Christmas in Mexico

North America » Mexico » Mexico City
March 10th 2010

Published: March 13th 2010

Edit Blog Post

EmmaAndJeanClaude

Standing up for toy rights

We decided to make a little statement of our own. We put on black gloves and rose our fists for toy rights

Christmas in Mexico with dad

Hi all you fans of our blog. Now we have a new exciting story we would like to tell all of you. The story is about what we did in Mexico over Christmas and New Year. We have been to Mexico before. If you look at this blog entry and this one you can read for yourself about what we did then. Mexico is a big country so last time we didn't have time to see all of it. But we liked it a lot and that's why we went back now. We wanted to see more of what Mexico has to offer.

This trip we did only with dad. Mum preferred to stay at home celebrating the Christmas holiday with Aunt Anna, Aunt Ida, our cousins and grandma and grandpa. We find is a bit strange that mummy prefers to visit grandma and grandpa rather than spend time with us and dad. Still we are her only children and dad is the only husband mum has. But when we think about it we could also join mum when goes to visit grandma and grandpa. But we prefer to go to Mexico with dad because we just

Dad gave us an Olympic gold medal each

Dad gave us an Olympic gold medal each because we were so brave. They have Olympic gold medals with a chocolate centre and gold foil wrapped around it

love to travel to exotic places.

Last time we were in Mexico we went to the Yucatan Peninsula. This time we wanted to spend time more in the central of the country, up in the mountains. That turned out to be a pretty cold experience some days. In the Mexican mountains it can get pretty cold at night. We sure learnt that the hard way. But we had gloves to keep us warm so we survived without any frostbite or lost limbs.

We might begin our tale about our adventures by explaining why we had these gloves. The gloves were not exactly tailor-made for us. They look a bit funny because they are more in the size of a sleeping bag actually. But we were very short on time when we bought them and we just had to buy the first pair of gloves we could get our hands on. You see, we were on our way to a district in the southern part of Mexico City. We were going there to see two things, UNAM (the Mexico City University) and the Olympic Stadium.

First we thought it was funny that they have a stadium called the

UNAM

When they built this house they brought in artists to decorate it. Today it looks like something that should belong in an art museum.

Olympic Stadium in Mexico City because in Stockholm there is a stadium called the Olympic Stadium. Why on earth would the Mexicans copy the name "the Olympic Stadium" when they named their own stadium? And how could the owners of the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm allow the Mexicans to steal the name like that? Then dad explained to us that the Olympic Games is a biannual event and that many cities over the years have had the honours of hosting the Olympic Games. In 1912 Stockholm was the host of the Olympic Games, in 1896 and in 2004 it was held in Athens and in 1968 the Olympic Games were held in Mexico City. The Olympic Games have been in many different cities over the world and all of these cities have their own Olympic Stadium.

When dad had explained all about the Olympic Games he told us the story about what happed during one of the ceremonies. When the athletes who had run the 200 m sprint were awarded their medals two of the medallists, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, wore black gloves and when the national anthem of their country was played they raised their fists. Dad told us

Alcatraz?

We thought Alcatraz was in San Francisco in the USA and not in Mexico

that they did this because they supported a human rights movement and wanted everybody in the world to know this.

We thought it was a very good thing of them to stand there supporting human rights. We got inspired by this story and decided to make a little statement of our own. On our way to the stadium we bought these outsized gloves. When we arrived there we, in true Tommie Smith/John Carlos fashion, took one glove each and rose our fists to show the world that we support toy rights.

After we had done that dad gave us an Olympic gold medal each because we were so brave. They have really nice Olympic gold medals in Mexico. They have a chocolate centre with gold foil wrapped around it.

The place called UNAM that dad wanted to see was next to the Olympic stadium. It is part of the University of Mexico City and the houses there are very different from the rest of Mexico City. When they built the houses they brought in artists to decorate them. Today this place place looks like a big art museum. We were sceptical when dad wanted to show us

It tickles

Emma: "Look Jean-Claude. It's sitting on me. It tickles a little bit..."

this place but when we got there we actually liked it. We liked it so much that we now would like every house in every city to be decorated like this. That would be interesting to see. But when we thought about it a little bit more we realised that maybe things are better like they are. It was a special thing for us to visit UNAM and see these houses with big paintings on them. If all houses had big paintings on them it wouldn’t be a special thing to see a house with a big painting on it. If all houses had paintings on them then seeing a house with a big painting would be a normal thing. It wouldn’t be a special thing anymore and we like it when it is a special thing. But then you could remove the paintings from a few houses and then it would be a special thing to see a house without a painting instead… Oh this all of a sudden became complicated. Let’s go on and tell the rest of our stories from Mexico instead.

In the next town we visited in Mexico, a town called Angangueo, we only

The butterfly is so beautiful

Emma: "The butterfly is so beautiful. It makes me beautiful too. Don't I look beautiful Jean-Claude?"

saw one thing we would like to tell you about. We saw Alcatraz. But to our great surprise it was a hotel. We saw a film once called Escape from Alcatraz. In that film Alcatraz didn’t look like a hotel. We also thought the Alcatraz in the movie was in San Francisco in the USA and not in Mexico. So we were quite surprised to see that Alcatraz was in this small town in Mexico. Well in the movie it didn’t seem to be a nice place so we decided not to stay in that hotel. The service seemed to be pretty bad, the doors were not soundproofed and most of the guests seemed to be nasty people.

The real reason we went to the town where Alcatraz is was not to see Alcatraz, and we were happy for that. We remember how horrible the place had seemed in the movie and were not at all in the mood to go in there and see it. Dad didn’t seem to be interested in seeing it either. We found that a bit strange though because we have heard from other travellers that Alcatraz is a big tourist site. Dad always visits everything

Uh oh...

Emma: "Where is the butterfly going?"

that can be labelled “big tourist site” no matter how dull and boring it seems. When we complain when dad brings us to a “big tourist site” dad just answers “A tourist got to do what a tourist got to do”. But when it came to Alcatraz dad seemed not to care if he saw it or not.

The real reason we went to this town was to see butterflies. In a forest near this town there are thousands of butterflies. We thought it was funny that they breed butterflies in a forest. How they keep them from flying away we don’t know. But the butterflies happily sat there in the trees and flew around in the air when we were there and didn’t seem to be interested in going anywhere else.

Emma: “It was a horrible experience to see the butterflies. I didn’t like it at all.”
Jean-Claude: “Now you are being silly Emma. You liked the butterflies very much. You thought they were beautiful.”
Emma: “Well they were beautiful when I saw them from a distance. I just didn’t like them climbing all over me. It was disgusting!”
Jean-Claude. “It was one little butterfly. It was

It's in my face!!!

Emma: "Eeeeeeehhhhhh! It's in my face! How disgusting!!!"

climbing on me too. It wasn’t disgusting. It was a nice experience.”
Emma: “I got scared. OK? Are you happy now? Insects scare me when they get too close? I have that from mum. She too gets scared by insects.”

After we had seen the butterflies we went to a city called Morelia. There we stayed in a horrible hotel. We have seen some awful hotels on the various travels we have done with mum and dad. We have noted that the hotels seem to have lower standard when we travel with dad alone than they do when we travel with both our parents. So we believe that it is dad who finds all the terrible hotels. In Morelia he really found us a “hotel from Hell”. There were holes in the door between the room and the shower!

Just when we had recovered from the shock we got when we saw the room there was an even worse surprise for us sitting on one of the walls. There was a sign there warning us for earth quakes. We recognised that sign from when we were in Peru and saw a similar sign on a wall there. Earthquakes

Hit it Jean-Claude!

Emma: "Help me Jean-Claude! Get it off me! Hit it Jean-Claude! Hit it!"

are dangerous things and they really scare us. We were terrified that we were going to die in this "hotel from Hell".

Emma: ”In Morelia we also found a very disturbing fountain. It was decorated with statues of women showing their bare breasts. I can’t understand why they put such filth in public places like that. Moral has really hit rock bottom low in Mexico. Those statues must have been put there by a bunch of perverts.”
Jean-Claude: “I thought the fountain was nice…”
Emma: “No you didn’t. You are my brother, Jean-Claude. You should support me on this issue.”

After Morelia we went to a city called Uruapan. Around Uruapan we went to a lot of fun places but in the city there was only one thing we thought was interesting - the Funny Looking House. We don’t know what the Funny Looking House really is called but since it is a funny looking house we thought the name the Funny Looking House is suitable. The funny thing about this house is that it is so narrow. The width of the house is less than 2 meters, and that is counting the outside of the outer wall.

Don't eat it!

Emma: "I said 'Hit it!', not 'Eat it'! Stop that! It's disgusting!" Jean-Claude: "I am not trying to eat it. I'm playing with it. It's beautiful..."

The inner dimensions are obviously even less than that. We have never seen a house like that before so we really thought it was fun.

But other than the Funny Looking House there wasn’t really anything in town that we liked. But, as we said, outside the town there was a lot more. Not far from Uruapan there is a nice waterfall. A waterfall with water in it. Something that waterfalls not always have we have come to realise. If you don’t know what we are talking about take a look at this blog entry we made when we were in Ukraine last summer.

The day after we saw the waterfall we went to a really scary place - a volcano. We are terribly scared of volcanoes. In the movie Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith Anakin Skywalker falls into a volcano on planet Mustafar and gets badly hurt. If volcanoes can do that much damage to a full-fledged Jedi we don’t want to know what it can do to us. We are just two toys who have not even been accepted as Jedi apprentices yet…

We tried to talk dad out of going to the volcano but

How can you not love it?

Jean-Claude: "Why did you scream at it? It's beautiful. How can you not love it?" Emma: "It's ugly and disgusting..."

to no avail. He had decided that he was going and we had no choice but to go with him. When we told him that volcanoes are dangerous he said that they really aren’t. He said that volcanoes are very predictable and that before any outbreak there is noise and rumble coming from the volcano for several weeks. We were only going to stay at the volcano for an hour or so and dad promised that if the volcano started to make noise we would leave immediately. Since we could expect to have many days to get away we would even have time to leave the entire country before any eruption really started.

But we are not entirely sure that dad tells the truth here. What doesn’t make sense to us is how Anakin Skywalker could get so badly hurt by the volcano he fell into when volcanoes are so predictable. Why didn’t he leave planet Mustafar before the outbreak?

The day after we went to see the scary and dangerous volcano dad took us to see some pyramids in a town near Uruapan. It might not seem like a great deal of fun to watch some old

Safe in dad's bag

Emma: "After that horrid experience I preferred to stay in dad's bag."

pyramids but it actually was. If you follow this blog you know that we are two action craving toys who are always ready for adventures. But the visit to the volcano gave us enough of adventure for a while so doing something safe and dull, like looking at some pyramids, was just perfect for us this day.

By then we had pretty much exhausted all the interesting things there were to see in Uruapan so we went to another place - a city named Guanajuato.

The first thing we went to see in Guanajuato was a mummy museum. We thought when we entered the museum that our mummy was going to be in there. We were so looking forward to seeing mummy that we couldn’t take in what else there was in the museum. But to our great disappointment our mummy wasn’t there. We think it is a bad mummy museum when they don’t have our mummy, the best mummy in the world, on display.

We were really sad when we left the museum. So sad in fact that we had to sit down and cry for a while. We really miss our mum when we travel

Dad!! This is horrible!!

We have seen some awful hotels in the various travels we have done with mum and dad. In Morelia we ended up in a Hotel from Hell

with only dad. Dad is nice and friendly to us but it is better when mum is travelling with him.

One of the highlights of our stay in Guanajuato was to visit one of the old mines. The mines are outside the city and have all been abandoned a long time ago. Today some of the mines have been turned into museums. We visited one of these museums.

When we entered the mine we were asked to keep hard hats on. But the hard hats they had did not fit us so we had to enter without them. We found it strange that they didn’t have hard hats in toy size. It seems like they don’t really care about safety at all. It seems like they only have the hard hats there so they can pretend they care about safety.

Inside the mine we had the chance to try a power drill. That was a great deal of fun. But we don’t see ourselves working in the mining industry in the future. We used the power drill only a few minutes and that was enough for us to get really dirty. We don’t want to know how

Sismos?? We recognise that word...

Sismos?? We recognise that word... It means earthquakes. Oh no! Earthquakes are dangerous things and they really scare us

dirty you get if you use the power drill for an entire day.

We have to tell you about who we met in Guanajuato city centre later that day. We met the legendary El Mariachi, the hero from the movies El Mariachi, Desperado and Once upon a time in Mexico. We asked El Mariachi if he could teach us how to shoot a gun as fast as he can. But he only laughed and said “First you toys have to learn how to play the guitar. When you know how to play the guitar like a mariachi then I can teach you how to shoot a gun like a mariachi."

We were now in the end of our trip in Mexico and it was time for us to return to Mexico City for our flight home. When we arrived in Mexico City we had two days more that we wanted to use in the best possible way. First we went to see what dad says is the largest pyramid in the world. It is called the Great Pyramid of Cholula and, at least if you consider volume only, is larger than any other pyramid in the world. To be honest we didn’t think it

Camel

We met this camel in Morelia. Her name was Camelito and her job is to entertain tourists in the city centre during Christmas

looked like a pyramid. We thought it looked more like a hill. Maybe it is a hill and that the Mexicans only pretend that it is a pyramid? We have to say that the pyramid we saw outside Uruapan, although it was much smaller, was far more beautiful. But the best of all pyramids we have ever seen is Chichen Itza

The day after we went to see the Great Pyramid of Cholula we went to a place called Teotihuacan to see some more pyramids. In Teotihuacan they have two really large pyramids. They are supposed to be smaller than the Great Pyramid of Cholula but instead they were much more beautiful. These pyramids really looked like pyramids and not like a hill.

The biggest disappointment for us when we travelled in Mexico was that the Mexicans bullied Jean-Claude several times.
Jean-Claude: “In several places we went to there were signs saying that dogs were not allowed to enter. I found those signs to be mean. They didn’t bully me directly but every time I saw one of those signs I got a bit sad. Dad kept telling me that the signs didn’t apply to toys, only to real

Don't look Jean-Claude!

Emma: "A very disturbing fountain. It was decorated with statues of women showing their bare breasts."

dogs. He proved it by ignoring the signs and carrying me and Emma in open view passed the guards. So dad may have been right about the signs not being directed at me personally but they still made me sad.”

On the return trip to Sweden dad had a little surprise for us - we were booked in Business Class on the flight! This is the second time dad gets us into business class in less than a year. We still haven’t figured out how he manage to sneak us into the luxury seats in the planes but we sure love when he does that. He doesn’t pay for it, that’s for sure. The hotel we stayed in when we were in Morelia is proof enough that dad doesn’t spend any money on luxury at all. But still we got to fly Business Class and that is a great way of travelling.

Additional photos below

Photos: 41, Displayed: 35