Glimpses of Mexico City on a Sunday

The grand boulevards and historic center of Mexico City are the equal of any of the world´s great cities. The Museum of Anthropology and other cultural institutions are first class. Cindy and I have visited several times.

About a fifth of the country´s population is packed into the Mexico City metropolitan area. Its population of 20 million is almost identical to the New York-Newark metropolitan area, although in an area about 10% smaller.

The density and intensity of the city make it both attractive and exhausting. This video shows some of the attractions.



The football match I attended in Aztec Stadium was between home team America and Atlas of Guadalajara. Fans are big on noisemakers like the big stadium horns. The crowd seemed no better or worse than what you would find at a U.S. sporting event. There was probably less drinking going on. The home side won, 2-1.

The stadium had hosted a crowd of 100,000 a few days earlier to see the Mexican national team beat the U.S.

The headlines about Mexico are all about deadly flu, drug violence, corruption and water shortages. This is a glimpse of the capital at leisure.

Sunday bike ride runs into Obama

I went out for a bike ride to test my little Flip video camera, which is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Cycling normally isn´t safe on Guadalajara´s narrow, busy streets because drivers improvise the rules. But traffic was light, and I thought it would be easier to get close to all the excitement of the North American Leaders Summit.

President Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had two days of meetings scheduled to talk about immigration, free trade and controlling the drug trade.

The Flip camera works pretty well for shooting very basic video:


Tortas ahogadas, or drowned sandwiches, are a Guadalajara specialty.


Mexican media covered this story wall to wall and were miffed that the coverage was skimpy in the U.S.


Here´s NPR´s account of the meeting, which referred to the three leaders as the Three Musketeers and Three Amigos.

The Wall Street Journal buried their story.

Apparently the New York Times didn´t do a Tuesday story on the summit, choosing instead to write about how Mexican druglords operate with impunity even from prison cells.

Manitoba vacation, Falcon Lake

Bridget´s partner, Phillip Ens, invited us to stay at the family cabin on Falcon Lake. We spent a lovely week there. Patrick´s partner, Emily Greiser, also joined us. Here are photos, with a soundtrack from Patrick Breiner and Basement Magic, "Relaxin´ at Camarillo".