This year we went north for Christmas. To the town of Sundsvall in the middle of Sweden. With a population of 51 000, just shy of 100 000 in the whole municipal area I would describe it as a small town, but for Sweden it is a mid-size city. Although being a university city the population fluctuate considerable between semesters and school breaks.
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I don’t think there is much arguing that there is a lot of problems in the world.
We have wars, corruptions, a climate crisis, a monetary system that is failing all over the world, both USA and EU takes punch after punch waiting for the final knock.
It is clear we need changes and new thinking.
I am convinced I will see a lot of big changes in my lifetime, but the changes will not come from our generation. The shift to a more sustainable world will be brought on by our children.
In a world becoming smaller and the information flowing faster they will not just sit silent. Thanks to evolution every new generation are born more intelligent than the former I can promise you they will stand up and show their parents they can do what we couldn’t.
Never the less. We can’t sit back and let our children clean up our mess, we have to give them the best possible chances to succeed.
As adults we learned that people are different, but still we force our children to be the same, do the same, think the same. They must all fit in the same square hole even if they are triangles, hexagons or round.
We need an educational change, maybe even and educational revolution.
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A couple of kilometers outside the village of Teapa we find Grutas del Cocona.
A large cave system containing 8 large rooms connected with 500 meters, mostly walkable, underground path. A nice daytrip and an escape from the oppressive heat in Tabasco.
My visit at the caves was not only a cool day away from the sun it also became a small adventure. Usually the caves are lightened up, this day it was a power outage.
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On my day at the plantation I did not stand around watching the workers loading bananas all the time. We also had a look around the domains and the savanna surrounding the cultivated land – And we were traveling with style.
On the back of a mule I saw plenty of the amazing nature and exotic wildlife of Tabasco. I was offered a horse, but haven’t been riding for 25 years a stubborn donkey felt safer than a bolting stallion.
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Bananas has been a hot topic in Sweden the last couple of years after the documentaries Bananas!* a film about plantation workers in Nicaragua and the follow up Big Boys Gone Bananas!* telling the following story when a small documentary filmmaker was sued by a multi-billion dollar company.
Personally I haven’t eaten bananas in a few years as my own personal protest. This, of course, has been a basis of discussions and – I believe – a source for many jokes in Mexico. Especially here in Tabasco where platanos come with the mother’s milk.
When it got known I was going to Tabasco I was invited to visit a plantation to see with own eyes how they grow bananas around here.
My day at a plantation was long, hot and very interesting.
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Mexico is a country of opposites. I have spent the last summers in the middle of the country, in the city of Toluca, about 60 km (close to 40 miles) west of Mexico City. Going a few hours north it is dry land and all you see is brown, sunburned fields. Going a few hours south it is all green with an amazing vegetation.
Nowhere is the opposites of the country and the complexity of the Mexicans so clear as in the state of Tabasco.
Half of Mexico is geographically in the tropic, but Tabasco is the real tropic with rainforest , rivers and fertile soil. Step on a Papaya seed today and next year you have a blooming plant.
There is fruit growing in the wild everywhere, mango, papaya, cacao and all kind of citrus as orange, lime and lemon. Some fruits I have never seen before, like the colorful pitaya.
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I will soon take you to adventure in Tabasco, but first there is one more café I want to present.
A little unfair I came here with great expectations.
A café with the Swedish-sounding name Fikafé (Fika – have a coffee, kafé – café), should be serving a good coffee. And Fe, being Spanish for faith, I did have some belief.