Traveling South of the Border

Today I am linking up with Michelle, Michelle, and Lyndsay for Tastes & Travels. They have this fun series that you should check out if you haven't already. This link-up is to show off your travels to Mexico or what you would do there or even you favorite Mexican food. Join in the fun!



I have been to Mexico quite a few times. Most of them were to Tijuana when I was little. We always go to this same restaurant that is literally underground. I actually used to be scared of going to Tijuana don't ask me why though. More recently, my family and I went to Cancun in 2005 and Mexico City in 2007. We were actually planning another trip to the Yucatan Peninsula (Cancun area) this December but we are pushing that trip back until June 2012. When we first visited Cancun, we took a day trip to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. To say we fell in love with that place would be an understatement. We have all grown to love Mayan ruins and are a bit obsessed with them. We took another trip in December of 2009 to Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras to visit numerous sites.

My post today is focusing on our trip to Mexico City and Palenque which is a modern city as well as an ancient city we took in June 2007. Mexico City is such a big city!

Me in the Zócalo or Plaza de la Constitución in Mexico City. This is the main square in Mexico City. To my right not pictured is a large Cathedral and some ancient ruins that they just recently unearthed. Behind me are the Natational Palace and the Federal District buildings.

Did you know that  Mexico City was built on a lake? Well here is the marker of the lake.

One day we visited the ancient city of Teotihuacan, which are Aztec ruins.

Pyramid of the Sun 

Pyramid of the Sun in the foreground and the Pyramid of the Moon in the background

Pyramid of the Sun, we climbed to the top! 

Pyramid of the Moon from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun 

I took a picture from the edge of the pyramid to show how high we were.

We also visited the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Here are two of my favorite artifacts in the museum.

Above is a picture of Chac-Mool which is a popular figure in the Maya world.

After visiting Mexico City we made our way to Palenque which was an hour plane ride and a 3 hour car ride away. Palenque had to be the hottest, most humid place I have ever been. Climbing around pyramids in that weather equals sweaty pictures of me so you won't be seeing any up close pictures of me. Also I had a lot of questionable outfits on this trip. Here are a few of my pictures of Palenque.

Me in front of the Temple of Inscriptions. The tomb of one of the kings of Palenque, Pakal, is deep within this pyramid. Unfortunately due to the humidity, you can no longer go inside and see it.

 The Palace from a top of another temple.

 Temple of Inscriptions and the Palace

 Me and my mom on the steps on one side of the Palace

Another view of the Temple of Inscriptions and the Palace.

We also visited a few other places in the area. One was this pretty waterfall called Misol-Ha.

Aguas Claras

Aguas Azules

Those are some of my favorite pictures from that trip. Eventually, I would also like to visit the town my dad was born in and some of the cities on the west coast of Mexico like Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Mazatlan, and Zihuatanejo (any Shawshank fans?)

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Travel Etiquette

The WSJ had a fun article about travel etiquette titled, "So Who Gets the Armrest?"

This fun graphic shows 3 situations you are likely to find yourself in while on a plane. Some of the "experts" responses are really interesting and kinda weird.

Here is my opinion on each one:

Armrests - if you sit in the middle then you should really get both. If I sit in the middle I try to claim at least one because once I was on a flight where I didn't have one have and I was very uncomfortable luckily it was a short flight. If I sit on the aisle or by the window I will usually lean away from the middle so I don't have to come into contact with the person sitting in the middle.

Reclining - I used to never recline because I didn't like being reclined on. Then I was getting reclined on a lot on my flights so I decided to start reclining. I will usually only put my seat back on long flights (what's the point of reclining on an hour long flight) if I am trying to sleep but since I can never fall asleep I will usually but it back up. I don't even put the seat back all the way because then I feel like I am way to close to the person sitting behind me.

Restroom Usage - As a general rule I don't use the restroom on planes. But if I was in this situation sitting by the window I would wake up the people I was sitting next to because I am sure they would do it so why should I suffer just because of where I am sitting? How awkward would it be to try to climb over people? On long flights when I may have to use the restroom I usually sit on the aisle anyways so I don't have to be in this situation.

How would you/do you handle these situations?

I hope everybody has a fun weekend!

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