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...
Sunday on Reforma with no cars
On Sundays, Mexico City's usually chaotic Paseo de Reforma is closed to automobiles and opened to bicycles, skaters, and pedestrians. It's a transformation that...
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...
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.
Don’t hurt me. I’m fixed.
In Havana, there are so many unsterilized dogs and cats that some people try to kill them just to try to keep down their...
Taxco, the silver city on a hill.
Taxco is about 100 miles south of Mexico City, perched on the side of a mountain that became one of the invading Spaniards' most...
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...
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...
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...
Leo has an entire subway station dedicated to him
The city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, loves Lionel Messi so much that they have dedicated one of their subway stations to him. The Jose...
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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...
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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...
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...
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...
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...