New Year in Acapulco

Well, they don't call it Nacapulco for nothing. So, I flew back from the U.S. on the Sunday before New Year's, and drove immediately to Acapulco. It was tiring, but if I'd stayed in my house a minute longer, I probably wouldn't have left (I do like my couch time). But it was pretty cool. It was only a 3-hour drive. The first two days we stayed with some friends of Fernando, (Eduardo 'Lalo' and Pepe). Lalo is a painter (artist), and has some arrangement with the owner of a nice hotel, and gets to live in a small apartment at the hotel. It's on the top of a hill with a great view of the whole bay. Acapulco is one of the oldest resort towns in Mexico, and was visited by the rich and famous for many years. Still now, but it is really just like Mexico City by the sea. There're tons of people everywhere, and traffic, and horns honking and people yelling. I suppose it was more crowded because everyone was on vacation, too. The geography was pretty.

So for New Year's Eve, Lalo and Pepe did their own thing, and Fernando and I went with Mike and Alejandra (Mike is a coworker), and their friends Enrique and Sonia to a fancy schmancy restaurant overlooking the bay. Even though we paid almost $250 dollars each, it was pretty great. They had an open bar with lots of name-brand liquor and such, and then gave us asix-course meal with things like crab, caviar, steak and fish, and even fancy champagne and dessert. At midnight, we went up on the terrace to see the fireworks over the whole bay. It was really

nice. These pictures were taken with my cell phone, and so don't really do justice to the whole scene.

That's Fernando and Mike during the fireworks.

Eventless weekend at the beach...

This past weekend was a 3-day weekend, so a friend/co-worker and I went to sunny Puerto Vallarta! It was a package, and a deal, so we just went. And you know, I needed it. I was so tired of the cold (okay, cool) weather here in the DF, and sick of working. So we went. And did absolutely nothing. I read several books. I read more than several magazines. I drank fruity beverages all day. I took mid-morning naps. I took mid-afternoon naps. I sunned myself. I went to bed early. I rested, sunned, drank, and ate. And then on Sunday, I realized I ought to take a couple of pictures, since I'd been dragging the camera around the whole time. So I took the one above, of the palapa over my head. It was the view I spent the most time seeing. Also, my second most frequent sight:

And so that's about all I can say about my mini-vacation to Puerto Vallarta.

----------------
Now playing: Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block
via FoxyTunes

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

So I had originally planned this blog to be all about my observations on Mexico City, and also a way to keep everyone updated on what I was doing, a sort of a holiday newsletter, only more frequent and less boring...

But. it isn't much more frequent, and I'm not sure about the boring. Plus, I don't have any Mexico City comments just yet. So we'll start with this...

Right now, I'm on vacation, and just got back from a fun-filled holiday ramble through the Southwest with the entire clan: My mom and dad, two sisters, one brother, two in-law spouses (spice?), three nieces, one nephew, two dachshunds, six other assorted family friends, and a cat on leash. And we mustn't forget Jesus, the co-pilot (actual sticker on one of the convoy, which included three camper trailers, a rental car, and the Buick of motor homes, my dad's Holiday Rambler!)

I can tell already this has the makings of a boring vacation slide show--I'll try to be brief,

In sum, it was mostly driving. Drive 6-10 hours, get out, see a sight, take a picture, get in, drive some more. Make camp, shower with several retirees at the RV resort, sleep, strike camp, drive several hours, etc.

Ten stops, with an exercise in word economy: (I completely intend to post more photos, as soon as a certain sister gets her act together, and gives them to me!)

1. Monroe, Louisiana: bugs in the showers.

2. Amarillo, Texas (Cadillac Ranch): surprisingly in the middle of a mucky cow pasture. Cows don't take kindly to strangers, Cadillacs or not.

3. Petrified Forest/Painted Desert: Rocks that were trees. Desert painted, but all earth tones. Windy, too!

4. Acoma Sky Village: Some native people used to live on a high mesa without water, but now it's just tourists.

5. Albuquerque, New Mexico: transmission trouble on the Holiday Rambler. Enlightening 1-hour test drive, me alone with local mechanic. Discussed Bush, sticking it to the Man, and drought. I liked the guy. The photo is Mary Poppins, the dog, doing her impression of that guy. Or maybe Willie Nelson.

6. Williams, Arizona (Grand Canyon): Big hole in the ground. Impressively big. Saw some Amish, and wondered if their buggies had trouble on the hills. We were trying to get a photo of the Amish, who were just behind me on the left. Didn't work.

7. Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona: one night in Camp Crack, under the overpass. Next three nights in hip old-town Scottsdale. Adobe. Heat. Cactus. I really liked it. A lot. (This is the one-armed man who took a liking to Jenny....How U Doin'?)

8. Roswell, New Mexico: Saw UFO museum/research center, and an 'alien' on life support... I believe.

9. Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico: Another huge, impressive hole in the ground, this one covered, and with a 50's style lunch counter underground. I also liked the rental bikes at the campsite.

10. San Antonio, Texas: the Riverwalk looks almost disney-esque but surrounded by urban blight. Apparently the policy is to keep indigent population patrolling streets around, but not actually in, the Riverwalk.

Well, that's the sum of my fun family road trip. More photos to come...