Puebla, Mexico

Nunca deja de soñar...

Today’s journey brought nine hours of travel and turned it into conversation and understanding.  I woke up this morning in San Cristóbal and tonight I will lay my head down in the beautiful historical city of Puebla, Mexico.  

The future is a very uncertain thing and in this confusion I somehow take a great comfort.. but enough of my esoteric words, rather I wish to tell you that in this moment I’m content with my uncertainty.  You see, earlier today we struggled with a very important choice to make as we weren’t sure which border would be safest for us to cross from Mexico back into USA.  Although we are still days away from the border we must begin making plans to guide our vessel home.  This took us to Puebla.  

Perhaps you’ve e heard of cinco de mayo in college when you took shots of tequila and wore a silly Mexican sombrero but honestly that crap is nonsense here.  The fifth of May represents a great part of Mexico’s history and it’s really wild to believe that we have appropriated their culture to such a degree yet who am I to be surprised when we still celebrate saint Patrick’s Day be getting blindingly drunk with no knowledge of its origin?  To me Puebla represents so much more. Let me explain...

I believe that the manner in which we view a culture not only reflects our knowledge of their history yet it reflects how we see ourselves in the world in general.  Do we see ourselves as alone and vulnerable to the unknown?  Or do we embrace our differences and see ourselves as an integral part of the notion of “culture” in general?  Do we believe what we hear about other countries or do we go see for ourselves that really we aren’t so different after all?

This takes us to Puebla, a city I’ve barely begun to explore.  We came here on a whim that the Matamoros/Brownsville border is currently too dangerous to cross.  This probably isn’t true as thousands of vehicles pass every day but the fear gripped me and I found myself looking into other ports of entry into USA.  (Listen listen what speaks to you? Listen listen you know it’s true..)

Cumbia.. my not so secret love of a musical genre that has barely crossed into the United States.. your 4/4 shuffle has tempted me for years.  I’ll say it, I want to go to Monterrey, Mexico and hear for myself the rhythm that has imported itself from Colombia.  Is this why I have found myself in new paths unexplored? I might not know the answer to that question for several days but for now I know that in this moment I’m happy, content and eager to explore the next chapter of my travels.

Never stop dreaming.