Carmel

17:12 mareku 0 Comments

After a smooth flight we arrived in San Francisco, had a world record speedy immigration, bagage pick up, customs, rental car pick up (Hurry for Alamo!) and were on our way to Carmel. Our hotel is right on the pacific so when we are in our room you can hear/feel the ocean. We met Karen, Tom, Meg and Mason and had a wonderful evening & dinner. And although it has been almost a year since we last met up face-2-face it felt just like yesterday :-)

Mexico City III

00:50 mareku 0 Comments

soumaya museum

Mexican Art

Mexican Art(?)

castillo de chapultepec 

squirrel


museum modern art 
Kazuya Sakai
Well here in Mexico City there is proof that money cannot buy you everything. We started out to visit the Soumaya Museum of Carlos Slim and while the building from the outside looks interesting a closer look shows that it is pieces and bits a things that already existed before. It is BMW Welt combined with Guggenheim New York. The son in law of Carlos is the architect so maybe that explains a bit. The building is not working inside - the collection not properly displayed and lighted. The coin collection is really not visible which is a shame because that seems to be the most interesting part of the museum collections. Yes there is Rodin, Dali, Bourdelle, Frans Hals - well there is a bit of everything - but that doesn't make it a interesting museum.
Much better is the original museum of modern art in the chapultepec park from 1964. This building by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez is still very modern (or is it modern again?). It has some really interesting pieces and exhibitions. 
We ended our stay in Mexico City (which we really liked) with a visted to the chapultepec Castel where  the Mexican Emperor Maximilian I lived during the second Mexican Empire. It is build on a (sacred) Maya hill so you have a pretty view of the rest of the city - well a tiny part of it because this is a gigantic city.

Mexico City II

00:44 mareku 0 Comments

piramides de teotihuacan

Wow - it really is a huge complex 

In the Cathedral - people lock in their vows to god

Cathedral

Palacio National
We stared early to climb the piramides de teotihuacan - I was a bit amazed that you could still that nowadays. The view is very nice and to realise that you are on top of something this impressive makes it even better. Luckily not a lot of people were around - at somethings more then 2 million people will gather here...
In the afternoon we walked the Historic District and then returned to the hotel early because to be frank we were a bit tired of all the walking and climbing.

Mexico City

00:36 mareku 0 Comments

Maya Tomb

Looks like a Hergé comic drawing

Smile! - You're on camera

Faces

Made me think of India a bit
After a short flight we arrived in Mexico City - which is really huge! Luckily we have a hotel close to everything (museums, parks, restaurants and shops). The first thing we did however was to visit the awesome Museum of Anthropology right around the corner. This is the place were the Mexicans moved all their important stuff to - so finally we could see artefacts from all the temples and places we have visited the last weeks. It was truly a very impressing experience. One of the best things is also that they recreated some temple facades in the original colours through which the whole Maya Culture comes to live even more.

Day 11 - Acapulco

00:32 mareku 0 Comments

view from the car

No divers for us...
We did mis plan our next trip a bit... In stead of a couple of hours to reach Acapulco over a reasonable fast highway, it took us 7 hours + over sometimes tiny roads and trough villages. It was a nice trip though with lots of things to see - but we ended up in Acapulco a bit late to see the divers. We had a great dinner and a good sleep in the hotel.

Day 10 - Puerto Escondido

01:06 mareku 0 Comments

on the road II

Beautiful Mountain roads

Everywhere speeds bumps - somethings with a notice, most of the time without...

Our hotel in Puerto Escondido

Sunset at the Pacific
After an exhilarating trip from Oaxaca to the Pacific trough the mountains we ended up in Puerto Escondido. Not a lot to do here then to relaxed, enjoy the view and pool...

Day 9 - Oaxaca II

01:05 mareku 0 Comments

agava

at the domingo cloister in Oaxaca

biotanical garden 
domingo church

pretty flower

ceiling of St. Domingo church

streets of Oaxaca

some houses need some renovation...

street view
The following day in Oaxaca we saw the St. Domingo Church and Convent, now an impressive, huge and modern museum about the history of Oaxaca, the influx of the Spanish and the original people. The streets and filled with colourful  houses and the city has lots of parks. Not a lot of people try to sell you something like in St. Christobal - so making this city much more agreeable and authentic.