Forty-five years and counting. Regata del Sol al Sol race.

Playmobil arriving at Isla Mujeres 500 nautical miles 

Sails neatly stowed, as the skipper prepared to berth the Playmobil at the docks, three efficient deckhands secured boat fenders to metal cleats, working quickly and smoothly. They have done this before, a time or two. Another sailboat had successfully completed the five-hundred-nautical-mile Regata del Sol al Sol race. 

Forty-five years ago, the Past President of Mexico, Miguel Aleman Valdez and his good friend, Don Jose Jesus de Lima, envisioned boosting tourism to the Caribbean side of Mexico by creating several sailing regattas.  

Don Esteban Lima Zuno - organizer

They chose American cities of New Orleans, Pensacola, St. Petersburg and Naples, and Mexican locations of Veracruz, Isla Mujeres, Progresso, and Cozumel. Valdez and Lima lobbied Cuban President Fidel Castro to allow the American sailboats safe passage through Cuban territorial waters.  

The Regata del Sol al Sol is said to be the longest consecutively run international regatta in sailing history.

The island contingent of the race committee, headed by Don Esteban Lima Zuno and his family, is instrumental in keeping this regatta fun and lively. A number of the skippers have participated for upwards of twenty-five years. One of the committee members is always on hand to greet the arriving participants and ensure their smooth, easy entrance into Mexico.  

Smiling officials greeting arriving boats

At the Ballyhoo docks, smiling immigration and customs officials meet the captains, helping with the necessary paperwork and extending a warm island welcome.  

It would seem that the only time there was a problem was in 2012 when the skippers were required to clear customs and immigration in Cancun. 

The winning score: 29 Amigos, 28 Gringos

After dinner on Wednesday night, we wandered over to the basketball courts to watch the annual match-up of our island team, the Amigos, versus the crewmembers, the Gringos.  

It’s a wild, crazy and fun-filled game.  In the dying seconds of the game, the Amigos squeaked by with another win: 29 to 28.  

That makes forty-two wins for the Amigos, and only two wins for the Gringos. High-fives and laughter all around as the players congratulated each other, happily swapping sweaty t-shirts as souvenirs.

Laughter and high-fives for another good game!

But the real highlight for most of the participants is the children’s sailing event on Friday morning.  Stuffed to capacity with island youngsters the boats circumnavigate Isla Mujeres.  Squeals of laughter can be heard floating across the calm seas, creating indelible memories.

The Regata del Sol al Sol was created long before we came to the island, and will hopefully be sailing this course long after we are gone. 

http://www.regatadelsolalsol.org/

Hasta Luego          
Lynda and Lawrie

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A city of contrasts – Mexico City

Monument to Independence.

How can a person really get to know a city of 22 million inhabitants within three days? It can’t be done. Historically, Mexico City has always had a wealthy elite population and a large, extremely poor population. More recently, a middle class is emerging, affluent enough to shop in the many designer-label stores and drive upscale cars or fancy Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It is a diverse and fascinating city.

Fuente de Tlaloc, and ADO Turibuses

Before our visit to Mexico City, I checked the internet for itinerary ideas for a three-day stay. One website listed a minimum of twelve attractions with a recommended tour time of between two and three hours each. In three days?  Never going to happen! That plan didn’t include shopping, eating, and people-watching, all necessary activities when Lawrie and I travel. We did print the list of locations to give us a starting point for investigating the metropolis.

Monument to the Revolution

We decided that once we had checked into our hotel, we would ride one of the ADO Turibus vehicles and do a quick overview of the city’s centre. The cost was 165 pesos per person, or 85 pesos with our handy-dandy Mexican resident cards. The tour buses continually circulate past twenty-five interesting locations. They operate from nine in the morning until nine at night, allowing passengers to hop on and off.  

There are two easy rules for using the Turibus system: Rule #1: Don’t stand up on the open-air level, as countless low-hanging electrical wires will try to decapitate you. 

Rule #2: At 9 in the evening, the buses stop operating, no matter where they are in the circular route, and the passengers must disembark. Get off. Shoo! Go away.  

As it turned out, we enjoyed this method of getting around so much that we used the Turibuses two days out of the three, returning to our hotel just before the witching hour of 9 p.m. One of our first stops included the newly completed Soumaya Museum featuring the largest private collection of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s work.  

Soumaya Museum 

Owned by the Carlos Slim Foundation the museum is named after his recently deceased wife, Soumaya.  

Costing more than seventy million dollars to complete in 2011, it is a stunningly beautiful cloud-shaped structure. Or perhaps it resembles a shiny, pliable cube, twisted in the middle. Either way, it’s a gorgeous building housing an impressive collection.

Olmec colossal head.

The following day, we walked a short distance from our hotel to the Museum of Anthropology located in the massive Chapultepec Park. Built in 1964, the museum houses hundreds of thousands of items depicting the many indigenous cultures that make up the complex fabric of Mexico.  

My favourite exhibit was the Olmec colossal heads, dug up in the Veracruz area of Mexico. The heads date from 1500 to 400 BC. (Or BCE if you prefer). They weigh between six and fifty tons, and stand between five and eleven feet tall. Impressive!  

We enjoy museums. But after two hours, my brain hurt from visual overload. We exited the museum and headed to the Turibus stop just a few feet away.

Lunch at Monte's Bistro in Condessa colonia

Our next stop put us into the stylish Condessa colonia with dozens of interesting stores and gourmet restaurants, just in time for a late lunch. We disembarked to share a leisurely meal and a tasty bottle of wine at Monte’s near the Fuente de la Cibeles.  

Another beautiful fountain, in a city with thousands of fountains, this one is the exact replica of the original located in Madrid, Spain. Surrounding the park were numerous Jacaranda trees, at the peak of their blooming season as purple trumpet-shaped flowers clotted their winter-nude branches. A few stray blossoms had begun to fall, drifting towards death.

Fountain of Cibeles

At a third stop, in the historic centre of the city, we prowled past the imposing Metropolitan Cathedral, the Museum of the Great Temple and the Palacio de Bellas Artes.  

The variety of architecture in the city is amazing, showcasing styles from the 16th-century Spanish colonial National Palace to the ultra-modern Soumaya Museum.  

Lawrie, Time Out !!

After a few hours of gawking and taking photographs, we had to take a time-out. We sat in a café with a cold beverage, letting the humanity stream past us in a never-ending river of colour, sounds, and body shapes. 

People-watching is one of our favourite pastimes. In Mexico City, the residents wear a wide range of conservative business attire. A few wear casual western jeans, checkered shirts and polished leather boots, and others are dressed in colourful traditional clothing from various Mexican states.  

The range of jazzy footwear for women made me jealous; stiletto heels trimmed with bobbles, glitter or fur, in a rainbow of colours, versus my serviceable sandals.  

Shoe envy!

And, then it was time to leave. Three days seemed long enough when we planned this getaway.  

But it sped past quickly, and we were left with the certainty that we had missed many interesting sights in this huge and culturally diverse city. 

Young photographer taking a picture of her parents

Another time. Another adventure!

Hasta Luego          
Lynda and Lawrie
                     

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