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Posts tagged ‘Mexico City’

Mar 13

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Travelogue – Mexico City

Based on our visit last August to Mexico City, an ancient city once the largest in the Western Hemisphere has seen all number of iterations and occupants in its long history.

From the cultural and commercial centre of the Mesoamerica’s around AD 650, to the arrival of the Aztecs from the north in the late 1300’s and the Spanish Conquest in 1521. Mexican Independence came in 1824 but was soon crushed by the American invasion in 1847.

The French had their time in the 1860’s before they were ousted, although not before Emperor Maximilian I created key parts to how the city looks today. The Mexican revolution of 1872 followed which led the country to flourish as the capital grew exponentially.

The revolution ended when Alvaro Obregon took control in 1920 and from then until the turn of the century Mexico rode many economic ups and downs with great wealth disparity, particularly witnessed in the countries capital.
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Feb 5

2014 Top Five Favourite Hotels

With Charlton dominating an eventful January and already early February on my Blog, and rightly so, My 2014 Top 5’s have got pushed out, but I’m going to finish with one more, a subject close to my heart, hotels.

Future Grandchildren – when I am old put me in a plush hotel not an expensive nursing home, and I’ll let you visit.

Here are My 2014 Top 5 Favourite Hotels:
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Jan 11

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2014 Top Five Favourite Restaurants

Just a few more 2014 Top 5’s to share. Two of my favourite hobbies are eating out and going to new places and I managed to combine that a lot in 2014.

The fact that three of my Top 5 Restaurants are in Miami tells me that I spent a lot of time in the city in 2014 and also that Miami’s restaurant scene, historically listless, is booming.

I was lucky to eat in a number of great places, so I also picked a couple of Honourable Mentions, but firstly these were My 2014 Top 5 Favourite Restaurants:
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Dec 16

2014 Top 5 Favourite Places

Admit it, the posts you have been waiting for. Chicago Addick’s Top 5 Favourite’s of the past year.

I am going to begin this year’s Top 5’s with Places. I got to some fascinating spots in 2014 and these were my Top 5 Favourite Places, with one in particular surprising me.

1) Mexico City
Some people were aghast that we’d take ourselves and our daughter to Mexico City, but I am a huge sucker for cities and will give anywhere the benefit of the doubt and sure enough with five centuries of history there were gems and awe-inspiring moments aplenty, none other than the area known as Zocalo (photo), the vibrant heart of the Centro Historical where a compact grid of streets poured fervour and ceremony out of every street corner.

Gritty, overcrowded, smelly, polluted, busy and dangerous are all words associated with Mexico City, but beneath the warnings we saw some terrific architecture, proud monuments, a lot of green and pleasant land and happy people.
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Aug 26

Attack on the senses

A couple of very enjoyable days in Mexico City are over and we flew today onto the beachy Pacific Coast and Punta Mita.

First impressions of the Mexican capital are not kind. Journeying in from the airport in the west, once on the outskirts but now swallowed by this megalopolis, the overwhelming welcome is of noise, fumes, and of overcrowding.

We stayed near the huge Bosque de Chapultepec, one of the largest public parks in the Western Hemisphere and an area dotted with hotels, offices and signs of investment in half completed tower blocks, yet re-gentrification of this part town is far from complete and a walk from our hotel to the park was an ugly attack on the senses.
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