The city of Oaxaca has sunny weather, a beautiful colonial centre, and arguably the best food in Mexico. It is not, on the face of it, the type of place to forment political unrest. But in the main square of the city the first thing you see is a camp surrounded by political slogans. It…
Month: February 2015
1000 years without great pyramids: the Mayans’ greatest achievement?
Last week I found myself, for the sake of a trip out of Mexico City, at some pre-Colombian pyramids. They were big. They were pointy. They dominated the surrounding landscape. Much exploitation must have been necessary to build them. A group of people who considered themselves more important than the others presumably got those others…
A stop on Mexico’s Train of Death
Every year hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants ride freight trains up through Mexico in the hope of reaching the United States. They are riding ‘The Beast’ or ‘The Train of Death’. The nicknames give you some idea of how dangerous it is. The danger is not only in jumping on and off moving…