Hotel Life and New Apartment

Hotel life, sounds more glamourous then what it really is. We stayed at the Hotel Atlanta the first two weeks in Mexico City room 308. It was cheap and the people who worked there were very nice. Our friend Ariana stayed across the street at the Hotel Antillas. The people there were not as nice. It was a small room with a king sized bed that Justin, Olivia and I shared. There was a view of the street and there was always something going on. It would get pretty loud. All the cars, horns honking, people driving with bullhorns selling crap, bells, whistles, sirens...one night there was some construction going on late, like eleven and continued for at least two hours. Ugh, I'm so completely happy that we don't have to stay there anymore. I already showed our room in my first blog.

Here's a photo of Olivia handing Ariana a mango in her hotel room

Olivia getting some daddy time

The traffic in D.F. can get pretty crazy. One day, I guess there was an accident involving a bus and a car. Traffic got backed up and a traffic controller had to direct traffic for a few hours. A couple of photos of that day.

There could have been something else going on that day too like a protest or something. I just happened to see the bus and car parked on the side of the street for quite awhile.

Another day, I saw these guys carrying these cutouts. I assume they were leaving or going to a protest.

The one I could see said, "Narco Militares"

Night view outside window

Miss Attitude

Since we didn't have a fridge or stove and eating out can get expensive we ate a lot of cereal, tuna, crackers, granola bars, stuff like that. Here's Olivia with the infamous Choco Krispies. You could tolerate them with water if no milk. Yum :)

 Ariana would be super nice and take Olivia for a little while so I could have a break. Here's a shot of them coming back to the hotel.

Here is the outside of our apartment building. It isn't fancy by any means but it is secure and in a nice part of the city, Coyoacan. There are security guards and gates. We are in building "D"

The inside of the apartment:

Our bedroom

The bathroom

View from the apartment

Zoomed in view

There you have it. Our new home while we stay here in the D.F. We are fortunate that we have a small bathtub too. I had to take showers with Olivia at the hotel and man, that was a chore. She definitely did not like taking showers. It's nice taking showers alone again.

The rainy season has started here. It has been a nice light rain though. Nothing like the storms back home.

Next blog: A trip to the Templo Mayor









La Casa de los Azulejos y Palacio Postal

Spent a day visiting La Casa de los Azulejos (The House of Tiles) and the Palacio Postal as well as roaming the Alameda Central which is nearby. All of this is located in the Historic Center.

The House of Tiles exterior is literally covered in tiles hence the name. It was a palace of a Count back in
the Colonial Period. Later, it became the place for the famous "Jockey Club of Mexico." Now, it is owned
by a popular Mexican chain, Sanborns, and has different areas for dining and various counters to buy things
such as cakes, cookies and breads; cameras; watches; touristy stuff.

This is the outside of it. I didn't take this photo. I'm silly and didn't take a shot of the outside but

wanted everyone to see what it looked like.

(When I first got here I have to admit that I was apprehensive about taking my camera out and shooting things but I'm starting to get over that. I'm weird.)

There is a cool mural by Jose Clemente Orozco titled, "Omnisciencia"

            Here's a shot from the second floor looking down in one of the dining areas of the first floor

Another dining area

I promised Olivia if she was well behaved she could have some cake

Mmmm....cake

A close up of the tiles

Very close by is the Palacio Postal (Postal Palace) also kown as Quinta Post Office. There were a lot of guards standing by with guns. There are a lot of guards in general in this area, most carrying guns. We're talking semi-automatic weapons. It's kind of intimidating. I guess it should make me feel secure but it just scares me more then anything.

Here are the stairs inside

Olivia having fun

A downward view of the stairs

Afterwards, we headed over to Alameda Central which is a park right next to the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

I took this shot standing in the park looking at the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Torre Latinoamericana in the background.

 

There were lots of vendors in the park selling all kinds of stuff. Ariana was with us and she ended up buying some coconut and coconut juice(delicioso) and some earrings. Olivia had to go to the bathroom three times while we were on this jaunt! Three times! All while we were in the park. A span of thirty minutes. It can be difficult to find a bathroom in Mexico City w/o being a paying customer of the place. We were very fortunate that everywhere we asked they let us used it. I guess since she was a little girl they took pity. She was damn lucky. By the time we got back to the hotel she was pooped. (We were still staying in the hotel at this point.) A few meltdowns here and there but we managed.

It has been a bit difficult taking Olivia to places. She has had a lot of screaming and crying meltdowns on a daily basis. I'm sure part of it is being somewhere different but I'm thinking the majority of it is her being three. The terrible two's has nothing on the treacherous three's. We went to a museum yesterday, Museo de Arte Moderno, and never again we will take her to a museum. At least any time soon. We didn't get to see everything (It was free b/c it was Sunday. There are quite a few places you can go to on certain days, especially Sundays, for free.) Plan on going back to it b/c there was a lot of cool stuff there.

Trying to maintain some saneness but sometimes it can be damn difficult.

Next I'll talk about hotel life and our new apartment

Queretaro

The trip to Queretaro was interesting. We took a bus from the city and it took about three hours. Our bus tickets were paid courtesy of the Rolland family.We almost missed the bus too. If I hadn't of carried Olivia most of the way through the airport we would have totally missed it. The joys of traveling w/ a three year old. Lemme tell ya.

We stayed at the Hotel Mirage courtesy of Jorge Rolland. The reason why went to Queretaro was to
attend the Modesto C. Rolland family reunion. Justin met Jorge through HNet which is basically a chat site
for historians. Justin was looking for information on Modesto C. Rolland for an article he was writing about the development of broadcasting. They began sharing sources about Modesto C. Rolland through email and he ended up inviting him (us) to the family reunion to give a presentation on his findings about Modesto C. Rolland.

After the bus trip, we were all starving. We ate a big lunch at the hotel. Then we decided to take a stroll down to el centro. Well, on the way I was not feeling well. I totally ate way too much and felt very sick to my stomach. It was hot too. Just all around felt very bad. I didn't take any photos b/c I felt so crappy. Dumb. I did have a Polaroid with me that shoots my 669 film so I decided to take at least something with that. There was a very cool church I decided to photograph. I wanted to make a transfer out of it so I wouldn't know how it turned out until I got to the hotel room. More on this later.

Justin took a photo of me and Ariana, our friend who is also staying with us in Mexico City. She is also working on her dissertation.

Olivia ended up getting a pinwheel and an ice cream. She was very content.



The next day we went to the family reunion. Everyone was extremely nice and friendly. They were very welcoming. There were children there which made Olivia very happy. She ended up playing with two girls and they played with Barbies most of the time.

Here is Justin giving his presentation about Modesto C.Rolland

Justin and Jorge

Ariana and I

Back at the hotel, here is a view from our window

And...when I went to make that Polaroid transfer something horrible happened. It came out completely black. Black as night. All of my 669 film is ruined. Like a dumbass, I didn't have them hand inspect it at the airport so I'm pretty sure it was the xray machine that ruined it. It was a twin pack of film I have been saving for quite a long time. 20 shots. Maybe it was too old but I'm most certain it was the stupid xray machine. Such a waste.

I do plan on doing something with it though. I will end up making transfers out of all of the film I have and will make a piece out of it. It will be a part of my rejected Polaroid series I have been collecting. So maybe not a waste after all but definitely a let down.

Next blog: a trip to the Casa de los Azulejos and Palacio Postal

El Zocalo

So, continuing the mexico adventures...

Went to the Zocalo which is the main big square in Mexico City in the Historic Center.
It really isn't too far from where we are staying so we walked there.

All the colorful tents are different vendors. Not sure when they will not be there b/c it looks cooler

w/o them there. There is a giant flag pole in the center where they fly the mexican flag sometimes.

The long building to the left is the Palacio Nacional, political building of fedreal government.

At ground level

Inside, there are a ton of guards, a lot of them with guns. You have to go to through a metal detector and

there is also a xray machine. This is the nice courtyard inside.

Close up of fountain

Here is the completely awesome Diego Rivera mural, "The Epic of the Mexican People" which is a triptych

depicting the history of the mexican people.

Olivia and I

On the second floor there are 11 panels painted by Deigo Rivera depicting the pre Hispanic era.

Justin and Olivia

Close up of one of the panels

There were several rooms you could go into and see different displays of some really cool artifacts, paintings,

one room had several diffrent mexican flags but you were not allowed to photograph these. There was

enough security that made sure you didn't.

Here's a cactus garden in another courtyard. There are 14 courtyards but only a few are open to the public.

Going back to the main square, there is a beautiful cathedral, "Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of

Mary" which is the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas

The first polaroid I have taken

Here's another Polaroid I took from the top of a restaurant in the Holiday Inn right on the square

So, that is the Zocalo, for now. I do plan on going back a few times b/c there is always something going on.
Plus it's free to go there and hey, free is muy bueno.

My last blog I said i was going to post about that traffic buildup outside my hotel but I am going to wait. I
think I will do a post just on traffic alone or even just on "outside the hotel room." Some pretty interesting
things can occur.

Next post will be about our trip to Queretaro,MX when we went to the Rolland/Modesto family reunion.

Buenas tardes!