A beautiful evening in the Chichen Itza archaeological zone
Chichen Itzá is an easy drive of only about two-and-a-half hours from Cancun, which is one of Mexico's primary tourist destinations. That proximity contributes...
Bang Data at the F&S Music Festival
Berkeley's Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse celebrated its 50th anniversary with an outdoor music festival on Addison Street last Saturday. The highlight -- for me...
Don’t overlook the Guachimontones pyramids
If you're in the Guadalajara area (perhaps on a Tequila pilgrimage), don't overlook the pyramids of stacked disks at the Guachimontones archaeological zone to...
Che Guevara’s Mausoleum in Santa Clara
Just outside of the city of Santa Clara, Cuba, the mausoleum of Che Guevara attracts travelers, mourners, and revolutionaries from around the world. Che's...
Mexico’s magnificent Teotihuacan
Located about 25 miles from Mexico City, the Teotihuacan archeological zone preserves some of the largest and most impressive prehistoric structures in the world....
The Soumaya is a visual treat, inside and out
Mexico City's Museo Soumaya building at Plaza Carso is one of those buildings that I never get tired of looking at. The building is...
Riding the California Zephyr into a blizzard
I love the history of the construction of the original railroad route through the Sierras from Sacramento to Reno and I have always wanted...
Mexico City’s charming and chill Amsterdam neighborhood.
A few miles to the southwest of the center of Mexico City is a neighborhood that started out as a race track for horses...
Xochicalco, one of the hidden treasures of Mexican archaeology.
Most archaeology buffs visiting Mexico City head straight to Teotihuacan to the north of the City. But there's another site that's also important in...
On the streets of colonial Trinidad.
Trinidad was one of the first cities established in the Caribbean by the Spanish. In 1514 -- only 22 years after Columbus first landed...
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Quetzalcoatl’s temple is also worth exploring at Teotihuacan
Because he's one of my favorite gods, I particularly like the Quetzalcoatl Temple (Templo de Quetzalcoatl) at Teotihuacan, which is at the opposite end...
The falling rocks of Lubaantun.
Although the ruins at Lubaantun aren't a secret, they're not nearly as well known as those at Xunantunich, Lamanai, or Altun Ha because they're...
The Kiosco Morisco of Mexico City
Although its appearance would make one think that it was originally designed and built by a North African country and gifted to Mexico, the...
Tango is a lot more than a dance
Tango is Buenos Aires. Tango is Argentina. Tango was born in the slums of turn-of-the-20th-century Buenos Aires, where weary laborers translated their day-to-day burden...
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Signs of impending change?
Among the eight or more major "March for our Lives" demonstrations around the East Bay on March 24, the gathering in Oakland attracted several...
Bailando en las Calles (Dancing in the streets)
On Sunday, May 6, Brava! for Women in the Arts and Precita Eyes Muralists presented their sixth annual "Baile en la Calle: The Mural...
Fandango at the Bulb!
The members of Son de la Bahia, a son jarocho community based in the East Bay, gathered on the Albany bulb to host a...
Puebla’s cathedral has the tallest bell towers in Mexico
Construction of the Cathedral of Puebla started in 1557 and was not completed for another 211 years. When it was finally finished in 1690,...