From East to West

How Visiting Six Big American Cities Helped Me Better Understand the Nation

Photographs and Text by John Korngold

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The United States.

In July 2020, I spent four weeks in Mexico, traveling across the country from Cancún to Mexico City, spanning six states and three urban areas. Needless to say, this was only enough to scratch the surface of such a diverse nation, but it did allow me to get a glimpse at the reality of Mexican life and take a step back from its usual reputation as a violent and corrupt country.

Gathered here is a selection of memories from my journey. In a certain way, they each reflect some aspect of Mexican society, be it food, music, tequila, cinema, lucha libre or even corruption. Keep reading to find out what the world’s “most dangerous” border actually is like, and to hear about how I almost ended up touring across the country with a Banda. 

 

After a brief stay in Cancún, I caught a colectivo to Tulum, a small town on the Rivera Maya that my neighbors on the plane had told me about.

 

The town itself is not spectacular, but its location made it ideal to meet other travelers and take day trips to cenotes and archeological sites.

 
 
 

Another great thing about Tulum is how surprisingly bike-friendly the whole area is. My hostel Lum rented them out for free.

 
 
 

Tulum’s main attraction, its ruins, are easily accessible by bike from the town center. Some people at my hostel mentioned they’d managed to bribe the night guards some 250 pesos each into letting them in after hours. Naturally, I wanted to try this out, so we set off the very next day with our bikes and coronas ready to enjoy the sunset by the ruins. Nevertheless, the whole adventure turned out to be mission impossible: the guards wouldn’t hear any of it. “We’ve changed, we don’t do that here anymore”. Something must have changed overnight.

 
 

Cenotes

 
 
 

Coba is an ancient Mayan city hidden deep in the jungles. Unlike Chichen Iza, its largest pyramid remains open for the public to climb its 130 steps, offering spectacular views of the surrounding nature.