THE TITLE OF THIS PIECE COULD ALSO BE: Four Countries and Two Continents in Three Days. We went from a beautiful blue sky to huge clouds as the plane glided down, after a flight of over nine hours in which I managed to sleep for about four. I laid down on two seats, with my knees bent and feet pointing to the porthole window, thinking that in a moment of spasm, my feet were going to have a sudden reflex and kick the window through, meaning we would all come out of the window like toothpaste out of a tube rolled over by a steamroller.

Lufthansa, with its usual grace, offered us four melon cubes, two centimeters on each side, and a croissant. It all seemed more stück than früh! Far gone were those days when breakfast in First Class was a fine-cut dish of German sausage, together with cheeses, jams, and tender, warm fried eggs on the plate with bacon, accompanied by a glass of champagne. Far gone were those times when Frankfurt Airport was called FRA by the cognoscenti, but now, in an overwhelming German fit of imagination and creativity called Fraport in all the posters. There was a time when this was the example for first class airports. Not anymore! Sad, disappointment!

WE ARRIVED AT 11:23AM MORE THAN THIRTY MINUTES AHEAD of schedule at Terminal Z in Franport, and since we knew our connection to Istanbul was leaving at 12:45 pm we knew time was limited. When leaving to the walkway, at about

11:55 am, we found a double-deck staircase to take us to the Terminal. There was no elevator available. Fortunately, I still had some strength and energy left, so I was able to climb up (with my 20-kilo suitcase of books and my five- kilo bag of documents) and then started walking fast to gate B60. We first had a 20 -minute walk to get to the train, and after a five -minute wait, another 20- minute walk to terminal B. This was followed by a five minute sprint to the security checkpoint where I told a Hindu gentleman who was in control of the Fast Lane that our plane boarded in 15 minutes, so he let us through.  There were three passengers and four security staff in this lane. Each passenger brought more stuff than a rag vendor from La Merced Market in Mexico City. After 15 minutes, I was pulled out of the control line and an inspector signaled me over to examine my bag of books. I gave Sabâ her boarding

pass and asked her to hold the plane. The inspector told me that there was an experimental program to make sure the computer chargers were not bombs, and that I had to go for a further security check in an attached office.

The chemical dog that the Germans have is like the Americans’.  Rub a piece of paper in the charger, place it on the nose of the chemical dog to sniff for traces of explosives. There was, of course, no trace, but as this is Germany, it took the inspector five minutes to fill out a form. At 12:25 pm I left like a shot of lightening to B60 and after 10 minutes of walking, I arrived at the boarding area where Sabâ was waiting for a bus to take us to the plane. The bus arrived at 12:40 pm and the driver had to wait for two more passenger came. The bus took us to the most remote apron (ten minutes away) where we climbed another two-floor staircase to be faced with overhead compartments full of coats. I asked the flight attendant where I could put my carry-ons.

"In the overhead compartments"

"They are full of coats "

"Find a place."

Charming!

I slid my carry-on underneath the middle seat, which was empty, and although the suitcase blocked the leg room space between the two seats, the inspections made by the flight attendants didn’t catch this huge risk. Finally, we took off. It was then that I found out, by reading the newspaper over the shoulder of passenger in front of me, that The First Girlfriend of France, Valerie Trierweiler, was admitted to a clinic for depression.  Apparently, Hollande was caught cheating with another woman, Julie Gayet, 41, an artist, married with three children. Hollande was caught by a photographer when he went to see her. When I mentioned this to Sabâ, who was reading Hürriyet - the top newspaper in Turkey- she told me that she had read that too. News travels fast. The world marches on. Hollande will have to decide in the next few days who he stays with.

WE ARRIVED IN ISTANBUL (IST) AND AFTER BUYING OUR VISAS (US$20). We showed up with our American passports at the immigration control windows for Turkish Citizens, where there was no queue, compared to the huge queue of foreigners. Sabā told the officer that she was Turkish and had forgotten her passport in Los Angeles. After many humorous exchanges we went to Carousel 11 to pick up our luggage. After about 20 minutes of waiting, a passenger went to ask somebody where the luggage was, and was told that it had changed to Carousel 4, a few hundred meters from where we were.  We headed there and to my huge surprise the suitcase that we had checked-in in Merida on Sunday at 5 am was waiting for us right there! The suitcase had gone from Merida to Houston, waited in Houston for nine hours in transit and then, in some magical way arrived at Frankfurt, excuse me, Franport, having been transferred to the plane that brought to us to Istanbul where we had arrived on Tuesday around 4 pm, after about 25 hours of travel.

YAVUZ, THE YOUNG DRIVER WE BOOKED FOR APPOINTMENTS in Istanbul was waiting for us at the airport and it was a fast drive to the apartment where Pelin Tanca - Saba's cousin who works with us - was waiting with Deniz who had prepared a delicious dinner of soy marinated chicken, squash, Turkish leeks, and fresh salad. A real treat.

BUT I'M getting ahead of myself. The departure from Los Angeles (LAX - for those who don't know) was on Thursday, January 9, just three days after two of the Three Kings did not reach 704 and five since the Christmas Tree was dismantled in an anticlimactic blitz by Sabâ and Delmi, leaving behind many fond memories of so many weeks of festivities and family joy . Fortunately, the King that was there, Xavier Melchor - "King of the City" in Farsi - very generously offered to take us to the airport, so the departure was pluperfect (like "le passé du subjonctif.”)   We even had time to repack our carry-ons, for the fourth time, before getting on the plane. United Airlines, recognizing us as top-notch travelers, upgraded us to Business First, which is neither Business nor First, but better than Economy Plus, to Merida.

I wonder how many euphemisms aviation companies will come up with to collect more money to travel in all kinds of different levels. We can now buy tickets with Economy rates T, W, Y or Z. The rules for all these rates are more complicated than understanding the theory of relativity. We can travel to earn miles that will give us access to Economy Plus. We can also pay extra if we travel less frequently at which point the airline charges for each piece of luggage exceeding 20 kilos or 64 inches. (unless you are a Silver or Gold Member). Even then, we don’t eat free, we have to pay an additional fee for some cardboard tasting junk food packages going for $7 to $10. Then, there’s an overcharge of $8 for an alcoholic drink. So, when Deniz left Los Angeles and had to pay $150 for excess baggage, Sabâ decided to upgrade her to Comfort Class, paying $300 which entitled her to free excess baggage.

The connection in Houston (IAH - everyone is going to learn these airport codes!) was very short, which prevented us from going to grab some oysters at Pappadeaux - my favorite seafood restaurant of all the airports in the world , including Caviar House in Heathrow (LHR) which has dropped so much in quality. We arrived a bit earlier than planned to Merida (MID) where our friend Kennedy Ivan (really!) was waiting with our rental car that took us to the Hacienda Inn, a fabulous hotel that we discovered just three kilometers from the airport that is super modern, with fabulous pools, a good bar, air conditioning, TV, free Wi Fi, friendly and impeccable service and that costs $ MX519 per night. We slept there because we had to leave the next day to manage our business meetings.

Owned by our friends Claudia Madrazo and Roberto Hérnandez, Hacienda Ochil is about 40 kilometers from Merida (MID) . It was designed as a stop for tourists going from Merida to Uxmal or vice versa. The idea was that tourists would come to this Hacienda for lunch and could buy some of the crafts that the Fundación Haciendas del Mundo Maya promotes among the Maya craftsmen and women. The concept is good, but the tourist’s reality is different. People want to go to Uxmal and Mérida. There is little or no interest in visiting a hacienda where you get mediocre food, pricey handmade crafts, and a museum of Haciendas consisting of some tables displaying metal artifacts (whose purpose are a mystery) and some frontpage covers of international magazines inviting people to go to Yucatán.

In a conversation with James Turrell, our friend Claudia asked him what he thought he could create there in the cenote of the hacienda.

"An amphitheater for shows with some light performances imagined by me"

And so, the amphitheater was created.

When we spoke with Roberto and Claudia, we started thinking what could be a real purpose for the amphitheater and how we might use it as part of the fundraising program for Baktún. Baktún is an initiative to strengthen the cultural heritage of the Maya peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula. Thus, the idea was born of organizing a global, annual festival of music, food and entertainment that, over five years, would create a brand for Ochil, so that people would recognize the Ochil Festival as they do many other festivals in the world.

Josh Kun, a professor at the University of Southern California, is a friend who had helped us with the LA Plaza gala. He is a wonderfully energetic young man and is extraordinarily knowledgeable, impressively connected to the world of international music and the author of several books. He is a vital part of the Los Angeles music scene and is married to Ceci Bastida, an internationally renowned singer from Tijuana.

Luck would have it that Ceci is a close friend of Milena who is the wife of Jorge Padro.

Jorge Padro is the sculptor who designed Tecoh, the contemporary hacienda that belongs to Claudia and Roberto, and that we are preparing for Transforming Conversations.

Six Degrees of Separation, more or less! All we need now is for someone to be connected to Kevin Bacon!

In December, we invited Josh to Xcanchakán. We all met with Claudia and Roberto and we launched into the great adventure of organizing this music festival.

It was important to have a world-class gastronomic component.

The Mexica chef, Roberto Solis, a chef who worked for the renowned Danish chef, René Redzepi, invited René to Yucatan to introduce him to Mexico. René was enamored by Yucatan. He was introduced to Claudia and Roberto and was invited to bring his family and friends on vacation to one of Claudia and Roberto’s Haciendas in January.  Claudia and Roberto connected us with René so that we could start developing the gastronomic component of Ochil and Baktún in more detail. Claudia had already talked with him. This was the reason for our lightning trip to Yucatan. On Friday morning, January 10, we left for Tamchen about 30 kilometers from Mérida to meet with René.

Sabâ and René were already in touch vis email and I had prepared a document based on the conversations that Claudia and René had earlier.

We arrived at the small hacienda, very rustic, where the original walls have been preserved, reinforced with concrete in some parts. There were creating stairs as well as a pond for water lilies, with a beautiful traditional kitchen, well equipped and with well-kept gardens.

RENE RECEIVED US WITH GREAT GENEROSITY. He is 37, of medium height, blonde. His father is of former Macedonia and René was born in Albania. His mother is Danish, slim and with a fabulous sense of aesthetics. His restaurant in Copenhagen (CPH - you get the drift) is called  and has been ranked the best restaurant in the world for three consecutive years . We had a very interesting conversation. He is fascinated by the Mayan jungle, edible cornfield (milpa), as an ecological system and the nutritious vegetables of the Patio or farmyard. These two agricultural concepts are disappearing in Yucatan, and Baktún seeks to rescue them.

We focused on further exploring our interests. He was there with his wife and two daughters. They are expecting a third child in June. His friend Anders and his wife and children were there as well. Anders was a cook in Noma and later created his own restaurant called Fiskebar (Fiske in Danish is fish.)

René is very interested in Yucatán, in bringing more Danes to Yucatán ,in helping people around the world discover true Mexican food, particularly Yucatecan food and in exploring the deliciousness of the edible jungle and thus helping Baktún .

Sabâ and were thrilled when René, together with Roberto Solis, agreed to become the Chef Hosts of the Festival of Ochil in December. This entailed organizing dinner for 500 guests. They also became members of the Honor Committee and Advisory Members of the Committee of Baktún.

We also discussed the possibility of organizing a contest among cooking school students in Yucatan with the winner becoming an intern at Noma. René suggested adding more Yucatecan dishes to the cooking school’s curriculum as well as using more foraged fruits and vegetables. He also envisioned a book and/or a website on edible and medicinal foods of jungle of Yucatan together with a workshop for the Hernandez Group cooks. René also invited us to his culinary food festival, MAD, in Copenhagen in late August and dinner at Noma. Anders, not to be outdone, also invited us to Fiskebar.

With all these achievements, we said goodbye and Sabâ and I went to Castaldi to eat a dep fried boquinete, with tequilas and some Montejo beers. Finally, after Castaldi, we went to Xcanchakán to enjoy our hacienda, which is increasingly beautiful with its gardens, trees and plants that are growing beautifully.

OUR REQUESTS FOR SUPPRT work well for us. We have an approach that truly allows us to listen and provide people with the opportunity to give for a noble cause. Meeting René for three hours, we achieved a series of very solid \offerings that will be very useful for the Baktún fundraiser .We are working on the budgets and financial flow charts for the Festival. We spoke to Claudia and she gave Sabâ a thumbs up!

DIANA CANTO MORENO IS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of Baktún and I met with her Saturday morning. She graciously came to the hacienda and we chatted for a couple of hours, reviewing programs and working on budgets and on programs for the year.

We left Xcanchakán in the middle day, less than 24 hours after our arrival, to overnight again in the Hacienda Inn since our flight leaves on Sunday at 6:45 am. We decided to go for dinner at Nectar, Roberto Solís’s restaurant. When Sabâ made the reservation, she explained that the recommendation came from Rene Redzepi, and they received us with open arms and the chef came to greet us during dinner. Unfortunately, the place is not very welcoming, and the food is not spectacular. A special dish were black, fried onions that look like a crispy flower. The other dishes (lamb with a walnut sauce, pork with a tomato sauce, and fried octopus with a tomato and chorizo ​​sauce) were nothing special. The service was very bad, and our experience was disappointing since we had hoped for something extraordinary. Perhaps when you’ve been seeing many Gordon Ramsay programs you become super critical and you look at every tiny detail. Since we arrived for dinner at 6 pm we were able to go to bed early to go to Houston the next morning. I imagine it was an off day for the restaurant because we have read many good reviews.

THE OTHER KING WHO DID NOT ARRIVE ON THE DAY OF KINGS was Alejandro Gaspar - "Treasure Protector" in Farsi - who had spoken to us the day before at the hacienda and offered us a day room in the IAH Sheraton. We are very grateful for his generosity.

We got up early and travelled again in Business First. There’s a new system to go through immigration to enter the United States. Stations with screens have passport readers. You place the passport in the reader, and the screen asks you questions similar to those of the customs forms; takes a photo of you and prints a pass with which you can go directly to baggage claim. Long live technology because in 30 seconds you have already gone through immigration! Also, unfortunately, long live unemployment since there will be fewer and fewer immigration officers in the US!

Since our luggage was in transit ,we did not have to carry a suitcase and went directly to the Sheraton Hotel shuttle and then into the hotel where we were given a super comfortable room and where we could rest while watching a fun movie (Las Vegas) and tried, successfully, not to fall asleep so as not to spend the night awake on the plane. Thanks Alejandro Gaspar!  We had lunch at the hotel in a shady place and without any interesting features. I do not understand why they can’t create friendly spaces in these hotels so that people who are traveling and are tired do not feel depressed.

HOW ARE ISTANBUL AND XCANCHACAN SIMILAR?  Xcanchakán is full of stray dogs and Istanbul is full of stray cats. Cats are kings in Istanbul. Matilda appeared - the cat Sabâ adopted. She had not come to the apartment since Sabâ left. She definitely smelled her because there she was at the window waiting for Sabâ to give her food, which she did. Matilda greeted her with disdain because she is used to eating leftovers from the table and not Cat Food.  Matilda does not enter the apartment, she only eats at the window. The attention to cats is so special that parks have special areas where people come and bring food for them, and where they have their cat houses and their trunks to scratch their claws, so that everywhere t houses.

Meanwhile Sabâ is to thinking about creating a project to eliminate stray mutts in Xcanchakán.

WE HAD A LITTLE TIME ON TUESDAY to acclimate because there was already work waiting for us. Sabâ went out to dinner with Karine from the International New York Times while Deniz and I ate the leftovers from last night's dinner which were very good because the flavors had mixed in even better the vegetables.

HOW ARE NISANTASI AND ANNAPURNA SIMILAR? In that anywhere you go you have to climb 30 degree slopes. It’s good exercise but somewhat barbaric.  I left the house to catch up with Pelin and Sabâ in one of our favorite budget restaurants next to the American hospital and went rock climbing at the same time. Good workout for your legs and glutes, toes and ankles. I have to take care because the last time I had swelling in my instep and spent two days immobilized .Until now there have been no gastronomic, touristic or cultural adventures.  Everything has been work, and I hope the weather will continue to be good during the weekend (13ºC today, with clear skies) and we can take a walk around the city since last time Sabâ was with a brace on her leg and sightseeing was difficult.

I'm trying to get a better understanding of what is happening here in politics to be able to comment, but for the time being there are still completely different versions from each of the papers that I consult.

To Be Continued…