Cactus Farming

Cactus Farming around Los Loreles, MX

Throughout the countryside here farmers earn their living from growing cactus. A lot of the crop is exported to the far east. The photos here give some idea (I hope ) of the growing and harvesting of Cacti.

Broad view of Cactus Farm Area, A Cactus Field and A Harvester Gathering
 



 

 

A weighing and packaging station and loading platform. These small trucks haul out to the nearest highway where the cargo is transferred to a refrigerated semi.

 
 

Back in Mexico

We arrived back in Mexico DF Dec 8 after flying from Goa to Mumbai and onthrough JFK New York to Mexico City.

It was a lot of time in the air and at airports and by the time we were in a taxi on our way to Pedro's place I was totally exhausted and looking forward to just relaxing and not having to deal with making travel arrangements or with finding a place to sleep.

One of the great treasures of Mexico DF is Chapultepec Park. For anyone visiting Mexico it is a must as you will be sure to find something of interest there. It is the home of many museums including one of the worlds best anthropological museums. You will also find restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, zoo, multiplex theatre, a display of most of Mexico Cities historical and heritage buildings built in miniature . There is lots of green space and walking paths and interesting fountains and an old burial ground. But, best of all for me, there is a terrific running area with one and two kilometer pathways that are super well maintained and have a large timing clock at the beginning as well as a sprint training area. And the running part of the Park is only about a 20 minute walk from Pedro's condo.

Here is a picture of one of the entrances to the Park.










This picture is taken looking back down Paseo Reforma .




I was so happy to be back to resume running. There is quite an adjustment to make though when coming from sea level due to Mexico Cities elevation and at times high air pollution and temperature.

The other great thing is that Pedro has a country house in a small village called Los Loreles which is about two to three hours south west of the city.
It is cactus farming country and the village is bunded on one side by an ecological reserve. It is a super place to relax.



Here is a view of a steaming volcano as seen from Pedro's
 
 
 
 

The Final Leg - Goa

We (I) had great hassle with arranging travel from Varanasi to Goa. Eventually we got tickets on to fly to Mumbai and then on to Goa.

It is December 12 and we finally are on our last leg of our India journey and have made our way to Calangate, Goa via Delhi from Varanasi. Here we are experiencing a more laid back environment with much lowered pollution levels. I feel much better.
Goa was a Portuguese Colony and some of the Colonial influences are still evident. There is a building boom here like in many places of the world.

Calangate is a typical beach tourism town. We have very good accommodation and we are a couple of blocks from many kilometers of beach. It is fairly busy but not crowded and finally is a place I can do a bit of running. Ah relax.

On to Varanasi

I haven't posted since being in India last December and since I am getting ready to travel again I decided I need to reactivate this blog and finish off some comments about the last legs of our India trip.

From Agra we took the overnight train (November 26) Varanasi which is a holy city along the Ganges. It is another very dirty and polluted city where it is believed that if one comes here to die, one will achieve enlightenment upon death. It is a popular place for terminally ill people.

Varanasi Crematoria

We saw open air cremations taking place along the river and at first it was a bit surreal. But, it is just a part of life here and everyday in the late afternoon the days dead are cremated in this way.




Bathers on the Ganges












Varanasi Laundromat




We spent three full days here before moving onward.