Mexico City and Computer Crash

We caught up on our sleep yesterday morning. Then, I unsuccessfully tried to do some repairs to my old laptop when it suddenly wouldn't boot up. I can't even get it to boot in safe mode. It's almost like it's not even recognizing that the hard disc exists. So unfortunately, I believe the hard disc is done.But hopefully I can eventually salvage some pictures and information from it.

All of our pics are also on Ruth's little laptop, with the exception of most of our San Francisco pics.

Anyhow, we'll try and get to a computer repair place in Puerto Escondido, but until we get back to the states it's looking like we're down to just the little laptop. Not the nicest for working on photos, but we'll have to make do!

We went down for breakfast, which was included in the price of the hotel room. Not bad! Later in the morning we decided to just go out for a walk. We did have a bit of a destination in mind because we had read about an art display of oversized painted guitars that were lining one of the main streets here, Reforma.

Lots of interesting statues.

And sculptures.

And architecture.

Unfortunately we couldn't go to the top. It was closed for some reason.

Giant guitar art!

There were over 100 of these giant guitars. I don't know the history, but it looks like they gave a bunch of local artists these blank guitar canvases and let them do what they wanted with them. Some were really good!

Kevin and the giant guitar!

We stopped for lunch at a typical locals place. A restaurant stall in the underground corridor to get from one side of the busy street to the other. We love these types of places in Mexico. We sat at a table for 8, with only one guy at the other end, but by the time we were finished, the table was full! We had soup, a rice plate, and chicken tacos. We were stuffed, and all for 54 pesos ($4.60) each, plus a small tip.

Ruth, at lunch.

We even had music!

Our lunch table.

At 4:00pm, we met up with a friend of our daughter Lindsey's boss. Small world sometimes, right? Anyhow, Lindsey had suggested we meet up with Lana who is here in Mexico City doing an intensive Spanish language course at the university here. We should do a course like that sometime!

So Lana met us at our hotel, and we wandered around some more. First stop was the TelCel customer service center to get our cellular internet stick operational again. We needed to buy a new SIM card because if the old one is inactive for a certain amount of time (ours hadn't been used since last April) then it can't be reactivated. No worries, for 150 pesos ($12.75) we got a new SIM card that included 75 pesos worth of credit. I then activated a short term data package that gives us 200 MB over the next week. That's not much but I'll put another 400 pesos ($34) to buy a 3GB package when we get to Puerto Escondido.

The TelCel store was located in this huge modern shopping complex. Yep, they're ready for Christmas.

There's the big guy himself!

Then we went out and wandered around some more.

Mexico City's Monument to the Revolution.

A recently installed glass elevator will take you to the observation deck for only 40 pesos ($3.40). We declined.

Mexican flag.

From the Sears store across the street you can get a magnificent view of the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts).

We were stopped on the street by these people who were helping the teenage son do his English homework. They asked if they could videotape him asking us a series of questions in English, with us of course answering in English. Sure...why not?!

Ruth, Lana, Jessica, Estafany, and Hugo.

Today, we're on the move again! Flying to Puerto Escondido for two weeks of rest and relaxation and some beach time with our friends. Looking forward to seeing them. These are the people some of you helped with donations last February. We're looking forward to giving you an update as to how they're all doing. We haven't seen them since February of 2013.