El Nevado de Toluca is an extinct volcano that created Mexico’s fourth highest peak. It also happens to be the central component of Mexico’s Nevado de Toluca National Park. The park, established in 1936, is well worth a visit and is even doable as a day trip from Mexico City. The drive out to Nevado … Continue reading
Named for the olive groves that used to cover it, the Mount of Olives can be seen in the distance of this picture taken from the base of the Temple Mount… If you look carefully at the writing on the graves in the foreground, you can see that this is a cemetery for those of … Continue reading
The road to Susiya… With all of the excitement in North Korea and Syria Boston at the moment, the protests and upheaval in the West Bank over the past few months has gone relatively unnoticed by the broader world. However, enough of you have noticed it that I have gotten several email requests for more … Continue reading
Readers will no doubt recall that NATO initiated bombing strikes against Serbia on March 24th, 1999 as a result of events in Kosovo… The bombing lasted for 78 days. Several American aircraft – some manned and some unmanned – were shot down by Serbian forces during the more than 38,000 combat missions flown over Serbia … Continue reading
I still remember our teacher, Joe Gledhill, describing the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls to us in the fourth grade at Dobbins Elementary School. After all, it is a memorable story (and one that he told well) – the Bedouin shepherd boy searching for a stray goat and discovering the scrolls inside earthenware jars … Continue reading
The skyline of Mexico City from our apartment: Many imagine Mexico City as simply another overcrowded, chaotic and polluted megacity of the sort unique to the developing world. And sure, part of the city does look like those typical scenes of a developing country: But there is more to Mexico City than that. And there … Continue reading
Right at the heart of things, El Centro has always been the city’s core – even from the very beginning… El Centro was formerly the site of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, it was subsequently the colonial capital of New Spain and it remains the center of Mexico’s government today. El Centro is a concentrated cornucopia … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 