February 2013 - Guanajuato translates (from the indigenous Indian language in this area) as “hilly place of frogs”. It was the richest Mexican city in the 18th century because of the mining of silver in the hills surrounding the town. The approach to the historic center is really unique – cars have to go through the old, and quite long, mining tunnels to get into the old city.

It’s a very picturesque town to walk – it actually reminded me of Vernazza in Italy (minus the sea) because of the winding stairs, colorful houses, and wonderful views. I had to pinch myself a few times to remember that I was actually in Mexico. And for such a small town there is an abundance of very impressive churches and some very pretty plazas. Another thing that makes the town very attractive is that many of the streets are closed off to car traffic – it’s a great place to walk around (Mexican cities not great for that).

There is a funicular in the center of town that goes up one of the hills. Below are some photos looking down on Guanajuato. For someone who enjoys taking photos it is heaven.

Most of these photos were taken on the first of my three days in Guanajuato. I woke up in the middle of the first night there feeling like total shit. For the most part of two days I stayed in my room with a major case of the Crappuccinos*. Tip: don’t eat salad in Mexico – I never order salad, I have no idea why I would ever do anything that stupid.

* Crappuccino is a sophisticated way of telling someone that you have traveller’s diarrhea. Tell a fellow traveler that you “have to go for a crappuccino”, it will automatically discern you from the unknowledgeable, inexperienced traveler and you will no doubt be treated with equal doses of respect and sympathy.

A few more photos:

My mom and I stayed at Casa de la Luna (500 pesos/nt, about $41 inluding breakfast). The guesthouse has a few longterm guests studying Spanish at the university (we met a Korean student and a Canadian who were there for 3 months). Ana is like a mom and Lado loves to joke with the guests. A very nice place.

Queretaro

I told my mom that anyplace after Guanajuato would most likely be a disappointment in comparison. I was right.

Queretaro is a much bigger town and, like Guanajuato, has a Centro Historico that has been designated a World Heritage Site by Unesco. It has lots of pretty churches and some wonderful plazas. The town isn’t inundated by tourists and there are some good and affordable restaurants. It’s a nice town and is very walkable (unlike Guanajuato, the terrain is flat in the Centro Historico and streets are laid out in a grid). I didn’t fall in love with Queretaro but it is nevertheless a very nice town.

One of the reasons for staying a night in Queretaro was that it is the closest big town to Mexico City and the airport. The next day I said goodbye to my mom and took a bus directly from Queretaro to the airport for the trip home.

My Mexico Summary

I became a fan of Mexico on this trip. If you look at the photos on this post and the previous ones on Mexico, you’d probably admit that it wasn’t what you would have expected of Mexico. I had misconceptions before coming here and the beauty of some of the towns in Central Mexico surprised me. I often felt I was somewhere in Europe.

The people were extremely nice, the Spanish easy to understand, the food good. You can travel cheaply and comfortably – transportation infrastructure is excellent and there are lots of affordable hotels and guesthouses. I was nervous about Mexico City but I never ever felt any threat to my safety. The only negative was that I got sick to my stomach (lost 5 lbs over 2 days). That seems to be pretty common though of travellers going to Mexico.

I’ll most likely be back. My mom retired in Thailand ten years ago but these days seems more keen on Mexico – I’ll probably be back here soon to see her again.

February 2013 - San Miguel de Allende has a reputation as an American enclave in Mexico. Ex-pats living in other parts of Mexico (including other Americans) often malign the Americans who live here: “they have no interest in the culture, they don’t speak the language”, “they inflate prices because of the money they throw around”, “unlike ex-pats in other parts of the country, ex-pats in San Miguel don’t intergrate”. I heard ex-pats say that you can identify Americans living in San Miguel by their fake boobs and inflated lips.

There’s a lot of truth to the above. My mom showed me around town and there are indeed a lot of Americans. If you walk into a restaurant in the center of San Miguel it is filled exclusively with Americans being served by Mexicans – you’d think that you were somewhere in Southern California. I got the sense of two distinct societies not mixing but living very seperately (and at different economic levels) in the same space. There were also a lot of OLD people, Americans in their 80’s. It was strange to see. But I also tried to put myself in their shoes – at that age I think I would probably want to be with like-minded and similar aged people. The weather is perfect for an oldie; very dry, always sunny, never really hot. And the infrastructure is there – they have an incredible library in San Miguel where an ex-pat can find all the English literature he/she could ever want. Even German and French. So the infrastructure is there and I can see how that would make San Miguel very apealing to an elderly American. Its not the place I could see myself being, but I can understand why many would find it ideal.

I found San Miguel a bit boring though. It doesn’t have the life of other Mexican towns that I would see later. No locals hanging around in plazas, no kids running around. The bars seemed empty. It’s a very pretty town and has some nice churches – but it just didn’t feel Mexican.

February 2013 - Mexico City was not somewhere I had ever wanted to go. It was actually one of those places most likely to be on my ‘avoid’ list. I had a banker friend (with Scotiabank – they are all over Mexico) who had told me that car jackings were a regular occurrence in the downtown core. Mexico City was a dangerous place. That was about 10 years ago. But my mom is now spending part of the year in Mexico and she invited me to visit her. Which meant flying in through Mexico City.

We spent a day and a half in Mexico City. Although that’s not enough to really know a city, I was incredibly impressed by what I saw.

We stayed right next to the Zocalo in the Centro Historico, 2 blocks from the Metropolitan Cathedral (the largest cathedral in the Americas). The area is filled with historical buildings, restaurants and cafes, and some large boulevards. It actually kind reminded me of Paris.

Above: Doesn’t that look like Paris?

We took the double decker Turibus (there’s a stop next to the cathedral) which took us a from the historic center, down the Paseo de la Reforma ( MC’s largest boulevard). The boulevard is lined with palm trees, monuments, and skyscrapers. It then entered Chapultepec Park which is home to the zoo as well as some museums (including the Museo de Arte Moderno and Museo Nacional de Antropoligea). We got out here and had lunch at a small taco place before visiting the Museo de Arte Moderno (very nice building – but I found the art boring). We then hopped back on the next turibus and saw a few more of the city’s better neighborhoods: Condesa (leafy streets full of trendy restaurants and cafes) and Polanco (very upscale and exclusive, home of MC’s very rich).

I know these neighborhoods don’t represent the majority of Mexico City’s districts and I’m sure there are many poor and dangerous areas (I saw some iffy-looking neighborhoods on my return trip to the airport, places where I wouldn’t have wanted to be walking around). I’m still impressed though by much of what I saw in Mexico City – on top of some very unique modern architecture, the downtown core was very clean and organized. There was a bicycle path down Paseo de la Reforma and the city has a bicycle rental program similar to Montreal’s Bixi program. They had green bicycle-taxis covering the Zocalo. I guess I had somehow pictured Mexico City to be like some of the decrepit Latin American cities I had seen, places like Havana, Santo Domingo, or even San Jose in Costa Rica. It wasn’t – you can see money in Mexico City and according to many people we spoke to the city has changed dramatically in the last few years. Anyway, I was impressed by what I saw.

Close to the Centro Historico, and across from the Palacio de Bellas Artes, is the Latinoamericano tower which has some of the best views across the city from the 42nd floor. A few photos I took from there.

Above: Me and my mom

Another thing that impressed me; transportation is modern in Mexico and is very well organized. Bus stations are structured like airport terminals. You buy your bus ticket using your name, you get a seat number and they tell you the gate where you’ll board. Your bags go through x-rays (just like at the airport) and are checked in (they give you a ticket for your baggage). An attendant checks your ticket and gives you a free lunch (I got a ham and cheese sandwich and an apple juice) and you get in your seat on the bus. Just prior to the bus leaving the station a guard comes on the bus and does a video tape of everyone in their seats for security purposes. Also, taxis were plentiful and cheap.

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We stayed at the Hotel Rioja in the Centro Historico. Great value for the money; 250 to 300 pesos for a room (that’s $21 – $25). Fantastic location. Not the Ritz but if all you need is a clean room with private bathroom then it is perfect.

September 13, 2012 – A few photos from my favorite place in Montreal.

May 23, 2012 - Summer is unofficially here in Montreal and the flowers are budding, the trees are green, and the usual crazies are hitting the streets.

Montreal is hitting the news these days because of its student strike. The strike started in February, a response to a new law imposing higher tuition of $325/year over 5 years (ie. $1,625 total increase over that period). Not unreasonable some would say considering Quebec has had the lowest tuition in Canada (the reason I came to Montreal myself). Quebec has long subsidized the cost of education with 1) the highest tax rates in the country and 2) equalization payments from the rest of the country. Considering these facts and the new belt tightening across the board (including Unemployment Insurance) it seemed reasonable that tuition rates, which have been frozen at current levels since 1994, would go up.

Instead, about 1/3 of the province’s students went on strike. Some student leaders have even demanded that education should be free. As the strike has gone on it has become louder, bigger, and more violent. The Charest government replied with Bill 78, an emergency law aimed at limiting freedom to protest. This has totally backfired and the usual suspects have climbed on the student bandwagon; the unions, sovereignists, anarchists, communists. The Parti Quebecois (the main opposition party) has of course jumped right in there. It has become the usual circus that only Quebec seems capable of.

Why they march:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/here/6662035/story.html

Key student leader – why pay for anything? That’s for other people.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Student+protest+leader+Gabriel+Nadeau+Dubois+faces+eviction+from+apartment/6661606/story.html

The view from outside the province – yikes!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/quebecs-tuition-protesters-are-the-greeks-of-canada/article2437462/

More balanced reporting from one of Quebec’s best journalists;
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/lysiane-gagnon/the-tuition-protesters-fellow-travellers/article2437614/

It’s a mess and the average Montrealer is pissed off with both sides; the government for totally screwing up negotiations, and the students for 1) being unreasonable and 2) bullying, vandalism, and just general fuckery. The people are on the side of the government because of this alone. One could argue that both sides deserve each other. In the meantime, it promises to be a long summer for the average Montrealer.

March 21, 2012 – I had to post this, it will probably never happen again in my lifetime. Montreal in March is usually covered by ice and snow. I’m usually playing outdoor hockey. The previous high for a March 21 was set in 1945. Yesterday hit 25C! These are pictures of Park Lafontaine where everything is melting after a week of warm temperatures. Weather cooling off in the next few days but 14 day forecast has no days below 0C which is amazing.

January 10, 2012 – Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Anyone who’s followed my blog knows that we haven’t been crazy about Costa Rica. Santa Teresa ended up being the one place in Costa Rica that we loved!

First of all, Santa Teresa itself isn’t much of anything. It’s a dirty little town built up along a horrible dirt road. Because of the dryness of this area, a wave of dust bellows up whenever a car goes by, covering the plants and stores on both sides of the road with a layer of dust. Motorcyclists (a lot of people on motorcycles or ATVs here) wear bandanas to cover their faces. It amazed us that they couldn’t tar a road cutting right through town, yet, a couple of kilometers away in the middle of nowhere, the road is tarred. Walking in Santa Teresa, anyone walking has to contend with both the dust plus the lack of sidewalks. Costa Rica is not the place to walk anywhere. Access to the beach is along little dirt paths from the main road. Santa Teresa is in fact another dirty Costa Rican beach town.

Still we loved Santa Teresa. For one, the nature is beautiful. We flew in from La Fortuna (via San Jose) and saw the rolling hills and rocky shoreline and thought that this area had the most spectacular geography that we had seen to date in Costa Rica. Sunsets were spectacular and different in some way every night. The weather was hot and dry, unlike the wet and humid that we had encountered in La Fortuna. But the main reason we loved Santa Teresa was because of the hotel/yoga center we stayed at. Yup, yoga center – I know I can expect some snide comments from friends on that…

We stayed at the Horizon Ocean View Hotel and Yoga Center on a small hill looking down over Santa Teresa and the beach. I had booked this place for Lissette – she’s always enjoyed yoga but never has enough time. I’ve never done yoga but figured I’d give it a shot.

Below: The iguana that hung out on our roof.

Horizon gets a perfect 5 out of 5 from me.

We actually wanted to prolong our stay because we enjoyed it so much. The only thing I would suggest to Yoav and Gali is that they don’t change anything.

Below: Santa Teresa is a very popular surfing spot.

Below: This dog came out of nowhere to say hi. He took a liking to Lissette and just sat there on her feet for 10 minutes. Little things like that sometimes really make your day.

Santa Teresa was our last stop on this trip and we actually left Costa Rica on a sad note. We didn’t think much of Costa Rica overall but wish we could have stayed a bit longer at our last destination.

Jan 3, 2012 – Arenal volcano, La Fortuna area.

After 10 days of mostly relaxing, the Arenal volcano area was where we were going to be active and adventurous. We had a lot of things on the agenda; ziplining, the hanging bridges, an animal conservation center, hot springs, hikes around the volcano.

Things didn’t turn out the way we had hoped.

Firstly; it never stopped raining during the first 3 days at Arenal. I was also guilty of bad planning; we stayed at Leaves and Lizards which is the No. 1 rated hotel in the La Fortuna area. I never realized however that the hotel was off the main road and how long & expensive it would be to get off site for activities. This seemed to be a common theme in Costa Rica.

We found out on the first full day; Debbie at Leaves and Lizards (L&L) had arranged for a driver to take us to 1) the Proyecto Asis animal rehabilitation center in the morning and 2) to Eco-Thermales hot springs in the afternoon. Proyecto Asis was a 45 minute drive away and cost between the two of us $90 for a 3 hour tour/volunteering (in which we prepared and fed a few animals; spider and capuchin monkeys, parrots, a macaw, some raccoons and a coati). We then went to the hot springs where we relaxed in the water, had a few pina coladas and had lunch. When the bill came the sum was for $120 for about 3 hours. The arrangements for the driver came out to $70 for the day. Adding it up, we had spent $280 that day. We both found that to be a LOT of money for what we got; both Proyecto Asis and Eco-Thermales were a disappointment. And these are the No. 1 and No. 4 activities in La Fortuna according to Trip Advisor. I had read some people say that the La Fortuna area was overly commercialized; but that experience honestly popped our balloon. We were on vacation for a month – why pay that kind of money for a disappointing experience when we can get better value elsewhere? I had other activities planned for our next destination and I figured we’d get much better value for money (which we did).

Below: Proyecto Asis animal rehabilitation center

Below: Eco Thermales hot springs

A few things; In Costa Rica nothing is as close as it seems. You look at a map and the scale of it and you think something might be 10 minutes to get to. Wrong. The roads are winding and in horrible shape. I would recommend that anyone coming to Arenal (or Costa Rica in general) rent a 4*4. We’ve travelled to many countries without a car but Costa Rica is the one place we have travelled where we feel it is essential. Transport is also incredibly expensive; taxis here cost more than in Manhattan! I don’t think any of the guide books adequately prepares you for this.

We therefore decided to forget about our other planned tours; ziplinning (which we can do anywhere), hanging bridges (which some people have told us is a disappointment), and hiking around the volcano (again, getting there would most likely be really expensive).

We decided to stick to the large grounds of the hotel where we were staying.

Which leads me to my review of Leaves and Lizards.

L&L is on a large property looking out towards the volcano. Very nice views. It is not a “hotel”; the large property has its own farm, stables for its horses, a central dining area, along with 8 villas well spaced out and private.

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We flew Quepos – La Fortuna with NatureAir. It takes 30 minutes and is a beautiful but very bumpy ride!

I’m pretty disgusted with my blogging on Costa Rica. On most of our trips we travel around, visiting national parks, towns, various sights. We meet interesting people and I usually have something to write about. I find Costa Rica frustrating – everything is far to get to, transport is inconvenient (and taxis really expensive). I should have rented a 4*4 but I don’t drive manual. Anyway, I’ve been told by a few frustrated tourists that all the rental agencies were rented-out. I wanted to see the Nauyaca waterfall in Dominical but I was told that you can not go privately by taxi, you have to go as part of a tour group. I was then told that the tour was sold out for the day in question. This basically sums up our experience in the first ten days of this trip – it just seems for whatever reason we get stuck at a hotel or resort. I’ve never felt that before, everything feels so isolated here.

So this post contains my notes and tripadvisor comments taken from a few days spent at different resorts along the Central Pacific coast. I read it and cringe; I never thought I’d be on of those tripadvisor regulars (you know the ones – they usually complain about not having enough towels in the room or the lack of English spoken at the front desk). In Costa Rica we’ve had lots of time in the various resorts/hotels and that means plenty of time to either appreciate how well they run things or how badly some resorts screw up on the basics that travellers want when they travel. My comments are as much for other travellers as they are for the resorts/hotels; most of which are run by nice people who are too involved in their business to have an objective view of where they’ve gone wrong or how they can improve.

Oxygen Villas – Uvita

This European owned luxury retreat is a 15 minute drive into the hills behind the town of Uvita. There isn’t much to do here except relax, which is what we wanted after Manuel Antonio.

A beautiful place; villas all glass and white furniture, very minimalistic and modern. The grounds are beautiful and decorated by imported Balinese art. Restaurant serves meals all day and at night you can have their special ‘surprise’ meal which is a 4 course meal. Ok, it all sounds snobby and a bit pretentious (compounded by the constant lounge music in the background) but the staff was nice and friendly and didn’t act snobby or pretentious. We were told that it is a popular place for honeymooners and I can see why.

We give the place a 4 out of 5. We spent two days there and quite enjoyed it, it just beautiful and very romantic in many ways. The only thing is that the longer you stay here, the more you see the practical flaws in design, the little things that start to get on your nerves.

Overall very good. We would come back if ever in the area, but I think 2 days here is sufficient for anyone.

Costa Paraiso, Dominical

Another stay on the Pacific Coast. This is the part of the vacation where were are meant to be relaxing, so we have been mostly sticking to walks around the places we are staying, sunbathing, and reading.

We stayed at this hotel, 2km down the road from the town of Dominical. The hotel is on a large, beautiful site and the owners have done a great job with the landscaping – lots of large trees, flower bushes, and potted plants. The swimming pool is nice and private. The property has lots of nice sitting areas with chairs and hammocks where you can sit and look at the waves breaking over the rocky shore. Really is quite beautiful. The Villas as also quite nice; colorfully painted and spacious. The natural beauty and physical facilities therefore are really top notch. The problem with Costa Paraiso lies in the maintenance and management of the hotel.

We booked Costa Paraiso because they had an onsite restaurant, a good one we read. 2 weeks before our trip we received an email from them letting us know the restaurant was closed for renovations. We were disappointed but as the reservation was during the Christmas/New Year period it would have been too late to change our reservations elsewhere. Luckily it was only for two nights. At least they advised us and were nice enough to change our room to one with a fully equiped kitchen.

Villas Alturas, Dominical

I’ll be truthful – after a week, nothing has impressed us in Costa Rica. No sights that have left us breathless, no place that we would say “wow, I’m sorry to be leaving”. Villas Alturas, on a high hill about 10km south of Dominical, changed that.

Firstly, the place is beautiful. The reception/restaurant/pool area is beautiful and the views over the ocean and coastline are gorgeous. It is worth getting up at 5:30 for the sunrise; absolutely amazing.

Our room was fantastic except for a few flaws (all easily fixed) which I’ll mention below. The Kitchen area was clean and modern and I almost wished that I could have done some cooking. The room had a very large living room/dining room area, everything looked clean and modern. The bedroom was also very large and clean. Immaculate.

The restaurant, where we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner, was very good. Scott and Russell, the co-owners, take obvious pride in their cooking which is Mediterranean influenced. Combined with the beautiful setting, it is a very romantic spot. We loved coming here for meals. Tiny critique; they could do better with the wine selection.

The other critiques I have have to do with the room. All are relatively minor. 1) every room except the bedroom had thin shades – we noticed that someone could see everything passing by at night. Felt a real lack of privacy. 2) room is immaculate but could use a woman’s touch, the lighting especially is cold as well as impractical. Everything is romantic about the hotel except for your actual living space. 3) We had a bed where the slip was badly fitted for the bed, it would pop off on every corner all the time. I hate when that happens. On top of that the blankets are skinny and don’t give any comfort. We found that we didn’t sleep well either night here due to a combination of these reasons. The owners should visit Oxygen in Uvita to see the perfect bed.

But I’m pointing out these things because Villas Alturas could be a 5 out of 5 (we give it a 4 1/2 for now). We loved everything else about it and we loved the two owners. We would definitely come back.