Innocent abroad in Mexico

The Mexican trip was a 3 week cultural tour, and before the second week was out I had culture pouring out of my ears .

Mexico reveres the Mother Madonna, and there are portraits and statues of the Mother of God everywhere, always with the Sun above her head and the moon at her feet, which is actually a throwback to the deep rooted pagan religion of the indigenous people, who worshipped the Sun and the Moon .

One would have thought that in a country that puts a Woman on a pedestal the rest of the womenfolk might also enjoy some power , but unfortunately I was told in reality a startling 60% of the women there are battered , so Our Lady really had feet of clay .

The trip was kind of jinxed from the start, I found out at the airport my new suitcase had a faulty lock, then I left my guide book and all my notes of the trip on the plane , and I also forgot to bring my coat which meant I had nothing warm to wear.

In the end, I had to "borrow" a UA Airline blanket, which became a permanent fixture on my laps .
Mexico turned out to be cooler than I thought because of the high altitude .

The pre-Columbian masks depict the 3 stages of life : youth, old age and death.

The Mexicans accept death as a matter of course , they not only do not shy away from talking about it, but the Festival of the Dead is a big event in their calendar, and the living ( the fresh flowers ) and the dead (the skull ) are in constant communion.

The snake pops up a lot too in the pre-Columbian culture, a God to be worshipped. I love snake and as it happens it is also the symbol of my profession.
The snake on the neck is Crotalus Cerastes, a desert rattle snake found in Mexico and the S.W. America.

The snake-dragon at the bottom is a mythical creature . One Mexican guide we had was adamant the Chinese were in Mexico long before the Spanish and brought the image of the dragon to them.
My dragon features the wings of the St. George's dragon , but plays with the pearl as a good Chinese dragon would, though in this case the pearl is , fittingly, the HK dollar. It is flanked on one side by the cactus and on the other by the tequila plant , both symbols of Mexico .

I had big problems with the local cuisine and for the most part of the tour the only meal I actually enjoyed was the breakfast , there's not much the chef can do to ruin it !

I tried the pickled grasshoppers , a local snack , and to my relief I didn't like it ; otherwise I'd have no excuse not to eat more of it .

One of the main reasons I went on this trip was to see the MILLIONS of butterflies, but such is the joke life plays sometimes, I only got to see the dead ones because I went to the wrong spot !
But I guess I have to let this one go.

It's probable one might have an easier ride in life in some respects , if one could live with one eye closed always , but what do you do if you happen to be the kind of girl who wears her heart on her sleeve and would always say what is truthful rather than what is popular ?

Everything one experiences goes into the creation of oneself .

Travelling not only brings us the excitement of new experiences, but the brief encounter with another people affords us a glimpse into their life in a similar yet different world , and we're privileged to learn from their experiences of that world. However, as we're all shaped by our past and tend to interpret the
world according to our own reality, so for me there's no getting away from the influences of H.K. , as depicted by the Bauhinia in the hair and the skyline
of H.K., nor my cultural heritage, depicted by the flag of China.

The jinx had the last card as I found to my horror after coming home, that during the time I was on the tour a drain pipe in my flat had burst and my whole flat was flooded, the water was so high I swear you could row a boat on it !

Sometimes life can get to be too much and I must confess there are many times I wish I could just sprout little wings and fly away !