Mexico City

The first day of our stay in Mexico City we visited the Archaeological Museum. It was fabulous and had many artifacts from the Aztec and Teutihuacan periods.

The picture of the city is of Mexico City in its earlier days. It was built on a lake as a floating, yet secured city.


Teutihuacan architecture.

Drew at the Museum of Freida Kahlo, a famous Mexican artist and poet.

The main reason we wanted to visit Mexico City was that it was close to the Mexican pyramids as we wanted to compare them to the Egyptian pyramids we saw earlier on our trip. We are on the pyramid of the sun with the pyramid of the moon in the background. Chris is halfway up the pyramid of the sun. huffing and puffing and looking for an excuse to stop. Remember, if you are laughing at me back at sea level that we are more than 2km above sea level, and my heart was racing just to look up at the steps.

Before heading off to the pyramids, we had lunch with our tour group and were serenaded by the mariachi band.

Over a two day holiday period we were in Mexico City for the Festival of the Dead., There were many celebrations and offerings as this festival means alot to the Mexican peoplle. They beleive that the dead have gone to a better place annd this is why they are celebrating. This scene, one of many throughout the country, was at the palace.

In the park near our hotel in central Mexico, this little boy fell in the polluted fountain and had to disrobe his also polluted nappy and pants and dry them on the fence. No matter, the family were all happy and having a lovely day. (We mean the real family - not the papier machier characters which were part of a union protest for more wages)

Needing some dental work, drew accepted a leaflet handed to him on the street for a discount at the local dentist, but when finding the 1 room dentistry and the Spanish speaking dentist wearing street clothes and standing beside the 2 dentist chairs, he became a little wary about trusting the ´´´´dentist´´´´. The deciding factor in his imminent escape was the terrifying view of a pair of pliers and multigrips on the dentists chairs. Later, having received a recommendation from the staff at our hotel he took a taxi and over a period of 3 days visited the recommended dentist to undertake root canal surgery. On the 3rd day while he was bravely and perhaps somewhat foolishly undergoing root canal surgery by the Mexican dentist, Chris was enjoying a lovely day tour to the silver mining township of Taxco. In the town of Taxco, Chris is pictured on a balcony overlooking the town. Behind the trattoria Marco Polo in Cuernauaca is an open courtyard with jewellery and traditional clothes shops.

Mexican folklorica dancing was amazing. The colors and sound memorised us and the theatre was beautiful.

Jamaica

Dunns River Falls were beautiful, but somehow I´ve got this out of order and can´t work out the Spanish editing language to get the photos back in order.

From Montego Bay airport we headed straight to our Jamaican all inclusive reosrt. This is the view from our room.The resort was a nice change from the cheap motels we´d been frequenting. But we decide after this to go back to bed and breakfast only because otherwise we tend to stay at the hotel and just eat and drink too much. Now we can leave the hotel, but stilleat and drinktoo much.

The view from the glass bottom boat back to Pebbles resort was pretty, but Drew foundthe glass bottom boat helped him to more than remember last night´s dark and stormy moments.

Having been warned by all and sundry not to use the unregistered taxis or public buses to travel to Dunns River Falls, of course, we did just that. Had a great trip on the very crowded bus and loved climbing up the falls.

At Negril we stayed at a clifftop hotel, with great views over to the sunset. The hotel had a free shuttle to its sister resort on the beachfront of seven mile beach. So once again we had to spend some time lazing on the beach and wandering up and down passing all the cheap beachfront bars and cafes. One night we went to a clifftop bar called Ricks cafe and enjoyed a quiet apperitif watching the cliff divers and the vast array of locals and tourists strut their stuff.

On a day trip from Negril, we visited Black River and took a boat ride to check out the wildlife. Crocodiles with no teeth, beautiful birdlife - unlike the beautiful birdlife witnessed on Negril beach. Then we toodled off to Ys falls and played in the water. Next we hopped on the bus and tried to take a short cut to the rum factory. The bus stopped and started and grunted and finally made it so we had many samples, as if we needed an excuse.

Tarzan the monkey man at Ys falls.

A typical scene in Jamaica.

S.E.U.S.A. Washington to Key West

The Whitehouse D.C. We think George was not home but visiting Johnnie at the time.While George was playing with John, Chris was playing with the bears. A great photo exhibition.
What can you see in this photo except sand and a plant. You may have to zoom in to find this secretive creature. It is called a Ghost......
Chris having a lovely time in posh land which translates into the city of Charleston.
Drew also in Charleston playing with the subs. Unfortunately we did not get a photo of a great pub we had a drink at. It was a converted church.
The only plantation we did a tour of was this one in the Carolinas. This pov house was one of many of a second son of a rich plantation owner back in the bad old days.We spent a fascinating hour listening to descendants of slaves from this property. Apparently both descendants of the owners and slaves and free workers get on famously now.
This is the old fort at St. Augustine. The oldest city in Florida. This is a rendition of the Red Coates firing the cannons which were very noisy. They were fired at Francis Drake from this castle but not sure who won the battle. The city is very quaint as it has kept its cobblestone streets, churches burying grounds and buildings from a couple of centuries ago.
As Drew and Chris got married at St. Augustines church in Melbourne Aust we just had to add this photo in. Yes we are getting fatter. Too much American salty,fatty,sugary food.
Cute turtle next to the road.We also saw an otter crossing the road but it was too quick for us to take a photo.
Drew holding up the winners trophy at Daytona Race track.


Alligator in the Florida Everglades National Park. Whoops, that photo has gone and what a shame it was truly magnificent. If anyone has not seen a photo of an alligator, I would recommend using google to search for alligators of the Florida everglades. You might have guessed that this is not an alligator, but Chris posing in front of an elephant plant, commonly found at Disneyworld , Orlando, Florida. OK, OK we're just a couple of big kids.
At Cape Cannaveral they have lots and lots of big spaceships. Some have been used!
Melbourne beach Florida was named by an Australian who came from??
Found the alligator. He wasn't at Disneyworld, but in The Everglades national park. An area of slow moving fresh water where Alligators love to hide out.
Drew next to a hummock in the Everglades. Small raised areas of hardwood in a sea of sawgrass.
On Drews wish list was to Tailgate at a Football Game in the U.S. of A. The two people on the far left of screen came into the game with us and explained the game to us. The yanks have a fantastic way of preparing for a game of football. They all meet in the carpark, set up the BBQ, open the esky and settle in for a session of 2-4 hours before the game, with some staying in the carpark and not bothering about the footy. Can't say i blame them - the atmosphere at the game is great but a 1 hour game takes 3 hours because of all the time outs, team changes, etc, etc
Players about to come onto the ground through a helmet while the cheer squad were cheering, the band was playing and the crowd was yelling. Every time one team managed to gain 10 yards - the band would play the theme song and the cheerleaders would strut their stuff.

The area of Fort Lauderdale before development.
And after.
Key West. The most southern tip of Florida.. The township was hip and happening. Music and drinking everywhere.
Sunset and champagne.
We are driving on a bridge in between two of the Florida keys and a new bridge is being built beside it. I wonder why it is so much higher than the road we are traveling on? Hurricanes maybe? Good bye to North America. It was a very interesting six months but now we must leave for more exotic places.