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<title>Travel Blog | draak</title>
<link>http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/draak/</link>
<description>Travel adventures in journals and photos from draak</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 18:03:09 +0000</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 18:03:09 +0000</lastBuildDate><item>
                    <title>Our final fling</title>
                    <description>The sterile glitz of Vegas was replaced by the gritty reality of Los Angeles. The old and rattly taxi had a divider to protect the driver from his passengers. We stayed downtown at the Hotel Figaroa where we had a pleasant room on the first floor in colourful Moroccon style. Had a bath which was great and the lovely lady at the desk gave us maps of the area and the metro system. With an hour or tw</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/blog-289168.html</link>
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                    <title>Money food and bling</title>
                    <description>We booked the Luxor hotel. Less than US100 a night and pretty cool to stay in the pyramid. Somehow it was not as big as I expected but by crikey it was busy. Huge queue at the checkin and people everywhere. The casino was massive and there was an atrium complete with fast food joints IMAX theatre and museum. Our room was on the 15th floor and we reached it via an inclinating elevator which te</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Las-Vegas/blog-289165.html</link>
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                    <title>Cacti cowboys and Elvis</title>
                    <description>We crossed over into the USA at Nogales. We knew we had reached the border when we hit traffic and crept ever so slowly forward for over an hour. It was snowing and sleeting outside. We had been dreading the crossing but it was painless. Customs and immigration were pleasant. We saw the high wall that tries in vain to keep illegal Mexicans out of the USA. On the other side we instantly noticed mor</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arizona/Phoenix/blog-289164.html</link>
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                    <title>The best fish tacos in town</title>
                    <description>It was a long day on the bus from Los Mochis to Hermosillo. We were finding more and more Mexicans who spoke English since we were getting closer to the USA so managed to spend some of the time chatting. The scenery got pretty as we passed the coastal town of Guaymas and headed inland again where lots and various cactus grew. We also saw a convoy of perhaps 20 Canadian mobile homes. Most were big </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Sonora/Hermosillo/blog-289163.html</link>
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                    <title>The best train journey in the world</title>
                    <description>It was an icy cold morning as we boarded the firt class Copper Canyon train. The conductors were beautifully dressed with the traditional square hats. We found ourselves seated in the emergency seats on the left side of the train. We had asked for the left side for the best view when we booked but thought we only got right side seats so were pleasantly surprised. Opposite us were a Mexican coupl</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Sinaloa/Los-Mochis/blog-289161.html</link>
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                    <title>Where are the Chihuahuas</title>
                    <description>We had a real problem in Chihuahua. We could not find good accommodation. At the cheap end there seemed to be a couple of rat infested holes so we decided to stay somewhere more expensive. But the three big hotels we tried were full. There was something going on in town. So we ended up at the Hotel Plaza which was a meager P135 US13 for a large room with a shabby bed missing electric switches</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Chihuahua/blog-274413.html</link>
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                    <title>Christ and cows</title>
                    <description>We had arranged to stay with a Couch Surfer in Durango. But foolishly we ended up in the city of Durango rather than the town of Gomez Palacio in the state of Durango. Gomez Palacio was a further 3 hours away but our host Jose happily retrieved us from the bus terminal at 9 pm. Jose was lovely and we ate some fantastic tacos at a local restaurant before heading to his house. The next day Jose took</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Durango/Gomez-Palacio/blog-274402.html</link>
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                    <title>The Pink City</title>
                    <description>After over a month in Mexico we are now officially sick of the buses. Always with movies being played but often competing with the drivers radio. And frequently we are arriving at our destination before the movie is finished. Hmm.Zacatecas is set in the hills at around 2500 meters but it was surprisingly warm. We stayed at the Hotel Condesa which was quite pleasant. Unlike Guadalajara this town ha</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Zacatecas/Zacatecas/blog-273770.html</link>
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                    <title>Shiny shoes and a steakhouse</title>
                    <description>So far in Mexico we had very few issues with taxis but in Guadalajara we found a taxi rank at the second class bus terminal that wanted P50 for a short ride. We just walked on a bit. A taxi was dropping off so we asked what the ride would cost and he said P35 but pointed us back at the taxi rank. We just carried on walking until the taxi driver felt comfortable about taking us out of turn. We tr</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Guadalajara/blog-273374.html</link>
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                    <title>Tequila flowing down the streets of Tequila</title>
                    <description>We arrived in Guadalajara at 12 noon. Big city and very smoggy. Pieter had the idea of moving on to Tequila so we did. We found the Tequila Plus service at the Antigua Central Bus Terminal and off we went. It took close on an hour just to get out of the city again and 2 hours to get to Tequila. Towards the end of the trip we started to see lots of the pretty pale blue agave plants used to make teq</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Jalisco/Tequila/blog-243993.html</link>
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                    <title>Mexican mummies</title>
                    <description>The small city of Guanajuato made quite an impact on us as we approached it. The taxi went through a number of tunnels and the city was all cobblestone and steep hills. We were dropped on the street and sent up some stairs to Casa Bertha. We walked to a quiet plaza and were pointed the right way by an internet cafe guy. He also mentioned Casa Pita around the corner so we went there first. The lady</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Guanajuato/Guanajuato/blog-243935.html</link>
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                    <title>Ghost stories and beautiful plazas</title>
                    <description>We arrived in Queretaro around 11 am and were considering continuing to Jalpan but it was 5 hours away and I Rae was suffering a dose of diarrhoea so we decided to stay put. We took a prepaid taxi from the bus terminal to Posada Aqueducto which was lovely and colourful. We got a kingsize bed and a balcony for P320 US30 a night. The lady at the hotel was all smiles and spoke slowly for us. T</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Queretaro/Santiago-de-Queretaro/blog-243902.html</link>
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                    <title>Where are the butterflies</title>
                    <description>Morelia is a state capital of pink stone. A UNESCO World Heritage Site we decided it was worth a visit and would be a great base to visit the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. We stayed in the lovely old Hotel Colonial not far from the centre where we had a balcony in a recently renovated room. We found the city beautiful and only a little cold feeling. We booked our trip to see the butterflies at a </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Michoacan/Morelia/blog-239765.html</link>
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                    <title>Big but pleasant</title>
                    <description>For once we had not heard any horror stories from other travellers about this capital city and indeed we felt perfectly safe there and not at all intimidated. There had been a history particularly in the 90s of taxi crime so we were a little cautious of taxis but the historic centre was quite easy to walk around and the metro system was cheap cheapest in the world at P2 or US0.20 a ride </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Distrito-Federal/Mexico-City/blog-239752.html</link>
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                    <title>Lovely churches and more ruins</title>
                    <description>We arrived in Cuernavaca quite refreshed after a 'Super Turismo' bus ride. With only 3 seats across and 24 seats total it was tremendously comfortable and spacious. We were even given a little lunch box.We found a pleasant hotel the Hotel Hortensias for P320 US30 and went out immediately to see if we could get to Xochicalco some 38 kms away. There was more than one route we could take and a</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Morelos/Cuernavaca/blog-239430.html</link>
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                    <title>The home of Mole</title>
                    <description>Arriving in the city of Puebla population over 2 million we were greeted by the biggest bus terminal we had ever seen. In other Mexican cities there were often individual terminals for the different companies and at least they were split between first and other classes of bus. But in Puebla they were all in the same location hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. We were only staying for o</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Puebla/Puebla-City/blog-238196.html</link>
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                    <title>The best Mole</title>
                    <description>We arrived on the night bus from San Cristobal at 9 am and went to the Hostal Pochon which we had booked ahead. We couldn't get our room until after the 1 pm checkin so took off to find the bus to Monte Alban. At the Hotel Rivera del Angel we brought our P38 US3.60 round trip tickets for the special bus service and had time for a rotisserie chicken brunch. We had been getting a little braver </description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-232956.html</link>
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                    <title>Oliebollen</title>
                    <description>It was a pretty bus ride from Palenque to San Cristobal. 5 hours of windy roads that took us from the jungle to high pine forest. We had booked ahead with Posada Mexico which was a good thing because they had no room available otherwise. We got a big room in a pleasant complex of buildings. It was Monday so we found museums closed but we enjoyed a walk around the town which was beautiful with a co</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/San-Cristobal-de-las-Casas/blog-232954.html</link>
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                    <title>Three ruins in two days</title>
                    <description>The town of Palenque is not historical and not particularly pretty but we found it lively with lots of restaurants and shops and internet. We could have stayed on the road out to the ruin but didn't want to feel isolated out there and pay over the odds for a cabaa like our Tulum experience. However in retrospect we also shouldn't have stayed at the Posada KushulHa either. It was cheap at P200</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/Palenque/blog-232950.html</link>
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                    <title>Colonial city by the sea</title>
                    <description>Campeche is a walled seaside city. Approaching by taxi from the bus terminal we were amazed by the change when we got inside the wall. It went from a fairly normal looking clean Mexican city to an image of cobbled streets and colourful colonial houses and lantern style street lights.We had booked the Pirate Hostel and it lived up to its name with authentic nautical stuff canons and all and a ske</description>
                    <link>http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Campeche/Campeche/blog-232918.html</link>
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