A Nice Dinner Overlooking Plaza de la Constitution

The tents below contain former utility workers who are protesting President Calderon´s recent privatization of the country´s electricity supplies right outside of his window. They march frequently and peaceably through downtown Mexico City guided and protected by police escorts. No ¨free speech zones¨ here!

Moreover, perhaps for historical reasons, the workers in Mexico tend to be more politically aware of class consciousness and class warfare. Marxism, for instance, is still considered a viable platform for resistance among ordinary people.
On less serious matters...

In the foreground is an excellent veal dinner that cost $110 pesos, that is, about ten bucks.

Tulum II Ruins

Tulum was a Mayan trading port from roughly 600 A.D. until it was ¨discovered¨ in 1518 by the Spanish. The site was only accessible by sea as recently as the 1960´s. I was initially puzzled by the lack of precision in architecture until I learned that what remains today is essentially the core structure of the buildings that were later smoothed out and made precise through the addition of stucco. Also, the buildings were elaborately colored and adorned with ritual masks, etc.

If you look closely at this alter you can see the god of the Mayans of this area, the so called ¨descending god.¨

The main temple rises above the ruins and its back faces the sea.








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Downtown Mexico City!

This restaurant, La Opera, is famous for a bullet hole in the ceiling fired by the revolutionary general Pancho Villa. Pancho is beloved for his role in obtaining Mexican independence from the Spanish. The food here is delicious. In said that the mole, an ancient sauce consisting of over 100 ingredients that takes hours to make, is ¨pretty good¨ here. The taste ranges from sweet to spicy and has absolutely no resemblance to purported ¨mole¨ sauce in purported ¨Mexican¨ restaurants in the states.

Take a gander at the menu...

This marble building Palacio de Bellas Artes is actually sinking due to its weight. The exterior is made entirely of marble. The Catholic Cathedral also started to sink so the city injected massive amounts of concrete beneath its structure. One fact that I was entirely ignorant of is that Mexico City is built upon a huge lake. No one is sure how the Aztecs managed to build their city so robustly upon-under such conditions. The other fact, which is utterly fascinating, is that under the city that we see today are layers of ancient buildings. For instance, next to the Catholic Cathedral stands the very top of an Aztec Pyramid. One more tidbit In and I gleaned from a tour is that the Catholic Cathedral´s measurements are a little out of whack in terms of its length because the church needed to be extended to cover over the indigenous temples.




This black Christ is unique because his legs are pulled up and to the side. You will have to visit Mexico City to learn the miracle that this is associated with. Let´s just say that it involves an assassination attempt and divine intervention.

Tulum I Iguanas

This guy was hanging out right at the main steps to the ruins. Not only was he not in the least scared of people, he literally posed for photographs. I´m not kidding.

Playa del Carmen Colorful Mexico

Feeling hot and thirsty? Coconut meat, delicious pineapple, fruit cups all for a few pesos.

In and I got invited to a pool party where a couple of hours of free snacks and drinks were provided. I took a few pictures from the top of the hotel where the party was located. Must be a really hard place to live. I can´t imagine how I´d survive.



In with the local people. The guy is a longtime friend of In who abandoned a decent business career in the city to suffer in these oppressive conditions as a photographer. The woman is an Austrian who came on vacation and decided not to go back home. She learned Spanish in ten weeks and is not only fluent but has excellent pronunciation. She, as well, decided to test her Existential meddle in this vast and torturous wasteland.

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The Porch of Our Hotel in Cancun