My hotel room had a balcony overlooking the Prado and Parque Central. Which is great for the view and people and traffic watching, but not so good if you want to get some sleep, two reasons, noise and the smell of petrol or diesel wafting into the room, either through the shuttered and curtained windows or via the air conditioning unit. Woke up late so missed the tour that I had booked to go on. Still had breakfast though, usual buffet, fruit, cereal, orange juice, bread, but also had some stuff that looked like pasta, and also food you migh have [View Full Entry]

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Well arrived in Cuba after uneventful flight, no problems with customs or immigration person spoke English better than I could speak Spanish, or the health check desk, I just said that I did not speak Spanish and they let me pass. First thing I noticed stepping out of the airport was the humidity. Start sweating almost immediately. Taxi from the airport to central Havana 25CUC, about half an hour. The area between the airport and hotel was mostly countryside. When we got to the city was quite surprised as there was no transition from rural to suburban to city areas, but [View Full Entry]

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Well am sitting in the $5US per hour internet place at Mexico City airport waiting for my flight to Cuba. Flight is not until 12pm, but thought I would get an early start in case the traffic to the airport was bad or had problems arranging Visa. Fortunately traffic was okay, but I am here way early. Visa was not a problem, just showed my ticket to the airline and handed over cash (about $10US), and they gave me one. (A lot more user friendly than the embassy.) Hopefully it all goes smoothly from now on. Not much else to say, [View Full Entry]

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Last night did not sleep much as there was something happening in the Zócalo. It was connected with May Day, which is a workers day or labour day in this part of the world. Anyway there was heaps of noise, and so it was hard to sleep. Mostly music, but occasionally some dedicated supporter of workers, made long blasts on a air horn. I guess there is always something happening in the Zóalo. Today went on a walking tour of the centre of Mexico City - Cathedral, Old Streets, Architecture of mixed styles, Colonial buildings built on top of Aztec buildings, [View Full Entry]

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Friday Night in the Zocalo Last night there was a free concert in the Zocalo (the main square of Mexico City). The concert was something to do with a festival of cultures. Apparently the night before Carlos Santana was playing, missed him, doh. After the pointless trip to the Cuban Embassy yesterday, today I got to go on a tour organised by the hostel to the Guadalupe Shrine and also to Teotihuacan, which were much more rewarding. Firstly the Guadalupe Shirne. It is a group of churches dedicated to commerating the vision of the Virgin to someone here in Mexico a [View Full Entry]

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Well today had to take a break from the tourist thing to try and arrange a visa to travel to Cuba. (My travel agent said that I could arrange it with the airline on the day I travel, but I thought I would try and get it sorted earlier.) Took the Metro, thankfully sightly after the rush hour, was still really crowded but not too bad. Had to walk about half an hour from the Metro stop to the Cuban Embassy. The streets that I walked down were a lot less crowded that those in the centre, and must have been [View Full Entry]

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This morning before breakfast went for a walk around the Zocalo, main square of Mexico City. It is massive, but the streets leading up to the square are filled with masses of people I guess on their way to work, the street vendors were setting up their stalls, selling all sorts of stuff, plus food of all descriptions, massive blocks of ice were being delivered to those selling things needed to be kept cold. With the wide open space surrounded by streets teaming with people, I felt claustrophobic, and agoraphobic at the same time if this is possible. Anyway afterbreakfast signed [View Full Entry]

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Plane from Lima to Mexico City, Left the B&B Hostal in Lima at about 8am for a hour taxi ride through Lima rush hour traffic. Got to the airport for the 3 hour before flight check in. Flight to Mexico City was about 5 and a half hours, got here about 530pm. By the time got through customs and immagration in a massive and crowded airport, it was about 630pm, managed to get a taxi to the hostel relatively easily. Hostel is quite very near the Zocalo, the massive main square of the city. From the air, Mexico City is massive, [View Full Entry]

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Tomorrow I leave Lima and Peru ... so thought I would write up some final thoughts, but first ... Spent the 2 or 3 hours this morning at the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia Del Peru. The National Archaeological, Anthropological, and History Museum of Peru. It is a around a 10 to 15 minute taxi ride from Miraflores, and as I have probably made aparent before, there are plenty of taxis willing to take you anywhere. (As well as honking their horns for any reason, (and perhaps as an alternative to slowing up when going through intersections, or using [View Full Entry]

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After I wrote my previous entry, wandered around Miraflores, it was around 6pm and starting to get dark, but there were heaps of people and cars still on the streets, shops and restaurants were still open. In Parque Kennedy there was music, and people were dancing with a big group of spectators. Was getting dark, but it did not feel unsafe. Walking back to the B&B, noticed a few things: 1 - People were still in their little kiosks, or carts, or bicycle carts selling things, - water, softdrinks, lollies, different types of food. It was a bit depressing to see [View Full Entry]

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