Travel-Stained Life

Most international attractions are visually stunning,  culturally significant and historically important in some combination.  A national monument, an ancient city or a natural wonder all come to mind.  Many fewer places combine the above criteria with significant economic value to almost every single country on the planet.  The Panama Canal does just that.  Watching vessels [...]

Things we learned: Currency: Pesos (13 Pesos = 1 US Dollar) Cheapest form of transportation: Subway for 2 pesos Expect the subway to be crowded and hot.  Also, expect people to constantly be selling a whole range of things in the subway cars. Bring raincoats because it rains everyday (at least in September). The Anthropology [...]

Coming to Mexico on this trip was something of a comfort amongst countries we have and will visit which we know little about and whose culture we know even less.  When we lived in Houston, we met many people from Mexico and ate Mexican food regularly.  We also spent a few weeks in Baja California [...]

Our Mexico City visit fell on the 16th of September, Mexico´s Independence Day.  A host cancelled on us due to the holiday so we rented a cheap hotel room in Centro Historico and were able to be observers front row center to the festivities.  The main celebrations were in the town square or Zocalo, a historical district containing a [...]

We woke up before sunrise to catch the bus to Teotihuacan Pyramids, an archeaological site not far from Mexico City.  The advice was to arrive early so that you can climb on and check out the pyramids before the crowds and hot sun got to them.  We hadn´t eaten breakfast in our haste to catch the [...]