Taxco

For Dana's last day, we took her down to Taxco -- silver-shopping capital of Mexico.



In Mexico City, where the weather is often temperate to the point of being chilly, we sometimes forget how freakishly hot it is in the rest of Mexico.

Day 3 - Shopping for all needful things

Before her visit, I kept telling Dana about the amazing Pewter Store and how I would take her and she would be gobsmacked. Boy, was I right. Behind this simple door in a residential area in Mexico City is a former house that has been transformed into a showcase of beautiful pewterware. Though I had been only the week before, I still managed to buy a boatload of things, including this Icon picture frame in the which I replaced Mary with Dana.
Next I took Dana to another shopping Mecca here in the DF, a must-see for all tourists, the Mercado de la Ciudadela -- the citadel market. All of your touristy needs can be met here, and indeed they were.
On Day 1, after we were unwinding from our religious pilgrimages, both pagan and Christian, I lamented that I did not buy a fairly gaudy strobe light Virgin Mary that I had seen at the Basilica. In fact, we had skipped the religious market to avoid the crowd and the loud music. Dana and I imagined all of the wonders of kitchy religious art that we might have found there, including a light-up shrine. On this day, Day 3, we looked over the Ciudadela for something to assuage our longing for Marian kitch, but nothing was really tacky/holy enough.

When we left the Ciudadela, we decided spur of the moment to return to the Basilica to seek out that perfect souvenir.

We had also been on this weird quest to photograph nuns. Surprisingly, nuns were fairly difficult to find at this most holy pilgrimage site.
We re-shot our photos on the moving sidewalks at the Icon.

Oh yeah, and we found the most awesome light up shrines (about 7 inches tall). It was completely worth the second trip.

Day 2 - Turibus

Stop - don't do it!

Maybe it is because I live in Mexico City, but 2/3 of the double-decker bus route was extremely boring, very hot, and just generally hellish.
Palace of Fine Arts -- Palacio de Bellas Artes
Pope JPII at the Metropolitan Cathedral which I found a litle creepy with Mary climbing out of his chest. At his back are zillions of keys (many are real house keys) that tumble down to form roses.
Metropolitan Cathedral

Groovy light.
Jacarandas as seen close up from the upper deck of the bus
No smoking, no umbrellas, you will be smacked in the head by trees.
All of the trees smacking the bus (and its occupants) often knocked things down onto us. These things often fell into my shirt. I had to save this little fellow from a suffocating death in my bra.
If you find yourself in the DF and feel inclined to take the Turibus, get on at the Angel of Independance. Go tour down to the Zócalo and in that area, then get off again at the Angel. The rest of the trip is miserable.

When it was all over, I took Dana to La Casa de las Enchiladas where Dana said that our delicious meal made up for the busride. There I was able to show off my amazing Spanish while reading the menu, "That's some type of pork. So is that. That means that it's been flattened and it's pork. That's chorizo -- it's made of pork. And that one is beef."

Day 1 with Dana

My best pal Dana came to visit us here in Mexico City. She flew in with all the confidence of an international traveler and then quickly lost confidence when she experienced the ordeal that is traffic in Mexico on the drive to our house (and she wasn't even driving). To give her time to adjust to the elevation, the weekend was spent calmly with visiting and good food.

But Dana and I never just sit and visit. We go on groovy adventures which was a lot easier when the Fernandez family lived in the UK where they speak English and follow the rules of the road in an orderly and often polite manner. So I felt an obligation to keep up with that tradition, despite the fact that I don't speak Spanish and I am a nervous wreck when I have to drive around here. Of course, that meant that for the first day of adventuring, I planned the cross-city destination of the pyramids of Teotihuacan, followed by a stop at the Basilica of Guadalupe, the latter a place I had never even been.

The weatherman promised a clear day, but at the bus stop with the girls that morning, I could see storm clouds rolling through. We needed petrol anyway, so I suggested that we pack for the pyramids and then decide if we were going once the car was fat and happy with fuel. Dana thought this was a stupid idea, that there was not really going to be much difference in the weather in 20 minutes, but she went along with it, and as we pulled out of the Pemex station, things were already significantly better. Off we went.

We made great time and arrived at a very foggy archeological site where I taught Dana the Rosita Method of Speaking Spanish -- if someone asks you something in Spanish and you don't know what they are talking about, say "No." Nine times out of ten, you've just saved yourself from buying something. If "No" is the wrong answer, the conversation will continue, and you're on your own to figure out what he's saying.

We walked around while the fog lifted and it became necessary to teach the Rosita Method for Dealing with Pushy Vendors -- always say "No, no gracias" and then when they talk to you in English, never ever let on that you yourself speak English. Let them believe that you are French or German or Scottish.

At the entrance to the Teotihuacan museum -- #2: No arrows or bows (of the artisan type). So, a composite longbow is okay?

Next was the Basilica which is on the way home. I had punched in the address for Nora the GPS unit, and we had to trust her to get us there. She did a fine job, but alas, she couldn't direct us to parking. So we drove around, thinking maybe we'd only be able to get passing car shots of this most holy place in all of Mexico. I then taught Dana some of the most valuable words in all of Spanishdom -- Estacionamiento Publico -- Public parking. When things were looking bleak, heaven smiled upon us and we actually were able to park under the Basilica plaza and emerge right where we wanted to be.

This is the place where Juan Diego was visit by the Virgin and told to inform the local bishop to build a cathedral to her (read about it at the link). The old basilica was too small to service all of the pilgrims who come here every year (12 million people on 12 December last year), so they built the new basilica which is much more pilgrim-friendly. We had heard that to accomodate the pilgrims (who often approach on their knees) and keep traffic moving that the basilica has moving sidewalks at the icon. Dana and I were on a pilgrimage of our own to ride the moving sidewalk past Our Lady of Guadalupe. We visited every little garden, chapel, and church that they would let us into, and finally ended our tour at the new basilica where they were having mass. We couldn't find the moving sidewalk. We searched and searched, finding new little chapels and even saw Obi Wan Kenobi as a priest (the Alec Guiness one), and we were about to give up when we finally found our holy grail down one level near the velador (altar candle seller). We rode it a few times, took a few more dark, blurry pix and then headed home. (They do not light churches for the benefit of freehand photography.)

Old basilica on the left, new on the right. The icon is directly below the highest point of the new basilica.
You could get your picture taken with Mary, a donkey, and Pope John Paul II (who made Juan Diego a saint in 2002). If I had children, I would have paid the 40 pesos for that shot.

This image is everywhere in Mexico City, but even carved onto the doors here.

Dana in front of the Popemobile

Inside the old basilica

Inside the new basilica

Acapulco

Las Brisas is an old fort above Acapulco bay that has been turned into a 5-star resort. The old walls and cannons are the only testament to its history, as now the place is covered with pink and white casitas (little houses) that you are driven to in pink and white Jeeps driven by pink and white dressed people.




The view of the bay from our place.
We picked this place for the private pool that each suite has. In addition to your pool, guests also have access to the private beach club with a restaurant, large chlorine pool, and saltwater pool that connects to the bay. The girls enjoyed snorkling around and seeing the assortment of fish here.



Our first night we came back from dinner to find a little milk snake and our first ever tarantula on the path to our house.

Because of the violence (i.e. killings) that Acapulco has suffered from recently, we were expressly banned from going into the city (as in, Raul would be fired). So after being a bit stir crazy, we took a boat tour around the bay. Around the boat swam hordes of boys calling for people to throw in coins, and they would swim to the bottom and retrieve them.



Our hotel as seen from the water and the beach club

Small shrine at Roqueta Island