CANFA Comment

1 Sept: New Orleans & Mexico City
Since our last update we spent a couple of days in the old French quarter of New Orleans - managed a swamp tour and dinner on a paddle steamer on the Mississippi, which was quite memorable.

We flew into Mexico a couple of days ago and had lunch at a beautiful old villa.It was very posh - the men had to wear a tie at least! We were treated like royalty but it was a wonderful experience. We didn't realise it at the time but we had 1942 tequila as a pre-lunch drink. It cost as much as the meal! Luckily, it was very nice!

Yesterday had a tour of the Presidential Palace frescos and cathedral (built on top of an Aztec pyramid). A lot of the buildings are leaning because Mexico City is built on top of a lake. It doesn't seem to stop 29 million people living here though. In the afternoon, we toured the ancient pyramids of the sun and the moon,set in beautiful countryside. Ray climbed both and I surprised myself in climbing the moon pyramid (feeling it now though).

Last night we went to the opera building and saw traditional folk dancing, which was very colourful and interesting.

We're off to Cimmyt at Teluco today. Unfortunately we couldn't line up Ken Sayre (the researcher we met in Germany and came to CANFA's conference in 2007), but we spoke to him on the phone yesterday. He is retired now but still coming in to work. We will meet up with David Bonnett, who Ray and I met last week while we were here.

From Teluco we're heading north into the countryside, visiting farms. We've only 10 days left of this wonderful trip, but we're missing everyone.

Anne Williams