text: First-time visitors to Mexico City are often surprised by how green many parts of the metropolis can be, and that will most certainly be the case for guests who check in at Grand Fiesta Americana Chapultepec.
  Jaw-dropping views of the Bosque de Chapultepec — the largest city park in the Western Hemisphere at 1,600 acres — can be seen from almost everywhere in the building. The Chapultepec Castle, the park’s crown jewel, sits atop a hill and feels almost within reach of the hotel’s exclusive suites and event rooms.
  Both business and leisure travelers will cherish the proximity to some of the city’s main financial districts, plus buzzy Polanco and Reforma, where you’ll be able to savor world-class restaurants, museums and boutiques in between meetings or spa appointments at the luxury hotel.
  • Sitting across the Bosque de Chapultepec, the 20-story art deco building provides lush park and city views from its rooms.
  • You will be spoiled for choice with the Grand Fiesta’s available spa services, with its long menu of facial and body treatments — choices range from skin-firming and hydrating facials to relaxing and invigorating body work.
  • Salammbô, the Grand Fiesta’s restaurant, does not disappoint with its fusion of Mediterranean and Mexican cuisine served during breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  • Deco Bar, located in the hotel lobby, is a fine spot for a cocktail after a day of meetings or exploring the city.
  • To make your business trips to Mexico City remarkable, Grand Fiesta Americana Chapultepec features the elegant and functional "Castillo de Chapultepec" room, which hosts up to 250 people and is accompanied by impeccable service, to take care of every detail.
  • The Winetherapy massage oils used in the hotel’s spa come in sets that make excellent souvenirs or gifts for loved ones, while a special pair of slippers with magnets that heat up help soothe sore feet.
  • Guests staying on the three Grand Club floors can access the upscale executive lounge for a full breakfast, evening snacks, beer and wine.
  • Enjoy a workout in the 19th floor’s fully equipped gym overlooking the beautiful Chapultepec Forest.
  • All of the stylish, contemporary accommodations are equipped with luxe beds and linens, as well as a full pillow menu ranging from goose down to hypoallergenic and orthopedic choices.
  • Double-glazed windows in the rooms will block out any incoming noise from the streets below, so much so that you won’t believe you’re so close to the heart of the action of one of the world’s largest cities.
  • Located at the corners of the building, the 14 luxurious suites offer lounges and dining areas and views of the Chapultepec Castle.
  • Both the city’s Museum of Modern Art and the Museo Tamayo, a contemporary art museum, are within walking distance of the hotel.
  • The gorgeous Bosque de Chapultepec, right across the street from the hotel, is a destination in itself, but the park also features a calendar of activities for all ages year-round including movie screenings, live concerts and nighttime picnics.
  • Chapultepec Castle resides at the top of a hill in the Bosque de Chapultepec and is the perfect place to explore with little ones or take enviable vacation photos.
  • Be sure to make time for an excursion to the massive Teotihuacan Pyramids. It's an experience you won't forget.
  Andy Harper and Nic Ford present Empirical Evidence as MadderModes. Empirical Evidence is a wholly cinematic piece of work, spread across four tracks that unravel slowly, unified by a theme of pumping syncopated rhythms under sprawling pad and string progressions. It's easy to get lost in the thick arrangements, and the inventive use of samples and melodic elements invite repeat listening. Equally suitable for early morning hours, ultra-deep techno sets, or quiet home listening sessions. Maddermodes have drawn support from top names like Move D and Nick Höppner.
  "Robert Iolini is a composer who transcends the divisions between music, documentary and radio art, mixing investigative journalism, sound ecology, storyboarding and conventional notated composition -- using songs, spoken word, field recording, improvisation and electroacoustic manipulation to make complex audio works that might equally be music, documentary or fiction. He works, initially, like a radio journalist: researching, collecting materials, conducting interviews. The bulk of Songs From Hurt have been constructed in this way, around the extraordinary testimonies of aboriginal teenagers, prisoners, shadow communities and witnesses to a world in which the interviewees are continually told that they are surplus to requirements. Then this raw data is organised, transformed and integrated into complex musical compositions, becoming itself musical in the process -- its pitches no longer simply prosaic, its rhythms driving the structure of its setting while remaining intact -- not looped or pressured into becoming servants to the overall organisation of an aesthetic fiction. The witnesses and sounds converse and conspire in Iolini's work, but never give way to one another. It is rare for conventional and electronic compositions to remain so respectful of voices and what they have to say, and this plain matter of fact-ness makes most rap sound like bluster, and most opera sound like history."