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PUEBLA DE ZARAGOZA – Puebla, MEX

Heading out of Mexico City, bound for parts relatively unknown to me, I thought I’d share with a couple of observations with the America’s most populous city. The 5 days I spent there were filled with a tremendous amount of museums, churches and so called national monuments, in which I seemed to have covered more territory on foot than the early Spanish conquistadors.

It’d be fair to say that the large Police presence i.e. officers on most street corners, is a little unsettling and takes some getting used to. Having said that, I didn’t feel any unease or threat to my wellbeing, even though I ended up in a couple of areas that the hotel staff said I was “loco” for cutting through to get where I wanted to go. Ignorance can be bliss at times, but no excuse if you get into shit though.

Amenities and utilities wise – the city looks to be a decade behind in any investment. but the streets were really clean, not smelling of sewerage, uncollected rubbish or pet excrement.

I personally loved wondering around the older tree-lined suburbs and being left alone by the many street vendors, who are simply trying to make an honest dollar.

I’d love to spend some more time exploring the city, but don’t see myself planning a trip to specifically do that. I enjoyed my time in town and have a new appreciation for the country and the people by watching the locals go about living their respective lives.

As for today – we saddled up at for a 8AM departure and after a brief stop at the Centro Cultural Tlatelolco (University Cultural Center Tlatelolco) to check out the ruins of Piramide De Tlatelolco (Tlatelolco archaeological site) and the Templo de Santiago Apóstol (Church of Santiago Apóstol). We headed an hour and half northeast into Teotihuacan and stopped at Artesanias Premier where the local host – Jesus, provided an interesting and educational presentation as to how important the cactus was to the original settlers and the uses of it on their everyday lives.

It was a short 15 minute ride over to Teotihuacán Pyramids where we spent the best part of a couple of hours exploring the 20 square kilometre (8 square mile) site that once had a population estimated at more than 100,000 people between 2,100 and about 1,400 years ago.

The site is only 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of modern-day Mexico City and hosts over 4 million years ago and I was fascinated as to the building and scale of the site – well worth the visit.

After a late buffet lunch at the local El Jaguar Teotihuacán, where I was well chuffed with the selection and range on their salad bar. The experience was soured slightly as I took some umbrage to them presenting a bill that included a tip of over 20%. It’s not the amount, it was the fact that the “optional” charge was not explained to anyone and expected to be paid. Even after I objected, they did not remove the tip amount from the change I received back.

We left Teotihuacán around 2PM and headed for the city of Puebla de Zaragoza and the Gilfer Hotel, our stop for the next couple of nights. At the completion of our orientation walk with our CEO – Jumanji, a couple of us took up her suggestion and tried the local dish “Exquisitos chiles en Nogada” which consisted of a chilli stuffed with chicken mince, vegetables, fruits and almonds, bathed in a nogada sauce of cheese and walnut and topped with pomegranate kernels. It was simply delicious, although a little sweet for my tastes.

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MEXICO CITY – Ciudad de México, MEX

Couldn’t help myself, I availed myself of the $8 AUD Huevos Rancheros breakfast deal, that I happened upon yesterday at the café located next to the hotel. While knocking down the eggs on tortillas and good black coffee, I surfed the Internet for things to do today as I really had no set plans for today.

I decided to head over to the Mirador Torre Latino (Latin-American Tower) to try and get some shots of the city from the 44th floor open viewing platform and then make the rest of the day up as I went along.

As the 182 metre (597 foot) tall 45 floor tower is a good ½ hour walk from my hotel, I decided head down there early to try and avoid any potential long queues and overcrowding. Imagine my disappointment upon arrival that they would not allow me to take my camera rig and was told that I “had to enter a commercial engagement with the building owner and that could take a couple of weeks and I could only occur on a day of the owners choosing”.

I advised the team member that I saw no camera/photography exceptions or restrictions either on their website or upon arrival and that I was leaving in the morning – didn’t make a difference. I’m like OK and start heading out the door, at which time they said I could use a mobile phone if I wanted to. I simply kept walking as it wasn’t like there was a shortage of interesting subject matter in the general vicinity.

As I stepped to the street I had a decision to make: head left to wander around the Zócalo again or turn left to explore Park Alameda Central and the historic buildings fronting onto the landmark green-space that was created in 1592. I was able to take in Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), Parroquia de San Juan de Dios (Church of San Juan de Dios) and the Iglesia de San Hipólito y San Casiano (Church of San Hipolito, built in 1521).

I kept meandering towards the southern side of town and ended up in the so-called Bohemian art/café/hipster and tree lined suburb of La Condessa. As you can image, coffee shops, cafés, eateries and galleries abound, but one of the major attractions is the so called “Lungs of Mexico City” – Parque Espana.

Speaking of “Lungs of Mexico City”, every Sunday the city closes a fair amount of the major thoroughfares, to all vehicular traffic, for most of the day, which allows all the “lycra lunatics” their time in the sun. A great initiative I reckon – closing the roads that is.

Feeling a bit peckish by now, I happened upon the Taqueria El Pescadito tucked away in a back street that was jam packed with locals. I decided to park up with ice cold Victoria cerveza and try their Taco de Camarón and Taco de Chile Relleno de Marlin, which were awesome. Didn’t care much for the Quesadillas Marlin as the filling was like a really dry tuna. Finding local places like this, that turn out to be a brilliant experience, is one of the best parts of travel …. IMHO.

It seems that after all this walking, my feet have embraced the local culture by advising me in no uncertain terms that a siesta was in my best interests, I walked the ½ hour back to hotel and whiled away the afternoon with a good book.

A couple I’d met at the hotel and I decided to dine together the Argentinian restaurant next door. We figured to meet at 8PM as the place closes at 10PM. We lob up at 7:45 only to be told that the kitchen has closed. All righty then. We ended up a few blocks away at the Comedor Lucerna, which was simply jumping.

As eating establishments go, it’s a great concept. It’s basically a warehouse space, filled with large 12-seater picnic table/bench furniture and surrounded by 6 different food outlets and a bar. The premise is you are seated and receive menus from each outlet, order what you so desire and then have it delivered to your table for consumption. The meals we had were great but the service was terrible all round.

It seemed that no one wanted to help the Gringo’s for whatever reason. It even became Fawlty Towers like when we asked to pay and leave. We received 5 different tickets, from 3 different wait staff performing perfectly choreographed “drop & dash” manoeuvres that facilitated us spending 20+ minutes to pay the bill(s).

Couldn’t help but laugh at another moment that I’m labelling “TIM” – This Is Mexico.

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MEXICO CITY – Ciudad de México, MEX

Today marks the second week on the road for me. It is also the third Saturday in three different cities – Townsville, Boise & Mexico as well as three different countries – Australia, United States & Mexico.

Now according to the mobile application – Polarsteps, I’ve managed to travel just on 22,375 kilometres (13,093 miles) so far and I’m pleased to say to (a) I’m experiencing something different each day and (b) I’m expanding my Spanish vocabulary, which now encompasses the most important word I’m beginning to use on a regular basis – Baño.

Whilst most of you who know me, would think that Cerveza (beer), Cantina (bar), Jardín de la Cerveza (beer garden) or Comiendo Casa (eating house) would rate fairly high ….. and you’d be correct, but after three days in Mexico I’ve come realize that “thunderbox”, “dunny” or “dropping the kids off at the pool” is either lost in translation or of zero significance to the local populace – but the word Baño, accompanied with 5 to 10 Pesos (36 to 73 cents Australian) allows you the use of clean amenities with a measured amount of “poo tickets“, should you need to be seated for the entire performance.

After yesterday’s effort, I decided to forgo any formal town tours and explore the city via the hop on/hop off TuriBus service. At 180 Pesos ($13.07 AUD) for the 9AM – 9PM service that has 20 minute intervals for open-top double decker buses. It’s one of the cheapest and most informative ways I’ve found to help get orientated in any city I’ve been to.

I took the Tour Official de la CDMX, which lasts 2½ hours if you do not get off, which is awesome value. Also included in the All Day Pass is the Chapultepec Polanco, the Sur Coyoacán & San Angel as well as the Basilica route as well.

I stopped off at Wingstop at the recommendation of a local – the wings were pretty ordinary, but the company was great. I got speaking to a couple of local on duty Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) officers (sometimes known as Federales), who ended up giving me a lift back to my hotel.

Tonight was spent sorting out all the paperwork and formalities associated with the start of any G Adventures trip. This will be my 9th with them and I’m looking forward to having a ball over the next 14 days on their Classic Mexico Adventure.

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MEXICO CITY – Ciudad de México, MEX

After a bit of research, I settled on the Amigo Tours $65 USD Mexico City Super Saver: Coyoacán, Frida Kahlo Museum, Xochimilco & National University day trip.

We got picked up at 8:30 from the Hotel NH Reforma, transferred to our actual tour bus at the Palacio de Bellas Artes and then on to a toilet stop at Cafe El Jarocho in Coyoacán before walking over to the Parroquia San Juan Bautista (San Juan Bautista Catholic Church) that was founded in the 16th century, which all took the best part of two hours.

We crossed the street to the Fuente de los Coyotes (Fountain of the Coyotes) after all, Coyoacán comes from Nahuatl Aztec language and literally means “place of coyotes”.

From there we wandered down to the supposedly world renowned Frida Kahlo Museum, that was literally encircled with queues of people stretching around the block. Fortunately for us Gringo’s on the Amigo’s tour, we only had to wait 15 minutes to get in.

I’d be the first to admit that when it comes to the arts, yogurt has got more culture to me and that Frida Kahlo de Rivera was more anonymous that wrong phone number to me, but I’m pleased to say that in the allotted hour we had in the museum I learnt that in her 47 years Frida contracted polio at birth, had a car accident causing debilitating chronic pain, joined the Communist Party, divorced her husband for snookering her sister ….. then remarried him, had her leg amputated, became addicted to pain killers and wasn’t able to celebrate her 50th – all this is said to have drawn her to Mexican folk art and its elements of “fantasy, naivety, and fascination with violence and death” – go figure.

Late lunch was spent at Embarcadero Nuevo Nativitas Xochimilco in which we boarded one of the reported 2,500 Trajinera’s (flat bottomed boats), which run people around the Canals of Xochimilco. As there are no motors allowed, the colourfully decorated vessels are powered with a long wooden pole, similar to a punt. Goods and services like food, drink, souvenirs and Mariachi bands literally come to you on their own trajinera.

For mind, it felt like a cattle cruise where we went for a 20 minute ride up the canal, pulled up to get fed & watered and herded back to spend ½ and hour at the trinket stalls. I asked about stepping off at the Gardens, Island of the Dolls or the historic town. It was at this time that the guide seemed to lose all understanding of the English language for some reason.

Our final stop of the day was at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National University of Mexico) to take in one of the world’s largest mosaic murals that covers the 10 story tall UNAM Central Library that was created by Juan O’Gorman and took two years to complete.

While on the University campus, we took a few minutes to look out across the busy Avenue de los Insurgentes Sur to the Estadio Olímpico Universitario that’s better known as Mexico’s Olympic Stadium.

Our day finished back that the NH Reforma hotel around 6PM and during the walk home I had time to reflect on the day. As day trips went, we seemed to spend more time stuck in Mexico City’s notorious bumper to bumper traffic. To say I was disappointed with the trip would be an understatement with the major contributing factor being the lack of engagement by the guide. He simply did not know how to engage the group of Spanish and English speakers, which is what the bilingual speakers said they were struggling with as well.

Not to worry though – tomorrow is another day.

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MEXICO CITY – Ciudad de México, MEX

I’m thinking that today could just be the first designated day of my holidays as all my family, friends and governmental agency activities have been completed.

As usual, I was up at sparrow’s fart, completed the “4 S’s” (i.e. Shit, Shave, Shower & Shampooch) and was out the door around 5AM to take in how North Americas most populous city greeted the new day.

I was headed over to Museo Mexicano del Diseño to meet up with a local guide from Interpids’ Urban Adventure team for the ½ day Mexico City Original Markets & Street Food Tour. Yeah ….. I know I was 3 hours early, but I took the time to go for a wander around the Plaza de la Constitución and the surrounding Centro Historico area.

How else would I have worked out that at La Parroquia de Veracruz, a 10 ounce black coffee is 12 Pesos more than Happy Hour Coronas???

Around 9AM I was joined by our guide, two “Snap Frozen Yanks” fellas from Toronto and Ottawa, as well as a “Helliforinian” sheila living in the Bay Area around Oakland, who turned out to be a pretty good crew to go exploring with.

Our first food stop for the day was exploring the Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market, that was created in 1934 and deals primarily in clothing and fashion i.e the “rag trade”. We were introduced to Tamale’s, with me selecting the pork & green chilli, that was light, fluffy and full of flavour.

Then it was over to Mercado de Sonora, that was established in the 1950’s and is known primarily for its herbal medicines and items related to witchcraft, magic and the occult.

It was here that we were introduced to carnitas at Carnitas Paty, which were served with pork off-cut tacos, that I felt were pretty ordinary if the truth be told. It was also at this stop that we sampled several different mole’s and I have to say – I was both impressed not only with the variety, but also the rich depth of flavours.

Our third and final market was the El Mercado de Jamaica, again established in the 1950’s and predominantly a fresh flower as well as a fruit & veg market. It was across the road at Huaraches Ramoncita where we sampled Huarache, which also a Mexican
slang term for “old sandals” and a Cuitlacoche (pronounced QUEET-la-coh-chay and called corn smut in English speaking countries), which has a distinct earthy taste and not bad eating.

From there it was back to the hotel, for a quick shower and then out to the local bodega to grab a ½ carton of Dos Equis, a bag of ice and a packet of plastic bin liners to turn my hotel rubbish bin into a temporary esky, as there is no fridge in the room – sometimes you just have to improvise to improve the experience. 

All up today I covered 9.9 miles (16 k’s) on foot and as local orientation tours go, it was great. As local food tours go – a tamale, taco and some huarache doesn’t make a “Food Tour”. WithLocals has set the bar high in regards Walking Food Tours, as opposed to what I would define as a local orientation – that was interesting, factual and engaging.

BE WARNED: Could this be Bohemiem Rhapsody “Fitzy style“? Dinner tonight consisted of an Aussie, in Mexico, eating at an Italian joint – Trattoria Isabella, sipping on Bohemia Pilsner cervezas with 70’s funk & soul on the stereo ….. I personally don’t see anything wrong with that as it was a great feed.

10 miles on foot to get my first beer in for the day 😉
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MEXICO CITY – Ciudad de México, MEX

Who ever thought it’d be a great idea to get up at 2AM, to make a 7AM flight departure, needs to have their freckle flossed with the rough end of a pineapple. I’m on holidays and there’s no need for such stupidity – but get up I did.

I dropped off the Silver Stang and headed through airport security manned by a cast of thousands with a combined IQ of an Arctic summers day – the TSA ….. or Thousands Standing Around as I like to call them. The asked me for Government issued ID and after passing my licence back and forth between the 5 of them, it became apparent that Queensland does not have a recognised government as their licences are not accepted – go figure.

My flight into Dallas, Texas went for a bit over 3 ½ hours, then a similar layover with three gate changes between two separate satellite sites and a 2 ½ hour flight time into Mexico City’s – Benito Juarez International Airport, which I have to say was the quickest landing/luggage collection/leaving airport experience I have had in a long while and that was including having to fill out an Immigration form in duplicate.

I got chatting with my transfer driver, on the way over to the Posada Viana Hotel, and he gave me a few pointers on getting around the most populous city in North America, including stopping at La Barrita Marisqueria that’s pretty much one of the cleanest hole in the wall eateries, that throws on a great seafood feed.

Couldn’t help myself on the way home. I found a local dive bar with Happy Hour 20 Peso Corona’s. That works out at $1.06 in Australian “South Pacific Pesos”.

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BOISE – Idaho, USA

With today being the last full day in Boise, there were a few items that required my attention before jetting out in the morning, least of which was the certified copy that I have no convictions to my name.

For all intents & purposes, it takes approximately 5 business days to procure a certified copy of one’s record here in Idaho. The pursuit of this document saw the request go in yesterday, with the explanation that I was leaving for Mexico tomorrow morning, so imagine my surprise in receiving a phone call to come in for a review this morning, which saw me duly attending to for most of the morning.

We took a break for lunch which I met up with the “Blonde Bombers” – Barbie and Denyse at The Curb: Bar & Grill. I met both sheilas when I supported the Probe department at Micron.

From there it was back to the Ada County offices to review and then have the correct documents certified and to have the findings sent to the appropriate government agencies i.e. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration & Customs Enforcement.

I simply can’t thank the young lady enough for the effort she put in with processing my request and getting it all sorted in the tight deadline in which she could have said for me to come back in a week. Just goes to show that good humour and a funny accent can be an advantage.

I took a quick detour into Fred Meyer to collect all the fixings to make homemade wild caught Alaskan Halibut & Prawn pizzas for my hosts Jax & Ian – which turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself.

I have to say that this week in Boise has flown faster than politician to a free feed. I had every intention to visit as many people as I could while in town, but as with the best laid plans, sometimes things pop up that you simply have to accommodate or manage on the fly. For those who I planned on visiting and unfortunately missed due to unforeseen circumstances, I truly apologise for simply running out of time and spreading myself too thin.

For those that I did manage to catch up with, I am both grateful and humbled that you took time out of your respective busy schedules to catch up. I was great to relive some of the shenanigans we got up to over the years and to see how we all have travelled over the decade since I left for Australia.

And finally to my hosts Jax, Ian and the two boys Jack Jack and G Unit – thank you for allowing me to be a part of your lives again and sharing some more wonderful moments, that I will cherish no matter where life takes me – hope to see you all next June.

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BOISE – Idaho, USA

I figured today would be a great day to do some laundry, track down some documentation and to complete a final gear check on all my equipment.

Glad I did do the checks as somehow after my camera body was serviced, the recording settings were set to the default OEM settings. All images were going to the CF Card in JPEG format, instead of the CFast Card in RAW format. This is a huge catch as the quality difference between the formats is worlds apart.

The other issue is that with having the different formats going to separate cards, if one should fail, then I haven’t lost all the images from that day, as I generally move the images to my laptop and a portable hard drive.

Most of my morning was spent with the staff of Ada County in trying to resolve the documentation SNAFU, that has piqued the interest of US immigration. As the matter was dismissed in 2001 the comment was made that “there’s no conviction and the case was dismissed, so why are they worried about it?” I’m thinking to myself that it’s because someone in your outfit didn’t finalise the paperwork correctly for a second time.

Lunch today was out at my former employers – Micron Technology Inc, Building 17c cafeteria where we ran into a few of my former colleagues, as well as a couple of mates I hadn’t seen in a long while. Jethro, Father O and myself then went on a wander around the areas I supported during my tenure like Assembly, Fab 1, Fab 3, Fab C, Fab 4, Assembly, SpecTeck & Facilities. I was somewhat intrigued to see both 15T and the “Onions” still being used, even though they were temporary buildings installed in 1997.

At the end if the walk, I commented that as much as the place had changed, the more it had remained the same. While I’m forever grateful to Micron for the opportunity and start in my IT career, I don’t see myself ever wanting to work for such a large operation again, as you feel like just a number and are perceived to have no direct contribution to the enterprise as a whole.

From there it was back to the Ada County courthouse to check on the recovery of the hearing rulings and then over to my host Jax’s office, to resolve some network printer issues.

The evening was spent at another Ruth’s place, this one’s my favourite Human Wreckage operator (as in she’s a Senior HR professional) and my former roommate Chris, Heather and their two kids.

With one day left before heading off to Mexico, my week in Boise has felt like a roll of toilet paper in that the closer to the end – the quicker it’s gone.


Just to give you some prospective as the scale of operations of the Micron’s Boise site, I’ve highlighted the entrance of Building 17c, which is the main entrance.
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BOISE – Idaho, USA

Could I be still suffering from jet-lag??? Apparently so … it was the day of the Sabbath and I missed church – not sure where I’m going to get a drink before lunchtime now?

Speaking of lunch, I met up with my ex-wife “Struth” and her husband Dusty for a nosebag & a natter at The Cheesecake Factory. We spent the best part of a couple of hours catching up, where it was great to see her in great health and firing on all cylinders.

From there it was over to catch up with Danette & Nathan and Stacy & David – some of the best mates a person could have. We picked up where we left off when I departed and I loved that we could collectively resolve the world’s problems around the dinner table.

Had to explain to ‘Nette that building a wall could “Make America Great” as the Chinese have built one, no one’s complained and they’re even charging people to look at it or walk along it. She also now knows that Australia has a similar marvel of man-made engineering, but seeing as we had a bit less coin, we built the 3,488 mile (5,614 kilometre) dog proof fence instead and as far as we know – no illegals from Central or Southern America have crossed it .

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BOISE – Idaho, USA

This morning started out before dawn, with a wander around the Idaho State Capital building. It’s not that I’m overly interested in the building, rather it was that I didn’t want to miss meeting up with a couple of great mates – Mary Jo and Tom (MJ & Blouse as I’ve called them for donkey’s yonks) at a local institution – Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro.

After catching up on what’s transpired in our respective lives over the past decade, we left Goldy’s and I accompanied MJ & Blouse on their usual 4 mile (6½ km) walk around Boise’s North End neighbourhood, which I thoroughly enjoyed the quality time with them.

From there it was the not so simple matter of tracking down a pair of Teva “brothel creepers” which would finalize my trip preparations.

Just after lunch I wandered down to the Willow Lane Athletic Complex to watch the Boise United boys take on Tacoma in a sanctioned USA Rugby match. The match didn’t get off to a great start as no one could locate a beer tap in order to release all the amber goodness and therapeutic qualities contained within the 5-gallon stainless steel vessel.

Never fear, an imminent civil uprising and potential serious hydration related health issues were averted with the arrival of Ox and his esky – old boys rule!!!

Speaking of Old Boys, they were the reason why I was at the match. I was stoked to catch up with DJ the Silver Ghost, Fafitti, Fraser, Smithy Carny, Barbie, Ox & his bride and No Neck Josh.

The match was a one-sided affair with the local boys lapping Tacoma by a considerable margin. By the end of it, we’d organised to catch up at a local pub later on in the evening.

In the years since leaving Boise, there has been plethora of micro-breweries open in my absence and one of these new entities – Clairvoyant Brewing Company, is where I wandered over to catch up with Ian & Jax and a couple of their friends. We ended up at The Flats 16 Restaurant & Event Centre to meet up with one of Jax’s school friends and both Ian and myself amused ourselves somewhat with watching a woman who’d obviously had spent way too much time on the 19th hole with her golfing boyfriend and his mates. At one point both her and the boyfriend visited the bathroom together and returned 15 minutes later and she looked visibly lighter by several ounces – must have been something she ate???

Come 7 o’clock Ian I rocked up to O’Michaels Pub & Grill to be met with not only the rugby boys and some of their better halves, but also a couple of former workmates from Micron. It was also great to hear that Tauge & Faulkner had not lost any of their mojo in playing live music.

A big day to be sure – but ever so grateful and appreciative of people making time and wanting to hang out.