Mexico City Architecture and Arts

 

Mexico City’s architecture and arts are inseparable, creating a city where every block feels like a dialogue between eras. Pre‑Hispanic foundations sit beside colonial cathedrals, while modernist landmarks like the Museo de Antropología and the Torre Latinoamericana push the city’s identity forward. Artistic expression is built directly into the landscape, from the Art Nouveau–Art Deco fusion of the Palacio de Bellas Artes to the intimate, purpose‑designed murals and paintings of Rivera and Kahlo. Contemporary spaces such as Museo Jumex and the city’s vibrant design make Mexico City a living gallery shaped by centuries of creative experimentation. We based our stay in the Roma Norte neighborhood and averaged walking 10 miles/day to get to know the city. 

Teotihuacán and the Path along the Avenue of the Dead

The Pyramids of the Sun, Moon, and Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcoatl) at Teotihuacán were built by the Teotihuacanos between roughly 100 and 450 CE, forming the ceremonial heart of one of the largest ancient cities in the Americas. Standing among them today feels expansive and atmospheric. The wide valley, steady wind, and massive stone structures create a sense of awe, mystery, and connection to the people who engineered this landscape nearly two millennia ago. Linking the monuments is the Avenue of the Dead with and its steep volcanic‑stone terraces. The high‑altitude light is sharp and clear, and the site feels vast and intentional. Standing high on the Pyramid of the Moon, you sense the precision and ambition of the ancient city’s builders, and the atmosphere blends awe, mystery, and a quiet connection to the people who shaped this landscape.

Devils Tower and my search for aliens

I believe I may have finally found those elusive aliens after circling Devils Tower in the dark of night. Beneath the Milky Way and those glorious night stars, I happened to catch the glimpse of lights emanating from the tower walls. Could it have been aliens? Maybe, and I have lived to tell the tale just like Richard Dryfus. To the Native Americans, Devils Tower is known as Bear Lodge and has long been a sacred place for over 20 American Indian tribes. The trees around Devils Tower are filled with hanging prayer bundles, and with each knot tightened, prayers are released into the wind.

We have strayed from the values of the men carved on this mountain

Visiting Mount Rushmore should have been an uplifting recital of the values our greatest presidents carved on this mountain believed in. Rather, it was a sober acknowledgement of how far this country has strayed from that which we should hold dear. Thomas Jefferson: “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Abraham Lincoln: “…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.” Theodore Roosevelt: “We here in America, hold in our hands the hopes of the world, the fate of the coming years…”. George Washington: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people”. We are losing our history as the government now distorts or erases it. We are losing our right to free speech as the government crushes it. We are losing our right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the government crushes everything that is non-Christian, non-white, and non-heterosexual. We are losing our rights to freedom of choice. We are losing separation of church and state. We are losing trust in our government through the pounding of conspiracy theories and lies.

Wind Cave National Park and boxwork formation

 

Beneath the prairie in SW South Dakota, is one of the world’s most complex cave systems. Much of the cave system remains unmapped. The cave holds what is estimated to be 95% of all boxwork crystal formation found in caves around the world. The cave system is sacred to the Lakota Sioux, as they believe this is from where the bison emerged to roam the plains.

“My lands are where my dead lie buried”: Crazy Horse 1877

Crazy Horse, age 34, was killed at Fort Robinson by an American soldier on September 6, 1877, while under a flag of truce. He was killed trying to defend his Sioux people and their way of life. He took up arms only after he saw the presidential signed Treaty of 1868 broken, only after he saw his leader Conquering Bear exterminated by treachery, only after he saw the failure of the government to bring forth treaty guarantees, and only after he saw his people’s lives and way of life ravaged and destroyed. The Crazy Horse memorial continues to be built with private funds with the goal to showcase all Native Americans. The Crazy Horse Monument Foundation has refused government money so that they can narrate the story without government censorship.

Badlands National Park is famous for dramatic landscapes, fossils and crazy weather

This park is a geological wonder in South Dakota, with eroded buttes, spires and layered rock formations in hues of red and gold at sunrise and sunset. The park is also a haven for fossils, preserving one of the richest fossil beds in the world. The weather is dramatic and harsh here, and conditions can change on a dime with thunderstorms rolling in at a moment’s notice. Over three days here, temperatures varied from a low of 51 to a high of 95, and from sunshine to torrential rains and lightning.