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Post by onlyMark on Mar 20, 2023 6:43:18 GMT
I'm all for bike lanes as long as they get used. Nothing worse than disrupting pedestrian areas and restricting roads but then few use the bike lanes.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 20, 2023 6:44:07 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 20, 2023 6:45:36 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 20, 2023 6:47:37 GMT
Just to mention a little about the rail system in Mexico for a minute. Thoughts turned seriously to building a rail system in Mexico in 1837 when a concession was granted to build a line between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz on the coast but nothing was built. In 1857 another concession was granted but due to political instability it took until 1873 to build it. Over the coming years - “....railroads consisting almost exclusively of the British-owned Mexican Railway. By the end of 1910, Mexico boasted 15,360 miles (24,720 km) of in-service track, mostly built by American, British and French investors.” Also - “The British invested £7.4 million in railways during the decade of the 1880s, jumping to £53.4 million in 1910s” But in 1909 parts of the system were nationalised until the whole system came under Government control in 1937. This ended in 1995 when it went back to being privatised. By then the vast majority of the network was used for freight travel with only a small amount dedicated to passenger travel. It remains like this until today thought there are small distances, relative to the whole, devoted purely to passengers. There are two main rail museums in Mexico, one being in Merida and the National Museum here in Puebla. I’m not sure if the city’s previous illustrious forum’s reporters were aware that only a couple of months after their visit a rail line was opened between Puebla and the tourist town of Cholula, 18km away. The terminus was at this museum. Cholula was somewhere I had my eye on as a Plan B to visit if there was time, but I’ll no doubt go on my next visit. But, I’ll either have to drive or take the bus as the line service ended in December 2021 due to its lack of profitability. Entrance to the museum is/was, I think, 19 Pesos. Less than 1USD. There was a very nice young girl at the ticket office when I arrived. I asked her the fee and gave her a 20 Peso note. She asked if I had the exact change. I replied no, sorry. She thought for a minute (because I realised she had no change either) then told me because I was old I could get in for free. What follows are photos of trains. Obviously. You are forgiven if you scroll past if they are of little interest. It opened May 5th, 1988 -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 20, 2023 13:34:12 GMT
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Post by fumobici on Mar 20, 2023 14:28:42 GMT
Puebla continues to amaze and surprise. I must see it myself.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 20, 2023 17:03:33 GMT
Certainly worth a visit and one of those places you don't mind going out of your way to see.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 20, 2023 17:05:02 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 20, 2023 18:40:58 GMT
Loving the trains. And the cacti.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 16:36:56 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 16:45:22 GMT
Uxmal - The strange thing to me is that the first ruins are from 550BC to 250BC when it went into decline. The second ruins are from 850-925 AD. There is about one thousand four hundred years between them yet to my untrained eye it could have been the same bloke and his apprentice who built them. Even the son of the original architect maybe. I did sort of expect there would be quite a difference in styles. Maybe there is but not obvious to me apart from possibly more decoration.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 24, 2023 17:40:19 GMT
I suppose that some of the later architects had travelled enough to see some of the earlier places for inspiration. Look at all of the 18th-19th century buildings in Europe that were made to look like Roman and Greek temples.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 18:51:00 GMT
Could well be, certainly. I think the pyramids in Egypt were built over a period of fifteen hundred years and they didn't change much.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 21:58:39 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 22:32:49 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 22:34:45 GMT
Couldn’t resist another train. I was born in a house that backed on to some railway tracks. Nothing high speed on it, just shunting engines and local travel. There was no fence at the end of our back yard and the tracks were mere yards away. Just a few more yards over them was a pond. I’m sure having two young boys my parents had palpitations about our safety - This is the inside of the cafe in the next photo. Possibly the most famous in the city. Unfortunately for me there were also two others that shared three words in their title between them. Each cafe just used two words of the three and I kept going into the wrong one. It turned out they were all good so not a problem - apart from when I wanted a specific soup and was miffed it wasn’t on the menu when I saw the menu on the internet and it was. It was because I was in the wrong cafe and didn’t realise it - If you ordered a coffee with milk they would serve you like an expresso shot in the bottom of a large glass. You then had to ching ching the teaspoon on the side of the glass to get the lad who was always roving around to come to you and fill the glass up with hot milk - Poor lass -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 22:35:43 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 24, 2023 22:38:04 GMT
The “fire bobbies” with the heroic fireman out front kidnapping a baby - A pleasant plant market - And a last bit of colour to finish off - It is really finished off now so that’s it. I drive back to Sarajevo next Wednesday taking three days because I have a daughter with me and it’s not fair she has to spend too long in a car as I do when alone and arrive on Friday, have a weekend and a couple of days and then Wednesday of the following week I embark with Mrs M and a friend (and car) to Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Montenegro and back to Bosnia. It’s a last gasp Balkans flying tour as I may not get another chance. It will be a bit of a flying tour as well unfortunately as none of us have too much time before other commitments take priority.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 25, 2023 7:41:49 GMT
There's a lot going on in that city. It is much more interesting than seeing monuments and statues.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 25, 2023 9:56:27 GMT
It was a busy and interesting place. Good to go to.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 25, 2023 15:15:08 GMT
It’s been an amazing report Mark. Thanks.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 25, 2023 17:55:35 GMT
Quite an overview I think.
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Post by nycgirl on Mar 25, 2023 22:22:47 GMT
What an an amazing whirlwind trip. I especially love your colorful Puebla pictures, like balloons and the one with the "pecked paper."
Villahermosa doesn't look so bad. I can see that how it comes across as scruffy, but it doesn't look dirty in the sense that there's tons of trash lying around. Or maybe you just captured it's good side. Understandable that it didn't hold as much interest as other places.
The train museum looked nice, and such a bargain. So funny the girl at the train museum let you in for free for being "old."
Great report, have fun on your next adventure!
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 26, 2023 6:36:11 GMT
Next adventure of sorts starts in less than a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks.
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Post by fumobici on Mar 26, 2023 15:04:03 GMT
Good show, well chronicled.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 26, 2023 15:48:57 GMT
You're welcome.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 26, 2023 22:24:10 GMT
I hope it doesn't sound arrogant to say that, of all the people who should be commenting on this thread, the first among them would be me. A thousand pardons for being so far behind. I've tried several times to make a coherent summation post, but something has always interrupted me. So, if I may, I'll just make several posts in an attempt to say how very, very much I am enjoying this magnificent travelogue and how blown away I am by the fact that you totally GET Mexico! Anyway, right now I'm only up to page five of going through the thread again, so ~~ I had no idea the coast of Veracruz got that windy. That was a dumb statement. I'm remembering a stay with my sister on the coast of Veracruz. Our hotel was brand new and our room flooded so badly during the night that we had to throw the sheets on the floor in order to slosh to the bathroom. The jolly family who owned the place gave us a new room & a gratuitous discount. That room flooded, too, but by this time we found it funny, so said we didn't need to be moved. Again, an unasked-for discount was applied. This happened to be the year that AMLO ran for president and lost. In a chat with one of the hotel owners, I mentioned that I was pro-AMLO. Bingo ~ another discount! People from Veracruz tend to be friendly, easy-going, & fun. (sorry for the digression!) Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. Ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD. Just gorgeous photographs, Mark. My brother went to Mexico in the very early '70s & he & a friend camped out in Palenque. He said it was pitch dark there at night, as it was as yet undevelope, and full of the unnerving sounds of monkey screeching. I think it's an orange oriole. Friday I lunched with some other people at a restaurant overlooking a river. There were many trees & lots of birdsong. One woman showed us an app developed by Cornell U. for identifying birds by their song. It's called Merlin, if anyone is interested. Of course I spoke to the man, who said he was the Robin Hood on the sign and we each expressed surprise for me to see the name here and for him to realise I was from Nottingham. Nice moment. That is a stellar moment and a fun bit of fate. Oxxo. You know it if you’ve been to Mexico. They are everywhere and at probably thirty percent of petrol stations. ... poor excuse for a supermarket. ... rows of crisps, sweets, cake type stuff, coolers full of soft drinks and beer A perfect description. One reason for their popularity is that Oxxos are a reliable place to top up phone time & to get stuff like diapers on the way home from work. But the niche they fill is to accept payment for all kinds of online purchases -- Amazon, MercadoLibre, etc. This allows people with no credit card to buy from online vendors. I wondered also about the obesity rate. Mexico comes in at number 29. I know I've said it before, but when I moved to Oaxaca in 1997, there were no fat people. Certainly soft drinks and sweet breads had already made inroads, but all that other crap eventually took hold in what is very much a snacking culture to the detriment of health & figures.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 27, 2023 13:24:15 GMT
App for bird song sounds a good idea, I'll look into that. I didn't realise Oxxo did all that. I half thought it can't be just pop and crisps but never followed through with it. I'm glad there is then a facility to do what you say. As regards obesity, I should expect nearly if not all countries have a growing problem with it. I remember as a kid there was one obese lad in the school of one thousand. He stood out like a sore thumb but it wasn't until later I found out he had a medical reason for it, it wasn't greed or bad food. According to the worldobesity org website, Mexico is at 45, whilst the UK is at 29. how blown away I am by the fact that you totally GET Mexico! It's still a scratching the surface thing but I like to think I scratch a little deeper than normal and especially someone on a package trip to a resort in Cancun.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 29, 2023 4:25:45 GMT
entry prices to the ruins. To get in this one today was the equivalent of 3 Euros. Admission prices to museums all over Mexico are super cheap. Even cheaper for me, as with the official Mexican old age card, I get in free. I'm now in an airport hotel from which I'm not leaving until my flight from here to Frankfurt to Vienna to Bosnia leaves tomorrow evening, arriving late night on Tuesday. I didn't know other people did that, too -- safely tucking themselves away on the last day of a trip. I figure it's better than to dash around trying to fit in some last things. At any rate, taking this opportunity a month late to say buen viaje! A well thought of and busy city and very popular. Perfect description of Merida! It was the second place in Mexico I spent any time, the first being Veracruz. It's a charming city. old city called Teotihuacan Your photos are out of this world and really give a great idea of the place. This is a place nobody ever probably goes to - Ciudad del Carmen. ... This is seems to have no tourists at all. I wanted to see a seaside town where there weren’t any and this fit the bill nicely. I've been there a couple of times and it is nice, homey town. I was interested to see how much it has been spruced up. Hasn't lost its charm!
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Post by nycgirl on Mar 29, 2023 12:40:33 GMT
Regarding admission prices in Mexico, some places let me in for free or with a steep discount with my teacher ID. Admission was usually cheap anyway, with some exceptions (the Frida Kahlo museum would be considered a splurge for some).
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