Found this Salitos pseudo-Mexican beer in the shelves of my local supermarket.  After a little bit of googling found out it is produced in Germany by a company that has nothing to do with Latin America at all.  This is the kind of marketing that I absolutely abhor: when companies find a market niche they try to fill by being something they’re not.  This kind of misleading advertising worked before people had access to information, now with the net everybody can see if the emperor has no clothes.

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

We are currently traveling in Mexico, enjoying the Christmas & New Year’s break.  The latest photographic developments will be available here.

Enjoy the holidays!

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.

Mexico was drawn together with South Africa, France, and Uruguay, in group A, and will play the opening match of the tournament in Johannesburg against the hosts.

While the reaction in both France and South African media seems to have been mostly relieved, I wouldn’t be too optimistic.  Uruguay can be a very tough opponent, and Mexico ended its qualification campaign much better than it started.

The opening match will be crucial and for that there is a couple of things I wanted to bring up:

• Altitude: South Africa and Mexico are used to playing at altitude, so that should not be a factor.
• Home advantage: Certain reports were making a lot of noise about vuvuzelas, the trumpets South African supporters use, and how they would inspire fear in their opponents.  Sorry, bafana bafana, but the Mexicans will just feel right at home if they hear loud blowing horns as that matches the conditions at Azteca Stadium.
• Rankings, team quality, World Cup experience…: I like the South Africans, but the team hasn’t really shown that much lately.  Mexico started qualification in the doldrums and ended on a high.
• Opening match: No host team has lost the opening match in the history of the World Cup.

Now we just have to wait for July to come over, right?

The Mexican community in Helsinki organises a posada every December, and this year was not the exception.  The menu included chilaquiles and crema de chile poblano, we had a piñata “beauty” contest before breaking them, and of course we sang the traditional songs.

It was definitely interesting to have such a Mexican feeling so far away, and really good to see the kids getting involved, since it was their party after all.

Es interesante ver que algunas de las semillas de la presente situación en México fueron plantadas durante el llamado “milagro mexicano” de 1940-1971.  Clientelismo, monopolios y falta de valor agregado en las actividades económicas  son vicios que se hicieron fuertes durante esa época.  Algunos otros se fortalecieron más tarde, especialmente el narcotráfico, el descuido del sistema educativo y el enfoque exclusivo en Estados Unidos.

En las últimas semanas han llamado mi atención una serie de artículos en los que se manifiesta la preocupación de algunos sectores dada la situación actual de México, especialmente en comparación con nuestros vecinos latinoamericanos.  La diferencia nace, a mi parecer, de la decidia de la clase política y de la falta de una cultura democrática en la sociedad que complemente nuestro sistema político.  Somos buenísimos para quejarnos y para asistir a manifestaciones, pero díganme quién le ha llamado a su diputado o senador para pedirle que rinda cuentas.

Viendo desde fuera el número de oportunidades perdidas en los últimos 10 años por el exceso de politiqueros y la falta de verdaderos estadistas, y el estado de nuestra inversión en el desarrollo de recursos humanos a través de la educación, por desgracia no me sorprende el estado del país.

Por desgracia, como es más fácil armar mitotes que ponerse a trabajar, no soy tan optimista como quisiera. Espero estar equivocado.

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.

Mexican public finances are not in the best of shapes given the economic crisis and the extremely difficult year so far for the country, so in their budget proposal for the next year Congress has proposed to raise taxes on pretty much everything instead of trimming down public spending further and closing useless ministries and bureaucratic institutions.

One “small detail” that has gotten pretty much every Mexican netizen riled up is a raise of 3% on telecommunications, including the use of internet, as Congress considers it a “luxury good”.  Great way of stifle the development of the nation even further, especially when comparing it to what is going in in places like Finland where brodband access is a right (which doesn’t mean it’s subsidised by the state).  Here in Finland it is understood that connectivity brings economic advantages and growth, unlike our prehistoric Mexican politicians.