Antigua, vida mia

Estuve en Antigua solo un par de horas. Llegue a almorzar en uno de los restaurantes cerca del "parque" (o sea la plaza) que era una casona vieja a la que le han tranformado la galeria y el patio del medio en un restaurante de comidas tipicas. Asi pude pobrar un poquito de todo: tamalitos de chipilin, puyaso, kak iq, gallo en chicha, y pepian de pollo. Estos ultimos son unos platos salsudos, mas bien sopudos, de esos que se toman con la cuchara en la mano derecha y con la izquierda hay que pescar el hueso y comer la carne tironeando costillitas nomas. Sabroson.
Antigua es una ciudad colonial muy pintoresca con calles de adoquines y casas de colores. A la vuelta es todo montanas verdes cubiertas de selva, que contrastan con el cielo absolutamente azul. Divino. El highlight turistico de Guatemala.
Mercedes

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Guatemala - Office party

Escribi el cuento del viaje a Guatemala y Antigua. No se que paso, se borro. Como ya no lo voy a escribir de vuelta, no mas les cuento que justo me toco estar para la fiesta de navidad de la oficina de Guatemala que era de vestido largo, cena, bebida libre, y DJ. Pachanga total que agarre de pura casualidad porque justo estaba ahi. El problema es que yo no tenia vestido asi que de apuro me compre una "falda". Estuve un vestida un mamarracho comparada con el resto de la concurrencia, pero en fin, igual disfrute el "convivio de navidad" y su bailongo cargado de salsa y merengue.
Mercedes

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Cali, Colombia - Visita a la Planta

Eramos 4 extranjeros. Para buscarnos del aeropuerto se necesitaron 2 camionetas 4x4 blindadas y 3 tipos medio choferes - medio guardaespaldas. Habia uno que era el primero en bajar y el ultimo en subir cargando una valijita de laptop. Despues de un tiempo cai que no pensaba llevar una laptop ahi dentro. Se ve que la seguridad todavia es una preocupacion primordial en Cali.
La visita a la planta estuvo fantastica por que producen de todo asi que buenisimo ver los procesos, bastante manuales por cierto, pero para mi que lo veia por primera vez me resulto interesantisimo. Trabajamos en la oficina que queda adjunta a la planta, ahora entiendo mucho mejor como funciona el negocio.
Todos los colombianos son tan amables. Cada almuerzo en la cafeteria, cada comida a la noche, era un grupazo de gente, todos muy calidos y divertidos. La mayoria habla buen ingles, asi que nadie se perdia.
Con la cantidad de comida y bebida en cada ocasion se me empezo a hacer dificil seguir el ritmo, pero yo igual le puse pilas. Sancocho, empanadas, arepas, lulada,
salpicon, y otras muchas exquisiteses locales de las que no me puedo acordar el nombre. Todo regadito con vino argentino. Empece a sentir el peso. Pero riquisimo y una experiencia buenisima. Eso si, de turismo no hicimos nada, asi que no tengo idea de como es la ciudad mas alla de la ruta entre la fabrica, el hotel y el aeropuerto.
A la hora de partir, el amigo de la valijita de laptop nos acompano durante check-in, pago de tasa y hasta que pasamos seguridad del aeropuerto. Solo ahi, cambio la cara seria por una sonrisa, nos miro a los ojos en lugar de detras de nuestras espaldas, y levanto la mano para saludar un respetuoso adios en silencio.
Mercedes






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Mexico de Bicentenario

Mexico is celebrating its 200th birthday and I decided to join the celebration with Ines.
My Mexico City base was in the tree-lined and trendy Polanco. I spent a couple of days walking around the neighborhood, with multiple fuel stops at its cafes. It was hard to resist the temptation of sipping a latte at the sidewalk tables while watching the beautiful "chilangos" go by. Ines and I walked around nearby Chapultepec Park, and climbed to Chapultepec's castle on top of the park's hill. Views of the city and the castle's garden, called Alcazar, are attached.

Next stop was Dolores Hidalgo, a small town 4 hours north of Mexico City, where Miguel Hidalgo delivered the "cry" of Independence 200 years ago. Given its historical importance and the imminent arrival of the country's president, the town was packed and we had to walk through several security check points to get to the main square. We were rewarded by a lively square at the exact time that the governor was giving a speech, which ended with Hidalgo's cry of "Viva Mexico". We all cried back "Viva" in unison.

Back in the armored vehicle, our driver took us to San Miguel de Allende next. This is a lively town very well set for foreign tourism: lots of boutique hotels housed in refurbished colonial buildings, pretty restaurants, clean cobble-stoned streets, pleasant weather year round, and the flock of Americans that come with this infrastructure. Our hotel Casa Schuck was beautiful and so peaceful that we spent hours relaxing in the courtyard and the terrace admiring the sunsets. Ines took some postcard pictures that I'll post here later.

San Miguel was dressed in red, white, and green with the Mexican flag displayed on every balcony. We could feel the energy and excitement walking on its streets crowded with locals and visitors. There were a few live performances, and at 11pm on Wednesday everybody gathered in the main square. Fireworks followed the several repetitions of "Viva Mexico" answered by the crowd's "Viva". It was a party.

Short visit, but I had lots of fun. Many thanks to Ines for being a great host.
Mercedes

Quebec City - French looking and sounding

Quebec is just 3 hours away from Montreal. So we felt that since we were there, it would be a shame not to make the little extra driving and visit Quebec City. So there we were. A very tourist oriented town, the most popular landmark is Le Chateau, an imposing building on top of the hill. The city is very scenic because it is perched on a cliff overlooking the pletniful St Lawrence river.

One of the pictures shows a wall with the Fresque des Quebecois. It is hard to tell who is real life and who is a painting. We've been told that the people painted on the wall are local historical figures.

The architecture is very cool. Inside the city walls we found some old French-style buildings. We liked the steeply slanted roofs, especially the colorful ones.

We spent only half a day in Quebec City, but the drive was absolutely worth it.

Mercedes

Montreal, best by bike

Montreal is the most bike-friendly city I've ever seen. And the best part is that we had brought our bikes and Saturday was sunny with clear skyies refreshed by a breeze. Perfect for biking. We cycled the canal Lachine, then to Ile Ste-Helene, up to Mont-Royal, and lastly to the Botanical Garden next to the Olympic Park. The famous Jazz festival was on, so we enjoyed a few performances under the stars.

Lots of pictures attached.

Mercedes

Montreal - more pics

Pictures that didn't make it to the last posting...

Montreal - Beautifulique!

It took us 6 1/2 hours driving from NYC. We followed the Brazil-Netherlands game on the radio while driving, and checked in at our hotel right in time for the second half of the Uruguay-Ghana match. The start of our city tour was delayed by this match's overtime and penalty kicks. There was too much drama to leave the TV in our room.

Finally, the drama ended and we headed out for a walk to the Latin Quarter, the Old Port, downtown, Chinatown, Notre Dame, and finally we bumped on the International Jazz Festival. This thing is huge, so many people around. Really fun to just watch everybody while listening to live music. For example, there was a guy walking around with head encased in a cube of mirrors. (!?) Very cool.

We had dinner and now we are going to have a good rest, tomorrow is a long day: starting with Argentina-Germany, and then a full day of biking.

Montreal is very biker friendly, and is very beautiful. Weather is fully cooperating so far. So we can't ask for anything more.

Mercedes