Was in a lightning business trip to Geneva.  Nice little city with quite a big airport (obvious if you think of the amount of international organisations there.  The few pictures I was able to take are here.

Even if it is geographically and culturally quite close to Helsinki, visiting Stockholm is always an interesting experience.  The city is much more cosmopolitan, people are generally more fashionable, and the riksvensk accent sounds quite peculiar to somebody used to the way Swedish is spoken across the Baltic.  Always a pleasure to visit, especially now that there is a good Mexican taquería very close to downtown (they even sell corn tortillas!).

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!

Visited the city on a business trip. I have to say that the most interesting things about Istanbul for me were the long historical view you get in the city, and the uncanny resemblance Turks have with Mexicans.

As usual with these kind of posts, pictures say it better.

A city between cultural zones and continents, it has more than 10 million people and number of different names throughout history (maybe Byzantium or Constantinople ring a bell). So many different peoples have lived in it, that excavations for the metro and the Marmara project have found ancient ruins (just like Templo Mayor in Mexico City).

Traders by nature, the culture of haggling in its bazaars is very well developed.

The Aya Sofya, one of the most imposing religious buildings I have ever been to, started its life as a church, became a mosque and is now a national museum.

Mexican similarities exhibit A: look at this baker's bread-carrying tecnique.

Mexican similarities exhibit B: Kebabs are way too similar to tacos al pastor.

Wikipedia has a better overview of the place.  I’ll just give you my observations in pictures (the rest, as usual, here).

Long-time foreign residents (and good friends) say there's only 3 things to do in Singapore: eat, shop and visit the rest of Southeast Asia. I wouldn't really mind, especially given their awesome weather.

The place looks absolutely stunning at night.

In Singapore and the rest of the world you can find Corona

Their Financial district didn't appear to have suffered the recession too much. Furthermore, everywhere is spotless.

There is very, very interesting architecture.

The place is almost a textbook case study of multiculturalism. Not surprising given that it was forced on them by the government a few generations ago.

The economy is still going strong.

The place seems to be slightly constrained on the political freedoms front, juding by the level of discourse in the country's media.

I recently flew with Singapore Airlines and have to say the experience was very pleasant.  Even in economy class there was more than enough legroom, every seat had a good in-flight entertainment system, the movie selection was both varied and recent, the service was flawless every time and the meals were excellent in both flavour and presentation.  So unlike the state of airline travel in Europe or, worse, the US.

A special mention is warranted to the on-air personnel and their uniforms.  Unlike Western male-originated attire, their stewardesses actually look like women.  The picture below doesn’t do them justice at all.

Moctezuma

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

I had the chance to check (quickly) this exhibition at the British Museum. If you have been to the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico then this will not show you a lot of new stuff.

If you haven’t had that chance and you happen to be in London, I’d wholeheartedly recommend it. There’s a few pieces that are not shown in Mexico at all.