Chihuahua and Mexico City

Chihuahua and Mexico City

Chihuahua is a large city and had time to explore a little before having to go to airport to catch the plane. Went to the city hall where there are huge murals round a central courtyard depicting the history of the city. It turns out that many towns and cities have them,famously in Mexico city itself.

This is a picture of pastor hilgado who is credited with starting the Mexican Independence fight with his cry of Viva Mexico from his pulpit being executed in Chihuahua.

 

The cathedral has the distinction of having 2 altars built one in front of the other, what was originally a large church became the cathedral and it was decided that it needed a grander altar and so a new one with posh marble was built in front. From what I could see I preferred the earlier one, no accounting for taste I suppose.

Its most famous inhabitant was 'Pancho' Villa who had a grand house in the city which was turned into a museum on the death of his widow in the 80's (I think) certainly relatively recently. It has lots of momentos plus the car in which he was assasinated complete with bullet holes.

Another very classy (grey leather seats) flight back to Mexico and reasonably trouble free taxi ride to the hotel on the main square which I now know is called a zocalo in all places large enough to have a square! Had a little wander but ate in the hotel which was pleasant and not too expensive. Had to ring someone to find out what time the tour started, not impressed with the organisation skills of Bales/Native Trails other travellers also had problems so a number of complaints will be made I expect.

However friendly group of people from all over England and in one case Scotland plus a couple from Bulgaria who speak good enough english and in the case of the wife a few other languages as well. Luigi is our guide and unfortunately his english is not good enough for the speed he speaks at and he is very fond of his history in great detail so it is difficult to keep listening and everything takes longer than necessary.

We did get to see part of the cathedral

 it being Sunday bits were closed for Mass, so we looked at the place where the President stands to commemorate Independence on 15th September each year and rings the bell at 11.00 o'clock  precisely, along with bells in every other town in the country lots of frieworks etc follow.



 and then at extreme length the murals in the city hall by Diego Riviera 

husband of Freda Kahlo, which show the complete history of the various struggles through history of the peoples of Mexico and the types of produce and it's uses.The following shows the eagle (god) who found the right place in a lake(!) to build Mexico City, the serpent is also important but it was all rather to much by then!

,

We then went to a suburb called Xochimilco which is an area of waterways and islands just to confirm the lake is still there underneath the city) where brightly coloured boats are punted along

 and we had lunch along the way. Mariachi bands

 would serenade for a small fee and there were other boats selling plants and trinkets etc. 

Eventually we got to the main museum housed in a lovely modern building with the history of the various peoples/tribes who have occupied the various parts of the country. Their abilities to calculate and build are astounding, this is the Sun Stone found near where my hotel now is, showing theAztec knowledge

but they also were a very cruel race and methods of torturing and killing people seem particularly gruesome, this is a sacrificial stone, nice drainage channel. 

They also had carvings to hold the hearts taken out probably when the person was still alive

this fluteis made from a human bone

 

 but as ever there is always a slightly brighter side especially for the ladies, probably make some of my followers feel a tad inadequate!

 

Copper Canyon

Railway station some 15 mins drive outside the town and the train was late so fair amount of hanging around but eventually it arrived and the porter showed me to my seat.

 A very slow journey ensued, fairly dreary scenery to begin with and train used by locals as well as tourists. However gradually we rolled through more majestic scenery a little bit like the trans-alpine in New Zealand but make-up of mountains different and no glacial action here.

Most homes are small and many fairly delapidated, the indigenous population struggle to survive with rather thin animals and scrubby fields.

The journey was somewhat enlivened by two machine gun toting guards for what purpose I'm not sure!

Finally arrived in El Divisidero at about 3pm having boarded at 8.40am or so about half an hour late. Path from station lined by stalls selling baskets,jewellery, t-shirts etc. nothing very exciting but felt sorry for the people who work hard with little prospect of return by what I could see. Path very uneven and with quite a few steps not geared to roller suitcase.

Checked in only person who did so and then struggled to room more steps and no porter! However the view from the room more or less made up for it.

Part of the deal with the hotel meant that I have two guided walks and the first set off at 4pm to see some caves in the walls of the canyon which house wild and human animals.

 Some were in fairly inaccessible places and with thousands of feet drop not my favourite activity but I have some pictures to prove I did it.

Supper in the bar as only person staying real mexican food and beer. Barmaid hoping to go to New Zealand to work and had visited the North Island last year like Marian on my trip last year. Very cold in the evening and layering up to keep warm not helped by the wind although out of it and in the sun quite pleasant. Second trip started at 9am the next day heading along the the top of the canyon for some distance, the picture below shows the hotel in the middle from only part of the way.

We passed a number of lookout stops including one which has a rock which moves and no I decided it was too windy to test, well that's my excuse but no one else doing it either so.....

Eventually reached the new attraction of a cable car across part of the canyon and took a ride which gets you much nearer the bottom. It is amazing how many people live in quite lonely places where reaching anyone else must take hours and no motorised transport can get there.

 More views but nothing else allowed 20mins and returned where could see the ladder ways that some of the cliff dwellers use.

Walking through a forest area noticed a striking red barked tree which apparently has some medicinal purpose in the treatment of diabetes.

Unfortunately the rest of the trees were fairly uninteresting and as the wind was getting up glad to be back by lunchtime. Went for a walk myself in the afternoon and found a spot to take a photo of the train that I shall catch tomorrow. Still no more guests I wonder why they keep open in what is clearly low season for the area.

Journey downrather less interesting landscape, passed through a town called Creel, with a hotel which sums the place up.

lengthy journey starting at just before 3pm and ending at 9.30 in Chihuahua, more of which later.

Travels in Mexico

Well here I am once again exploring a part of the world I haven't visited before. Long journey via Houston flying over two of the great lakes, and I even managed a picture.

Tried to get one of Mexico city as it seemed huge just a mass of lights as we came in to land but rather shaky and the next one looked like a Jackson Pollock so fine art photography here I come!

Spent night in airport hotel as early flight north toward the Copper Canyon, small plane only seating 50 and had  a good view of the two local volcanoes

but had to detour because of bad weather so pleased to eventually land safely in Los Mochlis from where I travelled by car to El Fuerte. Weather quite warm so had a pleasant look round the town established by the Spanish with a fort (fuerte) for protection against the indigenous indians which now houses the museum and has some lovely bouganvilia outside

not to mention cactii

and views of the river Fuerte famed for it's black bass fish

Overnight in hotel which is a converted large house where allegedly Zorro lived as a child. Waiter did a pretty good impression but only have the statue.

Today was Valentines Day which is taken pretty seriously here, and a young couple were being serenaded over lunch in one of the courtyards which rather puts a box of chocolates in the shade! Aah.

Paris at 90

My aunt grace celebrated her 90^th birthday while I was in New Zealand and so I suggested she might like a trip to Paris to make up for my absence. The downside being I would go along too!

We met up in the champagne bar at St Pancras and had a celebratory glass before catching the Eurostar. The train was very crowded something of a surprise to me for a 2pm Tuesday departure. Fortunately all went to plan and we arrived at the Gare du Nord around 5.30pm Paris time and caught a taxi to our Hotel in the Boullevard Raspaill close to St Germain de Pres. Our room on the 6^th floor was pleasant not very large but good bathroom and space for clothes which were distributed around before we set off for a little explore finding a typical bar to have a glass of wine

before we went and had a very good supper in a recommended local restaurant, Grace enjoying a chocolate pudding to die for!

One of the places Grace particularly wanted to visit was the Musee D'Orsay where there is a special Manet exhibition being held at the moment, so after a very good buffet breakfast we set off to walk the short distance passing a lovely flower shop on the way.

The queues at the museum were staggering so we decided to try another day somewhat earlier(!) and therefore jumped on a hop-on-hop-off bus and had a wonderful scenic tour to Place de la Concorde with it's obelisk,

the Champs Elysee up to the Arc de triumph, round to the Trocadero and Pallais Chaillet and Tour Eiffel.

We carried on past the Hotel Des Invalides

and Rodin Museum before returning over the Seine again to the Grand Palais with a special glass and girder roof. 

This was followed by the Place de Madelaine, Opera and of course the Louvre.

At Notre Dame we changed onto a different hop-on-hop-off bus to Place de la Bastille where we alighted and walked to Place des Vosges which I'm not sure I had visited before where we stopped for a late lunch, listening to a violinist, very

civilised,

before visiting the Musee Carnavalet which houses much about the history of Paris and we wandered around for sometime before catching some buses back to close to the hotel arriving around 7pm, a long day. We tried a different restaurant also good but perhaps not such great value before taking a slightly circuitous route back to the hotel via Les deux Magots and Flores on the Boulevard St Germain, haunts of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemmingway and Pablo Picasso. We didn't stop as they are now rather more of an expensive tourist attraction.

On Thursday as we still had access to the hop-on-hop-off buses we decided to leave the Manet until our last day when it wasn't available and set off on foot to the Musee Cluny another on Grace's list to see the Lady with the Unicorn series of tapestries.

They were magnificent as was the whole museum about the middle agesset in a wonderful building.

We got the bus up to do a circuit including Montmartre, stopping off to visit Sainte Chappelle with it's amazing stained glass windows 

 and lovely ground floor arches

before stopping near the church of Sacre Coeur taking the funiculaire rather than attempting the steps (I was pleased!)

after having lunch in a little bistro nearby. The views of Paris are stunning but the church was rather crowded and the lighting of the Christ figure not as dramatic as I remembered it from previous visits. 

We then had to rush to get to the base of the Eiffel Tower to pick up a boat for our Champagne tasting cruise! Catching an interesting sculpture on the way.

Another treat and it was a joy, 3 different champagnes including one Grand Cru with top-ups and good views of the river.

We only managed a few steps to the most local restaurant for supper but it was full of French people eating and a very enjoyable meal.

Already our last day, up early to check out and walk to the Manet, still a queue but not quite so big and we got in, enjoying both Manet and in my case a pre-raphaelite exhibition comparing early photo's taken at the same time with the pictures, which was also good. The D'Orsay was originally a train station which makes the inside different and has a lovely impressionist section too. We then caught a boat along with some 'old people' who made Grace look my age(!) for a final lunchtime cruise 

we had vouchers for an aperitif so Kir Royale's arrived and then 3 courses and coffee for just over £30 a head with an hour and twenty minute cruise, a bargain! While we were afloat I got this lovely picture of the Eiffel tower looking somewhat out of place!

Also this bridge where there are railway tracks on the top and a road underneath with large hanging lights.

Plus a picture of these lovely ladies enjoying the ride.

Time to wend our way back to the hotel and then onto the station for our trip back home, a lovely and memorable short break to a beautiful city and I'm not sure if it's the depression or our ages but the Parisiens were amazingly polite!