2000 km southeast and 30°C warmer than the previous location: Main square of Mérida, Yucatán.

Sunset over the pool in Celestún, Yucatán.

The only not so nice detail was when on meeting some people I hadn’t seen in a long time I realised that the crab mentality seems to be alive and well in certain sectors of society. Shame, but hey, what can you do. Overall it was great and I cannot wait to be back again, if only for holidays.

As my previous post detailed, I spent a great holiday in Mexico, catching up with friends and especially family.  We spent a week in Mexico City, then 6 days in the Copper Canyon trail and a few days in Mérida and the natural reserve of Celestún before having to return to the winter wonderland.  I was struck by the enormous variety of landscapes and peoples living in the country where I was born, even if I knew it in theory.  As usual, pictures say it better (if you want to see more than these, they’re all here).

The winter sky sometimes seems to take a life of its own.

Copper Canyon: Barranca de Urique from Cerro del Gallego in Chihuahua state. The largest of 32 federal entities in Mexico, Chihuahua is bigger than many European countries, e.g. the United Kingdom.

Deep view of Copper Canyon in Divisadero

Copper Canyon panorama from Divisadero

Copper Canyon detail

Copper Canyon: Piedra Volada or why would anyone get so close to a loose rock?

The rarámuri (tarahumara) peoples live in the area, and many sell their handcrafts to the tourists. I earned some brownie points by thanking them in their own language ("Chirigüeraba").

It also snows in parts of Mexico, you know? Creel, Chihuahua

This is not a Finnish lake, but Lago Arareco in Chihuahua state.

Cusarare waterfall, Chihuahua.

Continues in Part 2

Visited the city on a business trip. I have to say that the most interesting things about Istanbul for me were the long historical view you get in the city, and the uncanny resemblance Turks have with Mexicans.

As usual with these kind of posts, pictures say it better.

A city between cultural zones and continents, it has more than 10 million people and number of different names throughout history (maybe Byzantium or Constantinople ring a bell). So many different peoples have lived in it, that excavations for the metro and the Marmara project have found ancient ruins (just like Templo Mayor in Mexico City).

Traders by nature, the culture of haggling in its bazaars is very well developed.

The Aya Sofya, one of the most imposing religious buildings I have ever been to, started its life as a church, became a mosque and is now a national museum.

Mexican similarities exhibit A: look at this baker's bread-carrying tecnique.

Mexican similarities exhibit B: Kebabs are way too similar to tacos al pastor.

In many cultures it is common to take advantage of all parts of an animal, not only the average meat.  As I had been missing beef tongue tacos (a Mexican delicacy) for some time, I decided to try the same with reindeer when I found it sold in my local supermarket.  The taste was very good, if a little gamy.

Tacos de lengua de reno

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 500 g of reindeer tongue (2-3 tongues)
• 1 full head of garlic
• 1 white onion
• Couple of stems and leaves of hierba buena (or spearmint)
• Couple of stems of dill (or dried dill where available)

Peel the garlic. Cut the onion in 4 parts. Add the hierba buena, dill, and the tongues and boil everything in water for 1.5 hours. Peel the tongues and cut in small cubes.

Serve with warm tortillas.  Salad and rice as good optional sides.  Don’t forget a good sauce (a taco without sauce is a sad taco), we had some salsa taquera but I’m sure some pico de gallo would also work great.

I came across Remembrance Day in my last stay in London. While I find the tradition very moving (especially given the current servicemen situation in Afghanistan), I am also slightly disturbed by its militaristic overtones.  There’s nothing wrong with remembering your dead, but shouldn’t be used as a justification for hating others.  After all, the First and Second World Wars were already some time ago.

If Finland were to apply tests for citizenship applicants, would you be able to pass it? Helsingin Sanomat created one.

I got 85%, while natural-born Finns I know got 30 points less. Doesn’t seem to make me or any other foreigner any more or less of a Finn in the eyes of society to know for example how people in Rauma speak, as the more I explore suomalaisuus it looks that it is an ethnic rather than cultural concept.

Wikipedia has a better overview of the place.  I’ll just give you my observations in pictures (the rest, as usual, here).

Long-time foreign residents (and good friends) say there's only 3 things to do in Singapore: eat, shop and visit the rest of Southeast Asia. I wouldn't really mind, especially given their awesome weather.

The place looks absolutely stunning at night.

In Singapore and the rest of the world you can find Corona

Their Financial district didn't appear to have suffered the recession too much. Furthermore, everywhere is spotless.

There is very, very interesting architecture.

The place is almost a textbook case study of multiculturalism. Not surprising given that it was forced on them by the government a few generations ago.

The economy is still going strong.

The place seems to be slightly constrained on the political freedoms front, juding by the level of discourse in the country's media.

By now everybody and their mother have heard about the “balloon boy hoax“: a kid was feared to have flown away on a balloon kept in his family’s back yard who garnered huge media and law-enforcement attention until it was found that first he was not there in the balloon and then that it had all been staged.

More than anything, I think it is a commentary on the length to which some will go in order to attain “fame”, even at the cost of everybody else.  They got their 15 minutes, but could end up with a 2 million USD fine and 6 years in jail.

What started as an emergency procedure during my student years has become a more common practice, and every once in a while I like combining Finnish ingredients with Mexican spices to produce something unique.  Two of my more celebrated recipes are below, I hope you like them.

Some of the spices needed can be bought in Meksikolainen.fi or Mexgrocer.co.uk.  I just bring them from Mexico when I’m there

Salmón Pibil

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

• 1/2 bar of achiote paste
• 250 ml orange juice (pressed or otherwise)
• 1 small (100 g) tin of chipotle chillies
• 1/2 small pineapple or 1 orange
• 1/2 red onion
• 500g of salmon fillet

Grate the achiote and dissolve in orange juice until you get a bright orange liquid.  Put salmon in a flat oven-safe recipient and add achiote marinade.  Add the chillies (be sure to rub them with the salmon).  Cut the onion in half rings and add.  Cut the pineapple/orange in slices and decorate salmon with it.Leave in oven at 170 °C for 1-1.5 hour until ready.  It should be crisp but with enough liquid.

Mole nórdico con reno / Manchamanteles negro con reno

(we’re still debating the name of this one)

Ingredients (serves 3)

• 2 morita chillies
• 2 pasilla chillies
• 2 dried chiles de árbol
• 2 guajillo chillies
• 2 ancho chillies
• 4 spoons of cranberry juice
• 125 ml cloudberry juice
• 450g of reindeer or elk meat in small pieces (if using elk, it’s not “reno” but “alce”).

Blend everything but the meat together.  Cook sauce and elk together slowly with a little of added water to give even more time for the flavours to ripen in the fire.  Should be ready in 45 minutes to an hour.

I recently met a student of cultural anthropology and had a very stimulating conversation like I haven’t had in a long time outside of work.  Her main area of interest are cultural areas in cities, and when I mentioned that the part of Mexico City where I grew up is somehow similar to the part of the Helsinki metro area where I live now as they’re both suburbs we got off to a good start.

During the course of this conversation she mentioned the phrase that gives its title to this post, and it got stuck with me.  The first example that came to my mind was that of the different manifestations of the Virgin Mary: in Europe she’s Caucasian, in Mexico she’s mestiza and in China she’s Asian.  However, I have been reflecting more on that given the current chapter in the Finnish immigration debate, where a university professor has pretty much reached the same conclusions as Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations (conclusions with which I couldn’t agree less).

The other reason why this phrase is stuck in my head is because in the past few days through analysing my behaviour (and a couple of faux pas) I have found a couple of things I’m not sure I like too much about myself.  Then again, the first step in enacting change is discovering what the desired state is.