While travelling around Latin America (and other places in
the world) I have commented a number of times on the general lack of
geographical awareness locals seem to have in their area of residence. There
have been several occasions driving around Mexico that I have chosen not to ask
for directions. I have come to this point for the following two reasons: 1. People generally don’t know where
things are. And if you get out the map, forget about it. 2. People want to ‘save face’. Meaning
they don’t want to appear to be stupid, so they give you some sort of mumbled
directions even if they should have quickly responded “I don’t know”.
And so I've learned that asking for directions in Mexico is
not a straight forward process. Often to overcome this dilemma I will ask for
the same set of directions a handful of times from different people. I have
noticed patterns in age, occupation, etc. that increase the chance of receiving
correct directions from someone.
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| Puerto Progreso, Yucatan, traveling with Tom and Taylor |
Just yesterday, while wondering around the rainy lowland city of
Villahermosa, Tabasco I had an opportunity for direction inquiries. I had no
guidebook, no map, just wondering around downtown sipping coffee and petting
stray dogs. At some point I decided I should check out a museum or two. I had
glanced at a Google Earth map before heading out and I knew within a few blocks
there was a regional history museum. I ducked into a shop selling a variety of
cheap plastic goods to ask where this museum was located.
In the shop there were three attendants and no customers. “Buen
dia,” I said, “conoces donde esta el museo de historia?” The girl closest to me was
about 17 and she gave me a blank look as she finished hanging a set of plastic
combs on a hook. I didn’t really expect her to know as 17-year-olds don’t know much
about anything. She redirected the question to the two middle aged women sitting
behind the cash register. They discussed the question for 30 seconds or so and
finally came to the conclusion that they had no idea there was a museum in the
neighborhood and no idea where it was.
I smiled, said thank-you, and walked out of the shop. By luck, as I turned the corner, I was
immediately faced with a large blue colonial building with “Museo de Historia”
inscribed in the bricks above the door. Of course the shop attendants had not
been in the museum before…many people don’t visit the museums in their
hometown. Museum visiting is something you do when you have ample amounts of
free time to wonder aimlessly and not for someone economically obliged to work.
However, I still find it incredibly interesting that you can spend hours,
weeks, months… years in a shop and have so little idea of the buildings
immediately surrounding you. At least they didn't give me false directions!
....
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| San Francisco de Campeche (Campeche), Campeche |
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| Mural in front of Campeche |
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| Comalcalco Ruins north of Villahermosa, Tabasco |
The Rio Lacanja trip I had been planning for so long has finally come and gone. It was an unforgettable 8 days spent in the middle of pristine Chiapas jungle over the end of the Mayan calendar. We passed jungle covered ruins, crocodiles, multitudes of travertine waterfalls, and had to machete our way through vine covered passages. I have tons of video footage and I will be spending the next two days when I get back to Guadalajara compiling it into a 10-15 minute video. I can’t wait to get back!
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