Richard's Travel Blog

Moving along the Gulf Coast toward the Yucatan, I came to Campeche and have liked it enough to stay several days. It’s the first place I’ve actually liked in it’s own right. Puebla I liked because it was less hectic than Mexico City. I liked the music in Veracruz, the cuteness of Tlacotalpan and the people I met in Catemaco. Campeche is just plain agreeable to me. I have been in no hurry to leave, though the time has come, and I am going to merida tomorrow.

Campeche City feels just the right size. It’s the state capital, so it’s the center of things here. It has city features like nice stores and at least one WalMart. The historical Center is big enough and there are interesting forts, museums, etc to occupy you for a while. It’s pretty cheap. There’s usually a breeze off the gulf to mitigate the heat. It’s just fine.

The historical center is about ten blocks by ten blocks, with other stuff a city bus ride away. Like some other places, such as Tlaco, most of the buildings are painted in pastels. Here are three street views. First is the street my hotel is on. The other two are of a walking street. All over town are archways and other remnants of days gone by.

Here are a couple more.

As has been the case, the central plaza, or zocalo, is photo-worthy.

There have been ongoing programs this month for Campeche’s 150th anniversary as a Mexican State (though the city’s origens go back to the 16th century, not counting indigenous people before the Europeans). there are cultural programs all around, mostly at venues around the historical center. The Campeche State folkloric dance troupe was in the plaza the other night. (I don’t know how this came out in italics, but I’m not going back. One take, every time.)

Typically Mexican, one dance number was with trays of alcohol and glasses on their heads.

Here was a folksinging show just near there.

You get the picture.

There are many forts, as Campeche had to defend itself constantly throughout the 17th-early 19th centuries from pirates and Europeans.

The best Mayan ruins near here are in Edzna, about a 40 minute colectivo ride from Campeche. Like the others, it was built over centuries. Edzna’s heyday was in the 10th century AD. I was thinking there would be tourists in there, but there was me, a German guy in my colectivo, and once inside, count ’em, four young Mexican women. Here are the pics.

The entire area covers many square kilometers. with some walking, you can find other areas which have not had the centuries of dirt and foliage removed.

I’ll leave to those of you interested to learn Mayan history. It’s way complicated, but way interesting, too.

That’s about it for now. You’ve seen most of the pictures I have that aren’t even more of the same thing. I have a market picture. Gotta have a market picture, I guess.

I go in here every day to eat. The cheap grub is always in the markets, and a big eater can fill up nicely for under 5 USD.

Okay, that’s really it. On to Merida tomorrow. Bye.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what you’re going to do at a place before you get there. There’s all kinds of nature around Catemaco, but it’s difficult to get to without your own car or the willingness to spend a fortune on a taxi or a tour. This was the case with Catemaco. Catemaco felt like a nice town, though there isn’t much to say about it. I walked around for an evening and saw all I needed to see. The second day there, I met up with a couple of Australians who wanted to kick back at the ocean before heading on to their next destination. We went to a spot with a few beach restaurants and kicked back together. They went swimming. I just ate, drank beer and socialized.

If I had wanted to spend the money, there were plenty of boat guys around who wanted to give rides around the mangroves. I’ve seen plenty of mangroves, so I passed. Then we came back. Whoever said bumpy rides in pick-up truck public transportation isn’t fun? I do wish I had a butt.

So, that’s it. The next day I went to Campeche, where I am still. I’ll probably blog about it tomorrow, as I am tentatively planning to go to Merida the day after tomorrow.

Until…..

I didn’t think I would have a chance to write for a little while. The place I was staying in Veracruz supposedly had wifi, but it didn’t work. The computer in the lobby worked for a few minutes at a time. So, I was thinking maybe Mexico isn’t as well wired as I anticipated. But even in the capital of Veracruz state? Seemed impossible, but the only internet cafes I saw were grubby and had about five computers with ancient CRT monitors. I figured, oh well…. Now, here in the little town of Tlacotalpan, the wifi in this place works normally. There’s hope!

Veracruz is a pretty gritty port city, for the most part, on the gulf of Mexico. It seemed to get spooky if you walked more than a few blocks away from the waterfront and zocalo (central plaza), which is what passes for a tourist zone. Even around there didn’t look good after about 11 PM. I got in from Puebla around 4 PM, spent two nights, and headed for Tlaco the morning after that. That about does it for Veracruz unless you want to explore the music and club scene, which is said to be pretty good. If you just put some money in your pocket and leave your wallet and cards in your room, what’s the worse that could happen, at least to a guy?

I was done looking at the sights, such as they are, after that first afternoon. Lonely Planet said there was music and life other than cockroaches and working girls at the zocalo starting after sundown. That first night, and for the next couple of weeks, there is a stage program. the first night’s program was really great. The featured band was electric Caribbean. They were so hot, like an amped Buena Vista Social Club. It was night, so my pictures are awful, but I’m going to post them anyway.

As in the other places like this I’ve been to so far, the were musicians and groups of different kinds wandering among the people eating or drinking at the outside tables.

.

I stayed late, drinking beer there until the people left, as if on cue, at around 10:30. It was so lively and fun! If you wanted, you could buy your Cuban cigar from any of the the carts, get a Panama hat, and really play the part. A fair number of people were dancing up in front. I decided it was worth it to hang around all the next day, just to do that again. It was then that I wished for internet access. I took a long nap under the fan in my room. It’s about 37 degrees (almost 100 F) during the day, so that’s the plan for a lot of the people. I went to a museum and looked at the few sites. Nothing is really photo-worthy. Here’s a two hundred year old fort. Whoopie.

Unfortunately, the second night was kind of a bust. City digitaries and their frumpy wives (Think, Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn and the girls in The Music Man) reading Oh Veracruz How I Love Thee poems (of a sort) with variations of Guantanamera as background. I had to bail.

At least I was up and at ’em early this morning, got some sugary bread at the panaderia across the street, coffee at the McDonalds on the corner, and got on the bus for Tlacotalpan.

Tlaco is a World Heritage town about 100km southeast of Veracruz, close by the sea. It’s no Luxor, but it is a charming pastel-colored place. Almost everywhere is prettily painted. The nicest photo-ops are around the zocalo. The bulk upload and addition to posts actually works on the new, improved WordPress, so here are all the pictures I took.

I didn’t tell you, I had the greatest shark a la Veracruzano in Veracruz and seafood paella with octopus, crab, and fish pieces here. Oh, if I could afford to eat like that all the time. Sigh.

So, tomorrow I’m off to Catamaco. it’s in the Tuxlas lake region, near the ocean. I’ll tell you what I see there. Until….

I’m going to Veracruz in the morning, so here is a quicky post from Puebla before I go.

Puebla, about 100 Km southeast of Mexico City, is peaceful compared to Mexico City even though it has a population of almost 6 million. The atmosphere is much more mellow and doesn’t feel like it’s so big. The main thing to come here for is to look at the 18th and 19th century architecture which is at least as good as Mexico City’s. At least it seems so, probably because of the relative tranquility. I can’t say it’s been exciting. I think I’ll be seeing this over and over again. I took a few pictures, and here they are. As usual, most of the photo-worthy shot are around the historical center.

The first two are inside the cathedral. Yes, I know, there are going to be a lot of church pictures. They really are beautiful. I just have to not get too jaded. The pipe organ in the second one is lovely.

There’s usually a main plaza next to the cathedrals. They usually look like this. Here’s the arched covered restaurant row. Notice the other building. Puebla is full of this.

Here’s looking back along the other side of the plaza, with the side of the cathedral.

The cathedral and the plaza are about two blocks from where I’m staying. Just on the corner is this church, like, one block from the cathedral.

A block in the other direction is a very classy museum. I didn’t take pictures inside, but what is worth doing is gong to the coffee bar at the top and enjoying the view from there.

I spent four days here, walking around, looking at and inside the buildings. There’s not much to say about that. It was fairly chill, again, compared to Mexico City. There’s a long pedestrian street.

Down at the end of that is another church. There was a wedding gong on, and I watched that for a while. Nice place to get hitched.

That’s all I have to say about Puebla. The other thing you’re supposed to do when you are here is go to Cholula, which iws a suburb about 20 km from city center. There is a pyramid there which is of interest to archaeologists, though to the amateur it’s kind of boring. It’s still covered with 1800 years of dirt. The fun thing for archaeologists is the tunnel system underneath, which tourists can’t go in. The Spanish built a church on top.

For what it’s worth, here’s Cholula from that church.

That’s it, short and sweet. Tomorrow is Veracruz. I booked a room for three nights. From Lonely Planet, it looks like that may do it for Veracruz, though you never know what might be an attraction that keeps me there.

Be well, all of you.

Well, after three weeks here in Mexico City, I’m moving on to Puebla tomorrow. I’ve gotten to the point where about a half day of doing stuff is all I want to do without risking the burnout I anticipate having eventually before petering out and seriously looking to locate somewhere again. With hours on my hands to kick back, this blog may turn more into a diary than the usual semi-regular posts I’ve done in the past.

The highlights of the past few days since I wrote are visiting Frida Kahlo’s Blue House which is now a museum, Xochimilco, Guadalupe and the Templo Mayor.

As you can see, Kahlo’s and Diego Rivera’s house is indeed blue. Inside, you can see how she lived, some of his and her art, though none of her most famous pictures are there. It was more interesting just to have been there and seen her stuff and how she lived. I already forgot if they allow photos inside, but I didn’t take any, anyway. I did take pictures of their garden area. Here is from her bedroom window toward the back of the house.

Here’s back up in that direction

And here’s just panning to the left toward the back of the front of the house.

I have been looking at their art here and there since I got here. One of the best collections of Kahlo’s works belonged to woman, Delores Olmeida Patino. (I don’t have a Spanish keyboard, so that “n” doesn’t have a tilda.) When she died, her home and grounds in Xochimilco were turned into a museum. What a lovely place she had.

The biggest steel grey dog there is a statue, bronze I think. The other’s are real and look just like the statue. A couple of peacocks were strutting around.

Unfortunately, most of Kahlos’s painting from there are currently on world tour. Oh well. Rivera and Kahlo were prolific, so there has been and will be plenty to see.

Xochimlco is in the  south of Mexico City, and is most famous for it’s canals. In olden times, most of Mexico city was canals, marsh and lakes. The watery ways give you a hint of what it was like before Mexico City was built over it all. It’s quite touristy, now, though. You go down to the embarcaderos and there are maybe hundreds of boats to take tourists along the main canal.

When I got there at 10 AM, it was dead as a doornail, so when I started on my little 1 1/2 hour ride, I think I may have been nearly the only one there. The guy poled me along alone, maybe feeling lucky he had at least one customer.

Here’s what it looked like around noon, when some others got some business and the sun was behind me so the pictures turned out.

Obviously, at times not during the week and during tourist season, the canal is crammed with boats. I must be a completely different vibe than the bucolic one I had. Restaurants like this along the banks…

… must do a good business, as would the many barquitos that come along-side to hawk stuff. You could get your mariachi fix from a floating band. I imagine when business is hopping, it might be a mariachi cacophony.

I had to go to Xochimilco. Since I was a little boy in Stockton, I’ve gone to a restaurant by that name there. I didn’t know till this trip what it was. Now I know.

Today, I went to the Cathedral of Guadalupe and the Templo Mayor.
Most readers will know Guadalupe is the site where, in the 16th century, a campesino is said to have seen an apparition of the Virgen Mary. A painting representing this apparition is firmly embedded in the brains of those of us brought up Catholic. Tens, if not hundreds of millions, of Catholics believe in this miracle. I have seen many holy sites, Christian and other, and I always want to see if I sense spirituality there. My spiritual antennae doesn’t rate Guadalupe very high, but then again, that may be a function of how many holy sites I’ve seen. I could be jaded. For sure, for me, the clear winner as a place where spirituality permeated the air and affected me is Medjugorje, Bosnia. Guadalupe is a completely different scene. In Medjugorje, there are masses in several languages and translators everywhere, and a far more diverse tourist/devotee crowd. Besides that, I admit my impression is just my impression.

There is a new church there now, where the famous picture is. There was a mass going on, so I didn’t even consider going up close to the picture which hangs behind the altar area. A couple of us in the back were taking photos, so I took a couple quick ones. If you want to see it close up, the are many copies in the museum at the back of the old basilica, not to mention everywhere postcards are sold.

Here is the outside of the new church.

It’s quite laid back and friendly ouside, or at least it was While I was there. Sundays and holy days must be different. Like, you can walk up and talk to this bishop or whatever he is. He’ll pose for a picture, give a blessing, or just seemed willing to chat. He hung in there, letting the faithful approach him on their knees to kiss his ring or to be chatted up, as you like.

Looking to the right is the old basilica, a couple of other chapels and some auxiliary buildings.

It’s a nice walk up to the convent grounds on the hill above.

From there, there are nice views of the back of the old basilica, the new one to the right, and downtown Mexico city in the distance.

Here’s an old chapel on the grounds.

The other thing I did today was go to the Templo Mayor. As I wrote before, it’s just behind the cathedral at the Zocalo.

 This was the principal temple of the Aztecs. Most of it was built during the last couple of centuries before the Spanish conquest, though those constructions were on top of earlier temples going back to the time of the Teotihuacan.

Pretty much, the max price for going in somewhere in Mexico City is about 4.50 USD. At first, I was wondering if it was worth it, especially after paying that for the wonderful Museum of Anthropology, but was. So many great things were unearthed! Surprisingly, though fairly competent excavations were made at the beginning of the 20th century, many artifacts were discovered after modern archaeological digs started in 1978. slowly, slowly still, they are working their way down, as well as finding more things around downtown. It’s artfully laid out, lighted in subtle and interesting ways and, like the Museum of Archaeology, is an enjoyable experience.

Speaking of laid out in interesting ways, I know that in the past, my blog format has been pedestrian, to say the least. I’m sure WordPress had capabilities I didn’t know how to utilize, but after not blogging for some time while I was in Chongqing, I went to do some blogging and got an advisory to upload updated WordPress. How to do everything was so radically different, I had to relearn everything. The result is that I know how to change the pictures around, make them smaller, edit them there instead of on Windows, and some other stuff. Any suggestions in the comments or to my email would be appreciated. I will try to figure out how to do it.

Mexico City has been fine. I’m so glad I came. My experience is Mexico is so limited. I drove with my then fiancee, Janet, to Guaymas in about 1972, and in 1984 went on a cruise ship that put in in Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa (which was brand new then had been immediate destroyed in an earthquake) and Acapulco. Like, as if shore trips off the boat is seeing a country. After I’ve been here for a substantial amount of time, I can no longer feel odd, having seen far away places but not America’s neighbor.

My long term strategy remains the same. I figure to do what is doable for me as I age. That is to continue to be halfway adventurous and carry a pack around while I can, then slow things up till I need wheelchair accessibility. The timeline for that remains, of course, up to the gods, fate, or whatever. Settling down for periods is much more in the cards than years ago. This is especially the case if I want Myung to stay with me.

My short term plan is to go to Puebla tomorrow, and figure out what to do the day after tomorrow, after I get there and sniff the air.

Until next time, be well, all of you.

As any of you who follow along with how I travel know, time is not of the essence. I’m not that busy. This trip may turn out to be another long one, so there’s no need to hurry. I learned long ago that it gets too tiring to fill every day up. It’s better to do one or two things, and conserve energy and enthusiasm. Mexico City is daunting enough, with so many places to see and things one can do, so I’ve been taking it leisurely.

Much of my second week here has been taking in Mexico’s history. I visited the wonderful Museum of Anthropology twice, as it is too much for a single visit, the Historical Museum at the castle in Bosque (woods) de Chapultapec, the pyramids in Tuatihuacan, the Palace of Fine Arts, Leon Trotsky’s house and a couple of small museums.

The anthropology museum is world class. It has pieces many have seen in coffee table books, it’s informative, well laid out and aesthetically pleasing. If people were coming to Mexico and planning to make a beeline for Oaxaca or the Yucatan, as many do, I would advise them to stay at least one full day and see this museum. It would help them to appreciate the things they see later, and the learning experience would be far from dreary.

This place takes you from pre-history to the Spanish conquest, and there are large exhibits about indigenous people who still live in some areas of the country. There’s no chance I will retain most of the information presented, and I will not bore you with stuff you likely know or could google. For example, I could have written down what these two statues are, but I didn’t, and I doubt many would really care. This three legged one on the right is interesting. My photo almost looks like a postcard, doesn’t it?

I liked this museum so much, I uploaded a bunch of pictures. The exhibits are on two floors, around a central open space. The main feature of the courtyard is a pretty fountain.

Around the outside are replicas of notable ancient buildings in a jungle-like setting. You can go in and out of the building at several points.

Here are some pictures of the inside. Some room have typical arrangements of exhibits, some are dominated by large replicas or maybe dioramas, living quarters, burial sites or whatever. Like, you get the idea of what these cave painting would look like if you were in this room and looked up.

The exhibits come from all over. Some come from the nearby Teotihuacan archaeological site. Teotihuacan was the principal city of the Teotihuacanos from about 200 BC to 600 AD. Their high point was from about 100-200 AD, and it was during this time these pyramids were built.

I’ll just post these pictures in the order they were taken. When you walk through the entrance and make a left turn, this is what you first see. The Pyramid of the Sun, here, is one of two. To get perspective, I think I read that both pyramids are 60-something meters high.

When you first come in, right in front of you is the base of the main Temple of Quetzalcoatl, but it’s nothing to look at if you aren’t in the field. The total area of the excavation is quite large, but most of it is foundations, half high rooms and sort of organized rubble. Here is some of that.

As is often the impression, you might wonder how they ever found anything worth mentioning, especially when you consider that in the 19th century, when archaeologists started to do expert digging, the pyramids and everything else was covered with soil. One photo at the information center showed what one of the pyramids looked like a hundred years ago. It was basically a tree covered hill. Many Mesoamerican temples are buried in deep jungle to this day, and accessible only to the hardy trekker. But, there were burial sites, tunnels and other underground places where treasures were found. Even at ground level, some things were found. Over to the right from where that last picture of low ruins was taken is this wall painting of a puma. As always, tender, loving care was needed to restore this 1800 year old painting.

As you walk along the Street of the Dead, the Pyramid of the Sun looms larger…

… and straight ahead is the Pyramid of the Moon. This is a hot walk on a hot day, but it was a lovely 25 degrees C. on the day I went. I like how the mountain behind frames the pyramid.

Which reminds me, I’m going through a lot of sunscreen. The climate here is nice all year, though there is a rainy season during the summer. Unlike Chongqing, where smog prevented seeing blue sky 350 days a year and there are only about three months of weather that isn’t hot or cold, you feel like enjoying the outdoors here. Mexico City has bad air, but not toxic 350 days a year like Chongqing

You can climb these stairs about a third of the way up the Pyramid of the Moon. It’s easy, as there is a proper stairway and a PVC covered aircraft cable handrail.

Here’s the view back to where you came from.

Then I went up the Pyramid of the Sun, which you can climb all the way to the top…

… from where you can look back the Pyramid of the moon.

That whole excursion soaks up about 5-6 hours, counting the hour bus ride each way from Mexico City. You could hang out if you wanted to make a whole day of it, have lunch in one of the shady patches or in a dining room people used a very long time ago,  or shop for a souvenir sombrero or puma call. Plenty of hawkers there. Everywhere you go, the guys are selling, or trying to sell as business seemed bad, puma head carvings that if you blow through them make a fairly impressive growl. I heard lots of lions, and it works pretty well.

Continuing here on the History Channel, let’s skip a couple of days of my doing other things and visit the castle. It houses the Historical Museum, which presents the history of Mexico from the conquest to the 1910 revolution. I don’t want to go into that, only to say it was interesting to see European royalty mimicked here. A Hapsburg, Maximillian, even ruled here for a few years before he was overthrown in a revolt and put in front of a firing squad. The museum is informative enough, but the finery of the rulers of the day, including Porfirio Diaz, really demonstrates the opulence of the Western elites.

I didn’t take any pictures of the stuff they had. You’ve seen it all before, anyway. I did upload pictures of the castle and the view from the hill in Bosque de Chapultapec where it is located. Here’s the front of the place.

Around that level where that picture was taken are the bedrooms, studies, dining rooms, conference rooms and all that. Then, on the top, it looks like this.

Okay, that’s it for me for now. I did some other stuff, but this post has been all about national history, and it seems like like a good unit of blogging. There’s one more notable archaeological site right next to the cathedral, called Templo Mayor. I showed you a picture of it from outside in my last post. I’ll go there, but I don’t think it’s very photo worthy. We’ll see. Tomorrow I’m going to Xochimilco. It has many canals, like all of Mexico City, and may be photo worthy, although I heard it’s way touristy. We’ll see about that, too. Wednesday is Frida Kahlo’s blue house, which is now a museum, too.

So, be well, all of you.

Greetings from Mexico! It’s been nine days since I arrived here, and I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf. Instead of waiting weeks to post on this blog, I hope to be more current. As long as I’m not too busy or somewhere without internet, my plan is to write and post pictures every week or so. Anybody who has followed my blather knows that quite often, a long time passes and I end up summarizing so many things it is just to general. Also, I want to post more pictures. The good news is there should be more pictures. The bad news is I’m still a crummy photographer and I can’t so easily cherry pick only the decent ones.

So, what did I do? Well, my first couple of days here I had jet lag after 30 straight hours of travel from Chongqing to Mexico City, plus I had a cold. The first day, I did nothing but rest and get a couple of bites to eat. The second day, I was recovered from jet lag and felt well enough to walk around.

I’m in an area called Zona Rosa, or Pink Zone. It’s been called that for a long time but, I suppose coincidentally, it’s also the heart of the gay community. It’s lively, with many clubs, bars, restaurants and so on. Just near here is the slightly more upscale area called Condesa. Most of the tourists stay in these areas or near the historic center.

That first day out of the hostel, I went up Paseo de la Reforma, about three blocks from here, where this famous Angel of Independence is, about four blocks up Reforma. It’s famous and many of you may have seen it, if not a picture somewhere, maybe in person. I have to remember, now that I’m in Mexico, so close to the US, at least the Americans may have been here.

Feeling like gee whiz I’m not in Kansas anymore (Forgive my use of American idiom), I kept on walking till I got to the historic center. I didn’t do anything but walk. I finally got to the Museum of Fine Arts, Palacio del Bellas Artes, which I will go into before leaving Mexico City.

From there I headed up the main pedestrian-only street toward the center of the historic center…

…and took a rest in this little park which was billed as a Japanese garden.

Across the street there, in about the middle of the photo, you can see a tiled dark grey building. On a balcony, as woman was singing opera over a loudspeaker. I chilled out and listened to her for a while.

All along the way are buildings like this, often is disrepair, with wrought iron ornamentation. Many of them seem abandoned. I’m hoping they don’t get condemned and Mexico comes up with the money to rehabilitate them. It could look something like the French Quarter in New Orleans if they fixed it up.

After several blocks of this, you get to Zocalo, ground zero of the historic center. This plaza is surrounded by 19th century classic architecture, mostly monumental but uninspiring. The cathedral covers the square block on the north side of the plaza.

I went inside, but I must say, it wasn’t particularly dazzling. Maybe I’ve seen to many churches. Besides that, it’s Easter today and on that day the cathedral was packed with worshipers and a mass was going on.

Outside was, as you might expect, a lot of vendors selling food and every kind of tourist and religious thing.

Some of the vendors were dressed up as Aztecs. Yes, very tacky.

Behind the cathedral is an archeological dig called Templo Mayor. I just looked at it from the outside, as I was getting kinda bushed. there’s supposed to be a nice museum associated with it.

The next day, or maybe that night, I befriended this guy, Stirling, from Los Angeles. He has been coming down here regularly for ten years when he has a break from school teaching.

We ended up spending much of the next few days together. He was a wealth of information for a newbie like me. He showed me around the nearby neighborhoods, showed me where stuff, like a supermarket, etc., was. We went to the large park down the street one day, and took in part of the large zoo there and looked the critters including pandas. The best part of that place was the enclosed butterfly house.

We basically hung out together, though he liked to go out late at night, and I’m not a night or party person. I am really glad to have made his acquaintance.

He went home yesterday. I went to the park again, checked out the Museum of Modern Art there, went around the botanical garden, and basically joined the throng enjoying the Saturday before Easter in the park. The word class Museum of Anthropology is there, so I’ll definitely be going back. It’s so close, anyway. It should be a lot less crowded after Holy Week. I may need a retreat if it’s hectic. This week has been dead as a doornail because of Holy Week, and I guess things will return to normal tomorrow.

Today I took the subway back to Zocalo. 90% of the shops and whatever were closed up, of course, which made it mellow. To the east side of the plaza is the National Palace, which covers another entire block. The main thing to see in there, as the building itself is monumental but boring, are the large Diego Rivera murals. Here are pictures of one of the courtyards and a couple of the murals.

After that, it was out and about more of the historical center.

The last thing I did today was go to a concert of violin and piano concertos by Handel, Mozart and Mendelsohn

That was pleasant, and I got to sit in a nice setting for music. It was cute in that there were a lot of birds in there, singing along, you might say. When I was in Chongqing, I was always remarking how few birds survive there. Mexico city has lots of birds.

That’s about it. There’s no need, if I stick to my word, in saying some kind of farewell like I’m never going to see you again. Really, I mean to come back soon. So, be well, all of you.

Well, the time has come. I leave for Mexico City this Friday the 22nd. It’s almost hard to believe my stay in China is just about over. I’m all ready to go, yet it doesn’t seem real that I will spend Friday night in Mexico.

It’s not without some ambivalence that I go. The main thing is Myung isn’t coming with me. She is planning to join me at some point, but there is no time frame for that. She’s planning to come whenever she can get someone to take over her lease, but she has had very few nibbles. Maybe there is a way to speed up the process, but so far she hasn’t done that. One of her considerations is she doesn’t really want to backpack endlessly and would like me to settle, more or less, in a spot. I have a few ideas where might be good, but I plan to head out and see where the wind takes me. I’ll keep an eye out for places I like and play that one by ear.

Meanwhile, I booked a room in Mexico City for a week, and will stay till I’m done with that place. It could easily be more than a week, as I will just be getting my feet wet and figuring out an itinerary. So far, I think I will maybe visit the south and the east coast before the hot, rainy season kicks in, then maybe go toward the highlands where it is relatively cool. I’ve got the Lonely Planet e-book on my computer and e-reader, and have been reading up. That’s all I know. I’ve hardly been to Mexico, even though it’s next door to the US. Hard to believe, but true. I drove down to Guaymas with my, then, wife, her brother and his wife in about 1972, made a couple of brief excursions over the border, and in 1984 took a cruise down the Pacific coast which stopped in the bay at Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatenajo and Acapulco. That’s it.

I studied Spanish in school and have had occasion to use a little bit, off and on, since then. Recently, I’ve been studying hard to get the rust off so I can function in Latin America. Actually, I’m pleased with what I can remember. I think, before long, I’ll be fine. Verbal comprehension at normal speed will be the hard part. It sure was that way in South America. I can express myself okay as long as I have the vocabulary word I want.

Not much new has happened in Chongqing and I’ve definitely been in waiting mode. The winter wasn’t too bad this year, but I stayed in a lot, anyway. Now Chongqing is in full spring bloom and quite pretty in some places. Below are some pictures taken in the park across the street.

Notice the birdcages. It’s popular for guys to bring pet birds to the park, hang the cages in trees and socialize near them, listening to the birdsong. Talking birds, like mynas, are very popular. The guys also hang the cages along the bower walks. This makes for nice walking through the park, especially so because there are not many wild bird in the city, no doubt because of the environmental destruction which has not spared Chongqing.

We’ve been getting in in a bit of last minute socializing. A couple of days ago, we had a last dinner with our best friends here, the ones who originally encouraged us to come, PiPi and his wife, Xue Xue. Below are some pictures of a dinner we had with the shop owners on Myung’s strip of shops. The families came. We ate soooo much, and a few of them had many beers.

It was “bottoms up” I don’t know how many times! I actually stopped drinking beer almost entirely, trying to recover from that decompression sickness I gave myself in the Philippines. thank goodness THAT seems to be finally over. It took long enough.

I don’t have a lot more to say at this point. I’ll be posting on this site more often, now that I will be on the road again.
thanks to any and all of you who read my babbling.

So, until we meet again, be well, all of you.

Happy New Year.

Thanks for checking in at my website. I know it hasn’t been so interesting recently, as my life has been mostly simple domestic. That will change in two or three months. Sometime around the beginning of spring, I will be leaving China for Latin America. I’ve got nothing really against China, it’s just that I haven’t really connected here. The language proved too difficult for my tired brain. Either that, or I didn’t try hard enough and succumbed to embarrassment about trying to flounder through the beginning of using it. Anyway, I’ve decided to move on.

Myung is very likely to join me. She has had trouble getting her products for sale through the corrupt Chinese customs process. Ransoming it out of a warehouse in the entry port is prohibitively expensive. She’s tried other ports with the same result. So, she has started to look for a new renter for her shop space. Here in China, a renter pays a “transfer fee” to the owner. If a renter wants out of the rental agreement, they must find someone to pay the transfer fee. She just put her place up for rent on the internet yesterday, so we don’t know how it will go yet. If it goes quickly, she may leave with me. If not, she may stay till it does. She’s always got her ear to to ground about other business opportunities, so if something inviting comes along, she could opt to pursue it. I hope she comes with me, but as is plain, this all involves personal issues between us. You can love someone dearly and not choose to follow them to the ends of the Earth. Even if she comes with me, she’ll go to Korea on the way to take back he stuff she’s had, little by little, sent here. That would be nothing, though. In fact, it might go easier if I went ahead and scoped things out a little, not that that would be necessary, as she can handle backpacking on the fly as easily as anyone. Maybe she’s rusty, but it’s like riding a bike.

I returned to Chongqing last week after a month in the Philippines and 20 days in the US. The Philippines was mostly a beach and diving thing for a couple of weeks. The last week and a half was recovering from decompression sickness. More on that later.

The cheapest way to the Philippines turned out to be taking the train to Hong Kong, then flying from there to Cebu. I wanted to go there first, anyway, because I had hoped to get a visa to return to China at the consulate there. I also wanted to begin somewhere not in Manila and end up in Manila for my flight to the States. That visa part didn’t work out, as they have an onerous application process like in Macau; don’t ask me why.

I hung around Cebu, the Philippines second largest city, for four days, which is about three days too many. There isn’t much to see or do there, but I did begin to experience Philippine culture. That’s about it, though. There’s a fort there and this bell tower.

Exciting, eh? I could have taken people pictures or something, but didn’t. I was left with the impression Cebu is a work-a-day town. The culture is basic Southeast Asian with a hint of Polynesian and strong American influence. The markets look like markets, the buildings look like buildings, the traffic looks like traffic. I’m very used to Philippine people, having worked with hundreds of Philippine nurses for many years.

That little picture is little because WordPress completely changed everything about itself. Instead of automatically fitting pictures into the column width, this is the way it comes out. It looks like the new WordPress has all kinds of new possibilities, which I hope to learn about but, meanwhile, I wanted to get a post done. Hopefully, the format of future posts will be better. The text and photos will never get better because they are my doing.

After Cebu, it was mostly diving and hanging out a dive dives for the next couple of weeks. At the northeast tip of Cebu island is a dive island called Malapasqua. The big deal there is is to look at thresher sharks. I saw seven in two dives, which I’m told is a good day. Their bodies are a couple of meters long and they have fabulous long tails. They aren’t dangerous to humans, and one came about one meter away from me. The cottage I stayed at there was a nice place to hang out.

Here’s off to the right.

From there, I went to Oslob, near the southwest tip of Cebu Island. It’s one of the places in the Philippines where you can snorkel with the whale sharks. These filter feeding gentle giants can be as long as 12 meters and weigh 20 tons. The ones in Oslob were about half that. It’s one of the places where they still feed them to get them to come. They are basically trained to come every morning and scarf up plankton which the people have gathered up and frozen. What the tourist does is go out on a little boat, not more than a couple hundred meters off shore, to where the whale sharks know to come for breakfast. You don a life vest and a snorkel, and hang on to the side of the boat while the shale sharks loll around filtering huge amounts of water plankton has been thrown into. You are supposed to stay 5 meters away, but that’s impossible. The boat guys are dumping plankton from the boat and you’re hanging on the side and the whale sharks are eating. You get nudged all over the place by these slow, blubbery trucks. They could care less about you (which is one reason getting them too used to humans is hazardous for them), and you can lift up and look right down their craws if you like. Pretty cool, even if you do feel guilty about what all happens to animals when they don’t have fear and respect for humans.

From there, it was a short “jeepney” and ferry ride to Dumaguete on the island of Negros. A jeepney is a common mode of public transportation, basically a covered pick up truck with benches along the side, like songthaws in Thailand, only bigger. A lot of them are tricked out like Indian trucks. They are called jeepneys because they used to be mostly left over US Army jeeps converted for this civilian purpose. There are still many around which are fashioned from later Jeeps. Dumaguete is another dive place, along with the nearby small island of Apo. Good coral diving there. I have pictures. This one is of the boat out to Apo with out tanks lined up on the beach. These catamarans are the typical short-trip water craft of the Philippines. They are very stable, which is handy in a country that sees practically every typhoon that comes to Asia. There are little three meter ones like the one to see the whale sharks, and there are big ones which serve as ferries for dozens of people. They call them “pump boats”.

From there, I flew to Palawan Island. Domestic flights are too cheap there to bother with long ferry rides. It was something like $40 for an hour flight. Can’t be beat. The flights go into the capital, Puerto Princesa, or Coron on Busuanga island northeast of Palawan but still part of Palawan province. Palawan is the least developed or busy major island in the Philippines. Even Puerto I laid back. I stayed there about three days, one day doing nothing and the other going on a day trip island/snorkel tour. Here are some pictures from that.

One island we went to is in the process of disappearing with global warming.

Here are some pictures taken over about a one hour time period. check out how the water comes in from the mangroves in the distance. That’s about 200 meters of encroachment.

After that, I left where I consider to be civilization, places with ATM’s. 50 km northeast of Puerto is the next stop on the tourist route, the world’s longest underground river. I forget how long it is, 20-something km I think. Most people go on a tour boat about a kilometer and a half. Sometimes you can go something like 4-5 km in, but its hard to get up a group for that so it’s hard to arrange. You can’t take photos inside, but here is the outside.

Next was the northeast tip of Palawan, El Nido. This is almost all about the diving, but is so popular, it’s a regular town even though the road to there isn’t paved. Most people stay along one beach. It’s thick with beach backpacker joints and bars. Not my thing anymore. I stayed south of town where it was quiet and just as lovely, maybe more. On the right kind of evening, the sunset views from the popular beach would be great. No interesting sunsets while I was there, though. Here’s what it looked like from where I was staying.

Here is over near the popular area.

It was here I got decompression sickness. I used bad judgement and paid for it. I dove with a couple of young divemasters who were in much better shape than I am. We were returning to the boat, bucking a current, and I got down to 50 BAR in my tank. Instead of going up for a safety stop, I kept going, thinking we’d be back in a few minutes. I incorrectly assumed I would have time for a stop if my gauge showed 20 BAR. I saw the bottom of the boat and went up, but instead of having 20 BAR like my meter said, I had nothin’. My safety stop was all of about 1 minute. To make a long story short, there is no decompression chamber there, no hospital for that matter, so I toughed it out. The first two days was bad headaches, other nuero symptoms and cramps. Then I started to gradually improve. After about four days i could eat a little and sleep. I could also fly to Manila, which I did. I saw a doctor there, as I was still having myriad symptoms like my skin sloughing off and poor gastric motility. He said there was nothing to do about it now and I’d be okay eventually. I did little in Manila but rest up. I lost a lot of weight which I have since put back on. I think I’m okay now, a month later, but I still feel it. My diving days may be over. That was nearly the weirdest thing that ever happened to me and it put the fear of God into me.

There’s not much I can say about Manila. I didn’t do anything. It was basically another big city. the guide books and other backpackers said I didn’t miss much.

That gets me to my brief trip to the US. I went to attend my niece, Anne’s, wedding. There’s not much to say that would interest most people likely to read this. It was a very nice wedding and she and her husband look like they are going to be fine together. It was held at a nice beach front resort hotel in Santa Barbara. Here are pictures. This is my brother, Bill, walking her down the aisle.

Here’s during the ceremony.

Here, she and Nico are leaving back up the aisle.

Here they are hanging out at the reception.

And here are my brother and me. Yes, I have a suit and tie in America I can break out for special occasions.

We’re getting near the end of this tome. The last pictures are of a famous stretch of coastline along the California coast. I took the coast road for old time’s sake. It was not only beautiful (when I could see through the rain) but I got to see a bunch of elephant seals at one point and a whole pod of grey whales, maybe 10-12, about 300 or so meters off shore. THAT was really great! I don’t have pictures of either, as it was raining heavily where the elephant seals were and the whales wouldn’t have been good pictures with my little snap shooter. Here are a few general pictures. People from or familiar with Big Sur will recognize this immediately.

The rest of the time in California was hanging out with friends in the San Francisco Bay Area and my original home town of Stockton about 100 km east of there. It was nice; then it was time to go. And here I am.

Likely, my next post will be in a couple of months when Myung and my plans flesh out. Until then, I hope you have a good start to the new year. Be well, all of you.

I’ve been a little remiss about blogging, Not only has it been a while, but I went to the US for a month in March and April. My friend, Mary, above on the right, had hand surgery and I wanted to be supportive. The woman in the middle, Susan, is our long time friend from when Mary and I were in nursing school 30 years ago. Besides that, I had a chance to visit with my brother, Bill, his wife, Rita, and their daughter, Emily, and her family who live in San Francisco, just across the Bay in Oakland where I lived and did nursing for over 20 years. I also got to check out my rentals, take care of some other issues, and visit the area where I spent a god part of my life.
It had been over two years since I had been back in the States. In most ways, it seemed the same. I enjoyed the familiarity of the sameness, while at the same time could see I don’t really need to be there on any kind of a permanent basis. As I’ve told many people, it felt like I was going to a big theme park. I really enjoyed touching bases with my friends and family, enjoyed looking around at familiar and changed things, and eating all the food I missed. In some ways, I look at this as my eating vacation. I ate everything I missed and more, and ate a lot of it, probably gaining 3 kilos while I was there. I stayed most of the time at Mary’s apartment. For a time, I was helpful during her recovery. I spent a few days in my home town of Stockton, where my brother still lives, visiting and doing business stuff. Sometimes I stayed in a motel near Mary’s place. As much as we are dear old friends, it’s best if we don’t spend too much time together. I also got to take care of some things in the Bay Area and visit with friends there. I must say, I had a fine time.
I have some family photos. Here is my brother and me.

Here are Bill, me, Emily, her husband, Kenneth, and Bill’s wife, Rita.

Here are Bill and Rita.

Here are Bill, Kenneth and Em’s and Kenneth’s son, Lucas.

Kenneth and Lucas on the couch at their place in SF.

Em in front of an urban mural near where they live.

I got on a photo jag when Bill, Em and I were walking on that street with the murals. I think nearly everybody has seen pictures of San Francisco, but I don’t think they’ve seen this street. I hadn’t. Very cute.

I’m not up for some kind of rambling discourse on my visit to the States. I had the good time I described, Mary’s hand is good, and I’m outta there until something comes up which necessitates my returning. As I always say, the US is a good country, but I’ve been there before.

Practically nothing important has happened since I returned to Chongqing. My life is like it is. I sit with my computer, do most of the cooking, hangout with Myung and bring her dinner at the shop and hang out with her some more. We see friends about once a week. Except for some inconsequential stuff, that’s about it.

A big new park did open up in Chongqing recently. It cost some amazing bizzilion dollars to build, but it really is nice. It’s attractive and a lot of attention was paid to detail. It was made in some ravines and hills, so it’s up and down and has tunnels from one area to the next. The theme behind the park is exhibition of symbolic buildings and cultural significant stuff from many of the regions of China. There are many exhibits of famous or culturally typical structures and motifs from the areas. They are somewhat miniaturized, but big enough that you get the feel for the real places. So, what you do it walk through scenic areas and come upon clusters of these exhibits. Suddenly, there is something to see in Chongqing besides go to the big Buddhist temple, take a booze cruise along the Yangtze and look at the brightly lit buildings, visit the Stillwell headquarters, and start your Three Gorges tour. Here are some pictures.

See Myung hiding behind the old dude fishing with his grandson?

That’s about it for now. I don’t know where I am going in July, when I have to make my every three month visa run/trip. It’ll be monsoon season, so many places in Asia aren’t that fun at that time. I may just make a simple run to Hong Kong, or I’m toying with the idea of going to Taiwan, which is modern with a lot of pavement and decent shelter. Myung says Taiwan isn’t that interesting, though, so maybe I won’t go there. I think it’s expensive. We’ll see. In November, I may go to Nepal again and/or India. My friend from back in S. America while Myung went back early to Korea, Marita, is thinking of going to India and maybe Nepal and maybe Mongolia around then. She’s one of the few people I’ve kept up with, and it would be nice to meet up. That’s a long way off, though, so anything might happen. We’ll see about that, too. There are big political problems brewing again in Nepal.

Lastly. I have a few pictures of Myung and me.

So, until next time, be well, all of you.