Michelada de Pacífico

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

A Michelada is a Mexican beer cocktail that is very popular during the summer months. The recipe is quite simple, and my favourite is below:

• 1 Mexican pale lager (Corona, Sol, Pacífico or Montejo recommended)
• 2.5 limes
• Salt
• Maggi seasoning
• Worcestershire sauce
• Valentina sauce (optional)
• Habanero or Tabasco Habanero sauce (optional)

Get a proper beer mug and fill the rim with salt. Squeeze the juice out of the lemons, add a couple of drops of the sauces in the list and finally the beer.

Enjoy!

Continues from part I.

The middle of the 3 Gorges of the Yangtze River, Qutang Gorge.

Shennong Stream off Yangtze River. Before the construction of the 3 Gorges Dam, the river was so difficult to sail that to go upstream you needed to be pulled along by trackers. Clothing optional.

Behold the 3 Gorges Dam.

Another view of the 3 Gorges Dam

The hotel in Yichang was nice. The city itself was not that interesting. They seemed to have ads for a local corn-based liquor everywhere.

Pudong panorama from the Bund.

Pudong at dusk.

Skyscrapers in the Shanghainese night

Trying to get out of the vantage point of the previous picture at the Oriental Pearl TV tower. This is why we were surprised by the lack of courteousness in Chinese crowds: people would run, push and shove as much as possible in a situation that was potentially very dangerous.

Tea House at the Yuyuan gardens. The bridge is built in zigzag as bad spirits can't turn corners.

The area around the Yuyuan gardens is full of shops and built in traditional Chinese style.

Chinese painting at Shanghai museum. Probably the best museum in China, the ceramic, jade, copper and painting collections are worth the visit.

Mexican pavillion at the World Expo: Replica of the Bell of Independence from the church of Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato.

The Mexican pavillion had an introduction to Mexican art & history, but my favourites where these masks where you could see different parts of Mexico through the eyes of someone living there.

The Finnish pavillion had an overview of Finnish design, and while there was not a lot of food on offer there was a big space for Nokia

The Belgian pavillion focused more than anything on science and technology (and beer and chocolate, sure). They had a video that Frank de Winne, Belgian ESA astronaut, recorded from space for the Expo.

Many pavillions remained unseen, even if we spent there the whole day.

The former French concession at Xintiandi was a nice stop. After two weeks, we were starting to miss certain European comforts like street cafés, sandwiches or good beer.

Even during the night it was very hot, up to 30°C.

Ready to fly back from Beijing. One of the decisive factors that convinced us to go to China was that it is only a 8 hour direct flight with Finnair.

The last month has seen a dearth of posts in this blog for two very simple reasons: work has been absolutely hectic and the World Cup has overtaken the little available spare time I have.

The Mexican team was eliminated in the second round of the World Cup, but I wanted to recap on its campaign in the tournament (for the full tactical analysis go here).  Its preparations were the best in recent memory, doing not only the usual tour of the US against mid- to low-tier teams but also a tour of Europe, where the team lost against England and the Netherlands but beat Gambia and Italy.

As the Tricolor played the opening match against South Africa expectations were very high, but the team looked imprecise (if you could blame the ball the time was now) and lacking killer instinct in the last third of the pitch.  South Africa scored a beautiful goal on the counter and Mexico had to search further, with captain Márquez saving our blushes (and our chances to qualify for the next round).

The second game, against France, was the one everybody expected the team to lose.  The French team, however, hadn’t read the script and arrived tired, divided and overconfident.  Mexico, having performed some changes in defense compared to the first game, looked the better team throughout, but it was the introduction of  youngsters “Chicharito” Hernández and Pablo “Dinamita” Barrera that really made a difference.  The first open the scoreboard and the second provoked a penalty that sealed the game as 2-0 in our favour.  The victory was celebrated by the 110 million Mexicans in Mexico and the 30 million abroad, it was the main news item in domestic media and life was good.

The third game of the group stage was weird: Mexico and Uruguay could go through to the next stage with a draw, while a victory by either team would mean trouble.  Both came out swinging anyway but it was Uruguay who scored the only game in the match.  Mexico would meet Argentina in the second round… just like in 2006.

Expectations being enormous, it was the Mexicans who played the better football in the first 30 minutes, until a blatant offside goal gave Argentina the lead and totally crushed Tri concentration.  That was obvious with the second albiceleste goal, rising from a childish error in defense.  The 3rd goal for the South Americans, however, was a thing of beauty and there’s nothing the opposing fan can say about it.  Mexico picked up the pieces and it was again “Chicharito”, coming as a sub, who led the Mexican charge and scored what in Spanish is called the “honourable” goal, but that was it.

Aguirre, the coach who saved the Mexican qualification campaign, will not continue at the helm of the national team, but many of the men he picked are called to become the backbone of the group that will seek to play in the next World Cup in Brazil: Ochoa, Moreno, Aguilar, Guardado, Dos Santos, Vela, Hernández, Barrera are all under 24 years old, and many are either playing in Europe or have the possibility to move here within the next 4 years.  Other players who figured in the team but didn’t make the trip to South Africa are also young, so right now would be the time to find a good coach, create a proper plan and stick with it.

Regardless of what happens, this is the moment I’ll cherish until I see the guys in green, white and red sing the anthem at the World Cup again:

Televisa (the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world) is not a company I have traditionally liked very much due to its very strong ties to the PRI, the party that dominated Mexican politics for 71 years.  Their operations have been usually extremely conservative with a tint of monopoly.   The company, however, holds  the rights for broadcasting the matches of the Mexican national football team together with its main rival, TV Azteca.

My surprise has been that in the year or two they have completely changed their attitude towards the internet, offering some of their TV content for free over the web, broadcasting live some matches of the national team (not the WC), and pushing Facebook and Twitter heavily in their mainstream media.

While I do not have enough information to know whether they have reacted this favourably because they have a solid online strategy or just through fear, it’s nice to watch Mexican news for a change even if the news items themselves are not that nice.

Mientras en México se preocupan por que no exportamos ni siquiera nopales y tunas que crecen de a gratis en el campo, me encontré los “higos de cactus” (como los llaman acá) arriba de 140 pesos por kilo como se ve en la foto.

¿Cuándo nos vamos a dar cuenta que hay más mercados que el estadounidense en este mundo para conquistar, y más productos que el petróleo y la maquila con los cuales hacer dinero?

Two music genres separated at birth: humppa & norteña.  Maybe they could collaborate at some point?

Found this Salitos pseudo-Mexican beer in the shelves of my local supermarket.  After a little bit of googling found out it is produced in Germany by a company that has nothing to do with Latin America at all.  This is the kind of marketing that I absolutely abhor: when companies find a market niche they try to fill by being something they’re not.  This kind of misleading advertising worked before people had access to information, now with the net everybody can see if the emperor has no clothes.

2000 km southeast and 30°C warmer than the previous location: Main square of Mérida, Yucatán.

Sunset over the pool in Celestún, Yucatán.

The only not so nice detail was when on meeting some people I hadn’t seen in a long time I realised that the crab mentality seems to be alive and well in certain sectors of society. Shame, but hey, what can you do. Overall it was great and I cannot wait to be back again, if only for holidays.

As my previous post detailed, I spent a great holiday in Mexico, catching up with friends and especially family.  We spent a week in Mexico City, then 6 days in the Copper Canyon trail and a few days in Mérida and the natural reserve of Celestún before having to return to the winter wonderland.  I was struck by the enormous variety of landscapes and peoples living in the country where I was born, even if I knew it in theory.  As usual, pictures say it better (if you want to see more than these, they’re all here).

The winter sky sometimes seems to take a life of its own.

Copper Canyon: Barranca de Urique from Cerro del Gallego in Chihuahua state. The largest of 32 federal entities in Mexico, Chihuahua is bigger than many European countries, e.g. the United Kingdom.

Deep view of Copper Canyon in Divisadero

Copper Canyon panorama from Divisadero

Copper Canyon detail

Copper Canyon: Piedra Volada or why would anyone get so close to a loose rock?

The rarámuri (tarahumara) peoples live in the area, and many sell their handcrafts to the tourists. I earned some brownie points by thanking them in their own language ("Chirigüeraba").

It also snows in parts of Mexico, you know? Creel, Chihuahua

This is not a Finnish lake, but Lago Arareco in Chihuahua state.

Cusarare waterfall, Chihuahua.

Continues in Part 2

We are currently traveling in Mexico, enjoying the Christmas & New Year’s break.  The latest photographic developments will be available here.

Enjoy the holidays!