4/11/04 London, England

Back home. And what a way to finish this on line journal

25/10/04- 03/11/04 Cuidad de México

There is a lot to do and see in this massive capital city of 20 million inhabitants.
Great hotel- big armed raid on Spanish restaurant opposite the first night (honestly, it's really nice round here)- don't worry- we stayed aways from the windows except when Fiona needed to snipe. Cop killer.

Aside from sort out our tickets with the not so understanding Lufthansa we went:

To the zoo- and this is a jaguar, so Fiona assures me:



To the Belles Artes building- it was going to be the National Theatre (and I think it may still be but we weren't allowed in there) but there was some sort of uprising around the time it was being built and its purpose was changed. Now it is a great big art deco thing with 7 pictures in it and a Basquiat exhibition which is rubbish because Basquiat was rubbish:



Here is the Zócalo- the main square with the cathedral in the background- and a very big flag in the centre, but more importantly this was the site for the successful world record attempt for the longest instumental in the history of useless records. We know becuase we witnessed the last 10 minutes of it.



24 hours it was and it seems they didn't get a chance to retune their guitars

The day of the dead festival is on here on 1st and 2nd of November when Mexicans honour their dead families etc. They make some smashing statues of happy clothed skeletons or skeletons doing things people with flesh still do- one exhibition had the Mexican Olympic team in Athens represented- if they had won anything they put a medal around them- aaahh.

I thought it in a little bad taste as I presumed that most of the athletes were still alive. They also make up little alters and leave miniature offerings of bread, tequila and other things that the dead might find useless.




The following day we had a wander around town and took in the many museums with Diego Rivera and Frida Kalho's work exhibited, the markets and the museum of torture. No pictures though as we feared that they could give you nightmares, especially the Rivera murals.

For a bit of a change and a rest we decided to head out of town the following day towards the floating gardens of Xochimilco. Very pleasant they were too, though we resisted the urge to have a whole troupe of Mariachi singers attach themselves to our boat and sarenade Roger.




Then it was a short walk through the town to another museum filled with hairless dogs and the like.



Went to some more ruins- Pirámides of Teotihuacan. The largest pyramid, the pyramid of the sun, is about the same size as the great pyramid of Cheops- the one in Egypt doesn't have thousands of people crawling all over it though.



And when people get to the top they fight around the pinnacle to put their fingers on something I couldn't see- some kind of shiny stone. Strange behaviour.



Roger at the top


Me on my way back down and still smiling- Fearless I tell ya!

23/10/04- 25/10/04 Acapulco

Another beach city- miles and miles of it and not much else except for hotels and shopping malls. It was pretty quiet when we were there apart from the thunderstorms- we saw the famous cliff divers there- Fiona thought she could do it until she found out you had to pay to see it.

Though having seen it I still think that I could jump it, it isn't as high as the Elvis films make it out to be.

Fiona on the beach- sand very hot- phew.


This is where the divers dive from- you see where the little grotto things are for the Virgin Mary? Yes, from there. It is much higher than it looks as the cliff goes down some way from the wall where those tourists are- yes, those ones.


Very impressive sunset, behind Roger's hair


And here he is about to go- aiiyyeeeeee


NB You get a complimentary drink or ice lolly when you pay to see this extravaganza- if you do watch this, go for the drink as the unnatural content of the ice lollies will stain your innards forever.

20/10/04- 23/10/04 Puerto Escondido

Arrived in after the worst overnight journey where the air conditioning temperature was set to the equivilant temperature of a siberian winter and the drivers choice of music was worse than Pat Sharp's hair. Still no overnight journey is ever going to be good.

We did make it in time for sun rise over the Pacific Ocean, which was beautiful but in our state it was as much as we could do to find a hotel room before crashing out.

We then spent the next four days lazing by the ocean and reading our new books. We did get up occassionally and on a couple of occasions even hired bodyboards and took up the noble sport of surfing. Well our attempts weren't all that noble, mostly just getting knocked off the board and swollowing half the sea, but it was very good fun and I even mamaged to catch a few tubes... and get even more sunburnt.

This is the closest beach to the hotel, we spent most of our time here further up on a nicer beach and next door to the best beach for surfing in México, maybe even the world!

16/10/04- 19/10/04 Oaxaca

After yet another hellish overnight bus, (we were told was an 16 hour journey and turned out to be a 23 hour one with the benefit of two showing of Bruce Almightly, I told you it was hellish) we arrived safely in Oaxaca. Lovely town full, again, of colonial charm.

Roger treating the locals to a diet coke moment
.

Having heard that entrance into the local ruins was free on Sundays we headed there first thing the next day to discover that it was only free to residents of Mexico, to everyone else it was quite expensive. Still what price can you put on enlightenment. We had a wander and wondered how many more of these temples etc we could be bothered to look at and enjoyed the sunshine. Despite my sarcasm I promise it was quite lovely, and the view over the valley and town below quite breathtaking.

Roger having his breathe taken
.
Note: This is not a Mayan site but a Zapatec one- Mayans are sooo last town

The following morning we were rudely awoken at 8am by the workman in the hotel rebuilding the leftwing, so there was nothing for it but to jump on a bus to the nearby town of El Tule which plays proud host to the biggest tree in the world ever. Now for those paying attention you will see a theme running through our travels. We do like our big trees and I have to say that this one truely dwarfs most including the largest ever cashew nut tree in Natal.

See- hay un árbol grande
.

In case you didn't believe me that tiny, but lovely, dot you see is Roger
.

Having seen that there was only just enough time to head back into town and grab some delicious chocolate milk and locusts in the market before heading off on another overnight bus journey, though this time we are prepared. We have lots of books and our torches.

Food Glorious food, what more could you wish for...


The market above was amazing- it really was like seeing the light... shining on grilled meats.

I haven't got much to add- lovely town, you get used to its pronunciation after a while. Lots of tourists here so a bit more begging but delightful with it. Lots of music in the square and political activism- a perfectly good, thriving news stand yesterday was burnt to a cinder today with notices plastered all over it (after it had been extinguished). I am sure he deserved it- these people know what they're doing.

Fiona didn't mention that on the extra long journey on the way here we saw a local push his wife off a cliff- no idea why.

14/10/04- 15/10/04 Mérida, Mexico

We arrived back in Cancun for the third time utterly exhausted and determined not to stay another night in this rather unpleasant place so we headed straight off to the bus station and took the next bus to Mérida. We arrived quite late at night in the pouring rain and went straight to bed.

The next morning the weather had improved slightly so we took to wandering the streets and reaquainting ourselves with western ways, namely buying stuff we didn't need.

Mérida is quite pleasant, it boasts the oldest church in Latin America, but then quite a few towns that we have passed through on this trip have boasted that.

One thing it does have that I believe is an orginal is a "Blistering Jesus". Now I have seen a blinking Jesus but never one that blistered so I was quite intrigued and made Roger sit around the square in the rain (it had started again) until the Cathedral opened at 4pm. As I understand it some time ago a tree was hit by lightening and burnt all night. That's not that usual I hear you say, but in this instance the tree remained intact. In order to celebrate this amazing immortal tree the locals decided to cut it down and make a statue from it. Lovely. Not surprisingly they chose an image of Jesus and placed it inside a church. To show his pleasure at these activities the good Lord decided to burn down the church (I have no evidence by the way that he had a hand in the aforementioned arson), but low and behold the statue once again survived, albeit slightly charred. Unfortunately the church did not far so well and such the statue was again moved to another church, presumably because nobody wanted it in their home. Remarkable.



By the way I am very aware that Roger´s sarcasm is starting to have an effect on me.

I found the town of Mérida pleasant though unfortunately the weather was inclement- contemporary art gallery contained some fine pieces.

Fiona's getting terribly rude isn't she?

11/10/09- 14/10/04 La Havana, Cuba

After a rather bleary eyed day in Cancun and an even more bleary eyed goodbye to Libby and Andy...


...we caught a fisherprice plane to Cuba. I am not kidding I was expecting the airhostess to have yellow plastic hair. Still we landed safely in the land of all things red and we were quickly ensounced in our not so luxurious, expensive hotel.



After a brief walk along the Malecon we decided to get a bite to eat and having done so had to rush back to the hotel to vomit. The following morning we chose to fill up with breakfast from the hotel before heading out to explore. Havana is really very beautiful. It is full of all that we have come to expect from a colonial city plus all those old cars and happy, helpful people everywhere. This really is most civilised. We spent the next two days walking our feet off in order to take in all that this wonderous city has to offer and understand a bit of the recent history, unfortunately on that score the Revolution museum was not all that enlightening, but I understand that everything before was very, very bad and now everything is very, very, very good. I can certainly vouch for the ice cream.

Above- their former government building, Below- one of Havana's charming squares


On our final night we felt duty bound to experience the local tipple and ended up sort of Salsa dancing the night away at the Casa de Musica with a couple of German girls. I can promise you all though that despite the numerous mojito cocktails consumed we did not take part in the conga.

Had a good time La Havana- it is a lot like many colonial cities we have been to except for the funny old American cars they have there which are about 2 lanes wide. There is also no advertising at all anywhere and I don't think there was on the cable TV we had in the hotel either (seriously, we are slumming it while we are away)- had a look around the shops and there are shelves and shelves of the same detergent and no choice in that- actually, it took us ages to find any shops of worth which weren't just selling tourist tat and cigars.




There is a funny ice cream 'shop' called Coppelia in Havana which we were really confused with- people were hearded into different rooms to have ice cream and there was no menu- people just seemed to be handed a dish of ice cream. We got confused and ran away and found a Coppelia Comercial outside where we could buy the stuff the way we like (with money) though I am sure Fi and I did something wrong and it is just an ordinary shop- if anyone has ever been there please tell me what one is supposed to do. Here is a picture of it:



Lots of people who effectively beg by starting conversations with you and follow you around and tell you about things in Havana which are mostly lies- they then ask for money. Conversation usually runs as follows:

Begger: Hello my friend!
Roger: Hello
Begger: Where are you from?
Roger: England
Begger: England! A beautiful country.... David Beckham... Big Ben... etc

This can go on forever - one guy did it for about 45 minutes and we didn't give him US$3 for his kid- Uncle Fidel should provide.

Not a very good photo showing some of their funny old cars:

Lots of Russian cars there as well. They don't buy Russian underpants anymore, trade embargo or no trade embargo- v. old joke.

These buses were funny too:



They really like this Che fellow there- he's dead now of course- died in Bolivia. He fought with Castro to overthrow the other dictatorship.