weird...

thought i´d blog some and when i logged on to blogger.com, most of the icons/info is in Spanish. Right now I´m dictating to Lois because she types about 90 words a minute. (at least)... which is about twice as fast as me.

getting here monday was like coming home. the familiar sights, sounds, and smells (although not always good) greeted us as we got into the city. weather has been good, mostly in the 70`s with cool nights and rain in the late afternoon.

the city has been gearing up for the Independence Day celebrations, which start later tonight. there´s a bunch of vendors selling plastic mexican flags, assorted new year´s items, and even cascarones, which are colored egg shells filled with confetti. usually, these eggs are smashed on other peoples heads during holy week.

so far, it has been a very busy trip. of course, monday was spent getting our bearings and resting a bit. we took a walk into the center of downtown, which is due east of our hotel. it was a bit strange walking along Avenida 5 de Mayo, which takes you right into the main plaza and cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana). it seems that the city has moved many of the ambulatory vendors out to other areas of town. i think they want to portray a cleaner city with more upscale offerings. granted, the hoity toity still reside in affluent neighborhoods such as San Angel, Roma, and Condesa, but we were truly surprised to find the street vendors gone and upscale boutiques in the storefronts.

ugh. *$$, McDonalds, and even 7-11 have infiltrated downtown mexico city. in our walk the first night, we passed four 7-11s in just a mile radius. we don´t get the draw of a *$$...why pay such exorbitant prices when you can get a much better cup of joe in regular cafes? and i know that McD`s, KFC`s and Subway have already indelibly permeated Mexican society, it´s just a shame. in the name of progress, they will start losing much of their identity, replacing it with trivial convenience.

enough though.

yesterday, we got out late and attempted to find our favorite cafe, El Reloj. i state "attempted" because it´s gone...damn. although we never knew the exact address, we knew it sat across the street from a huge bakery. looks like it has been replaced with a clothing store. sigh.

anyway, we found a really nice place to eat our lunch, even if it was tinged with nostalgic sadness. the food was quite good but the service was not. uninterested youth who don´t value a good job; some waiters keep a job for life.

after lunch, we made our way to Cafe Emir, which has been run by a Lebanese family for nearly 70 years. the coffee was grand as usual, although the prices have spiked (probably due to *$$ moving in). thank god they´re still there. tomorrow, we´re going to our favorite coffee place in Puebla...in all of Mexico, actually - Tres Gallos. they have phenomenal coffee drinks that are on the foo foo side. Cindi, you´d really like this place...put ALL those american coffee places to shame.

we finally got off our lazy coffee swilling assses to get over to the Trotsky museum, which is located south of town, in a quiet suburb called, Coyoacan. we`re not huge Trotskyites, but history is history. it was almost eerie to walk in a place where a revolutionary had lived and had been assassinated. the fortifications of Leon Trotsky´s house were remarkable.

dang, the internet cafe closes in six minutes. we gotta get some pertinent info regarding some hotels in Cancun...so we gotta go.

see you soon