Jonas's travels: Mexico City
Pyramids
Mexico, the land of incredible heat, no oxygen, and policemen with automatic rifles. The conference was very nice, with an incredibly ambitious excursion program, which was good for getting to know the other participants. There was also no parallel sessions, so you could catch every presentation. And I got a glass thing for a best paper award (which was somewhat worrisome when traveling back to Sweden, but it got there in one piece).
Anecdote: while walking back to the hotel late one night, of course, a bearded Mexican gives me the usual "Lap dance?" question. I return the usual "No, gracias senor" (I know the spelling is wrong, but so was my pronunciation). He then suggests "Women!"... Why did he feel a need to clear that up? What was the first thing he tried to offer me?
Most useful knowledge acquired: "ochara mas grande, por favor".
Pictures of pyramids
At home, a few weeks before leaving for Mexico. This is
what Sweden looks like in January, slightly before lunch
time... even in Stockholm, which is quite far south.
Mexico was a lot warmer, brighter and stranger. This seems to be
one of the harder ways to get down from a pole...
And speaking of strange, why do they have to
put up notices that says that you are not allowed to shoot with
bows and arrows inside the museums?
The first excursion, large pyramids and other
historical marvels. We went to the top, which was hard, since
there is no oxygen in Mexico City (2 km above sea level), no
shade on pyramids (every wall leans too much) and the pyramids
are a lot higher than they look. 800 steps I think it was.
Pictures of butterflies
The second excursion, butterflies
aplenty. Many millions of butterflies winter in
Mexico. Unfortunately they winter about 3.5 km above sea level,
and only antique cars are allowed even close. The last 500
meters you walk on foot...
Even in Mexico City they know which way to go
to reach my home town.
Complaints should likely be sent to Jonas. If you would like to have a high resolution copy of one of these images (or some other you suspect I have), please feel free to let me know.