Suites Batia Mexico City

... du cafe en quantitees industrielles, ils cuisinent des tamales... Bref, open bar pour tout le monde. Je me suis fait offrir de quoi a manger, ou a boire a toutes les 2 metres pendant ma marche de 50 minutes.Javais ni faim, ni soif, des No gracias, jen ai dit en masse.

En plus, il y avait du monde qui en avait bien plus besoin que moi.

Jimagine que refuser quelque chose dont on a pas besoin, cest une forme de generosite ca ...

... I drank as much as I could as fast as I could muster and threw the rest away. Shame.
The flight to Santiago was the big one; over night. We were fed dinner at 10pm. I had chicken primavera with rice and Nick got fish and mashed potatoes. We both had a different cake for dessert and I had three free refills of wine.
There were tv screens at each seat and you could choose from many movies ...

... America named the Teotichuan Empire. 2 Millennia ago they started to build their capital, which i investigated today. Set on a plateau of cacti and scrub, in a mountain ringed valley, there are 2 massive pyramids and the remains of the city. I climbed the steep pyramids to their peak with the wind threatening to blow me off at any moment. I had a great day traipsing around the ancient city, losing my way and finding it again. It was ...

... with the appropriate key. We then settled in with a beer before heading out to zona rosa area. We were after a proper mexican meal on our first night so spent a long time walking around trying to find the right place. I think the area has lost some of what made it lovely in the past. A few chinese, japanese, steak, fast food restaurants but we finally found our fantastic tourist trap. We walked into traditional mexican cuisine restaurnant ...

I thought the date would never come, but finally it was time for us to go on holiday to the first half of Central America taking in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras! We were collected by our taxi at 04:00 for the short flight to Frankfurt and then a 7 hour stop over before the onward flight to Mexico City. We landed on time to find out that only 3 of our 4 bags had come through. Michi was annoyed and I said he shouldn't worry, we could go shopping the next day and ...

... about $5) and shortly later we paid $2 for a pair of marimba players to pound out "La Bamba". It was the most unusual rendition of "La Bamba" we had ever heard (no singing). We bought some quesadillas from a boat-based vendor and a bouquet of flowers from another. I took a few self-portraits of ourselves by placing the tripod on the table in the boat. The photos from the boat were about my only shots of the day. After the boat ride we ...

... drove to her uncle's house, had some great coffee, and drove back home where I find myself now writing to...hmmm...myself.

Its time for that special category...yep, you guessed it... Special made-up Spanish phrases of the day. Today's phrases include: 1. Ahorra puede poner su mente por la cama (Now you can put your mind in the bed), I was actually trying to say, "Now you can put your mind to rest". 2. Ace-all-een-a (Aislynna) es muy ...

... is a huge tourist attraction. Get there early to avoid long lines. We took a taxi to San Angel and again continued our exploration on foot. There are some gorgeous homes and one of the main tourist attraction is the Bazar Sabado (Saturday bazaar) where you can buy local art and souvenirs. Somewhat of a tourist trap, but in a nice park setting. Next to Xochimilco via cab to the Museo Dolores Olmedo. Beside housing a number of Diego Rivera's work and pre-Columbian artifacts ...

... from there beaks. Another stroll took us to the Palace of Tepantitla and the famous fresco Paradise of Tlaloc; he is a rain god and is shown being attended by priests. On the right of the door is a garden paradise with people, animals and fish swimming, on the left are people engaged in a ball game. We then went back to the entrance and used the moped to go the murals museum, this shows several of the murals in the ruins, some that we had seen and lots we could not see ...

A short series of quick entries now follows just to bring you all up to date with the last couple of weeks before i move on to Costa Rica and Mum flies back home (so yes - she did make it out safely and she is returning in one piece!). I'm writing this in mexico city on the day of our flights home / to Costa Rica later this afternoon. So Mum arrived OK about 7ish on Sunday 23rd July, and spent her first 45 minutes in Mexico waiting for ...