Travel – Page 9 – GringoPotpourri

Portrait of a Neighborhood: Polanco

Mexico City is an interesting place. From above, its layout is very grid-like, particularly in the central corridor and proper Distrito Federal. But the whole is city is a veritable potpourri (I love that word!) of rich and poor. Wealthy San Pedro de los Pinos abuts poor Tacubaya. Upper middle class Narvarte backs up to working class Doctores. Charming, arsty Coyoacán borders dodgy Tasqueña. Etc.

Polanco is one of the city’s wealthier neighborhoods. Like San Pedro de los Pinos and other upscale colonias, it borders poorer corners of DF – in this case, Tacuba and Toreo. Parts of Polanco’s northern fringe, Nuevo Polanco, are comprised of endless construction zones that, as such, make the area appear, visually speaking at least, as less safe and less charming. Still, Polanco is a classy neighborhood, one of my favorites in all of Mexico City.

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On the Border

The world is an angry place these days, it seems. The recent terror attacks in Paris, Istanbul, Ankara, Brussels, and elsewhere were augmented exactly one week ago by an Easter Sunday suicide bombing at a public park in Lahore, Pakistan. At press time, 69 Pakistanis have perished as a result of the bombing.

The fact that this attack, which took place at Gulshan Iqbal Amusement Park, seemed to specifically target Christians, will no doubt increase the growing divide between those who believe that Islam remains a religion of peace and those who feel – rather more strongly, if you watch the evening news – that all Muslims pose a threat and that immigration should essentially be halted.

I have never been to Pakistan, but I came within 23 kilometers of Lahore and literally gazed upon the country’s southern border. It was November, 2011 when I found myself in Amritsar, that glorious Sikh enclave and capital of India’s Punjab province. I had read that the thing to do for visitors to Amritsar (aside from visiting the city’s magnificent Golden Temple) was to take a van trip to the border of Attari, India and Wagah, Pakistan.

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Thoughts about Belgium

For at least the seventh time in two years, terror has once again reared its ugly head in Europe. A coordinated pair of attacks on Tuesday – one on Brussels Airport, the other on the Brussels metro, left 31 dead and the country in virtual lockdown. I saw a story on the local news about an East Tennessee retired couple whose son and daughter-in-law have been travelling in Brussels, and who the parents haven’t been able to get ahold of since this past Tuesday. Stories such as this one bring the violence closer to home. I hope for the best, but prepare to grieve with them, as not all bodies have been identified yet. (For more information, go to brusselsmissing.com.)

Not even ten days earlier, a suicide bomber detonated himself in the upscale shopping district of Beyoğlu, in the heart of Istanbul. Six days prior, an attack in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, left 37 people dead. Just four months before then, in October, 2015, Ankara was attacked again. Two bombs were detonated outside the central train station, killing 103 Turks. Roughly three months prior to that horrific attack, Suruç, in southern Turkey, was the site of another bombing, which killed 33 locals and is said to be in retaliation for Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian Civil War. And we already know of the terror that has besieged Paris more than once, starting with the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January, 2015 and continuing with stadium, café, and concert hall bombings that November.

By my count, that is seven attacks. This number doesn’t even factor in acts of terrorism elsewhere around the globe, such as the December, 2015 office shooting in San Bernardino, California, or the countless atrocities committed almost daily in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, etc. I am speechless. What can one person do in the face of such senseless hate?

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Photo Locale of the Month – March 2016

Spring is in the air! The Vernal Equinox is just two days away, and the weather across Tennessee – and elsewhere in the U.S. as well – has been positively spring-like. A few days ago, temps crept into the lower 80’s, and I was able to sleep with my windows wide open!

Despite the continent being more northerly in latitude, the weather in Western Europe is generally milder than here in the U.S. This was definitely the case in 2011, when I spent several sunny, shorts-wearing spring days in France, exploring Paris for the umpteenth time and making my first trip to French château country, aka the Loire Valley.

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Portrait of a Neighborhood: San Ángel

Last week, I wrote the first of what I hope to be a series of articles about Mexico City neighborhoods that I find enchanting. That portrait, about the colonial neighborhood and greater borough of Coyoacán, is similar in theme to my 2014 and 2015 series on Mexico City’s barrios bravos (Tepito, Doctores, etc.). The difference? Coyo isn’t as rough around the edges, and the post was written while wearing a pair of rose-tinted glasses. I am immediately following that Coyo post with my second entry in this new series.

Just one stop south from Metro Viveros – where subway passengers exit for Coyoacán – is Metro Miguel Ángel de Quevedo, named after the renowned Mexican architect and environmentalist. Alight here and you’ll see another sculpture of two coyotes in the middle of a traffic roundabout. Turn left, though, and a ten minute walk along the street of the same name leads you through Chimalistac colonia and into Álvaro Obregón delegación, home to the upscale, hilly neighborhood of San Ángel.

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Portrait of a Neighborhood: Coyoacán

This is a bolillo.

Although it looks like a piece of hard bread, it is so much more than that. I was delighted when my dad brought home a dozen of these from a local Mexican bakery, because they reminded me of guajalotas, my favorite breakfast item whilst living in Mexico City.

Also called a torta de tamal, a guajalota is a steamed tamale unwrapped and served inside this bolillo – roll – and topped with salsa verde or roja. Spicy, warm, and filling.

Nothing goes better with a guajalota than a cup of café tibia – warm, not scalding, coffee with the slightest hint of cinnamon – from Café el Jarocho. This chain of inviting coffee shops can be found in just corner of the world – the Coyoacán borough of Mexico City.

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A Concentration of Holocaust Horrors

The winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Film was the Hungarian drama Son of Saul. In the movie, a concentration camp inmate receives special treatment from the Nazi guards because he assists with post-execution clean-up. To be more specific, he separates the corpses from their gold fillings, eyeglasses, and wedding rings.

I haven’t seen the film so I cannot say for certain which camp the story was set in, but the premise seems in line with tales I have been told at all three “death camps” that I have had the opportunity to visit. In 2000, I toured Auschwitz-Birkenau, in southern Poland. In 2009, I visited Dachau, in Bavaria. Finally, in 2012, I explored Sachsenhausen, in the former East Germany. Three different places, three sobering experiences.

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Photo Locale of the Month – February 2016

News footage this past week has been rife with images of destruction following the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the Taiwanese port city of Tainan. At time of writing, 59 people have perished. Over 500 people have been injured, and another 76 are still reported missing.

Such natural disasters, tragic though they may be, are all too commonplace in “Ring of Fire” countries such as Taiwan. I visited the small island nation with a friend in 2010, and was floored by the spectacular topography. We spent several days in earthquake-carved Taroko National Park, and I am sharing of my park pictures with you today.

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Photo Locale of the Month – January 2016

Happy New Year! It definitely feels like January – 30-degree temps (and falling) and a good coating of snow on the ground. Although the snow is pretty, I can’t help but dream of being someplace warmer…

…and so my first photo feature of 2016 flashes back to sunny Mexico! It was exactly five years ago that I traveled to Cabo San Lucas for a few relaxing days. The resort city at the tip of Baja California, seemingly within spitting distance of the Tropic of Cancer, attracts more Americans than Mexicans. Some of them are snowbirds, others are anglers, others are aging 80’s rockers, and others, still, are explorers that simply want to see what the peninsular fishing village-turned-beach destination has to offer. The natural formations at Land’s End are the focus of this month’s entry.

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Photo Locale of the Month – December 2015

December is one of my favorite months for being in Mexico City. Although the nights and early mornings can be quite chilly, the sun shines gloriously most days, and the Christmas decorations and noche buenas (poinsettias) are displayed in abundance. Additionally, it seems that each Chilango you meet (and there are many – roughly 21 million) has a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face as he sips an atole (a warm corn beverage, vaguely similar to hot chocolate) or ponche (fruit punch, flavored with whole chunks of fruit) in between rounds of holiday shopping at any of the city’s mercados or galerias.

As regards public gathering spaces in Mexico City, the city’s Plaza de la Constitución – or Zócalo – is ground zero. This is the unofficial geographic center of the city, and the third-largest square in the world, after Tiananmen Square in Beijing and Red Square in Moscow. Mexico City’s Zócalo is home to the location of the country’s presidential palace, its largest cathedral, one of its most important Aztec sites, and the capital’s city hall.

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