SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

As the flu scare hit Mexico City the date for our planned trip arrived. I felt a bit like a sailor abandoning a sinking ship, but other forces were already manning the life boats, so it was a relief to leave.
We flew to Madrid and rented a car, heading west to Salamanca and then on to northern Portugal, ending up in Santiago de Compostela. Aside from a few joking comments, no one seemed shocked or frightened when we told them we were from Mexico.
If pictures are really worth a thousand words, I’ll keep the descriptive part short and just say CLICK HERE, to see where we went. I’ve written out our itinerary, with a few suggestions for hotels and restaurants—write me and I’ll send it to anyone interested.
Crossing the border from Spain to Portugal is a non-event. There’s no passport check, no toll both, not even a stop sign. But suddenly you are in a different culture. The written language looks a bit like Spanish, and sounds like it too--if you were gargling with feathers and trying to dislodge a glob of peanut butter from the roof of your mouth with your tongue while speaking.

THE PHOENIX RISES

Mexico City felt very much alive and well last night at Casa Lamm, where 3 new shows were presented. The art was lame (as one often finds here) but the openings are a fabulous look at the world of upper class and art-concious chilangos. The shoes alone make these events worthwhile.

Afterwards at Bar Covadonga, no one in the large, varied crowd was sporting their mascarilla. A group of Spanish-looking older men clacked their dominos in one corner, body-pierced hipsters greeted one another with lots of kissing
as an academic looking middle-aged couple snuck through the noisy crowd. It felt like a big party, and everybody seemed completely at ease.

And we all loved the thoughtful paper placemats (seen above). Where else in the world would the word diarhea appear on your dinner table?

I hear lots of scepticism about why the government closed everything, causing the loss of millions of pesos to workers all over the country. We may never know if sensational journalism created a sense of panic about nothing, or if Mexico's agressive anti-influenza campaign really worked to prevent an epidemic, as some international health officials have asserted. In either case, the cost to Mexico has been staggering.

The New York Times ran a travel article about Mexico that should be passed around the internet as much as possible. Please send it along to everyone you know. The Mexican tourist industry needs help.