My Mexico Trip

[redfiona99]

Getting to Manchester Airport was tricky, but we got there on time.

I did get stopped by security at Manchester, because my books set off the scanner. For those who want to know, the books were Dune, a book on the Prussian kings, the Lonely Planet Guide to Mexico and a Learn Spanish in 30 Days book.

However, we didn't get lost in Schiphol. Our luggage even arrived at the same time as us, which since it's KLM is practically a miracle (more on this later).

The flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City was fun. Mum and I got split up. She ended up next to a nice Dutch lady who was flying to visit a son with a Mexican wife.

I ended up in the party section. Two of the people in our bit were KLM staff, I think, so the booze was flowing and I was right by the emergency exit so there was plenty of room to stand. I was incredibly lucky and got two really cool people as my neighbours. The lady to my right had done her Masters in Leicester, which was an odd if pleasing coincidence. They both gave me lots of useful advice.

Made it to the hotel and happily collapsed into bed.




Started earlier than expected because mother got confused and decided that 3 am was 8 am. And woke me up. I waved my watch at her and fell back asleep.

Once we woke up for real we visited the Museo Franz Meyer (http://ingles.franzmayer.org.mx/) and the Cathedral Metropolitana (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City_Metropolitan_Cathedral).



Got back, had dinner then went back to the hotel room. The window had fallen out. Cue much frantic me-mawing and us being moved to another room.

Why does it always happen to us?




Mum managed to not to wake me up at 3 am. She was less lucky.

We visited the National Art Museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Nacional_de_Arte) and the Templo Mayor (http://www.templomayor.inah.gob.mx/english).

An interesting thing about the National Art Museum and the cathedral the day before is that we could get a lot of the general jist of the art, but there's a local spin like the Virgin of Guadalupe, or the Virgin of the Apocalypse (which isn't a concept I'd ever seen before but I particular liked this take on it - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Miguel_Cabrera_-_The_Virgin_of_the_Apocalypse_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)

There was also a spectacularly gory flagellated man.

The Templo Mayor was fascinating, possibly it's so different architecturally and culturally from anything else I've ever seen.




We intended to visit the Palacio Nacional, managed to miss the main entrance and went to the Cultural Museum instead. There was a really interesting temporary exhibition on Korea. Had fun getting deeply confused by the translation of various Persian kings.

Went to the San Ildefonso art museum (http://www.sanildefonso.org.mx/). It was was mostly a temporary exhibition by Javier Marin, which was the good kind of disturbing, particularly the interactive exhibit.

The building itself was beautiful and you could really feel both the Spanish influence on Mexican architecture and the Arabic influence on Spanish architecture.

The picture isn't actually of San Ildefonso, but of one of the churches at the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, but it shows the same thing -


I would like to give a major recommendation for the MIDE museum cafe, even if you don't go to the museum. The cheesecake and decor are amazing.




We were supposed to go on a city tour but ended up on a tour of the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe (http://basilica.mxv.mx/web1/-home/index.html) and the pyramids of Teotihuacan (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/414).

Had a fantastic time.

The basilica was immense, in both sense of the word. Apparently the Virgin of Guadalupe's feast day is the 12th of December so there were lots of pilgrims visiting while we were there. Which was interesting, given that any culture I can count as being from basically uses saints's days as an excuse for a drink. There was one man who was crawling (not sure crawling is the right word but it's the only one I've got for moving forward on your knees, but there were no hands involved hence not sure if that counts as crawling) and several children carrying statues of the Virgin that were bigger than they were.

From there we went to Teotihuacan, via a stop where we learnt all about the many uses of the agave. And another stop where I managed to have a conversation completely in Spanish (go team me!), which was, admittedly about how bad KLM are. It is apparently a world-wide phenomenon.

The pyramids are huge. I can't state that enough.

And magnificent.

The general layout is best described by this sculpture, which is actually in the Anthropological Museum. -

There's the Pyramid of the Moon at one end, the citadel at the other, joined by the Avenue of the Dead and then the Pyramid of the Sun off to one side.

You can tell it was layed out to inspire awe, as every step you take towards the pyramids only makes them seem larger.




This time we managed to actually have a city tour which included access to the Palacio Nacional (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Palace_(Mexico)), which is getting difficult according to our guide, and saw the Diego Rivera murals, which are amazing.

We managed to get to the Museo Antropologica (http://www.mna.inah.gob.mx/index.html), and planned on going back.

I can also recommend Samborn's coffee (and their food in general).





Mexico is very like Europe in the sense that most of the museums were closed on Monday, so we mostly bumbled around, and ended up walking around various churches.

This is also one of my favourite photos. The pigeon is just the perfect shade to match the stone of the sculpture. Sadly the saint is St. Dominic, not St. Francis whose church we visited earlier.



And the Post Office, which is magnificent inside.

We intended to visit the Museum of the Horsemen but it was closed for refurbishment. We went to the Caricature Museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caricature_Museum,_Mexico_City) instead. It was interesting but we could have done with knowing more Mexican history than we did.





Made it back to the Anthropological Museum. It was as amaing as I'd been told it would be. I also really like how it was designed so as to not need air conditioning.

We used the Turistibus to get there and back. Back was a bit tricky. We just (as is saw the doors closing) missed one and then got caught in Mexico City rush hour. It took us two hours from Chapultapec Park to the Alameda Park.





I flew on to Puerto Vallarta while Mum flew back home. She was struck by the [real name redacted] family travelling curse, with Air France mislaying her baggage somewhere between Mexico City and Manchester (don't worry, it reappeared the day after) and being the only person on the planet who could avoid getting food poisoning in Mexico and then contracting it immediately in the UK. My mother has spectacular luck sometimes.

The worst that happened to me was that I managed to end up at the wrong terminal but the Sky Train solved that problem.

Puerto Vallarta (or at least Bucerias where I was) seems to be mostly American tourists of the kind who think that Santa Cruz is too cold and hippyish. There must also have been the occasional Canadian, because people kept assuming the Brits were Canadians.

The taxi driver also complained that it was only 26 degrees Celsius.

I was staying in a very nice villa/condo/not sure what the right word is.




Took a walk into town proper. Managed to sort Mother's birthday present and girl cousin's birthday present for next year.

Met up with more of the English that had come over for P + D's wedding. They drink more than I do.

Mosquitos have made a meal of P, T and I.

Waited for the arrival of the remaining Englander. We though he'd arrived and was sleeping but no. So we mostly spent time near the pool and I therefore got savaged by mosquitoes.





Swam in the sea. It's lovely and warm and I paid serious mind to never leaving.

Mostly just amused ourselves and got stuff in for the wedding.




The day of the wedding.

Unfortunately it bucketed it down. Heroic efforts were made (particularly by the waiters) but everyone got wet feet and generally damp. It didn't dampen the mood and much singing and dancing occurred (the party lasted from 4 pm to 5 am). There was a mariachi band, which given the lateness of the organising and the day, was a blue-blazing miracle.

The happy couple were happy and everyone had a good time.




The recovery

Obviously P + D were completely zonked. I woke up reasonably early, went to where they were staying, they were still asleep, came back, had breakfast with the Brits, went back round to P + D's, delivered the message I'd been given by one of their friends who'd had to leave earlier and the wedding card and present from our lab.

Those safely delivered, I returned to the Brits who were unfortunately more interested in drinking than I was.

P + D invited us round later to light the Chinese lanterns that they couldn't light the day before due to the rain. Spent the rest of the night spotting shooting stars.





We didn't manage to book the trip to the Marietas so spent Monday wandering round again.

Ended up in both the sea and P + D's pool.

It was after that that the two disasters happened. Well sort of. One of the disasters had been looming for some time. P + D were supposed to book rooms for friends of theirs. P + D didn't because oh bless P but organisation is not one of her strong points and D is even worse. Which lead to mass musical beds going on at our place. We managed to get 9 people into 2 double beds and 4 single beds so it all worked out, but only by accident.

I say this because we only had one of those doubles because T2 missed their flights because they thought the flights were on Tuesday but were on Monday. They sorted themselves out but obviously painful on the pocket.





I like AeroMexico.

The national departure lounge at Mexico City is much nicer than the International one, even if the international lounge is much swisher.

Having managed to get my wristwatch all the way to Mexico and back I managed to lose it in Schiphol. But the Schiphol lost and found is tremendously efficient and I got it back before Christmas (and it is, in fact, around my wrist right now).