The Unceremonious Exit of Nico

Folks, this is going to be a really quick, pedestrian some might say, posting, because I got really behind and I'm now sitting in LA writing Mexico City blogs, and frankly that feels wrong. I am also struggling to get new pictures up but I will try again tomorrow.

Mexico City - what a lovely surprise! I thought it would be a smoggy, trafficy nightmare, but actually it was only a smoggy, trafficy, let's say, nap. It was much cleaner and calmer, the people were great. We were right in the Historic Centre behind the cathedral, so it was a lovely place to be. The Centro Histórico has some of the city's finest buildings, the Templo Mayor archeological site, the Plaza de la Constitución or Zócalo, with the Palacio Nacional where the original Moctezuma palace was, and the twin buildings of the Mexico City government.

We arrived on 6th January, the day when all the Christmas gifts are given to children and everyone eats the Rosco de Reyes, a big icing covered fruitcake ring. So it was a real festival: the Plaza was bustling, bands (not just pan pipes either), native dancers, Bernie and I were blessed by the shameny type woman with the dancers, all good. Susan looked on with her logical brain shaking her head at us...

I've been giving you loads of mayan facts, so here's something more modern from Mexico City. The Tlatelolco Massacre took place in 1968 in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas just before the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The death toll remains a matter of debate. Some estimates place the number of deaths in the thousands, but most sources say 200 to 300 (Government sources say 4 Dead, 20 Wounded). The event was preceded by months of unrest as students demonstrated and rioted the world over during those heady highly politicised days of 1968. The official government explanation of the incident was that 'agent provocateurs' began the firing. Suddenly finding themselves the targets of shootings, the security forces returned fire in self-defence. In October 1997, Congress established a committee to investigate the massacre and Echeverría , a former president, admitted that the students had been unarmed, and also suggested that the military action was planned in advance, as a means to destroy the student movement.

We also went to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the most visited catholic church in the world. The guide was really interesting, telling us about the strategy the spanish employed to convert the aztecs to catholicism, very cleverly integrating aztec beliefs and symbolism to aid the transition. Hence, the iconic image of the sacred heart of christ which you will find in every catholic home and church the world over, was originally aztec symbolism.

We visited the aztec/mayan ruins of Teohutican. I've seen a lot of ruins this trip. They are unceasingly impressive nonetheless. These I climbed on my own. I did not have Bernie, my ruin climbing partner from Xunantinich and the medecine trail in Belize, which I think I forgot to tell you about. They are documenting and researching all the plants and trees and their properties, ensuring they save all the knowledge from local healers before they die and this wealth of information is lost. There is a tree on the medecine trail called a Poison blackwood. It has huge signs saying DO NOT TOUCH. If you touch it the only cure is to bathe in water soaked with the roots of the tree that always grows next to it. Forgotten the name of that one unfortunately. Other people there were studiously writing cures and experiencing the power of the natural healing world. As we walked past we both did that pushing each other into the tree thing, you know how you do on the edge of a huge cliff, such as Beachy Head, laughing like drains...combined age of almost 90...we really should grow up.

Susan was very happy in her day of shopping in artesan markets and she and Bernie bought an absolutely beautiful huichol tapestry. It's fantastic to see these ancient crafts surviving. Anyway...that bit of the hols over, I headed off to the airport to go back to Los Angeles, a little teary eyed leaving S and B at our hotel for their flight back to London about 4 hours later. I later discovered that as I was sitting in a Venice Beach winebar having a solitary but very pleasant welcome back Milly pinot noir, they were discovering that their pilot had been sick, and that they had to stay another night in the airport hotel, eventually getting home about 36 hours later.

Final comment...obviously the Australian Open has started and Nico was knocked out 6-1 6-1 6-0. He his stretching my support capacity to it's limits. Roge is looking good and I predict it will be his year for the grand slam of grand slams. What do you reckon?