Technology has been more difficult to access and use than I had hoped.
Yesterday the 17th was a day of hanging around Mexico City and taking time to acclimate. We ate too much for lunch and then headed out to walk it off. 5-8 miles later we felt good after walking to Chaputlepec Park and climbing up to the castle. Since we have both been to Mexico City several times and already visited the castle we did not go in. You should however as it is a highlight of Mexico! It looks right down the Paseo de la Reforma which is where many rulers of Mexico watched the next their next ruler march up the hill to take ownership.
Chaputlepec Park is very large and I did see some wildlife there. The trees are cedar and pines and have no lower branches at all since the have been scavenged for hundreds of years. Litter was minimal and people there had a slower pace then the busy streets some distance away. Even in one of the worlds most populated cities you can find a slice of Nature still beating the drum telling of the power of slow. 
Today we were glad to be leaving Mexico City and get on with our adventure. We left around 6:00 for the bus terminal and were on the road to Puebla to transfer to another bus for the total of a 4 hour ride.
We are feeling very good and are settled in to our hotel in Tlachichuca with Senor Gerrado at his 8 room Hotel Gerar. He was so please he literally got tears in his eyes when we told him we had been to his place som 13 years before. He even got out his guest book and asked me to find our entries. I did find them and it was pretty cool! He asked me to read them to him in Spanish so he could know what I and mark had written. He loved every moment and even with my poor Spanish so did I.
Turns out the town is really struggling. There are few climbers this year and we are the only ones at his hotel. We went to lunch at the famous Casa Blanca, a simple and authentic restaurant. We remember the owner loving climbers and chatting them up. We were the only ones in the place and the owner looked tired and disinterested. In fact we never saw another climber all day. Sad. Senor Gerrardo has said that it has been very slow and he looked devastated. The economic situation gripping the world showed big time today as this man, like many others tries to feed his family. 
So now the real adventure begins. I may not have another entry for a few days as their most likely will be no coverage above 14000 ft. The photo above is the mountain we will be on by 12:00 tomorrow. We feel strong and look forward to sharing another adventure on this mountain. As some of you may or may not know this is our third attempt. I was very ill the past two times from altitude sickness. It was not fun after a certain altitude for me. 16,500 ft to be accurate. I suppose I took it lightly the last times that climbing the 3rd highest peak in North America and the 8th in the world. I was used to running up local NW peaks with little effort. My climbing pals called me the goat. Well I am a smarter old goat so let’s hope that makes a difference.
Talk to you all Tuesday or Wednesday with some great video and photos from the mountain!
