Friday, April 18, 2025

Puebla’s new Museum of the Baroque

In 2017, the Museo Internacional del Barocco opened in Puebla City, Mexico. The new building, designed by Toyo Ito, is worth seeing both for...
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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...

Puebla’s flavorful colonial center

Known for its flavorful food, the architecture of Puebla's historic center also has a wide variety of flavors. The city was founded in 1531 by...

Tequila!

Because I love tequila, I decided I needed to go down to tequila country in Mexico to see where and how they make it. Tequila...

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The special home of the tilma (cloak) of Juan Diego, to whom the mother of Jesus Christ appeared on a hill just outside Mexico...
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Cuba is in love with its cats.

One thing you'll notice if you travel to Cuba is that Cubans like cats. Cats freely roam the streets throughout the day and night,...

The great Mexican national railroad museum in Puebla

Puebla has great art museums, but one of their best museums is the Museo Nacional de los Ferrocarriles de Mexico.

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...

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...

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...

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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...

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...

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...

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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...

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...

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...