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Karen Safer’s Trip to Mexico 1966

 
Itinerary:
           
August 13   Mexicana      Los Angeles to Mazatlan                Hotel de Cima
August 15   Mexicana      Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta           Tropicana                   
August 16   Mexicana     Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara      Gran   
August 18   Mexicana      Guadalajara to Mexico City            De Carlo                     
August 23                        Mexico City to Taxco                      Rancho Taxco             
August 24                        Taxco to Acapulco                          Hilton                         
August 27                        Acapulco to Mexico City                ?                                             
                    Western       Mexico City to LA                          
 
 
Did not keep a diary for this trip. Traveled with parents and Carolyn to: Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Cuernevaca, Taxco, Mexico City, Acapulco.
 
Mom, Dad, Carolyn and I left from LA International Airport on Mexicana. Uncle Lou was there to see us go. We were all dressed up in traveling suits for travel. Arrived 3:00 p.m., checked into hotel - Hotel de Cima at waterside.
 
Mazatlan with very humid, sticky. We ate shrimp (ordered shrimp, it had with no batter, which I was not used to, not like how mom made it, eke)Didn’t like it at all. It was a joke on me thinking all shrimp came with batter. Haha. Carolyn and I walked along beautiful ocean.
 
Puerto Vallarta had only one hotel, this is where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton came and made famous a year before where they stayed at the Hotel Oceano by the Malecon (later in 1983, when I returned, it was totally built up and different from the sleepy town of the 60s). We went to the beautiful beach here and sat under palapas. I think we walked by the set of where they had filmed.
 
Taxco and Cuernevaca city were charming as hillside villages with red geraniums spilling over the balconies. Mexico City was very metropolitan with sophisticated shops and lovely gardens. We visited the University and saw murals by Rivera and Orosco. Guadalajara was my favorite city with the big marketplace and musicians and “Quando Calienta el Sol a Quine La Playa” and murals by(I didn’t know, I’d later learn about Frida Kahlo). I really loved Mexico. Acapulco was my least favorite spot - it was humid and very slimy.
 
Bought Mexican handicrafts (paintings, silver, etc.)
Ballet Folklorico in Mexico City; boats on a lake in the middle of the city, the Mexican Calendar stone, The Cathedral, and wonderful beautiful faces. Red geraniums in pots along terraces.
 
After this trip Mom, Carolyn and Cindy and I went to Ensenada in 1967(and many times after) when it was also a sleepy town, with one street for shopping. We stayed at the wonderful Mission Hotel which was on the beach (now it has land fill in front of it. Since then, I have returned to Baja almost every year(often 2 times a year) - either to Rosarito or Ensenada. I love Mexico! I feel at home there, like I do in Italy. I feel the warmth of a civilization rich in culture and love. I am loved there. I am free to be my real self.
 
Guadalajara
·      Great Cathedral
·      Orozco murals
·      Murillo  - “Assumption of the Virgin”
·      Palace de Gobierno
·      Village of Tequila
·      Open marketplace, tortillas
·      Mariachis singing at hotel
·      Village of Tequila
 
Mexico City
·      National Palace (Cortez Palace site of Montezuma’s palace)
·      The Cathedral(largest in Mexico) begun 1543-1750
·      Ballet Folklorico de Mexico
·      Chapultepec Park and Castle (former residence of Maximilian & Carlotta
·      University with Diego Rivera frescoes
·      Palace of Fine Arts
·      Aztec Calendar Stone (National Museum of Antrhopoogy at Chapultepec Park)
·      Floating gardens of Xochimilco
·      Canal Ride - mariachis music
·      Bullfights - Plaza Mexico
·      Pyramids of Sun, Moon and Temple of Quetzalcoatl- Pyramids of Teotihuacan 200b.c.
·      Aztec Ruins
 
Cuernevaca
·      Maximillian and Carlotta Palace - awed
 
Acapulco
·      High divers at La Perla
·      Silver
·      S.S. Fiesta cruise around bay