We journeyed to the Basilica of our Lady of Guadalupe today, probably the main reason we wanted to visit CDMX.
On Sundays the Paseo de La Reforma is closed to vehicles to allow pedestrians and bicycles to enjoy the sights. Needless to say this disrupted our transit plans again lol.
A long subway ride later and a 7 block walk, we were there. We arrived at 12 noon, just in time for Mass but not early enough to get seats. The capacity of the basilica is only 10,000!
There were people crawling on their knees in the standing room only area. We understood this is nothing like the crowds of several million who flock here for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in December. Later we climbed the steps of Tepeyac Hill where the Virgin Mary appeared to a Nahua peasant, Juan Diego several times in 1531.
The highlight for us was joining in with a group of young adults from Alabama who were saying the Rosary together at the top of Tepeyac Hill. It was a spontaneous spiritual experience. They were on a mission with their priest and asked us to pray for them.
We plan to go back a second time while we are here to hopefully see the image of Our Lady up close.
We decided to spend a day in Chapultepec Park, hopefully away from the loud sounds and crowds of our first day. It largely paid off.
We bused a few stops to the park and walked up toward Chapultepec Castle, the only castle in North America where a reigning king actually lived (Maximilian I, 1864-67). Security is very tight – no food or beverage allowed in including water.
The castle houses the National Museuem of History at one end and Maximilian’s residence at the other. There were many large paintings depicting the major eras of Mexican history: prehistoric and Aztec era; the colonial era under Spain starting in 1519; and the modern era after Mexico gained its independence in 1821.
We found the museum part a little dry but the large paintings depicting the various struggles were very enlightening. The era of Maximilian’s rule was most interesting. When President Benito Juarez announced Mexico would stop paying its massive debt owed to Europe, France decided to install a Hapsburg emperor to retrieve some riches. Maximilian I ruled from 1864 to 1867 when he was cornered and executed by the Mexican Republic.
We spent some time sitting by a small lake watching Mexican families with their tethered kids walking by all happy and calm nevertheless. When we went to go back to our hotel, there were no buses running… We grabbed an Uber and got about halfway home. We had to walk the rest because Paseo de la Reforma, the major thoroughfare was closed due to International Women’s’ Day.
Women’s’ rally on the closed Paseo de la Reforma“My body is an object – Burn everything I became a feminist for my own story”
Once again we survived it all but this time opted for a massive paella dinner which was nice for a change. Actually, we bought one and he gave us two!
We arrived in Ciudad de Mexico (CDMX, Mexico City) by limo service from San Miguel for a 7 night stay. Needless to say we were quite overwhelmed by the big city, the noise, the sights, the sounds, the smells. The next day our first, we went on a guided walking tour of the historical centre of town.
We took a bus and the subway for the first time without knowing how payment works. We got on the bus and tapped our credit card as this is how it works in Singapore. No go. I asked the driver if they take cash. No go. So we ride for free lol. At the subway station we picked up the Presto transit card you need and loaded it up with some cash. Problem solved.
We were supposed to meet the tour guide at the main entrance to the huge Cathedral. Well there is currently a 10 foot high steel wall surrounding the church so we could not find the door. We finally found a side entry door in the wall but when we got around to the church front door, there was no one there… except 2 other English speaking tourists who were looking for the same guide. Eventually our tour guide Natalie did come around and retrieved us. Phew!
Nat took us on an exhaustive 3 hour walking tour and regaled us with the history of the local area including when the Aztecs were there, the Spanish conquest by Cortes in 1521 and many stories of famous Mexico modernizing President Porfirio Diaz. We heard about the presidential palace on the Zocalo adjacent to the cathedral where current very popular Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum lives.
Many other stories including an interesting one about the very unusual black Christ crucifix in the cathedral. (A bad guy was trying to kill a priest and so placed poison on the feet of the crucifix of Jesus that the priest kissed every morning. The next day when the priest went to kiss Jesus’ feet, Jesus raised his knees high up to spare the priest’s life and absorbed the poison turning black in the process.)
We enjoyed the tour but had trouble hearing what Nat was saying at times and some of the stories were a little long. The historical area was jam packed with people all jabbering away yet always smiling. A heavy police presence was everywhere. It was very very loud with food stalls, hawkers etc.. Hey this is CDMX (population 9.2 million). We survived it all and found our way back to our hotel after reloading our Presto card with more cash.
A couple of Heinekens later, we ventured around the corner from our hotel to pick up … more tacos al pastor … and returned to our room very happy and satisfied after another great day.
Approaching the iconic Parroquia de San Miguel de Arcangel from the rearFrom the frontInside
Marie and I spent 3 wonderful days in San Miguel de Allende, a 16/17th century Spanish colonial town located a few hours NW of Mexico City. A world heritage site, San Miguel is St. Michael the Archangel and Allende is the name of a famous Mexican general involved with Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821.
What we liked about the town is its cleanliness – an army of cleaners hit the streets at 5 am every morning and “sweep baby sweep”. Vehicle tires literally squeak on the polished cobblestone streets.
Spanish colonial architecture is everywhere: beautiful dark wood doors open up onto hundreds of tranquil courtyards with fresh green leaves, shady tree bright flowers and lazy fountains.
The overall atmosphere is one of peace. Despite heavy vehicle and motorcycle traffic at times including many city buses, people are calm, relaxed, friendly and cheerful. The sidewalks are narrow. One must pay attention. It was Mardi Gras time and the kids were having fun cracking confetti filled eggs over each other.
There was some street theatre too.
The hundreds of little boutique shops, tasty food eateries, art stores and museums complete the picture. We loved it all.
For 3 days we ate tacos of every kind – Al pastor, fish, beef, vegetarian, All were incredibly cheap and yummy. We walked and walked and climbed hills and staircases until we dropped. We recuperated in our lovely 2 floor suite and then went out and did it again.
We attended Ash Wednesday Mass at Parraquia de San Miguel and thanked God for this wonderful place and our visit – hopefully to be repeated again someday soon. Highly recommended place to go.
A couple of days ago we paid our annual visit to La Cruz, a quaint little fishing village half an hour north of NV. Sunday is market day and they have some great food. We walked to the corner to catch a “collectivo” and then transferred to another one. These are small commercial passenger vans running local routes continuously. As few Mexicans own cars, these are well used by the locals. It took about 30 minutes and cost about $6 CDN.
The cobble stone streets in La Cruz are dusty and hot. We found our way to the local parish and attended a Mass. The church was filled with smiling kids and their parents. Average age attending I would guess was late 30s. The priest was very engaging and the kids loved him. Nice soloist and guitar music. Another great mystical cultural experience here.
We continued onto the market. It winds its way for half a km on a narrow isthmus between Banderas Bay and a large marina. We knew exactly what we were looking for so did not daly. Finally we found it. Takes a look. Can you guess?
The paella was delicious and well worth the long walk! There is also a huge fish market here where you can buy fresh fish. We then headed to our favorite stop, the Octopus Garden Hostel, an eclectic, relaxing and charming place run by a British lady named Aruna. Trees grow through the roof in the courtyard; there are several cats and a large turtle; a fountain spews water lazily; it is cool, friendly and shady; they have a great book exchange.
We chatted with Aruna for half an hour. They have 22 beds that she and her partner rent out with the help of several volunteers. Most of the clients are retirees. It is a nice escape from the real world that we look forward to popping into each year.
Not to give you the wrong idea, but here is the little joke about La Cruz which is no doubt true. Great place to visit in the moment while here.
We stay in a gorgeous beach front resort in Mexico to escape wintery weather up north. The resort consists of condos and a hotel that caters to visiting Canadians and Americans. There is not much Mexican culture on display anymore here. Everyone speaks English; the music played is American; they have a Super Bowl party.
In other seasons the place is filled with Mexicans so the vibe must surely be more Mexican. We have noticed a steady decline though. When we first started coming here there were weekly mariachi bands with trumpets and troubadours. This is a rare practice here now. Mexican fiesta night on Fridays is very subdued. They even stopped selling bulk pico de gallo in the local grocery stores.
If we want to have more of the feel of Mexico, we go into Puerto Vallarta. The streets are cobblestone, the sidewalks are dangerous, there is constant noise, restaurants, bars, mom and pop vegetable and fruit stores are open late and Spanish is heard in the streets.
We went in the other day to meet friends and go to an English Mass. While it was exhilarating, stimulating and interesting, after several hours, we were ready to return home. Give me the quiet life in Mexico.
Happily the Mexican donut boy still comes by on the beach most days at 4:30.
We felt the earthquake last night which hit 400 km south of us in the State of Michoacan. It shook our bed and the blinds were hitting the window. No damage done other than some cracked plaster. Hope all are safe.
Our first week here was punctuated by cool weather. One day the high was only 23C and we had a few showers. Had to wear a windbreaker last night for the first time here when we went out to Ernestos Good Grub.
The sandbar has reappeared now and it has warmed up again. You can walk for kms in your bare feet.
Managed to snag a small delicious Roca de Reis. Hoping to find a baby Jesus inside.
One of the highlights of our week is attending the local Catholic Church Mass on Sundays. It is held in a large modern hall. Parts of the service are in English. This year they have a fantastic soloist named Pedro. Enjoy.
We have settled in now for a great stay. More friends are arriving each week. We have a bunch of birthdays coming up to celebrate. Stay warm. Hasta pronto (see you soon).
We find ourselves in Mexico again. It’s safe here and safe to say that we find many blessings and much peace here.
We flew via Newark and all went well. Except we had to retrieve our heavy bags and pay again to check them because there was too much time between the connecting flights.
As well, Marie lost a shoe in security and we had to wait a few minutes.
It was an early morning flight to PV. We were in our condo about 75 minutes after landing. Best timing yet!
Our property agent met us and then took us to the grocery store. The next morning she returned and fixed up all the deficiencies in the condo we had asked for.
We have now been here a few days. We just returned from church and there was a great soloist. We have not picked up any bugs…The sun is shining.
Off to a great start so far thanks be to God. Hope things are going well for you so far in 2025 too.
Cruise Director Giuseppii doing his classic kick start of the nightly shows (not my photo)
We were now about to now cross the Pacific on the beautiful Celebrity Edge. It was to be an 18 day cruise with 13 sea days; the longest cruise we had ever been on. We would cross the Equator and International Dateline, visit New Zealand and Tahiti before pushing on to Hawaii.
The Edge was launched in 2018 as the first of a new class. It carries 2900 pax with a crew of 1300. At 130,000 tons it is slightly bigger than the Solstice with about the same number of pax. Everything on board is different. It represents Celebrity’s attempt to move up from a “premium” cruise line to a “luxurious” one. In our view they greatly succeed. This was to be the best cruise we have ever gone on!
Take a look at the Edge
We decided not to opt for the drink package due its high cost. Instead, we brought on many bottles of wine that were duly detected by scanning but never objected to by the security staff. We were going to celebrate our 40th anniversary again and also Dave’s birthday. This excuse seemed to work with them.
The shows on the edge were fantastic. We would alternate between the 7 and 9 pm shows depending on our dining arrangements. We saw large cast stage shows, comedians, singers, instrumentalists, acrobats and even a hypnotist. Many of the entertainers were from Australia and were very talented.
The port stops were Bay of Islands and Auckland in New Zealand and Raiatea, Moorea and Papeete in Tahiti. In New Zealand we wandered around, enjoyed the local sights and bought some great wine. In Tahiti we took an outrigger boat excursion, Dave went snorkelling and we went to several little beaches that were absolutely beautiful and later picked up some souvenirs. We did not particularly like Papeete the capital as it was jammed with traffic, noisy and too darn busy. Moorea and Raiatea were simple, calm and stunning. Sadly, our ship was too big to put into Bora Bora, the jewel of Tahiti. Hightlight was probably the quiet little beach stop in Raiatea – calm, uncrowded, pristine.
The food of course is the best part of a cruise. The Edge has 4 separate dining rooms, 4 or 5 specialty restaurants and of course the Oceanview Cafe buffet. We frequented almost all of the restaurants. The service, food selection and quality were truly amazing. Best meal was filet mignon and lobster tail in the Finecut Steakhouse on Dave’s birthday. Our anniversary dinner in Eden was very memorable too.
The best part of this cruise were the 13 sea days. With nothing to do but relax and enjoy the ship’s amenities, we got quite into a calm state that lasted for weeks after the cruise. Never bored, we found somewhere on deck to relax before we went for our next meal. The walking track was a long one and well laid out. The hot tub was never crowded. The pool was large and inviting. The last night there was an all white party on deck with live music. The 7 piece orchestra on board was consistently 5 star. Our only complaint was the wifi would often drop out as we moved around the ship forcing us to log in again.
The cruise ended in fantastic controversy. Approaching the sacred and pristine Na Pali coast off Kauai, our ship’s captain Matt decided to do a 360 Deg turn. We were very close to shore to start with. In our view, as the 1000 ft long ship spun around, we went well within the 1000 foot minimum distance that ships are supposed to keep from shore.There was nothing unsafe about it but it did stir up the sea bed and visually disrupt the sacred nature of the area. Captain Matt said after that he was not aware of the 1000 foot limit. After an investigation, the State of Hawaii recently decided not to pursue charges and I speculate that Celebrity promised not to do it again. It was surreal and stunning how close we were. It gave us something to talk about and boast that we were there lol.
We disembarked in Honolulu, rented a car and drove to the north shore of Oahu for some fresh shrimp and a swim. We stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation and then headed back to the airport. Had a very smooth flight home via Vancouver. What a vacation! Thanks for travelling it with us!
Trip By The Numbers
Solstice cruise to Sydney 4525 nm = 8,380 km
13 nights, 4 ports, 9 sea days
Edge cruise to Honolulu 6319 nm = 11,702 km
18 nights, 5 ports, 13 sea days
Total distance travelled by air from Ottawa to Mexico to Singapore to Honolulu to Ottawa 29,000 km
Perhaps not the liveliest of versions, however non-Aussies like us need to see the lyrics to better understand this great folk song. e.g. a billabong is an isolated stagnant pond, a jumbuck is a male sheep. There was a proposal to make Waltzing Matilda Australia’s national anthem. No wonder. When we saw it performed live on board Edge and it brought tears to our eyes.
The view from our aft balcony as we pulled into Sydney, Australia. Were we were in for a nice surprise. Sydney, we were about to discover, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We are no longer city people and so have fairly low expectations about cities. Hence our surprise. The beauty of Sydney is focused on its magnificent harbour, its many surrounding beaches and an active outdoor lifestyle that its over 6 million inhabitants enjoy.
Leaving Solstice, we got an Uber to our 54 floor hotel, Meriton Suites in the heart of the commercial district. We could not figure out how to operate the elevator to get to the 39th floor. Duh. It turns out you must place your room card on the scanner and then an elevator is assigned and pre-programmed to take you to your floor and not to any other ones. Welcome to new hotel security technology! Our room was spacious and well equipped with a kitchenette. If we ran out of anything, we called down and it was delivered in minutes. We highly recommend this superb chain!
We were overlooking George Street which is like Toronto’s Yonge and Bloor Streets combined, jampacked with restaurants, high end shops, food stores and coffee bars etc.. The first day we walked around the magnificent St. Mary’s Cathedral, the iconic Opera House, visited the Aquarium and then did some shopping. We found everything we needed including delicious Australian wine very cheaply priced, just footsteps away. There were dozens and dozens of of Asian style restaurants filled with patrons. The streets were teaming with people, many of them young and Asian. It felt exciting to be there.
Next day Marie’s colleague from nursing school, Maureen and her husband Joe visited us. They took us on a delightful harbour cruise and a walkthrough the historical Rocks district near the harbour. Then we went for a lovely seafood lunch in a pub, thoroughly enjoying the company and the conversation. They live in a suburb of Sydney and took the transit system train back and forth easily. Sydney has a an extensive tap on, tap off transit system and an LRT right down the middle of George Street that works!
Next day we hit the beach. We hopped on a tap on, tap off ferry for a 20 min. ride to Manly beach. We walked around the shops and beach area marvelling at the surfers everywhere. We continued exploring the ocean path and found a tranquil little beach protected by large rocks. It was absolutely gorgeous there! We had a dip followed by snacks and beer in a sunny surf-side restaurant. Truly a great place to live and play we were thinking as we headed back by boat to our hotel.
The next day we went to Bondi Beach which you have probably heard of. It is very long with even bigger surf. Lots of surfers again, people exercising, walking dogs, sunning on the beach, happy. On the way home our bus stopped at the mall just before a tragic mass stabbing was to take place inside. We were shocked next morning when we head the sad news of this.
Perhaps the highlight of our whole visit was attending a standing room only, solemn Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral. There were 2 Archbishops, a huge men’s choir, and dozens of priests and lay in the processing party. We chatted with a parishioner who had come to Sydney from Malta and noticed a lot of young families there. It was a great send-off before embarking on our next cruise later that day.
