Orquesta Filarmonica de las America

Last night I went to see a The Philarmonic Orchestra of the Americas. The orchestra was founded in 2004 by its director, Alondra de la Parra who is a Mexican. By the reaction of the crowd, she is very popular in Mexico. The last piece they did was Inguesu, which was written by the Mexican composer Enrico Chapela. The piece was inspired by 1999 soccer game Mexico vs. Brazil. So Alondra wore a referee's jersey and part of the orchestra was in Mexican jerseys and part of the orchestra was in Brazilian jerseys. It was a very entertaining piece and the audience seemed to truly enjoy it since soccer is a large part of their culture.

H.C.T III

My grandpa, Henry Clay Townsend III, passed away last night at the age of 91. This is a picture of us taken in May. I would often visit my Grandpa while on bike rides and every time I showed up at his house, he would comment on my "costume". He would say, "The Rio Grande, what is that?" I would answer "A Mexican restaurant in Boulder." He would say, "The only Rio Grande I know is the river," or he would relate it to his life long passion, trains. You have to love the guy.

Old School Sesame Street

The NY Times had an article about the release of old school Sesame Street on DVD. If you go to the Sesame Street web page you can watch some clips from the DVD. It is very entertaining.

La Revolucion

Thanks to the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, I had a 3 day weekend. Below are photos from my various adventures.
On Saturday I went with Lenny, another gringo, to go mountain biking at Las Llantas which is a park about 45 minutes outside the city. There is some nice single track and some great dirt roads for climbing that bring you to some beautiful alpine meadows.
The beautiful Mexico City is behind me, although you can barely see it through the very thick pollution layer. You don't realize how polluted the city is until you are above the pollution layer.
I took Endo with us and he kept up with us for 3 hours straight, even on the descents. It was impressive. During the ride Endo got covered in these small sticky balls that would not come out of his fur. I had to give him a bath, which he hates. I got all the sticky balls out and then left Endo to dry off while I went to a friend's house. When I got back my poor dog was shivering to death. I felt so badly. His body couldn't get warm after the 3 hours of running. He has now recovered and I learned that although Endo hates the blow dryer, next time I will use it.
On Sunday I went to el Centro Historico with Federico and Anna to El Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso. This is an extremely old high school with a rich history in Mexico that is now a museum. The exhibit currently on display is the photography of Rene Burri.
In addition to the exhibits, the walls and ceilings of the school are covered in murals painted in the early 1900's by Jose Clemente Orozco and Fernando Leal.
Today, I went to a park just outside of the city called Los Dinamos. I went with Wolfgang, Sarai, and Endo to do a little rock climbing.
It was Sarai's first time rock climbing and she did great!

Back in the Swing of Things

It didn't take long for my life in Mexico to pick up right where I left it when I went to Colorado. I am back in the daily routine of waking up, going for a walk or run, going to work, finding a place to eat dinner, going to bed, and doing it all over again the next day. But if I take just a moment in my daily routine to remember where I am, I realize the history and beauty of Mexico City are an integral part of my daily life.
This church is called La Conchita, which means the little shell. It was constructed in 1521 by order of Cortes. Some believe that it is the oldest Christian building in the city. I pass by this church every morning on my walk/run and on my way to work.
The Jardin Frida Khalo is right across the street from La Conchita. The park is dedicated to Frida Khalo who lived much of her life in Coyoacan. There is a large statue of Frida but I find the statue of this naked woman in the center of the fountain much more beautiful. Something about it intrigues me and it is even more beautiful when the fountain is on.
And for those of you wondering about Endo, he is doing well. He gets to come with me to work everyday and gets a lot attention from everyone. Springer Spaniels are a rare breed here in Mexico so I get tons of questions from people in the streets about Endo. I guess my social networking will occur through Endo!

My Bro is the Coolest

I didn't get a chance to do a post about my brother last weekend so I am doing it now. My brother ran the NY City marathon on Sunday November 4th. He ran a 3:02:54. That is a 6:58 mile pace folks. The best part is, he finished in the top 1,000. He was 952nd out of 38,000 runners.
Here is Caleb shortly after the race with his friend Cara. Way to go Caleb!

My First Weekend Back

My nice new apartment in Mexico City is still not ready.
So I am currently staying in this very large house that my landlady also owns in the center of Coyoacan. It is rather large for just Endo and me but we are making the most of it. The nice thing about the house is my friends can drive to Coyoacan and securely park their cars here while we go out for drinks and dinner.
Endo and I ventured out on Sunday to the park El Desierto de los Leones. Despite its name, the park is actually a large forest above Mexico City. There are supposed to be incredible running and mountain biking trails throughout the park. I was either in the wrong place or too scared to venture too far away from where my car was parked to find such trails. Endo and I still got in a nice hour long run though.In El Desierto de los Leones there is a large monastery built about 400 years ago that is now open to the public. It is the main attraction of the park.

The Long Drive

Family and Friends, I made it! I left Boulder on Wednesday afternoon around 4:30pm and arrived in Mexico City at midnight Friday. The trip went very smoothly. I flew my friend Abraham to Laredo, TX so he could drive with me across the border and through Mexico. It turned out to be a great decision and I am so glad that Abraham agreed to help me out. I truly owe him so much. As we passed through the "nothing to declare" line at the border, we got a red light, which means they need to check my car. The customs guy asked me to open the back of my car. At this point, Abraham gave him all of our documents and just shot the shit with the guy. He asked about my water filter and then he asked about Endo. What kind of dog was he, did he herd sheep, etc.? Abraham then asked where we needed to go to legalize my car and the guy told us and sent us on our way. They could have asked me to unpack my entire car and they probably would have charged me an importation tax on a lot of it. But having a Mexican with me helped tremendously. We legalized my car and went through the second customs with a green light. We were on our way. In the middle of the drive a Federal police check made us pull over. Once again Abraham sweet talked the guy and 5 mins later we were on the road again. No one ever went though any of my stuff and as Abraham told the federales, they could go ahead and look through it all but everything I had was legal. They can't do a thing if I have all the correct documents. So now I am here in Mexico City with all my belongings. It is pretty weird to think I actually did the move.

Here are a few photos from my trip. There are no pictures from Mexico though, sorry : (
This was my view from the car for the majority of the trip.
In north central Texas there was a lot of cotton fields and oil rigs.
The scenery then changed to renewable energy. This wind farm went on for miles and I was smiling the entire time. Perhaps its because I grew up with a wind generator, but I find wind farms to be so cool.
Endo had only 1/3 of the backseat for the 30 hour drive. He did great though and slept in this position most of the trip. The poor guy is a little confused about what is going on. But he will adjust and I am glad to have him with me in Mexico.

ByeBye Colorado

With the car packed and my reverse osmosis water system finally arriving from UPS, I headed off on my 3 day road trip back to Mexico City. First stop last night was Dumas, TX. About midnight, I found myself finally falling asleep after 7 hours of driving. I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, which has given up on bed spreads and now offers a nice comforter with a white duvet cover. Since when did Holiday Inn become so posh? Anyway, today I have about an 11 hour drive to Laredo, TX and then another 10 hours or so on Friday to Mexico City.

My Parents are Livin' the Dream too

Part of the reason my stay in Colorado has been so long is because for three weeks my parents were in Turkey on a cycling trip and I was watching the house and dogs. I decided to include a few photos from my parents' trip.
Here are my mom and dad in Cappadocia in central Turkey. This area is known for its unusual volcanic geography and cave homes.
My mom is posing in front of a Mosque in a rural coastal village.Here is my dad somewhere near Lake Bafa in southwestern Turkey. Notice how rough the road is and that my parents were riding their road bikes. They are hardcore!

Getting Ready to Leave

Not all my time back in Colorado has been spent riding bikes and hanging out with friends. I have gone to work at NOAA a couple of times and I've also put in a lot of time and energy preparing for my move to Mexico City
The first part of the mission is to get together everything that I want to take with me to Mexico City. Despite what you may think, household items are expensive in Mexico. So I want to bring my pots, pans, utensils, blender, toaster, etc. as well as towels and bedding. In addition to my household items I want to bring the things that are most important to me; my art work , my cross bike, my mountain bike, and of course my dog Endo.
The second part of the mission is the tricky part, will my car be able to carry all my belongings? With the help of my mom, we did a test pack in the car and I think it is all going to fit! My departure date from Colorado will be either this Wednesday or Thursday.

Halloween

Wednesday was the wacky holiday Halloween. I joined some of my fellow cycling friends for a night out on the town that included margaritas at the Rio, watching 100 some people streak the streets of Boulder with pumpkins on their heads, and dancing at Bacaro. I'd say we had a pretty good showing. Oh yeah, it was my friend Megan's birthday too so the partying was extra fun!
I was dressed in all pink, including my pink wig and my Target kids rain boots (which had to be mended after a short period because fitting a size 8 foot into a size 3 shoe hurts). I had a sign on the front that said, "wanna a piece of me?" and obviously another sign on my back side as seen in the photo above. Can you guess what I was?
My friend Kristen figured out what I was so I gave her 7 pieces of bubble gum, which she ate all at once. Truth be told, its hard work to blow a bubble with 7 pieces of bubble gum in your mouth!
Today my car was in the shop all day getting ready for its long drive to Mexico City. So, I was riding my bike around everywhere with my pants rolled up, polka dot socks, and cycling shoes. I thought I looked pretty goofy and it made me laugh. What's better than making yourself laugh?