Skyscrapers Line The Elegant Paseo De La Reforma

More Images Of Mexico City

An Afternoon Stroll In Mexico City

As previously mentioned I had a seven hour layover in Mexico City, I planned it that way. This was actually my third time there. The first time was in 1952 when my parents flew down in a DC3, my mother was pregnant with me, so I don't remember much of the trip, except that we stayed at the Hotel Geneve. Second time, four more children later, in 1970 or so, we all flew down on a family vacation, staying again at the Geneve. I remembered it a being quite a city, and indeed it is.

There's a shuttle bus at the airport connecting with the subway that will take you to downtown for nine pesos, or 75 cents. (I continue to be irritated that Denver's public bus costs 12 dollars for a circuitous route into downtown on a bus that isn't even marked downtown).  People at the airport were very helpful directing me to said shuttle, but without my basic espanol it would have been dificil. The subway system is modeled after that of Paris, with rubber tired trains, and is very crowded, but fast and efficient.  I got off near the national cathedral, with the intent of seeing that and then finding La Reforma- Mexico's grand boulevard and on down to the Zona Rosa where I knew a margarita awaited me at the Hotel Geneva- if it was still there, and if I found it!

Well I had a really nice walk through the city, sunny and in the 70's I suppose. 

The national cathedral of Mexico is sinking, this pendulum somehow keeps track of that.

The city is both old and new, skyscrapers line La Reforma, trees as well, and Hotel Geneve is still there. It's more beautiful than ever, and rooms are about $100 a night. Its namesake street, Geneve has been made pedestrian only, lined with cafes and nightspots, the subway to the aeropuerto is two blocks away, it's definitely a great place to stay in Mexico City. I had two margaritas in the bar off the lobby, one for my mother and one for my dad.  Cheers!  Then off to the subway and the aeropuerto for Aeromexico to Houston

"Hate California, It's Cold And It's Damp"

Bridge Across the River Pecos

Don't hate it at all, but it is cold and and it is damp, in the winter anyway. Warm dry San Miguel de Allende, Mexico it's not.  But the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and the grass is green, that counts for a lot.  The rest of the 1995 miles across the southwest went well, we pulled into LA's grand Union Station an hour ahead of schedule, which is pretty good considering we were 5 1/2 hours late into Houston.  People there were hopping mad at the delay, the station attendant had told them that a freight train had hit a truck, no one was hurt, and that the Sunset Ltd was stuck behind that.  All lies of course, but maybe she really didn't know, and just made up a story. I say she because I spent three hours there last week waiting for the eastbound on my way to New Orleans. Houston used to have a grand station of it's own, built of limestone in a streamline style, torn down in 1971 and replaced with the current dreadful little building, a so called Amhut.

The Sunset Limited is America's oldest continually operating named train, in service since 1893. It's unique in that it originated in the west, all others, save the Coast Starlight, began in the east. Amtrak does a really good job with it, in terms of equipment and customer service. The sleeper that I was in had just been refurbished (with stimulus funds, I was told), it's attendant was an on the ball Philipino-American named Efron. I thought I was on a ship! Food in the dining car was uniformly excellent (delicious crabcakes the second night and really good tiramisu twice) with cheerful stewards, although I did find the chief steward a bit pompous.

By the way, someone else the same night as the mooning incident (which occurred on the full moon, BTW) tried to mess with Amtrak and lost. This time it was a coach passenger who ordered a drink and tried to pay for it with a debit card.  He was informed that only cash or credit cards are accepted on board, and not to try to use that card again; he had no money, but they let him keep the drink. Well a little later he went to the dining car, ordered and ate dinner, presented the card, whereupon the steward called the conductor, who called the dispatcher, who called the police in the next tiny Texas town. The conductor was told to stop the train in front of the Safeway, where the police would be waiting. And so they were, and off the train the perpetrator was.  Do not mess with Amtrak!

Station stop at Beaumont on the eastbound last week

Texas view from the dining car

When I got to my brother's house in Tustin, in Orange Co, Ca I googled train death Beaumont Tx, and found an interesting story on the accident. The Beaumont Enterprise reported that Frank Bridgwater, 31 of Beaumont died of massive trauma after being struck by a train. "Witnesses told law enforcement officials that the man was looking for wild dogs that had attacked puppies at his residence. The man was standing on the tracks when the train hit him."    Hmmm. There were five comments posted to the article, ranging from caustic and skeptical to the shame on you for speaking ill of the dead. I added my two cents worth, expressing my sorrow and how badly people on the train felt.  I didn't mention the full moons, but did mention that the engineer reported two men on the track, who for whatever reason shouldn't have been there.  It's proved to be a conversation killer, no one has commented since.  I wonder why?

On Board Train Number One, The Sunset Limited

The east Texas sky is lead grey this morning, the land is flat, dull brown with dormant scrub this and scrub that, prickly pear and mesquite trees that might be about to leaf out.  Hawks or maybe eagles soar above, looking for their breakfast. I just had mine, a bowl of grits, yogurt, half a grapefruit, cranberry juice, hot coffee, and don't forget the bacon. I guess I was hungry. Amtrak does a real good job in the dining car, and all the food is included if you are in a sleeper. It can be a really good deal if you reserve in advance, especially off season. 

Do you know the theory that when something goes really wrong there has usually been a cascade of events? Our departure from beautiful New Orleans was exactly on time, at 11:55 am. In the compartment next to me was a New Orleans native, going home to Houston, after having spent three weeks caring for her 94 year old mother.  She was exhausted but funny and very chatty, and clearly anxious to get home to her husband, a Houston surgeon. They live around the corner from George and Barbara Bush (very, very nice people, just like you and me).  She was on the train due to a long string of bad incidents flying, that had induced in her extreme fear. I'm not talking tarmac delays or skirmishes regarding space in the overhead bin. Think more landing gear that refused to deploy, or turbulence so violent that the plane had to circle JFK for 45 minutes, seated next to a Texan yelling yippee at every plunge till the winds calmed down enough to land; and my favorite, a gun wielding man disturbed by something, someone or perhaps just disturbed, running up and down the aisle, threatening to kill everyone on board. The flight was on Continental from Newark to Houston, pre 9/11. She said the gun came out early in the flight, unbelievably the pilots did not divert, but soldiered on to Houston, where police boarded and subdued the man. No shots were fired, but Good Lord, can you imagine the fear?

Fast forward (backward?) to last night. We were to arrive Beaumont at 6:43 pm, the first scheduled Texas stop on our 1,000 mile trek across its vast breadth.  Shortly before arrival at Beaumont the train ground to a halt, eventually an announcement was made, Union Pacific track crew working late on the road bed ahead, we'll be cleared by 7:30, which came and went. At 8:30 an announcement that the repair equipment had broken down, and it would be who knows how long till they could clear it, but it would get cleared.  Dinner was very good, tender NY cut steak, baked potato and vegetables, time passed fairly quickly. I ate with my new friend from Houston and a talkative  Amtrak veteran traveller from San Diego. He and I were both fine with the delay, we're on all the way to LA, plenty of time to make up a bit of time. The lady from Houston was so near yet so far from the home front that she was practically in tears, on and off the phone with her husband, !0 pm arrival, no 11, who knows when.  For all her worries and fears she did stay in good humor.

The conductors and engineers timed out at 10 pm but fortunately the fresh crew was waiting in Beaumont, and fortunately (for us anyway) there was a road nearby, so the replacements were brought to the train, the track cleared and we did get underway about 10:30 pm.  We all knocked on wood that would be it. On into Beaumont where I stepped off the train, to see the station. It's so sad, there was a station, but they tore it down and left the concrete pad, surrounded by gravel, the headlights of two parked cars illuminating the sorry scene. Not even a bench was there. I do have a Beaumont story from long ago, by the way, remind me and I'll get to it.

Here's where the story gets bad. Two very stupid young men either saw the train coming, or maybe raced it out of town, got out of their vehicle, and on to the track to moon (yes moon-on the track) the oncoming train. One of the young men dove off in time, the other did not; we hit him at 70 miles per hour. At that speed it takes  a fair bit to stop and the engineer wasn't even sure that he hit anyone. The Amtrak staff was quite forthcoming with details, if asked, as they became known. Most on the train were already sleeping, the man from San Diego and I were in the lounge car at the time and saw it all unfold.  It was just very sad, watching all the flashing lights, waiting for the coroner and all that. As a matter of course they brought in a new engine crew from Houston, an hour and a half to the west. Again, it was just very sad. We were there for three hours. I keep thinking of the burden the kid who made it off the track will carry forward, the grief of the families involved, still ignorant of their tragedy.  You know...      The lady from Houston was inconsolable for a while.  I watched her as she got off in Houston, into the arms of her husband, finally at 2 am, their only child is a 23 year old son.  She just kept saying those stupid stupid boys. In spite of all this I did sleep well last night. When I awoke in San Antonio this morning there was that feeling of waking from a bad dream, but of course this was not the case. That lead grey sky seemed just right.

Flying Down To La Ciudad De Mexico

A Brazilian built Embraer 145, 36 minutes in the air, the pilots left the cockpit door open till well after takeoff, cool view forward,  your choice of tomato or apple juice.

Popcataptl and Itzacciuatl, decidely not dormant, loom 40 miles east of the city.

Paseo de la Reforma is a grand boulevard, the Zona Rosa is the hotel and entertainment district, lower  center  on the right side of the Paseo.

Terminal 2 at Benito Juarez Internacional is all perforated walls, simple, beautiful and brand new.

At El Aeropuerto Internacional De Guanajuato

Leon has a shiny new airport, located about an hour and a half and 27 USD via shuttle from San Miguel.   My two weeks are up, till now I've avoided mentioning the current horrific violence that is afflicting this peaceful, happy and relatively prosperous nation. Few in the US probably realize that Mexico is the world's 14th largest economy, and has been a stable democracy since 1917.  There are around one hundred million citizens, the vast majority have nothing to do with the drug cartels and hate the violence that has erupted. As long as we are talking about difficult subjects why not bring up immigration. Do you really think that Mexicans dream of a life picking lettuce in California's Central Valley? 

In thinking about the situation, I've realized the two issues are really one and the same: American demand. A pipe line has developed and it's lubricated by the US Dollar.  A certain segment of our population likes and /or is addicted to drugs, We The People have criminalized that.  How would that not require criminal behavior? All Americans are addicted to cheap food. California has a terrible unemployment, problem, why not kick out foreign labor and put the dot com brats to work picking said lettuce? (OK, that was mean and shallow, and I didn't mean it, it just slipped out). A more productive question could be why don't we have a well administered guest worker program?  What I really mean to say here is that I don't think that we are intelligently identifying, analyzing, discussing and ultimately dealing with all this. I don't hold out much hope that we can, given the sorry level of what passes for political discourse is the USA these days. 

Just look at health care, it's a purely internal issue, we are a country of vast wealth, every other industrialized has figured it out, yet we simply won't.  Another tough subject is guns, what country do you suppose is where the drug cartel's weapons come from? Did you know that Mexico has exactly one gun store? It's on a military base in Mexico city, and only la policia and the military can shop there. Say what you want about the second amendment, but I don't think anyone could argue the point that it's resulted in an enormous amount of firepower out there. 

                                                                                                                                                  My cousin John says for their part, the Mexicans need to improve surveillance (they don't have the equivalent of an FBI), establish a system of anonymous tip lines, and move towards community policing (an American concept that works). The police are corrupt in Mexico, and that needs to end, how I don't know.  In my own experience the last two weeks south of the border I at no time felt in any danger.  The cops are a little scary, they patrol in small trucks, two officers inside and two outside in back hanging onto a roll bar, sporting machine guns.  Crossing the border from Laredo, Tx to Nuevo Laredo, Mx gave no hint of any need for a bribe to get my 180 day visa. Just down the street from the border I did see on the sidewalk a small bunker made of stacked sand bags, manned by police with machine guns.  Still the violence afflicting Mexico is horrific and undeniable. In my short stay, two brothers, 15 and 16, were murdered in Nuevo Laredo, and five bodies were found burned beyond recognition in Monterrey, a sprawling city about five hours to the south, which I also passed through on the bus. It is important to note that to date no tourist has been caught in any crossfire.  I would certainly not spend time wandering the border towns after dark, and the usual precautions about being alert to avoid trouble certainly apply. 

My goodness that was quite a rant, it took two days!   I'm currently on Amtrak's Sunset Limited, about two hours west of New Orleans. The flights went really well, from Leon down to Mexico City, where I had an eight hour layover, then to Houston where I arrived at 11 pm,  I like Aero Mexico, one free checked bag, with free drinks and food on board. The long layover meant I could head into town for a look see. Mexico City is a vast metropolis, 17 million residents, some 7,000 ft in elevation, overlooked by two 17,000 ft high volcanoes (dormant?). A network of subway lines makes it easy to get around, even though the trains come every few minutes they are extremely crowed, with cd vendors on board, music blasting, working the crowds.  The fare to anywhere is 9 pesos, 75 cents US.  The ride from Benito Juarez International to el centro takes about half an hour. Upcoming next on the blog, photos of Mexico City.   Cheers!

A Few More Views Of San Miguel De Allende

A Most Magnificent Mexican Sunset From La Casa, And A Restaurant Ceiling In Dolores Hildago To Match

At The Tuesday Market-El Mercado De Martes

Check out the size of the bowls of salsa

A gordito con chile negro, muy bueno

And Last Sunday, El Super Bowl En Espanol!

Not that I really care about the Blooper Bowl, but it was fun, hearing the commentary in Spanish. fortunately all the snow had (apparently) melted in Dallas,   We had a fun day, here in beautiful Mexico.   Like every day, since I arrived ten days ago, the weather was sunny, breezy and in the very comfortable upper 60's, or lower 70's.  It gets chilly at night, but a sweater makes it right.

My cousin Michele and her husband John live about 20 miles outside of San Miguel, and about 10 miles from Dolores Hildago, a somewhat larger and less touristic town with a wonderful market and beautiful churches. Mexico has just celebrated its bicentennial  (1810-2010) and marked the occasion by investing in infrastructure (wisely in my opinion). The investment here took the form of a complete rebuilding of the roadway from San Miguel to Dolores, and what a great job they did!  It's absolutely smooth, with wide shoulders, reflectors in the middle, on the edges, great big guard rails with more reflectors, lots of signage, pedestrian overpasses, and the best busses (reclining seats, drapes, Air Force One is the current film playing on drop down flat screens, the courteous drivers make change) you've ever been on ply the route between the two towns.  In short, I'm impressed.

Life here at the house is peaceful and happy. The house overlooks a broad valley, flocks of birds ply the sky, egrets, blackbirds, scarlett something or others, woodpeckers, a pair of hawks.
My aunt Margie has been here since October, it's fun spending time with her. She's my mother's younger, and equally pretty sister. I was lucky to spend a year in New Delhi, India when I was 15, living with her, my uncle (who had a long and successful career with Esso-Exxon) and their seven children, so I've always called her my second mom. Her sense of humor, as well as her skill at cribbage, has only improve with age. I am not kidding, she has won 12 of the last 15 games.  We play every night after dinner, and its great fun, who knew you can have so much fun losing!

View From La Casa

Morning brings a flood of light to the to the guest wing, and at nine o'clock each day, the arrival of Blanca, to help Margie up and then prepare fresh fruit and strong coffee. Blanca is a warm and caring woman, and is just right for my aunt, it's an ideal situation.  I'm going to miss things here when I'm gone, the two weeks here have passed very quickly, I fly down to Mexico City tomorrow. I don't want to leave, maybe i'll find a little apartment in town next winter!

Isn't This Bell Great?

The Bull Ring Is In The Heart Town, A Big Match Is On Feb 12, I'll be Gone, Darn It

They Stenciled This On Backwords So The Arrow Would Point The Way To Safety

Greetings From San Miguel De Allende, Mx

What a great spot on our blue planet this is!  The bus ride down from San Antonio turned out just fine. Before I left Denver a friend of mine (Jill) said she'd be praying for me, I thanked her and requested that besides for my safety etc. she pray that I have a seat on the bus ride by myself.  Well, prayers were answered beyond my wildest dreams, the bus had only five passengers the entire 18 hour ride!  The border crossing went well, no bribes required, no drug war violence seen, and we pulled into San Miguel just about on time.  Busses in Mexico are a good way to go. They are modern, clean, spacious, comfortable and show movies!
San Miguel is a lovely town of around 130,000, set on a hillside, cobblestones streets line with beautifully colored stucco buildings, dotted with deeply shaded plazas, churches, markets, galleries, cafes, and a corner Starbucks, where I am now to hop on the net to make this post. Lest you thinks its full of other gringo chain outlets its not, just this one Starbucks.

La Casa, Michele on the Front Porch

My cousin Michele and her husband John have been coming down here from St Paul, Mn for more than 20 years, gradually building a home here on a peaceful bit of acreage about 20 miles outside of town.  It's finished now and my aunt and I are now lucky to be roommates in the guest quarters.  She and I are sitting here together so I won't go on too long with this post, not wishing to be rude. So enjoy the photos, there's a lot to photograph here!