Mexico from Debi and Van's eyes

It is sort of lonesome around here today as Debi and Van left for home, via bus to Mexico City and then flying back to Calgary. We most enjoyed out time with them and before they left we copied some of their photos and here are a small sampling of them.

A neat bench that we saw on our tour around Mexico City.

This is Bellas Artes, a very beautiful theater in the heart of Mexico City. Nancy and I have attended concerts in it a couple of times but there was nothing going on when we were there.

That girl in the middle is Debi and she enjoyed it every bit as much as the boys.

We took Debi and Van on the Metro to the main market in Mexico City and this photo shows about 1/100th of it. It is a monster and a bit chaotic.

The zocolo, the central park, and the cathedral in Mexico City.

Not all the homes are beautiful in Mexico City.

In Queretaro, the main square is called the Garden Zenea and here it is. We loved our spacious rooms in Queretaro. We had one just like this.

A statue across from the main square in Queretaro.

A small village on the side of a mountain on our way to Guanajuato.

Entertainment on a second class bus and he was very good.

Some of the neat architecture in Guanajuato, another day trip from Queretaro.

OH WOW!!!!!!!

On a day trip out of Queretaro to Teguis, Van has captured the main church through the portals of the square.

Remember in our last blog when we showed you the photos of the blue corn tortillas that were so yummy. Van captured a phote of the cooks and they giggled a lot when I tried to talk to them.

The government house in Puebla, a place we only stayed one night to break our trip from Queretaro to Veracruz.

A scene from the balcony of our Veracruz hotel. In the distance is the harbour.

Veracruz has been an important port in Mexico for many centuries and has been invaded many times. This old fort is a reminder of days gone by.

It is also a fishing city and the port has many fishing boats beautifying its harbour.

Van took some beautiful photos of the many different tiles in our hotel in Veracruz.

It was harvest time for the sugar cane and these trucks are loaded with sugar cane on their way to the mill. It is in the town of Tlacotalpan.

Agriculture in places is not so modern in Mexico. We saw much of this type of farming on the journey from Veracruz to Tehuacan.

The landscape from Tehuacan to Oaxaca. A photo from the window of the bus.

After a two hour wait in the park in Oaxaca for Nancy and Debi while Van and I were trying to find an acceptable hotel and here we are getting to it.

It was a long weekend and hotels were scarce and expensive and we got sort of a junker as shown by this picture but actually looks much better in the second picture. Nancy and I were moving to our apartment the next day so we really didn't care so much. Debi and Van stuck it our for two nights and then moved to better and bigger quarters. Some cute Oaxacan girDebi and Van did their own trip to Monte Alban, an Indiginous ruins close to Oaxaca. The next two photos are of those ruins.

We all did a day trip to Tule, another small town close to Oaxaca and Van spotted these donkeys trotting down the road with fire wood for sale.

And we could not get out of Tule without buying some Mescal and this was the best and happiest place in town to buy it. This town also claims it has the biggest tree in the world which is pretty spectacular and pictures of it will come in another blog.

Debi got caught by this cute little gal and came home with new pretty scarf.

Going Places

We stayed another day in Queretaro before moving on and the following picture was a Sunday afternoon and there was music in the park. Not only this which was very beautiful but there was a full scale orchestra later on.


But it was time to move on,and our next stop was Veracruz a very famous city on the east coast of Mexico. It was many hours by bus from Queretaro so we broke it up, first stopping in Mexico City to change busses and then to spend the night in Puebla. The picture is a scene from the park in Puebla. Not sure what was going on, just sort of crazy, especially the guy in the middle. We saw him two days later in Veracruz, doing much the same crazy stuff.

Nancy and I had been to Veracruz a couple of times but never got to stay in a hotel right on the park. It is the off season and hotels are pretty cheap so we chose this place and this is a balcony of the hotel, and on the 5th floor,overlooking the central park where we always had our happy hour.

And this is the hotel, taken from the central park. It was really quite beautiful.

We could see this from our balcony but this day we were down in the park when they were taking down the flag and all the music and ceremony that goes with it.

And this was taken at night from our balcony but it was a long ways away and we could not hold the camera steady enough. It was very beautiful folk dancing from this part of Mexico.

I had read about a town a short distance from Veracruz that is a World Heritage Site so we did a day trip, 2 hours south of Veracruz to the small town of Tlacotalpan and it worth its designation. It is a river/fishing village, and very colorful.

Debi and Van on a bench, in the central park of Tlacotalpan. If you look closely you will see a street scene painted on the bench between Debi and Van.

From Veracruz to Oaxaca also was a long journey so once again we decided to break it up in Tehuacan, about half way. We had very little information on this city so it was a bit of a crap shoot but we lucked out, with a hotel right across the street from the bus station and the central park just two blocks farther on. We most enjoyed our night there.

This picture is a mural on the wall of the tourist office in Tehuacan.

The next morning we went to a Market place in Tehuacan and Nancy made a friend. She had the most delightful two tooth smile but she would not do it for the camera,

And part of that market was a flower market. The following picture has 24 roses and filler and cost about $18 Can. It was beautiful along with many other arrangements.

Every county in the world has a different way of delivering milk and this is one way that Mexico does it. That is warm raw milk on the back of that bicycle and it is dipped out of the cans with a pitcher atvarious businesses and homes.

The next day a 3 hour trip got us to Oaxaca and the following three photos are Pictures of that journey. It is pretty desolate and stark with not much human presence.

Nancy and I are here in Oaxaca for the next three weeks but Debi and Van are leaving in a few days so our next blog will be from here.

In Search of a Festival

Before we left home we had word of a festival in a small town called Bernal, an hour away by bus from Queretaro. It was to take place yesterday and today. We thought it was worth a viewing so early yesterday morning we headed to the bus station to catch an hourly bus that was heading to Bernal. We arrived 5 minutes too late and that bus was gone and the next one was not leaving for 55 more minutes, too much time to waste.

There is another town, called Teguis, also an hour away from Queretaro and in the direction of Bernal, that we had wanted to check out for its hot springs and happening week ends and there was a bus going there in 10 minutes so very quickly we changed our plans and headed to Teguis.

Arrived in an hour and we were most pleased with our decision as it was a really sweet little town and we loved the ambiance. The hot springs in each of the many and beautiful hotels were not very hot as over the years, for whatever reason, they have just cooled down. We had some thoughts of moving there for one night but the lack of hot water in the pools changed our minds.

The following pictures are scenes from that town. The first one is walking into the central park.

Just a pretty church in the central park.

And in the central park and doing what I do best and most often, checking my guide book.A pretty courtyard in one of the many hotels we checked out.

We still wanted to get to the festival in Bernal, tried really hard to find a bus to take us there but there was only one late in the evening so for $15, we hired a taxi to take us the 40 km to Bernal. He was a friendly taxi driver and 30 minute trip was quick. He took us right to the center of Bernal which we expected it to a bee hive of activity, you know with all the festival stuff going on.

Well it was not. For that matter it was very quiet so we started asking questions and soon found out the festival was not in this town but in a town near the town we had just taken a taxi from, Teguis.

But the town looked worthwhile and a little bit magical also, so we wandered around and it too was very nice.

Besides being a pretty town it had a magical mountain right at its outskirts but way too high for any of us to climb.

Another pretty church in the center of Bernal. It was a pretty small town

Debi and Van found us a place for lunch in Bernal and it was one of the best lunches of all times. It was very local and consisted of blue corn tortillas filled with a vartiety of fillings, mushrooms, sausage, cactus and other things. My it was yummy. We each ate three.

This is a courtyard of a restaurant that we had checked out earlier. Just sort of pretty.

A street scene from the town of Bernal.

In Queretaro there are many, many beautiful parks and they seem to be all very busy. Every one of them has this sign and it translates that there is free wireless internet in all the parks. And the weather is conducive to sitting in the park with your laptop. How marvelous except we do not have our laptop.