A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

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Day 7 - Part 2 - La Malinche Hike
2/17/06

Cooking and eating completed, D, A and I decided we needed some major exercise, and headed to La Malinche, one of the three nearby volcanoes, with Yair the formerly quiet cab driver. The hike was not exactly what we expected. For one thing, the guidebook, under the "Ecotourism" section, detailed the spectacular ravines, unforgettable panoramic landscapes, and hares and armadillos practically sharing lunch with you. To be honest, we read this description after our trip, and were aware that we were basically just taking a forest hike. We were, however, promised by the long-suffering Yair that when we reached the top of the trail there would be a view of the mountain itself. Like much of Yair's commentary, this prediction turned out to be somewhat fictional.

To back up a little, La Malinche, which also has one of those unpronounceable Nahautl names (Matlacueitl), is a dormant volcano about 13,000 feet tall named after the earlier referenced mistress/interpreter of Cortes. Like Tlaxcala, Mexicans have a conflicted view of her -- one article I found was entitled "La Malinche - Harlot or Heroine?". She is considered a traitor to some, having played a central role in enabling Cortes to conquer the Aztecs. At the same time, as the mother of the first mestizo child, she is a symbol of the mix of cultures that Mexico became.

Her background, as reported by Cortes' official biographer and other conquistadors (and as a disclaimer, I have no reason to believe they are any less prone to fictionalizing than our cab drivers) was impressively operatic. The only daughter of the lord of Palanya, a region between the Aztec and Mayan empires, she was in line to take control of the province after his death when she fell victim to that age-old dilemma of step-families. Her mother remarried, and she and the Evil Stepfather decided that the new son should be the leader. So to clear the way, they sold or gave the teenaged La Malinche (also known as La Malintzin) to Mayan slave traders. Ah, the good old days, when you could get rid of your obstreperous step-children by selling them into slavery.

She ended up one of the chief's slaves in Tabasco, and along the way learned Mayan. When Cortes arrived on the Yucatan peninsula in 1519, she was one of 20 young slave women given to him by the chief as a result of his conquest of the region. She got her big break when Cortes learned that one of the slave women spoke both Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and Mayan. Thenceforth she served as an interpreter, translating Nahuatl into Mayan, while his other translator, a Spanish priest who had been a prisoner in the Yucatan for years, translated from Mayan into Spanish. She picked up Spanish quickly, however -- by the time they arrived in Tenoctitlan at the end of the year, she was translating directly from Nahuatl without intermediary.

The benefit to Cortes of having a reliable translator should not be understated. La Malinche, or 'Dona Marina' as she was known to the Spanish, was born to the role of leader or consort, and served as advisor to both sides in negotiations as well as translator. It is thought by many that the conquest would have been far more bloody and violent but for her efforts. In contemporary art Cortes is rarely shown without her at his side, and she is also shown on her own, independently directing events. The two were considered a ruling unit by many natives, rather than conqueror and interpreter, and La Malinche remains a central and controversial figure in Mexican history and culture.

But enough of the historical digression! After a generous double-application of A's Incredibly Expensive Banana Boat, our hike began at La Malintzi Vacation Center, a "family recreation paradise with all the attractions and comfort needed for endless entertainment". [Further digression: words can't describe how much I love the "Tlaxcala Loves You" tourist guide provided by Jon and Estela. Any guidebook that can describe Tlaxcala as an "aquatic paradise" because of its single lake (complete with "Apache Fort" for the kids!) earns my Hyperbolic Copywriter Seal of Approval. ] The LMVC services, I can report first hand, included cabins, basketball court upon which people play soccer, kids play area, and a parking lot with what would be a very nice view of La Malinche if they hadn't erected two cell phone towers right in the middle of the view.

Yair, a roly-poly gentleman with inappropriate shoes and the air of a man who prefers wheeled transportation, assured us that he had climbed the mountain before and very much surprised us by insisting on joining the hike. Sadly for him, he seems to have volunteered under the misapprehension that we were like other more feeble ladies he had taken to Malinche, who would take a leisurely 30 minute stroll in the forest and turn back for a refresco and a bit of shopping. We, however, had spent the previous afternoon in the car and were in the mood for some strenuous exercise, and thus set a pace that had Yair panting and all of us feeling the altitude.

Not being the adventurous sort, Yair guided us along a paved road that switchbacked up the mountains for about 5 km to a phone tower. He had never taken the well-trodden trails leading into the forest, and indeed had informed us that people lived up those trails in little houses. Clearly "I don't know" is not an acceptable answer to a direct question to a Mexican driver/guide. After 40 minutes of uphill we took a rather longer rest than usual. At this point we were thinking about turning back, or maybe walking another 20 minutes then returning. It was all forest, after all, with no view to speak of and mostly paved road apart from the times we ignored Yair and took off on one of the forest paths. It was a very nice forest walk, don't get me wrong, with aromatic pines and just enough breeze to make it pleasant. Of course, the Banana Boat wasn't getting too much of a workout, but at our power pace we certainly were.

This was the point at which Yair, who was already trailing behind, made his Critical Male Error. When asked whether most tourists made it to the top, he guilelessly replied that usually the men made it to the top and the women waited half-way up. Well. We knew a challenge when we heard it -- it was obviously our responsibility to stand for the Power of Womanhood. No longer would Yair be able to say that only men made it to the end of the trail.

And so we continued up. And up. And up. Seriously, that hike had to be more than 6 km. In the end, we left Yair on the side of the trail and continued to the end, only to discover that it ended in a thick forest well before the mountain was visible. We would need to blaze our own trail to get over the next rise, and at that point our situation was so uncertain (would there really be a view from up there?) that we couldn't summon much energy for it. After snacks (thanks, Mom!) and a photo op we headed back down, and since I was in the lead this time (I'm much better at down than up) I took every little woodsy path available to keep us off the paved road. Yair, delighted to learn all these new paths (despite the fact that we now knew how full of hooey the "little houses" story was), told D that he should offer me a job as his new guide. Mom and Dad should be pleased that I have so many and varied employment opportunities.

Pleasantly exhausted, we headed back to the house. It was a delightful drive, due to the unfortunate (to others) accident on the highway forcing us to detour through a serious of picturesque little villages between the volcano and Tlaxcala city. And even though we didn't get much of a view on our hike, at least we burned off enough calories to justify those strong margaritas and deep fried dinner.

© 2006 Katy Warren

posted by Katy at 10:54 AM