TravelStream™ news feed for member checky on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/checky en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:59:18 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/5/1255606616/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/5/1255606616/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/5/1255606616/tpod.html Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:59:18 -0400 Adirondack's - Sept '09

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Keene, New York, United States

We had never been to the Adirondacks before, and we were amazed.  This isn't so much of a blog entry as it is a place to put pictures.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1202341200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1202341200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1202341200/tpod.html Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:21:17 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted here.  I've been meaning to add a final entry for a while but I just hadn't gotten around to it.  I've been getting emails and voice mails from people wondering where we are, and I guess I owe it to everyone who's been reading to wrap things up and give an explanation of how things turned out.  So here goes...A couple days before New Year's we took the ferry back over to Isla Mujeres to find a hotel for us and our friends Darran and Kristie (who were flying in that same day).  There wasn't a whole lot in the way of cheap accomodation, however we finally found a place that was really cheap (in more ways than one) and right in the downtown area.  Shortly before Darran and Kristie actually arrived on the island Becky and I got some bad news about a relative who was in the hospital.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but there were a couple deaths in the family while we were home for Christmas, and this sort of "topped it off", so to speak.  We decided that we would go back to Baltimore in a couple days and most likely not return to Mexico given the situation (and the fact that you can't keep flying back and forth between Baltimore and Mexico and expect to have tons of money for travel).So we spent a few days in Isla Mujeres with Darran and Kristie, including New Year's eve.  Afterwards we returned home, which is where I am now.  Unfortunately the rest of Central America will have to wait.In summary, although our 3 month long trip was whittled down to about a month an a half, it was a blast.  I had never really been to Mexico, and I've gotta be honest, I was amazed.  We went from beaches to mountains (where we were snowed on) to ruins to spanish colonial towns to jungles to hug cities and everything in between.  Mexican folks are EXTREMELY nice (and patient with my spanish) and we met a lot of very cool in our travels: Matt from Australia and the other guys we met in Cabo (I don't know that they know about this blog), Joerg from Germany (my Mezcal drinking buddy), Celine from France (whose english is better than my spanish and french combined), Emily and Lilly from Oregon (whose strange night with Ernesto in Zacatecas might be the best story we heard on our trip...), Alfonso and his family (GO PUMAS!!!), Mariusz and Luiza from Poland (who we were supposed to try to meet up with in Guatemala), Maiam in Cancun (tran-QUIIII-lo...), and many others.Mexico was wonderful, and I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to explore it, even if only for a month...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198973700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198973700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198973700/tpod.html Sun, 30 Dec 2007 11:52:51 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Cancun, Mexico

We arrived at Cancun airport at 8:30 in the morning, got our bags, went through customs, walked outside and were immediately greeted by Maiam, a longtime friend of Becky's family.  Maiam had made a white sign with our names on it and was waving it around and shouting, so it was tough to miss him.  After 'hellos' and 'how've you beens' we walked to his car (which he has named Nikita after a character or a car in some movie), threw our bags in and headed off.Maiam is a character.  Hand signals and various noises are just as much a part of his vocabulary as regular words (which may be Spanish or English at any given moment).  If I learn no other spanish from him I'll never forget the word "tranquilo", which seems to be a catch-all word used to indicate that something is good/nice/easy/calm/cool/etc.When we left the airport we headed to downtown Cancun (not the hotel/beach district) where Maiam lives, got a bite to eat and then hauled our bags into his 2 bedroom apartment where he is very graciously letting us stay for the time being.  After a fairly relaxing day being lazy, we headed down to Daddy Rock, the club in the hotel zone where Maiam works, for drinks, food, and to see Maiam in action.  His job is basically to make sure people are having a good time.  Whether it's getting them drinks or food, hanging out with them, introducing them to others, goofing off with them, shouting into a microphone, or acting silly - I would say Maiam's job title is "fun-maker".  Needless to say, we had fun at Daddy Rock regardless of the fact that it's not the kind of place we would normally seek out...After a few hours at Daddy Rock Becky and I were ready to head back to the apartment (not Maiam, he works until around 6am).  Before we caught a bus back downtown Maiam took us to see Alberto, another friend of Becky's family from years ago who happens to work in a restaurant right around the corner from Daddy Rock.  (Actually, it was a restaurant that we almost ate in before going to Daddy Rock, which would have been quite a coincidence.)  After some chit chat and tenative plans to have dinner there before we left town Becky and I headed back to the apartment for some much needed sleep (our flight in was a 6am flight and we had been up for about 21 hours).Today we are heading over to Isla Mujeres again, hoping that there will be 2 vacant rooms at the hotel we stayed in before.  Our friends Darran and Christie from Boston are flying down today to about 5 days here and we'd like to stay at the same hotel on Playa Norte.  We'll see...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198973340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198973340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198973340/tpod.html Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:15:30 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Baltimore, Maryland, United States

So we went home for Christams and it was great seeing everyone.  For the first time in 4 years all of my siblings were home for the holidays, and life was pretty good.  Unfortunately, there was plenty of tragedy during the time we were home, including the death of a close friend of Becky's and mine on Christmas Eve, and the death of my grandmother on Christmas morning.We stayed at my mother's house for the duration (who at one point was housing all three of her sons at the same time) and it was oustanding - a vacation from our vacation with a cozy house, comfortable beds, hot showers, and wonderful company.After the typical roller coaster of the Christmas holiday we returned to Cancun to continue our trip...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198077600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198077600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198077600/tpod.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:29:10 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Isla Mujeres, Mexico

The final part of our journey before going home for Christmas was on Isla Mujeres, an island just north of Cancun, and one of Becky's favorite places in the world.  We spent a lot of time hanging out on the beach, and at one point we went to the south end of the island to check out the beaches there as well (which are mainly rocky along crashing waves).  Aside from that we basically just lounged around on the beach and in the hotel, read, and ate.For our trip back to my mother's house (where we'd stay for the holidays), we:1 - walked to the ferry2 - took the ferry to the mainland3 - took a collective bus to the main bus station4 - took a large ADO bus (like greyhound) to the airport5 - took a plane to Dulles airport6 - took the Metrobus to Rosalyn metro stop in DC7 - took the subway to Union Station8 - took an Amtrack train to Penn Station in Baltimore9 - took the #11 bus from Penn Station to Rodger's Forge10 - walked 3 blocks to my mother's houseWe travelled by sea, land, air, subway, and train all in one trip.  We left the hotel at around 9:30 in the morning and got to my mother's house at around 11:00 at night...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198075740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198075740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198075740/tpod.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:19:31 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Palenque, Mexico

Palenque is all about the ruins and the jungle there.  We stayed in downtown Palenque, and the only reason to be there is to see the ruins or do some other excursion.  We opted to stay one night, go see the ruins, and then get out of town.As far as accomodations go, the place we stayed at in Palenque was that cheapest place we had stayed in Mexico - 80 pesos a night for the both of us ($8 USD).  It was also probably the worst (the place we stayed at our first night in Mexico City is competing in that category), although at least we didn't have rusty bed springs sticking up through our matresses (Mariosh and Luisa were next door and they did).  But, we were only staying 1 night, so we figured we would save some money on accomodations.There's not a ton of stuff to do in Palenque town, however we did find a crazy store that sells what can only be described as witchcraft/spiritual stuff.  Among other things, they had all sorts of oils and soaps that are supposed to give you good luck or improve your sex life.  The place was packed with this stuff with some aisles so close together that I had to walk sideways through them.The ruins at Palenque are pretty amazing.  They are in the jungle, which provides an interesting and somewhat eerie setting for them.  A lot of restoration was going on while we were there, but it didn't interfere to much (some sections were closed off).  Like other ruins in Mexico, you are free to climb up the steep steps, and enter and walk all through the ruins, and there are actually tunnels and passages that you can explore in Palenque.  At one point I was almost attacked by bats because I went into a very dark room, took a picture with flash, and then turned around to in order to get a picture of the entrance to the room.  I started hearing strange noises overhead and ran out of the room when I realized it was a bunch of bats flying around.The museum at the ruins contains a hug sarcophagus that was excavated from a tomb underneath on of the largest structures there.  It is made of stone and intricately carved, and is displayed in a room with eery purple and green lighting with makes you think you're on an alien spaceship.After the ruins we walked around Palenque for a bit and then met up with Mariosh and Luisa for a few goodbye beers before we hopped on the bus to Cancun.  We had been hanging out with them for about 6 days, and had a great time with them.  They had plans to continue south into Guatemala and then on through Central America, so along with our goodbyes we expressed our hopes that potentially we might be able to meet up with them somewhere down the road and we made promises to let them know where we are when we head back after the holiday break.The bus to Cancun was as expected - 2nd class.  Becky got gum on some of her clothes and the air conditioning was creating condensation that was dripping on her from overhead.  But all in all it was a fine ride and we awoke a short while before reaching Cancun.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198074600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198074600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1198074600/tpod.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:42:43 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico

Mariosh, Luisa, Becky and I were on our way to Palenque, and we had a layover in San Cristobal for a few hours, so we walked around a bit and saw what we could.  It was okay - quaint - but I'm not sure that I would want to spend a significant amount of time there.  At the same time, however, maybe there's a ton of stuff to do around there and we just didn't know because we didn't stay long.Interesting stuff:  We saw a guy on the side of the street selling ground snake skin pills.  I think it's supposed to be good for your heart or something.  We had actually seen a guy in Mexico City making these pills in a market - he was griding snake skins up into powder using a little had grinder and putting them in capsules himself.  The interesting thing about the guy in San Cristobal was that he decided to bring two rather large snakes with him for effect.  They were just lying there on the side of the road with a crowd of people gathered around listening to this guy tell them how they HAD to buy these pills.  The main market that we went to was absolutely crazy.  People selling all sorts of stuff and occasionally there would be a short Mexican Indian woman or man just standing there selling live chickens.  The interesting part about that is that they would just be holding 3 or four chickens by their feet so that they were hanging upsidedown - and the chickens didn't really seem to mind.  At one point we went for coffee, and when we paid with a 100 peso bill that had a millimeter long tear in it we were told that they wouldn't take it because of the imperfection.  I gave them another 100 peso bill, which ended up having the same tear in it (they were folded the same way in my wallet) so he said that they wouldn't take that one either.  We ended up MAKING him take it, saying that it was the only money we had (it was at the time).After a short while it was back on the bus and onward to Palenque.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1197407400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1197407400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1197407400/tpod.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:12:53 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Mazunte, Mexico

We arrived in Pochutla fairly early in the morning - I think it was a little before 6am.  Nothing had opened yet, however this didn't prevent a throng of 15 taxi drivers from assaulting everyone as soon as we got off the bus: "Taxi?!?  Taxi!?!".  We had planned on waiting around and taking a local bus to Mazunte, however a couple from Poland asked if we wanted to split a cab to Puerto Angel, so we decided to just go with them.  It was still pretty dark when we showed up at Puerto Angel.  We had to wake up the manager of a hostel so that he could let us in and give us prices for rooms - which ended up costing more than we wanted to pay.  I admit that we did feel a little bad about waking him up just to tell him that we weren't interested in staying there...  So we walked down to the beach and waited for the sun to come up and for more places to open.  As it slowly got lighter out, we began seeing Puerto Angel better.  As the sun slowly rose it was beautiful.  Then as it got lighter, it was actually kinda dumpy.  Puerto Angel is a small fishing port, so the water is absolutely packed with anchored boats, and there's a few restaurants right on the beach crammed in there.  It's fairly polluted, and swimming isn't really an option unless you want to find a spot without a boat anchored and try not to think about all the crap in the water.  It didn't take us long to decide to go to Mazunte instead.We had heard about Mazunte from the manager of the hotel we stayed at in Oaxaca city.  We told him that we were planning on heading to Puerto Escondido or Zipolite.  He assured us that Mazunte was absolutely beautiful and also not nearly as touristy as the other beaches.  We were not disapointed.  Mazunte is a very small beach town, the main drag of which runs for about 100 yards just inland from the Pacific Ocean on the southern coast of Mexico.  There is not much to do there... at all.  No fancy resorts, no parasailing, no night clubs, no throngs of tourists assuming that everyone speaks english.  Our hostel was perched atop a rock wall right on the beach, and we had absolutely beautiful weather every day we were there for 4 days.  The sunrises were stunning, and one evening we hiked over the hills on the west side of the beach with the Mariosh and Luisa (the couple from Poland) to see the sunset (which was beautiful, but not nearly as good as the sunrises).  Joerg was staying in Zipolite (a beach town just east of Mazunte), and one afternoon we took a collective over there to meet up with him for a few beers and lunch before he hit the road.  He had rented a hammock right on the beach for something like 50 pesos a day ($5 USD) and was just loving life, which is actually pretty standard for Joerg - he's one of the most optomistic people I've ever met.  Zipolite is bigger and more popular that Mazunte, but it's still pretty laid back.  People describe it as a hippy beach town, with plenty of drugs and topless suntanning.  After Zipolite we walked about a mile or so further east to Puerto Angel to look for sea glass (the good thing about polluted beaches is that there tends to be tons of good sea glass).  Aside from the sunset hike and the trip to Zipolite and Puerto Angel, we didn't do anything but swim, lie on the beach, and eat ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch and pancakes, crepes, and fruit in the mornings.When we finally left Mazunte, we were heading for Palenque with a stopover in San Cristobal de las Casas.  As it turned out, Mariosh and Luiza (I don't know if I'm spelling their names right - sorry guys!) were planning on the exact same thing and we ended up being on the same bus as them.  As we waited in the bus station Mariosh and I watched the division finals soccer game between the Pumas and Atlante in Cancun.  It was an extremely exciting game that went to extra time, and unfortunately we didn't get to see the end because our bus was leaving.  It's probably better that we missed the end because the Pumas lost, which is who we were rooting for.  Sorry Alfonso...We had been toying with the idea of going home for christmas for some time, and it was in Mazunte that we finally bought plane tickets from Cancun to Dulles airport.  We also decided that there was very little chance that we were going to make it all the way to South America considering the pace that we were setting.  We had originally planned on 2 weeks in Mexico, and it was looking like we were going to be there for almost a full month (and STILL we felt like we were rushing a little bit).  Also, we figured that flying all the way to South America just wouldn't be worth it for anything less than 2 months travel down there, which we definitely wouldn't have if we wanted to travel around Central America more.  So, it was in Mazunte, relaxing in on the beach in the tropical sun that we decided to go home for Christmas and to slow everything down a bit and take our time enjoying Central America.  South America will have to wait for another trip...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1196818140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1196818140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1196818140/tpod.html Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:10:31 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Oaxaca, Mexico

In Oaxaca City we stayed in an outstanding hotel (Posada Don Matias) near what I'm going to call the "Market District" of town.  There are two fairly large buildings full of booths with food, knick knacks, meat, produce, flowers, etc, and during the day it's difficult to walk around the crowded streets and isles.  We were also close to the Zocalo (a term that refers to the central plaza in Mexican cities), which has a beautiful plaza and very impressive Spanish Colonial church.  All of the flower beds in the plaza were full of (and I mean PACKED) poinsetta plants for christmas.  Surrounding the plaza are relatively expensive restaurants and cafes.So, what did we do....  We went to see the ruins of Monte-Alban, which were a short bus ride from town.  These are much more impressive than the ones that we saw in Zacatecas - unfortunately (like many other things on this trip) pictures just don't do it justice.  One of the things that I liked best about Monte-Alban is the sheer open space.  The main ruins are situated around a VERY large and VERY flat grass plaza of sorts - and this grass was putting green quality.  We spent a few hours exploring the ruins, including what could only be described as pre-mesoamerican toilets.  Yes folks, your humble narrator and his beloved wife had to use these archaic baños, and Becky's was the one that still had some of a previous occupants, umm, I guess the word "remains" would be fitting here?  The other one looks a wee bit like the "Pit of Sarlac" (any Star Wars fans out there?).El Tule is a town with a big tree in it.  A really big tree.  Up until recently it was considered the largest biomass on the planet (I think a fungus now claims that accolade), and not only that, the tree's not too much smaller "son" is located just 30 yards away.  Once again, we took pictures and hope that they will do it justice.  After being there for a little while, I started looking at the different knots in the tree and seeing what shapes I could find (kinda like you do with clouds).  The most impressive ones I saw were a lion's head and a goblin/ogre/monster of some sort (possibly being punched in the side of the head by a disembodied fist).  It was very nice to walk around El Tule because of its openness, especially after being in the market area of Oaxaca for long periods of time.Once again, we met up with Jorg, or German travelling companion.  We had dinner with him a few nights in Oaxaca, and one night ended (well after Becky went home) with a very inebriated Chad and a suprisingly not-so-inebriated Jorg placing empty shot glasses (once occupied with mezcal and tequilla), cigarettes, ashtrays, and squeezed limes all over the table in different formations and then trying to decide whether we liked the resulting scenes from an architechtural point-of-view.  It was actually quite a lot of fun (i think).  One of us would place everything on the table except for 1 object.  Then the other would place the last object and wait for the other to approve or dissaprove.  I staggered home later on, however Jorg met a few Mexicans outside the bar and hopped in the back of their pickup truck and was whisked off for a night of drinking, partying, and guitar playing by the fire outside the city somewhere.On our last day in Oaxaca we actaully went to go see a movie.  We had already checked out of our hotel, our bus didn´t leave until late that night, and we didn't really want to wander athrough Oaxaca with our backpacks (we would have had to pay about a dollar an hour for each of us, and we had like 8 to 10 hours until our bus left).  We decided that chilling out and watching a movie might be fun.  We took a bus to "Plaza del Valle" and got off at the cinema.  We saw Room 1408 (John Cusack), mainly because it was the only movie in English showing at the time we were there.  We paid something like $3.50 US per ticket, AND they had a little baggage storage area that we could use for free - excellent.Finally, it was time to take the bus to Pochutla, where we were heading to paradise on the southern coast of Mexico in a tiny town called Mazunte.  I think our bus driver was insane, and he rocketed us down the winding road for 8 hours of unrelenting curves.  I wasn't feeling too good at the start of the ride (bad tacos), and I held it together for about 7 hours and 55 minutes.  Yes, that's right: just as we were pulling in to Pochutla, I was vomiting in the bus toilet.  Lame...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1196709480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1196709480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/checky/backpacking-07/1196709480/tpod.html Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:25:56 -0500 Backpacking through Central America

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Mexico City, Mexico

First I'd just like to say that Mexico City was great, mainly because of the time we got to spend with Becky's long time friend, Alfonso, his daughter, Marianna, and his parents and family.  Alfonso pretty much devoted his whole weekend to us, and for that we are grateful.  We were even invited to a cookout for the Pumas vs. Saints soccer game (Semi-finals) at their house along with brothers, sister-in-law, neices and nephews.  We truly had a great time with Alfonso and Marianna, and I was very happy to meet them and their family considering the how much a part of Becky's life they all are.Having said that...The night we showed up in Mexico City was actually pretty horrible, mainly because of the hostel we stayed in.  It had been recommended to us by a couple people, and we had called ahead to make sure that there were rooms available.  We got a cab at the bus station (which is the size of a small airport in the US), and the ride went well until we turned down some pretty dark streets at the end.  Becky and I exchanged looks of concern, and when the driver stopped the cab and indicated that the place we were going was just up a road that was blocked off the only reason we felt safe getting out was because there were a couple police officers on foot nearby.  Later on, when we went out to get some food, we were told not to walk in the direction where we were dropped off as it is not safe...  Great...  When we turned the lights on in our room the cockroaches hid.  Now, cockroaches are okay, we can deal with them, but sleeping in a bed that has other people's hair in it, and crapping in a toilet with other people's pubic hairs on it - not so fun.  We explained to them that the room was disgusting and that it didn't appear to have been cleaned - I don't think they cared too much.  We decided to sleep with the lights on to keep the cockroaches out of site - but when we woke up the power had gone out.  That place was sweet.Needless to say, we didn't spend another night there.  Our friend Jorg had emailed and told us about where he was staying in Coyoacan.  It sounded great, so we packed up our stuff and hopped on the metro to go there.  The subway system in Mexico City is outstanding, and it's only 20 pesos!  That's about 20 cents.  And it pretty much runs anywhere you want to go.At this point I'm going to take a moment and describe some of the sales tactics that we've encountered in Mexico on subways and buses.  On buses, people will get on and hand out what they're selling (gum, candy, herbal remedy, etc) to everyone on the bus (or as many people as they can get to hold it).  Afterwards they will simply walk around to everyone and take their product back (or money for it if their sale was a success).  But if you're lucky, they will give you their sales pitch for 2 minutes.  My spanish isn't good at all, but I'm sure that they're letting me know that what I'm holding in my hands is so great, and the price is such a bargain, that I can't afford NOT to buy it.On the subway (twice in one trip), people will get on the train with a bag that has a built in stereo blaring music of some kind.  They're selling CDs.  They stay on the train just long enough to give you their sales pitch (which sounds pretty much the same to me as the people selling candy), and then hop off at the next stop.Anyway - moving on.  The hostel we stayed at in Coyoacan was pretty good.  We met up with Jorg, and Celine actually joined us there a little later in the evening.  Coyoacan is one of the cooler neighborhoods in Mexico City (there are 16).  It's very artsy, and there's a few hug markets where you can get food, crafts, produce, knick-knacks, and all that stuff.  We hung around there for a bit and then got in touch with Alfonso.  The four of us (Alfonso, Marianna, Becky and I) took a tour bus through the city and talked the whole time.  I'm sure that I missed out on all sorts of tour information that was available via earphones, but we were really just having a great time meeting (for me) and catching up (for Becky).  The highlight of the tour had to be the naked protestors in the street right next to the Palace of Fine Arts.  I don't even know what they were protesting (I think it was political), but it was definitely quite a contrast from the magnificant structure next to which they were dancing around naked.The next day we spent a good deal of time walking around Cayoacan, and then we went to the University to see the stadium and the huge mural on the university library.  I'm not sure, but I believe that it might be the largest mural in the world.  Either way it's pretty impressive.Next was probably the highlight of our stay in Mexico City.  Alfonso had mentioned that he wanted to watch the soccer game later on, and I expressed an interest in watching it as well.  I'm really glad I did because Celine, Becky and I ended up going to his parents house for a cookout with a bunch of family.  We had seen his parents the previous night, but this time there were brothers, in-laws, and finaces all there for the cookout.  We ate (delicious), watched the game (resulting in the Pumas clinching a spot in the championship, which was the desired result for most people there), and then sipped beer (Alfonso's dad drank his 'tequilita') and talked for a good while into the night.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures until the end of the evening, however I'm happy to have gotten a few then.After the cookout, Alfonso drove us back to the hostal where we grabbed our bags, said our thank yous and goodbyes (to Celine as well, as she was heading west and we were heading south), and then caught a cab to the bus station in order to get an overnight bus to Oaxaca.
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