Plaza de Toros

The Corrida itself is just not for me - bullfights are kinda gruesome. But, here in Mexico and most Latin-American/Spanish areas of the world, the bullfight is considered a ritualized art form and any aspects of cruelty imply are not culturally recognized. Well, maybe if the bull didn't have to be drug out of the cage before the fight due its fear of the toreo and the crowd, maybe then I could buy all the guy-risking-his-life hoopla. As it stands, it seems more like an overblown way to kill a bull with some added entertainment. Now, the running of the bulls here in September (or of course the large running of the bulls in Spain) IS something I would like to see someday..

Having said all this, I do like the excitement surrounding the meere mention of a bullfight and the artwork is very nice as well. Thus, I thought it would definitely be worth checking out Plaza de Toros here in San Miguel just to see the arena and maybe some associated art/architecture. If there was a bullfight here, I would probably even go hang out around the Plaza just to see the buzz and maybe score some cheap prints or something - but there isn't one in town until late July.

Anyway, we walked over to the spot on the map that had the stadium drawn and marked. Then we walked around the block and back around again - never finding the actual Plaza. Keep in mind this a pretty large place - easily spotted first on the Google Earth and tourist maps of San Miguel - how could we not find it?

Turns out, the whole block has a huge wall built around it and the arena is simply not observable from the street. Finally we found one relatively small door that opens on the day of a bullfight and was worn with old fliers announcing upcoming events. I don't see how they contains something so big behind a wall....but they do.

These walls and are actually very common here - it's not infrequent that you will be walking down the street and someone will open a tiny door and when you glance in, a large space is revealed - maybe a school or a soccer field.

the only sign of the large Plaza from the street....

W.A.S.P International Convention? Nope, ¡just the Biblioteca Publica!

The Biblioteca Publica in San Miguel de Allende is located just west of the Plaza Civica. It's in a really ugly yellow building but it makes a nice place to study as it is just a short walk across the plaza from the PACEMD/MedSpanish building. Thus, we spend a decent amount of time there.

The nice thing about the place is that it's got a huge outdoor patio with a coffee shop and cafe. Plus, there is a movie theater off the courtyard (Santa Ana Theater) that plays independent films 2Xs per day for 50 pesos a person. In addition, it's one of the few locations around town that has free wireless internet (also check the Instituto Allende on Ancha de San Antonio).

There are a few annoying things about the place as well.
First, if you visit the library you should go knowing that this is an English language collection - the second largest biblioteca de ingles en la país.
In addition, it's the gathering spot of all the U.S. and European people who have moved here or relocated for a long period of time - so it's going to feel like you are back home...but an even more annoying version of back home. This is a back home filled with ping-pong ball people just bouncing through life and flopping into San Miguel. Also not a place to go to hear Spanish. So, just know those things going in and if you can get past that, the library isn't a bad place to study and get cheap food/coffee.

Upstairs from the library is the headquarters of the English weekly, Atención.

http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/links/bibliotecasma.html

La Biblioteca is indicated with the central red thumbtack, pacemd with the yellow and the house with the red marker to the far right (east)

Mexican Pharmacies

One of the more interesting things here in Mexico is the number of drugs available without a prescription - basically everything that is not on the our controlled substances list can be bought by anyone at any pharmacy.

This means that antibiotics, heart medicines, diabetes pills, and other common chronic drug regimens can be purchased during a trip to the market. No benzos or opiods but plenty of other medications to allow people here to deal with many problems on their own.

Of course, this also means that medications are a lot cheaper here (except for some of the big gun antibiotics). For example, I can purchase my month long supply of allegra for less than $20. Many U.S. health insurance companies won't even cover Allegra these days due to the availability of the similar (but for me and many others, less effective) Claritin over the counter. Anyway, the old Blood pressure meds and DM regimens are certainly cheaper, as are the old generation and generic antibiotics.

The good thing about this system is that people with very little money can treat common conditions much more easily. It's not too hard for a women to figure to use a sulfa to tx her urinary tract infections if she gets them a couple of times, or if her sister/mom etc has had them as well. Same goes for mom's treating ear infections with some amoxicillin. The problem of course is that many things are mistreated and of course there is less preventive medicine in this model.

For example, in the emergency room this week I saw a women who tried to treat a bladder infection with an antibiotic that only covers gram + organisms (most bladder infections are a different type of bacteria). So, the infection spread to her kidneys. Since she was pregnant, this became a relatively serious infection likely requiring hospitalization and IV antibiotics (at least in the U.S).

Of course this would throw the economics of medicine in the states out of control as well if these drugs were over the counter - think of all the office visits for med refills and relatively common prescriptions/common problems. Anyway, the argument, of course, that those of us trained in medicine in the U.S. would make is that while it is more costly to have these frequent office visits, it is also the only way to rule out more serious problems and keep up with immunizations and other necessary prevention/health maintenance issues.

Anyway, arguments aside, I will enjoy my $15 Allegra while I'm here, my ability to grab some antibiotics to keep away the Monteczuma's Revenge, and other simple stuff that even with my level of training, I can select the appropriate medicine for treatment. Different world.

Night time in San Miguel de Allende

This is a busy place at night - especially Thursday - Saturday (but certainly any night one can find places to dance, places to just hang out, or movies at the library or the mega cinema by gigante (he-gone-te)....anyway, the all-purpose hang out is at the Jardin in the center of the Principal Plaza. Every night features mariachi bands, tourists, and locals just sitting on the benches eating the fresh fruit pelatos (Popsicles)

La Gruta - The Hot Springs near San Miguel

Natural hot springs – man made structure. Each room contains a warmer area of the spring. The final room is definitely spa/Jacuzzi temperature. 15-20 minute bus ride from the corner of Casa de la Luz and Hidalgo (or about a $10 cab ride). There are about 3 different sets of springs on the outskirts of town - each catering to a slightly different crowd. There is one spring that has water slides and other installations for kids - but I think we will probably have to make a trip there as well. The coldest spring is probably around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Los Locos

Today was the annual Los Locos celebration in San Miguel de Allende.

It's a little hard to describe why this event takes place but the best analogy for what this is would be to think of Tampa's Gasparilla Invasion/Parade. Or, if you don't know about Gasparilla - just think of a big parade with floats and costumes.

Anyway, the festivity apparently has it's roots in a mix of religious festivity and late spring harvest rituals. The surrounding areas of San Miguel were once filled with orchards and during the harvest at this time of the year, the farmers would celebrate by coming into the town and dancing around a lot. The locals started to come and watch, crowding the event. So, the farmers tried to scare them off with scarecrow costumes and trapped live animals that they would bring from the more rural areas -- including skunks and raccoons. The townspeople called these farmers - los locos.

In addition, the tradition of scaring the city turned into the more modern tradition of wearing something akin to our Halloween costumes.

While the holiday seems to have it's roots in more Pagan areas centered on harvesting, like most Latin American religious celebrations, there is a heavy blend of Catholicoliscism as well -- so the Los Locos celebration now always falls on the first Sunday after San Antonio Day (June 13) and includes a celebration for 3 other Catholic icons as well -- San Isidro, Corpus Christ, and most notably, San Pascual Bailon. I say most notably because this is the original Saint that the orchard workers adopted.

Like the Gasparilla crews, the Los Locos parade is organized and participated in by 4 groups - called Cuadros.

Well, I think that's about as good of a description as I can give. Fortunately, Blogger now allows video uploads so hopefully a few videos and photos can do better justice than my words.







...and some photos










For more information on Los Locos, check out the English weekly in San Miguel - Atencion

The Buses in San Miguel

The buses in San Miguel are definitely different then the buses we might be used to - these buses seem to run all the time with no real set times for stop arrivals. But, they get you to where you need to be relatively quickly for 4 pesos and it's always amazing to see a bus driver maneuver the things through the tiny streets and up the steep hills.

But, the best thing about the buses here is that they are all personalized. I'm not sure if this is because the driver's lease/buy their own bus or what - but I do know that it's the thing to do. Most of the buses have some variation on a Virgin Mary theme but others are complete with musical preferences and pop culture references.

For example, yesterday we rode out to the hot springs in a bus that had a wall of car speakers at the front blasting pop-punk-esque sounding tunes that were basically a Spanish language Ramones (it's almost like it took 30 years but pop-punk is finally catching on here).

The other neat things about the buses are this:

1. You don't usually pay when you get on the bus. Instead there is a person who sits up front near the driver that is responsible for collecting bus fare later in the trip. Essentially, this guy knows when the bus is likely to be most full. He starts in the back row and works his way collecting pesos.

2. Some buses have salesmen who step on the bus. While many sell pirated CDs/DVDs - my favorite one thus far was the wallet salesman. This guy went through this meticulous presentation on the benefits of a wallet, displaying each slot and fold of the 10 peso, fake leather trifolds he carried in a large stack (while somehow keeping his balance up and down the bumpy hills).

It's kinda difficult to take pictures on the city bus - it's not a tourist vehicle and the personalized displays are all right up by the driver. However, I did manage to get a few inconspicuous shots that are shown below.

ATVs, scooters, dirt bikes, and motorcycles

The most common mode of transportation in San Miguel is either by foot or by the city bus. Third would definitely be taxis. But, following those popular options, ATVs, scooters, dirt bikes and motorcycles are also very plentiful. Now, I've been to plenty of crowded places that make use of the motorcycles and scooter - but the common use of ATVs seems to be more specific to this place. It makes perfect sense giving the hilliness of most areas and the sometimes rugged terrain just out of the city limits.
Not too mention, the ATVs look pretty sturdy and could probably take on one of the many Nissan Sentra taxis in a 10 mph crash if it did occur.

The other odd thing we have noticed about the ATVs is that they, in particular, are usually driven by young, middle to upper middle class women. Looks fun.....

PACEMD-MedSpanish

The PACEMD - MedSpanish program offices and main area for Spanish lessons are located just across the street from the Plaza Principal in the center of town and are marked in the earlier post using Google Earth.

Each morning, Kryste and I head over there around 8:30 or 9 for our individual Spanish lessons with our tutor, Lilia (also now our expert guide on all things San Miguel - such as buying food in the local markets). Lilia also owns one of the town's most popular bars - plus, her son - Tony - works as the guide/transporter/etc for the program (so, she's got a pretty good gig going). Her daughter was apparently was also a Tampa Bay Buccaneer Swashbuckler and graduated USF in the mid-late 90s before moving to LA for a job...small world.

We finish up with our lessons around 1 and usually grab some lunch before I head out to the hospital for the afternoon (about a 15 minute bus ride from the Plaza).

These are just a few pictures of the PACEMD office, the hospital and some of the other participants during this month (and, yes, that is a rousing game of bingo they are playing - I, of course, played the first game only, won and then quit to keep my undefeated record in tact until I'm in my 70s)

Mexico Day 3: San Miguel de Allende

This will hopefully be the last novel-length post for a bit, as things in San Miguel occur at a slightly slower pace, so updates should get easier to post. Anyway, this post will describe the trip from Mexico City up to San Miguel de Allende (mostly just photos) and our first day in town and at the house on the hill.

The bus system in Mexico is clean, safe, and cheap - about 1/10 the price of airline tickets. the bus station and the buses themselves really felt more like an airplane/airport than anything else....

We left from the Mexico city - North bus station - there were 114 terminals at this station and there are 4 stations (labeled by their geographic location and by the directions that the buses departing that station are heading...very intuitive..so, in other words there are a lot of buses coming and going from Mexico City every day!







The bus ride was quick and most of it was spent dozing, practicing Spanish, and laughing at the dubbing of "ultraviolet" - where some kid had the voice of a 40 year old man...excellent.

The pictures of San Miguel were taken as we came into the bus station on Sunday morning...





We were met at the bus stop by one of the PACEMD staff members and escorted up to the place where we are now staying. The ride through town was excellent - it allowed us to sit back and appreciate how genuinely different this place is from any place either of us have been before...

There are a few things you notice quickly about San Miguel -- it's very very hilly...I'm talking steep hills where you are amazed that the cars don't start rolling backwards (and all the cars here are manual transmission - all of them). The other thing you notice is that the streets are incredibly narrow and - like in Mexico City - you are amazed that you don't get into car accidents. These streets were built 500 years ago for horses, not cars - and as you drive around this becomes quickly apparent.

Furthermore, the first trip through town can be a little daunting because there is a very difficult layout to the town and many of the building look very similar and are often connected in long rows for the entire block.

Fortunately, there are many public squares and parks as well as large cathedrals (this is definitely a Spanish colonial town) - to guide you and provide a sense of direction.

Anyway, like I discussed in the previous Google Earth post, the house we are staying in belongs to Dr. Haywood Hall who is the director of the PACEMD MedSpanish program. It is located in a Colonia Atascadero in a small gated community named Residencial las Fuentes - about a 10 minute walk (downhill) from the center of town.

I will get some pictures up of San Miguel soon enough - but for now, here are some pictures I took of the home while we were unpacking....

The gates to Residencial las Fuentes....


The small park across from our house with las Fuentes...


The outside of the house


downstairs patio area...one thing to notice is something that I have often tried to describe about Mexican architecture to other people - there is always a sense of feeling like you are simultaneously inside and outside. In Tampa, the building that best captured this same feeling was "Viva La Frida" - a restaurant that has since closed in Seminole Heights. Whether it be wide open entry ways with no clear door - or rooms connected by outside pathways (such as Trotksy's house demonstrates in the previous post) - or, like this house, the inclusion of inter-atriums within the home...the courtyard area and the atrium are relatively open to the elements and when it rains, it literally rains within those areas as well --- the lack of carpet in the homes and the use of solid building materials (no dry wall here) - allow for this type of environmental intrusion....








grottos in Mexico are like palm trees in Florida - they are EVERYWHERE...


the aforementioned atrium


upstairs now -- our bedroom.








our guest room in our bedroom - um, anyone want to visit Mexico?



check out the fern growing at the end of the huge bathtub -- not too mention the nice tile work...



this is a nice feature - this is the upstairs living room (there is a similar room not pictured downstairs). Not that you need it very often, but this room is also air conditioned and has cable and all the computer stuff (wireless router, printer, etc)..




this is outside our bedroom window..


okay - next up will be some pictures of San Miguel de Allende itself..

¿Dónde estamos?

I will get some pictures of the town and of the house up soon, but today I got addicted to playing with Google Earth while down at PACEMD - Tony showed us how to take the bus from the plaza to the Tuesday market using the program so I had to find some familiar sites as soon as I got a chance....

This first image is of the place we are staying up the hill in Resedencial las Fuentes in Colonia Atascadero - about 10 minutes from the PACEMD site.
Hopefully you can actually see the tiny little yellow thumbtacks marking the specified locations.



It would be an OK walk down the hill to the PACEMD site, but walking up would be a pretty tough workout. Fortunately, taxis are plentiful here and the ride is only $2-3 each way. This is the general location and route from Residencial las Fuentes to PACEMD - which is right in the middle of town next to the main square.



This is a 3D-rendered picture showing the center of town with and demonstrating the surrounding hills/mountains.



This is a nice shot showing the bulk of the central area of town.....In the bottom right hand corner - the big circle - is the Plaza de Toros (the bullfighting ring) - PACEMD is marked again by a yellow thumbtack....





Again, the PACEMD site is marked by a barely visible thumbtack....





Last Sunday, we traveled by bus from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende - about a 3.5 hour ride...




San Miguel de Allende is located in the central area of the country, north of Mexico City.





Google earth is ridiculously cool....

twilight horse patrol around the Zocalo?

Mexico Day 2: Mexico City

Day #2 started early with a ride on the metro to Colonia San Angel -- a nice suburb area with a college town feel - complete with Starbucks, internet cafes, and other trendy shops.



The metro (subway) in Mexico City is considered to be one of the best in the world and is very modern, safe and clean - although very very crowded at almost all times of the day. Oh, and it's only forty cents per person.

It was a long ride out to San Angel and a decent walk awaited us to our destination...El Mercado de Sabado at the Plaza de San Jacinto. Our goal was to find a craft market to get a bag para Kryste and look around at the hand made fabrics and other items that sell for pennies on what you would pay for manufactured goods in the U.S. -- but with 5Xs the amount of detail.

Anyway, the market wasn't quite what we had in mind and was actually more similar to the annual Ann Arbor Art fair held every summer -- mostly Europeans selling paintings and locals selling jewelry and woodwork.

Fortunately though, we were also close to Colonia Coyoacan - the location of Casa la Trotsky. Let me tell you something - nothing is more surreal then walking around an upper middle class neighborhood in Mexico City to find the home of an exiled revolutionary founder of the Russian Red Army!





Trotsky, of course, was exiled for his opposition to Stalin. When Trotsky first arrived in Mexico City, he lived briefly at the home of Diego Rivera before moving a few blocks over to the house of Frido Kahlo. Later he again moved to his own home which you can now visit and, unfortunately for Trotsky, is also where an assassin sponsored by Stalin eventually caught up to the exiled leader, giving him the fate of most revolutionaries - a violent death at the hands of an enemy (this one of course was particularly violent as Trotsky's head was smashed by a pick axe).



This was despite the two guard houses and gun towers on the Trotsky property and the added security that was put in place after Trotsky survived an earlier attempt on his life.

Amazingly, the study where this occurred is there relatively undisturbed and the museum at the home is run by a board of directors that includes Trotksy's grandson. In addition, his ashes are buried at the foot of a red flag with a hammer and sickle monument.












By the way, if you ever plan on walking from San Angel to Coyoacan, you should know two things -
1. it is indeed a very nice walk
2. it is much further than it appears on the map and a cab ride would only cost you $2 (20 pesos).

Another "by the way" -- the only reason Trotsky's assassin survived is because Trotsky himself ordered his bodyguards not to shoot the man when they burst through the door during the ensuing struggle ("Do not kill this man. He has a story to tell").


After leaving Trotsky's house complete with the stylish gun towers and garden, we still needed to find the market we were looking for -- I had a picture of the place in my head and - while street vendors and markets are ubiquitous with Mexico City - we had simply not found the one particular market I was thinking of -- so we hailed a cab, tried to ask about the market location and were taken to a nearby market within Coyoacan which was neat to see - but still the wrong one.

However, this does remind me of our other observations regarding style/fashion in Mexico City -- 1. Jack from the Nightmare before Christmas is HUGE here -- most of the vendors sell some type of traditional craft with the image of the Pumpkin King featured prominently -- why? because he is a big skeleton of course, and if you know anything about this place, you know that this population is obsessed with death and skeleton imagery. OK, fashion/style observation #2 -- pseduo-punk/goth style is ridiculously popular here -- it's like the U.S. in 1994. Kids with spiky hair and bracelets/piercings are everywhere - even fairly conservative people have little signs of this culture.

What we called "mini Mexico 'hot topics'" are all over the streets so you don't have to go without a studded bracelet or early 90s grunge rock T-shirt. Oh, and if you want to take HepC home with you as a souvenir, opportunities abound at the numerous street body piercing/tattoo shops.







After the Coyoacan Market, we hit the reset button, headed back for the hotel and did a little research to find the now much sought after holy grail of markets with an unknown name and location.

We stopped for lunch at a rooftop terrace restaurant overlooking the square when we witnessed one of the more amusing events of the trip thus far - a large group of naked or near naked bicyclists - complete with police escort - circling the square in protest of "manufacturo". Try doing that in front of the White House...






Poking through some travel books and using the free, but slow, wireless Internet connection in the hotel, I finally found a market that, from the description, sounded absolutely correct. Of course, we stepped out into a torrential downpour when we decided to go to el mercado and got soaked hauling ass through the Zocalo to the nearest subway stop.

At least it was worth it - as soon as we stepped out of the belles Artes stop, I had a good feeling we were in the right place. After getting lost a few times wandering the streets, and bumping into another group of lost tourists, we finally made it to the place we were searching for -- although we had been in a slight hurry because the books said something about the market closing at 5 (and it was getting past 4:30), we quickly realized that, like most things here, the time was more of an idea then a reality - maybe this was the time that the first vendor packed up but it certainly wasn't the end of the day -- that wouldn't be for hours to come at this market.

If you visit, definitely find this place -- it's near the Almeda and is called Mercado de Artesanes. It's a nice mix of touristy and local with a lot of high quality but affordable stuff...

And yes, we did find a hand woven bag for Kryste for 25 pesos....


We were pretty exhausted after the market. Fortunately, I stumbled into a ticket agent for the bus so I was able to buy my bus tickets to San Miguel that night in the subway station. More on the Mexico bus system later - but I will just say for now, it is not what you might expect - their buses are like planes - with a drink/food service, big comfy seats, A/C, and cheesy American movies playing on the many TVs.

Anyway, the bus trip the next morning was an early one, so we stopped by a restaurant whose advertised gimmick is "prehispanic food" including grasshoppers and ants.

Unfortunately, Kryst chickened out on the grasshoppers so I had to settle for tacos. The only real amusement at this place was that a travel channel documentary was being filmed at the table next to us - so the dishes were being presented one at a time to the camera crew while the waiters tried to keep a straight face and the chef snuck peaks at his food from a Little balcony in the adjacent rooms.

Anyway, day 2 was obviously busy and things didn't settle down too much on Day 3 - a travel day where we got our fist look and experience in San Miguel de Allende - the place where we will be for the next 4 weeks.

Mas tarde

Mexico Day 1: Mexico City

Today is actually our fourth day in Mexico but this is the first day where things calmed down and moved slow enough for me to get a chance to sort through some photos and write down a few thoughts regarding the trip so far.

On Friday we left Tampa for Mexico and arrived in Mexico City around 11:30am (the entire country is on the U.S. version of central time) - plenty of time for a full day. And believe me, I've spent a couple of nights trying to find the time to post about this first day, attesting to just how busy things were during that time.

Anyway, here are some of the better photos from the trip thus far with a little bit of narration. Of course, if you are really bored, you can find all the pictures (including photos of me sitting, me driving, me moving luggage around...you know the really exciting stuff) over at my picasa web album. 4 days down, 28 more to go!

1. Flew from Tampa to Houston and then on to Mexico City

(for more exciting photos like this, head to the photo album, otherwise stick with the blog!)

2. After changing some money in the airport with a really crappy exchange rate, we left the gate for the main terminal, breezed through customs without anything more than a "buenos dias" and then, upon reaching the ground transportation area, we were welcomed by the familiar pressure of Mexican salesmen greeting us with shouts of taxi! taxi! as we walked to ground transportation....men coming to us to sell us taxi tickets.

We settled on one (who was likely just the most aggressive), bought our taxi ticket and we were off to Hotel Catedral which is located in the historic district in the central area of town just blocks from the capital building and other government offices.

Basically this is the equivalent of staying two or three blocks from the White House, only a lot more public activity takes place in the large square in front of the senate and capital building then would ever be seen in the U.S. (everything from street vendors, entertainers to naked bicycling protesters -- more on that later).

Anyway, we managed to live through the cab ride which is always surprising in Mexico given that there do not seem to be any traffic laws or any traffic signs. The street lights or more like street suggestions than anything else. Plus, no one wears seatbelts and the taxis are rarely equipped with seatbelts.

It's funny -- everyone tells you to be careful when you visit Mexico City but they always emphasize the wrong thing and overlook the true one great danger here - the absolute possibility of being ! Anyway, I appreciate the taxi ride from the airport into the historic district because there are some truly awesome looking parts of this city and the ride is like a quick overview of the various neighborhoods. And this only emphasizes what I always tell people - that Mexico City feels very European in character. Of course, most people don't buy this or grasp this concept if they haven't been to Mexico or other Latin American places with heavy colonial influence like Argentina.

Anyway, here's a few pictures that hopefully capture a bit of the chaos and lack of control you feel as a passenger in a Mexican Taxi. And, yes, that is indeed a fire eater standing in traffic.





3. Not only does Mexico City feel very European, it also feels a little early 1980s - or hell, even a little 1950s. Things are a bit more formal here than in the U.S and there are people around who try and help you do everything - carry your bags, pour soda in your glass, straighten your napkin, etc.

I was reminded of this when we got to our Hotel. The price of the place would be a budget motel by U.S. standards ($550 pesos total per night which is less than $55 USD) but everything at this place is a touch more elegant - bellboys, restaurants, a travel agency - everything you would expect in a downtown Hyatt or something - plus the room would have easily been $200 in Manhattan given it's size and location. Not too mention, the 7th floor rooftop terrace overlooking a busy market street and the Zocalo. We had lunch in the hotel for less than $15
- the point I'm trying to make is that Mexico is a cheap place for us to visit - you get more bang for your buck here than in other big cities with just as much to do, if not more.

I'm not saying you can't make Mexico expensive if you want to - you can - there are plenty of pricey places (usually with American sounding names - like "ocean drive" or some other nonsense written in English). If you do your homework though, this can be a very cheap place to visit. However, I kinda hope people keep their biased impressions of the city and this country - it makes it easier for me and more appealing for me to keep visiting in the future!




This first picture shows our hotel in the distance and the other photos were taken from the patio at the hotel on the 7th floor.









3. Off to see the capital

a. One of the most amazing things about Mexico is it's large collection of well preserved archaeological sites. Some sites - like Teotihicuan and Chichen Itza - are certainly more preserved than others. However, some of the sites, like Templo Mayor make up for their lack of quality preservation with the location and uniqueness of the site and historical context. The entire site is located directly in the middle one of the busiest parts of the city - just sitting their off the Zocalo. This place has been inhabited continuously as a large city since 1500 B.C. And, once the Spanish arrived and conquered, new areas were simply built around and over the old pieces - often integrating the structures and architecture into the Spanish traditional 16th and 17th century buildings. Amazing.




























b. It rained both afternoons we were in Mexico City at the exact same time of the day. Luckily we had just walked into the 3 story, very well done, Museo del Templo Mayor when the rain started pouring. After waiting out the storm with groups of school kids on field trips, we wandered back out onto the streets of the Zocalo in the late afternoon that presented us with temperatures clearly 5-10 degrees cooler then before the rain (probably mid to upper 60s).



c. One of the best parts about the national buildings surrounding the Zocalo is the large collection of gigantic Diego Rivera murals adorning the walls. Unfortunately, the camera battery died before I was able to see all of the paintings - but I did get one quick photo of the major mural in the first staircase.




4. After a rest at the hotel, back out in the rain to Cafe de Tocuba for dinner. This is the same place I ate at 8 years ago and it really hasn't changed much. As a matter of fact, I doubt it's really changed in the past 80 years (other than the computer terminals for orders and credit cards that are inconspicuously hidden around the place).





5. Mexicans are crazy about wrestling and wrestling is crazy in Mexico (Lucha Libre) - so of course I had to go. The matches take place every Friday night and are held in the Mexico Arena. We took a cab there after dinner at around 9pm.

Mexico City is a late town and while the matches started up at 8:30, there was still more than enough wrestling left when we arrived. From the second we stepped out of the taxi (a $5 dollar ride across town by the way - easily 30 or 40 bucks in Tampa), we knew why this event had oddly appealed to us -- the streets were alive with vendors hawking masks, costumes, and toys and everything else related to lucha libre.

Of course, we were swarmed by ticket hawkers. Luckily, I managed to get the ticket price down to only 40% of the original asking price (he wanted $250 pesos per ticket, I got him down to $200 pesos for BOTH tickets --- about $20 USD). Mainly because this really was all the cash I had with me at that point (ATMs - cajeros - are few and far between).

Standing on the street, our feet shook from the roars of the 8,000-10,000 person crowd inside. After getting our tickets (boletas) we were escorted into the main arena and were immediately in awe of the scene that unfolded and the close proximity of our seats to the ring.

The most amazing part was that while the wrestlers are absolutely great athletes (doing backflips from high up, taking the brunt of 300 pound men landing on them, doing really silly looking games of what appeared to be leap frog), the wrestling was even more fake looking than it appears on TV and - even more to the point - it was amazing how emotional the fans were about an event so scripted.

This sport is only second to soccer in this country and the people love their favorites. Luckily I was able to get off a few quick pictures before the security guard came over to stop me from taking pictures. Of course, being the only two gringos in the place, we were easily able to put the camera away with a "lo siento" and all was well. I just have absolutely no idea what the rules were or how the winners were determined in the 3 matches that I did see. MISTICO! MISTICIO!





A busy day 1, and even busier day 2, a travel day on day 3....and now finally on day 4 in San Miguel, a much appreciated rhythm and organization to life is beginning to establish itself. More on La Casa de Trotsky and bus rides and a crazy old hilly town tomorrow.

hasta luego