Hi

5 days down and 5 days back more or less. I feel that over this time, my whole perception of North America has adjusted. While on the way down, the ruins and remnants of ancient civilizations brought back to mind that this is an old land. As I looked around me at the landscape on the return journey, even throughout the United States and into Canada, I thought about the native American peoples that lived nomadic lives in Nuevo Leon, Texas, Georgia, Virginia and Quebec millenia ago...and wondered about their world view and how much contact they had with one another. The history lost.

As for Mexico I find myself listening in my free time to Luis Miguel's new album "Mexico en la Piel" and an old one by Juan Gabriel to reminisce on my 10-day travels in the country and a night out with fun-loving capitalinos in la Zona Rosa when I was introduced to these artists.

Mexico City was a fantastic place to end an adventurous journey and the memories of elegance, grandeur, delicious food, historical layers and passion I think I will treasure for long into the future.

I loved that my preconceived notions about Mexico City were blown out of the water; makes me wonder if other places that people talk about in terms of "crime, pollution and poverty" are actually somehow equally fabulous? (Bogota?) My experience in Mexico City has made me question certain things, which I think is a great gift.

My memories of Monterrey I treasure as much as those of Mexico DF; I appreciated Monterrey in that it's less overwhelming, but at the same time has plenty of beauty architecturally and in natural surrounding. Generally just a fun place to be. (BTW I returned to the Museo de Historia Mexicana to learn about the peoples I missed at the Museo de Antropolgia to learn a little bit about them: the Purhepecha, the Maya, the Toltecs, the Olmecs, the Zapotecs, the Totonaca. A nice place for people to go in Monterrey who want an overview. They had a presentation on the Jaguar and its importance in Mesoamerican mythology; very interesting.)

Anyhow, it was a fantastic adventure, including the stops in Texas, New Orleans and the Northeast. I wouldn't recommend the trip to anyone (long & exhausting at times) except perhaps those who are cuckoo and stubborn enough to think it sounds like fun. Between you and me, while I'm not ready to do it again tomorrow, I just can't stop smiling in remembrance.

Posts are in US forum and Latin American forum for those who want to read it all. (Or double-click on the blue underlined Daniel Williams).

¡Bonne année, Happy New Year & Feliz Año!

Another string of great reports Daniel!

I'm really glad that you enjoyed Mexico City. It is a fantastic place by any definition.

Mexico City gets a lot of hits for its problems but, as others have said, it is a magnificent city.

For me, as much as its grace and beauty can impress, it is the citizens whose resilience and good humor always makes the visit worthwhile.

Daniel W: I've enjoyed details of this trip as I have others you've posted. I enjoy reading your observations and thoughts after completion of the trip as well.

I came across a website documenting someone's nearly 8000 mile Amtrak trip, and thought his writing similar to yours. It's
http://www.manyhighways.com/riding_a...rica/index.php

and I hope you'll check it out. (no, it's not mine)

Thank you Jean_Valjean, Poppa, rb for giving my postings a read. All your kind responses make me happy indeed.

Poppa, I *do* have wonderful memories of capitalino kindness from the journey. Like on New Year's Eve (which I spent *all by myself* (yeah, yeah, bring out the strolling violins)) , I was taking a picture of the Paseo de la Reforma and a stylish woman with her hair pulled back was waving out the window of the passenger seat of her car at me. I looked around thinking she must be waving at someone else, but there was no one behind me. I turned back, she was still waving, I waved back, she smiled and called out "¡Feliz Año!" and I yelled back "¡Igualmente!". It was just a nice moment of interhuman exchange...

Rb, I had a brief look at the trip report and what's funny... while more peers than not thought a trip from Montreal-Mexico City by train and bus was their idea of hell, on these long-distance trains and buses, you meet people as interesting (insane?) as you are who enjoy train (and even bus!) travel and were doing trips that even sounded daunting to me! One guy I met on the train did San Francisco-Chicago-New Orleans-Atlanta; he told me he'd met a woman on the Chicago-New Orleans trip! Another guy was doing Atlanta-Washington-Chicago-San Diego! People on the buses were going from Tampa-Houston, Houston-Phoenix. One poor woman going from New Orleans-LA was one that did not get on the Baton Rouge-San Antonio bus because it was overbooked, just like three Quebecois guys who didn't make it on my bus in Laredo whose tickets said Montreal. These endurance bus travellers I would look at in awe; me, while I can go 12 hours in a bus in the day (reading & the scenery helps me pass time), I find I can't sleep on a bus so night bus travel drives me absolutely crazy with only darkness outside...as you can imagine, I arranged the trip so I was in a bed every night.

*ONE MORE FINAL WORD* So far in my experience, Mexico the country I think is one of the best places I've been for those who like to travel independently (not on a package) and in locally-run hotels. There seemed to be a bus to almost anywhere one would want to go and plenty of reasonably-priced lodging.

¡Viva Mexico!