Amat victoria curam!

Lunch somewhere at the Costa Verde

Palenque Temple

Palenque Mosaic

Palenque Temple Complex

From Campeche we followed the Costa Verde and it is really true: the ocean here is jade green and very pretty.

Far hidden in the jungle on a couple of hills you will find the Palenque temple complex. Again the difference with the other temples couldn't be greater. Luckily our hotel is very close by (maybe we have chosen our hotels for location?!) Being in the midst of the Mexican jungle however things are very warm though. Luckily the hotel has airco. Here too very nice and friendly people - as we have met everywhere here in Mexico.

edzna temple

campeche street

nothing special lunch

sunlight in campeche

swimming pool in hotel

Via the temple complex of Edzna, yes the Mayas were very busy: there are hundreds of temples here in Mexico. We try only to pick the most interesting ones. And yes what we have seen so far they are all very different in style. OK some have some same kind of buildings like a palace or a soccer field, but in style, set up and feeling they are very different indeed. Edzna was no exception in the fact that we were the only tourists around this time of year. Which makes things so more relaxing and special.

Campeche is a (Unesco certified) colonial walled city. It has very bright colours, which reminded me of Miami beach - but just a bit friendlier. The new sea front is not so great however. But overall this town has great character. The cathedral is one of the oldest in south america and calle 59 is very nice. The strikingly blue sky and the bright sun and colours of the houses make it a special place.

merida

merida city hall

merida street

iguana with uxmal temple.JPG

men from space

Via the old colonial town of Merida we drove to the Uxmal temple complex, where we have booked a hotel on the premises, which is very nice. Again when we walk around we are the only ones. Well that is with the usual lizards and iguanas. Again we climbed right to the top which gave a terrific view of the surroundings. A dip in the cold pool and a dinner with a sun set view of the temple - it is getting a bit boring isn't it?

lizard

climbing the Coba temple

chitchen itzal sun temple

chitchen itza

sunny day at chitchen itza

on top of the temple

biking in Coba

We follow our journey through Yucatan by biking through the jungle and and climbing up the Coba temple. The Mayas had a pretty good feeling about beautiful spots! Next Chichen Itza - wow this is a huge pyramid! and luckily there are not a lot of people around. We are lucky to come half February: the weather is great, no rain and almost no tourists. We stay right next to the complex in a pretty lodge so we can dive in the pool after a sweaty expedition. With great food and Mexican wine we end our day.

cabin on the beach

tulum temple

tulum face

on the beach doing...nothing!

beach

sunrise in tulum

So we now arrived via Cancun in Tulum, which is a much nicer place just south along the coast. We are staying in a cabin on the beach with tropical warm sea water and pure white power sand beach. Hanging in your hammock it feels like paradise and hey!: this IS paradise and only day 2 of our trip.

After dinner on the beach we had a terrific full moonrise and the following morning early a sunrise which must be surely one of the best in the world. No wonder the mayas had a temple right here on the beach... Very tempted to stay here for ever, but we have places to go to.

We are on our way to Mexico and stayed the night in Houston, actually just outside the George Bush Airport in a Springhills Suite - which was very convenient. We will be back in a couple of weeks to see the town in more detail. This control center at the airport was fun already.

One of the best things of long flights is that you are able to really listen to longer programing again without any distraction (that is except when the crew comes along with something to nibble or drink). One of my favorite past times at 10.000 feet is listening to the podcasts of DID with Kristy Young. Always interesting guests and the best feature: because of rights reasons the audio clips of the discs themselves is limited to 30 seconds or so. That way you get the idea without the whole stuff. This is probably the very best way to listen to DID :-)

Our Rimowas suitcases are really battered of all the traveling all around the world during the last years - but they are still going strong (in all sense of the words). It actually seems that the more used they are - the better they look.

So I am gathering all kind of reading and listening stuff to take with me in my iPad for the vacation and long flights. Because Gaston is already 57 years old it is time to re-reading his adventures. Luckily there are enough CBR files to get and to read in as a e-comic.

Just downloaded the first couple of episodes of this new HBO series "True Detective" which everyone advises me to watch. I guess we have to wait till after our Mexico vacation. The storyline and actors though look very promising.

Now a major opera in Madrid:
Monday, February 06, 2006

Broke back mountain en de waarheid.

Vanaf vandaag in een enkele bisocoop: Broke back Mountain. Wij zagen hem vandaag al op de PC en hij is geweldig...uh....lang en saai. Toen ed weer wakker schrok kwamen we tot de conclusie: Het is een echte hollywood homo (lees: probleem) film. Als je homo bent leef je ongelukkig en ga je snel dood. Gelukkig zitten er leuke beelden in - zie boven. :-))

Although I am very happy with my (new) Z1000 - I must admit that the all new Z1000 2014 model looks very nice as well. It is just a new design without much other alterations so I can keep mine for an other couple of years (or months?)

Of the editors list of Amazon I have read only 32 - but of the top 100 list of Goodreads readers my score is 49... What is your score?

Hurra! Nu finns Melodifestivalen igen :-) Vem ska representera Sverige i Köpenhamn den här år? Vi började i Malmö med Yohio - och han van. Men låten från nu är inte så bra som sistas år låten :-( Så jag tänker vi måsta vänta för bättre... (Och jag tycker mer om Yohio på vitt än på svart)

After a month or so trying to use "Jelly" I am still not sure what it actually is or does. OK you can asked questions to (friends of your) friends and they can answer. But unfortunately nobody seems to get the hang of it already: what kind of questions? So I see a very wide range of questions passing by - some serious ones, some silly, some local, some global. Just as twitter nowadays I seem to miss a sort of filter. Or is it just to early to judge?

Wow: since I returned to Blogger back in 2009 more then 200.000 people visited my blog. (top 3 countries: USA, NL and the UK). Thanks everybody :-)

I thought it would be nice to revisit some posts from the past the coming weeks: I start with this top 10 of 5 years ago and I think it is still my top 10 - especially after the airing of the Ramses Shaffy biopic TV series.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Sundays' best: Top Ten Dutch Songs

Ramses Shaffy - Zing,
vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder
Astrid Nijgh - Ik
doe wat ik doe
Willeke Alberti - Telkens
Weer
Benny Neyman - Waarom
fluister ik je naam nog
Wim Zonneveld - Het
Dorp
Jules de Corte - Ik
zou wel eens willen weten
Het goede Doel - Vriendschap
Jasperina de Jong - Dobbe,
dobbe, dobbe
Rita Hovink - Laat
me alleen
Willem Nijholt - Sorry dat ik besta

Bonus: Ramses Shaffy - Sammy

It was a while that I had been at the Vrije University, but today my friend (and co-owner of Heilzaam) Ivan Wolffers had his parting lecture as professor Health and Culture. It was a great and a very relaxed speech. I am happy that we will be able to enjoy Ivan for a long time to come at Heilzaam.

Well: this is it: the very last volume of "Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin (whom I happened to meet a couple of years ago in SF). I just downloaded "The days of Anna Madrigal" - but didn't start reading yet - I want to enjoy this book as long as I can, just like the ice topping on a cake.

There was this article by Jenna Wortham's in The New York Times, wherein she says that twitter has devolved into a platform for self-aggrandizement. We're still sharing the news, she says, but we now are "straining to be the loudest or the most retweeted and referred to as the person who captured the splashiest event of the day in the pithiest way." And that's exactly how I felt about Twitter lately: I got annoyed by the noise and so missed the quality content.

Almost all companies (and some people) it seems have targets with the number of followers, tweets, retweets, etc. which take away all the fun. So I radically erased more than 200 accounts I followed and am back to follow 25 max. (Which I try to be the best of the best) I like it already :-)

Sure there was Zedd winning for Clarity and Dawn Upshaw at the last grammies, but for me the greatest winner was Gregory Porter. I have to admid that I never heard from him before (and so missed his extensive Dutch tour last Autumn. But this guy with his rich baritone and the ever-present Kangol hat is my new favorite jazz singer (well that is after Mel - because Mel is a whole class apart...). Listen to his latest album Liquid Spirit and you know what I mean.

Well I was quite certain at first about Cate Blanchett winning the Oscar for Best Actress for "Blue Jasmine". Then Sandra Bullock made me doubt because of Gravity and now - after watching "Philomena" I give up! Judi Dench is absolutely awesome as Philomea and acts on a square micrometer. So who should get the Oscar???

OK - I admit: I am hooked at "Looking", the new (all gay) HBO TV series about three guys in SF. The nice thing about this series is that there are no stereotypes, just "normal" guys doing normal things, having a normal life actually. And it is funny too...

About 100 years ago the writer Simon Carmiggelt was born so these months were and are a little bit "Simon Months". We went on his "Kronkel walk" through Amsterdam, bought new compilation books by him and some new other books about him. But now - finally I may add - I could my hand on his very rare completed works by the Arbeiderspers. These volumes were published starting in 1994 and were suppose to form the complete works by Simon. Unfortunately due to very poor demand the series was stopped after 25 volumes. And these are hard to get complete. So I am happy that the evenings are still long, because I need plenty of time to read them all. Fun to have some hardcopy books for a change...

Today I had a very special passenger on my Scooter: Maud rode with me trough Amsterdam :-)

Now a major opera in Madrid:Monday, February 06, 2006

Broke back mountain en de waarheid.

I thought it would be nice to revisit some posts from the past the coming weeks: I start with this top 10 of 5 years ago and I think it is still my top 10 - especially after the airing of the Ramses Shaffy biopic TV series. Sunday, February 01, 2009

Sundays' best: Top Ten Dutch Songs

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Now a major opera in Madrid:
Monday, February 06, 2006

I thought it would be nice to revisit some posts from the past the coming weeks: I start with this top 10 of 5 years ago and I think it is still my top 10 - especially after the airing of the Ramses Shaffy biopic TV series.

Sunday, February 01, 2009