Category: Travel

As we were leaving Mexico City on Tuesday morning the valet who brought our car up from the Sheraton's garage told us that on Tuesdays cars with license plates ending in 7 or 8 are not allowed to circulate in the city. We thought about our options and decided to make a run for it. Luckily traffic was light leaving the city and we made it out without being stopped by the police!

We drove to Teotihuacan which is only 50 kilometers northeast of the city.Teotihuacan was Mexico's biggest ancient city. They think it had 125,000 people at its height between 250 and 600 AD.

Teotihuacan has two very large pyramids that you see from a long way away as you approach the site. The biggest, the pyramid of the Sun is the third largest pyramid in the world. Only the largest pyrmid in Egypt and one other pyramid in Mexico are bigger.

The site is 20 square kilometers. We walked up the mile long Avenue of the Dead and climbed the Pyramid of the Sun which is 230 feet tall. I was huffing and puffing when I got to the top but the view was worth it!

From Teotihuacan we drove to Queretaro to spend the night. A lot of important events in Mexican
history happened in Queretaro. It is a really pretty colonial city that is a Unesco World Heritage Site. We walked around the historic center, went to the art museum which is in a beautiful former Monastery and sampled the gorditas for which Queretaro is famous.

Wednesday morning we drove from Queretaro through Guadalajara to Tequila. We thought that getting through Guadalajara might be difficult because of traffic on the city streets but it was a surprisingly quick drive on good roads. We arrived in Tequila and checked into the same hotel on the town square that we stayed in four and a half years ago when we were in Mexico. We have a room overlooking the square. This is the view from our room.

We really enjoyed the Mundo Cuervo tour last time so we took it again. It was interesting to taste the roasted agave that is squeezed to get the juice. We also got a lesson on how to taste and evaluate tequila and a margarita at the end of the tour. I didn't realize that Cuervo means crow. They have a crow named Jose in a big cage in one courtyard and a statue of a crow in the entry courtyard. This is a picture of the agave pinas as they are delivered to the distillery.

Today we awoke with a thirst for more tequila so we went exploring. There are many working distilleries in Teqilla and the ruins of many more. We went on the 1:00 tour of the Perseveranda Distillery which makes Sousa Taquila. It was a very interesting tour. Our guide was great. We sampled some more tequila and a different mixed drink with tejin on the rim of the glass.

While we were sitting on the porch of the Hacienda were the founder used to live, sipping and chatting with our bartender, it started to rain very hard. We had to stay at the bar and continue to evaluate and help with some quality control of the various tequilas produced at Souza. When we finally left (it took some time to find the exit) it had ceased raining, but the streets had turned into rivers. We made it back to our hotel and took a siesta, as is the custom here.

For supper we had tacos from a stand in front of the market, we had tacos of tripe, beef, tongue, chorizo, and pork. Dinner came to a total of $2.95 for the two of us. Later we shared an ear of roasted corn from a stand in the plaza.

On our way from Oaxaca to Mexico City we spent Friday night in a nice old hotel in the center of the town of Tehuacan. Tehuacan is famous for its mineral water. On Saturday we toured the underground springs at the Pinafiel plant that are the source of the mineral water. It was a fascinating tour.

This is our hotel in Tehuacan. You can see the door of our room on the right.

Our tour guide for the underground springs was very eager to practice her English and we were the only ones on the tour.

We arrived in Mexico City mid afternoon and checked into a great Sheraton Hotel next to the American Embassy. We walked down to the historic center of Mexico City, the Zocalo. Mexico City has an amazing energy, some beautiful wide avenues, and some car free narrower streets. The crowds on the way to the Zocalo on Saturday night were enormous.

Sunday morning when we left the hotel we discovered that all the roads were closed and the Mexico City Marathon was ready to start. We had great fun watching the runners and walking towards the Chapultepec Park where many of the museums are located. Because there were no cars we could walk down the middle of the road.

Our first stop was the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. What a wonderful museum. In my experience it is one of the best I have ever visited. We spent several hours there and didn't see everything. One of the highlights was the Sun stone which was found underneath Mexico City's Zocalo in 1790.

Our second stop was the Museo Nacional de Historia. it is a castle like building sitting on a hill overlooking the city. At one point it was the home of Mexico's president. The museum and building were great but perhaps the best part was the orchestra and choir putting on a concert on the top level.

Next We stopped at the Museum of Modern Art and then went back to the hotel for a rest. For dinner we went to a Mariachi restaurant and had a great time.

On Mondays the museums in Mexico City are closed so today we visited several markets,the Monumento a la Revolucion,the cathedral, a 137 year old candy store and the Departmentof Education which has 120 Diego Rivera Murals. For dinner we had steaks at an Argentinian Restaurant.

Our stay in Mexico City was great. It is a beautiful city. The parts that I saw were very clean. All the people were friendly and it had a real energy. I'd love to go back some day. .

 
We arrived in Oaxaca on Saturday night the 20th of August. We stayed in the new annex to the wonderful B&B The Bugambillas. The annex has four guest rooms, a very nice sitting area and kitchen, and a patio and roof top deck. The staff call it El Secreto.  think we were the first people to sleep in our room. It was one of the nicest places we have stayed on this trip.

On Sunday we explored Oaxaca and then on Monday morning we started taking Spanish lessons at a school called Oaxaca Spanish Magic. Monday through Friday we had  four hours of lessons each day. Duke was in a class with one other student and I had a teacher to myself. I couldn't believe how intense it was to speak and listen to Spanish exclusively for four hours a day. I even discovered that this kind of extreme brain exercise can actually give you a headache! Monday afternoon we moved out of the Bugambilla and into a home stay which was cheap but turned out to be a disappointment. Never the less the school and the Spanish lessons were wonderful. I had a great teacher and I think I made great progress on my Spanish.

Tuesday afternoon we went to two artisan towns south of Oaxaca. One of the towns specialised in black pottery and the other one specialised in colorful carved wooden creatures called alebrijes. It was fun to explore the countryside and we bought some souvenirs in both places.

Wednesday afternoon we visited the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. It was a marvelously interesting museum with exhibits about the history of Oaxaca up to the present. The best part of the museum was the wonderful building in which it is located, a beautiful former monastery. later we had dinner in a restaurant over looking the Zocalo and had fun watching a band and dancers.

Thursday afternoon we invited two other women from our classes to join us when we explored a couple more towns north east of Oaxaca. one of the women was from France and the other one was from St Paul Minnesota. We all had a great time. We went to see a giant tree in front of a church in El Tule and a little bit farther out of town we visited Teotitlan del Valle. We stopped at one workshop and had lunch in their empty restaurant and then the owner showed us how they make the yarn and dye it. He showed us how all of the colors are made from natural products like bugs, indigo, bark, and other plants. Then he showed us how the yarn is spun and how the rugs are made. The whole process was fascinating. After getting back to Oaxaca we sat in the Zocalo and listened to the municipal band.

Oaxaca also has wonderful chocolate which I sampled a couple of times.

Friday after class we headed out of Oaxaca. It is a great town and I would love to visit it again.

 

  Friday night we spent the night in Tehucan.

We spent Thursday night in Palenque in a very nice hotel, The Hotel Chablis. After a beer on our patio overlooking the jungle we had dinner in an open air restaurant next door and had the best meal so far. I had soup and a garlic rubbed grilled fish and Duke had a mixed grill. I can't remember the Spanish name for it but it included some wonderful steak and plantains. After dinner we went for a walk. Duke thought about climbing these vines.

The ruins at Panenque are just a few miles south of the town  where the mountains start to rise from the plains of the Yucatan peninsula. The mountain jungle setting made them very different from all the other ruins that we have seen. We were there fairly early which was good because it was already hot. We climbed around and enjoyed ourselves. I was especially impressed with the magnitude of Palenque.

The museum at Palenque had things found at the site. I liked this timeless Mom.

Driving south from Palenque into the mountains the roads became very windy. There was no way we could be in a hurry. We stopped first at the Misol-Ha Waterfall. It was very high and beautiful. We hiked up behind it

Next we stopped at the Aqua Azul waterfall. it is very different. Duke was here many years ago and there were only a couple of people and no vendors. When we were at the falls there were a lot of people and many many vendors.

 

We also stopped to buy some shirts from a road side vendor. The children were fascinated.

We spent Friday night in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. It is a big town. We walked around the square, had a good dinner and got on the road early to drive to Oaxaca. The drive to Oaxaca was long. Some of it was on very good toll roads and some of it was on very windy mountain roads. We did stop and buy some Mezcal along the way.

From Tulum we drove down the eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula and then across the base of the peninsula. But before we headed south from Tulum we went inland to see the ruins at Coba. Coba was very different than the other ruins we have seen because it is all in jungle. We had to walk quite a distance between the various ruins at the site.The paths are old Mayan stone highways.

The town that is now the ruin at Coba had around 40,000 people living in it at its peak between 800 and 1100 AD.

We saw the ball court.

And we saw several other impressive structures. But the most awe inspiring was the pyramid. It is 42 meters high and is the second highest pyramid in the Yucatan peninsula. We climbed it. The view from the top was of endless jungle.

On the road back to Tulum from Coba we stopped at a road side stand and bought a cold coconut. The vendor opened it. We drank the coconut juice and then the meat. We added salt, chili powder and lime to the meat. It was really good.

We spent Wednesday night at Laguna Bacular on the second biggest lake in Mexico. We ate dinner in a little restaurant on the square and walked around the fort that the Spanish built for protection from British pirates. We were only a few miles from Belize.

From Laguna Bacalar we drove to Palenque almost 300 miles on some not very good roads. Palenque is right at the edge of the mountains.It also has  big Mayan ruin. it is amazing how many ruins there are. we only scratched the surface. And we visited five. I'll talk about our visit to the Palenque ruins in my next post.