she grew up here. She works around 9.5 hours per day and earns 65 Pesos (around 4 Euro/6 dollar per day). Not knowing reading and writing I don't see how she can ever get a better job and escape from here. This case has affected my quite a bit. I am sure it isn't the only one.
One of my goals when I came to Mexico was, to understand why this country has such big problems or better: how can it be that a country that is so rich in culture and nature can be so poor economically. And finally I think I came to a conclusion. I don't want to sound racist but the mentality and culture of Mexicans isn't made for competing in an economic system that is forced on the world by Europe and the US. One could say that Mexicans are disorganized and lazy but you could also say that they just know how to enjoy life without being stressed out all the time and only trying to make money and make sure they finish their work by a certain deadline. Either way, in my opinion this culture can't compete in our global economy. Therefore every kind of "development aid" can always only help a small number of people and will increase the difference between rich and poor. It would be unfair to say, they just have to learn to organize themselves better and work harder, because they are just the way they are and it is their culture and their right to be like that. I actually think that the richness of the country has developed this kind of laid back culture because in Mexico you really don't have to do a lot in order to have enough to eat. There are so many trees with edible fruits and other things that you can eat that really you just have to help yourself.
Instead it is time that the world accepts that people are different and that it isn't a very good idea to compete all of us on a global market. Other solutions have to be found to solve the problem of poverty in the world. So-called development aid isn't what we need because these cultures are just as well developed as ours - only different.
Anyways, to be honest, I am glad to be European because working with Mexicans for me was a huge challenge. Still, it was a very good experience and I am looking forward to returning to Europe. I have a lot of plans and am eager to get started.
And finally at the end of my travels, I have visited some more pyramids, among them the highly impressive city of Teotihuacan, I've got to know a very nice couchsurfer, visited the city of Oaxaca (with her advice) met some of my new friends again and have learned some more about the capital of Mexico. But now I am also glad to return to Europe and I am curious to see what awaits me there.
Best wishes and greetings into the rest of the world, I hope you are well and I am looking forward to hear from you once in a while, now that I will settle down again (for a while) and probably not write regularly any more. However I promise to be more reliable and quicker in replying to your mails.

take care
Martina