Traveling the Canadian Rockies on VIA Rail

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Overnight passenger train travel can be more expensive and slower than air travel today. So why should you go? And where?

After spending two nights traveling the Canadian Rockies on VIA Rail‘s Canadian, the ‘why’ is easy to answer: in an age when traveling to a destination has become only about getting from Point A to Point B in a rushed, often stressful manner, a few days (or more) aboard a passenger train is a vacation in itself. The pace is relaxed, the scenery can be fantastic, and the service is friendly. After my experience aboard The Canadian, I would venture to say passenger train travel is in fact the sole remaining mode of idyllic transportation from the golden age, outlasting air and cruise travel.

Incorporating a VIA Rail journey into a Canadian vacation itinerary will greatly enrich your trip. There are many routes to choose between, the longest being the four day journey from Vancouver to Toronto on the Canadian. We opted for a fraction of this trip, embarking in Vancouver and departing in Jasper, Alberta (then returning on the same route after days of sightseeing in the Canadian Rockies). The 20-hour one-way trip was spent taking in the scenery from one of several observation cars with 360 degree views, dining in the relaxed yet elegant dining cars, getting to know fellow passengers, and sleeping, reading, working, or napping. We found that the ‘rail level’ views and relaxed pace afforded a more intimate experience with the British Columbia and Alberta wilderness.

Who to take with you:

If you’re bringing kids, I wouldn’t recommend this trip for kids under age six (though as always, parents know their own children best). During the rail trip, passengers are definitely confined to a series of train cars, and young kids would certainly get restless. Is there enough for older kids to do? Here’s what we found: a variety of board games in the ‘activity cars’, on-going snacks and juices in the lounges, and interesting sights out the window, whether it be scenery whizzing by or temporary stops at stations or through towns. In other words: not a lot of on-board entertainment.

If you travel with kids, we recommend downloading a few movies onto a computer, iPod, or iPad, and bringing plenty of reading material, activity books (such as coloring books) and card games. Plan on several hours between each meal that you’ll need to fill. Expect a primarily-adults-only passenger list: during our October trip, we saw only two children aboard the Canadian. This is not to discourage families from bringing kids: rather, know you’ll need to bring diversions and entertainment as needed. WiFi was not available aboard our train, though 3G and 4G service could be found via roaming off and on.

Which fare to book:

Determining which fare is right for you can be tricky. On the Canadian, there are two basic options: sleeper or economy. In economy, you’ll get a seat that reclines, access to an observation car with upper deck, access to a lounge with tables and chairs, and the option to buy food at the Starlight Cafe, serving meals and snacks to go. Passengers sleep in their seats, and share bathroom facilities. Economy is obviously the more affordable option, but quite frankly, didn’t look too appealing (despite the fact that VIA Rail seats are considerably more comfortable than airline seats).

Sleeper fare offers three bed configurations (each a different price) in the Sleeper Plus category.Passengers can opt between a one-passenger or two-passenger private cabin, or a semi-private upper or lower berth (closed with curtains). We experienced Sleeper Plus in a two-passenger cabin. We had a tiny-yet-functional cabin space with two chairs and a large window, a private bathroom with toilet, and a sink. Also included: a small amount of storage space and two outlets (yay!). In the evenings, a train steward comes by to lower your beds, which in the two-passenger cabin is bunk-bed style: upper and lower single beds. Beds are fully made-up each evening, and very comfortable (provided you’re not quite tall).

The one-passenger private cabin features one bench-like seat that flattens to accommodate a bed, plus a sink and toilet (the latter of which features a cushioned cover to become an ottoman during the day, but is covered up by the bed at night…a definite downside). Both the two-passenger and one-passenger cabins share one shower per car.

The last sleeper option is to book an upper or lower berth. These compartments feature bench seats (two facing each other) during the day, which fold out to become a lower berth bed at night. The upper berth bed folds out from the wall by the ceiling. These berths are made up at night and feature thick curtains for privacy. They share a public toilet and shower (one per car).

All Sleeper Plus fares include meals in the dining car (breakfast, lunch, and dinner, depending on when you’re onboard), snacks in the lounge, access to several observation cars and lounges, and complimentary champagne and appetizers upon embarkation.

Here’s a photo depicting 1. a two-passenger cabin made up for bed, 2. a lower berth made up for day, 3. coach seats:

Which to book will depend on your comfort level (how much privacy do you need?) and your meal needs. We absolutely recommend the all-inclusive dining: if you opt out of this, you can buy meals a la carte in the cafe, but this option would get old (and expensive) if traveling more than one night. We enjoyed the privacy of a cabin, but could have been comfortable in an upper and lower berth as well. Keep in mind that only up to two passengers fit in a cabin: families of four or more will need to book two (or more) cabins or opt for two or more upper/lower berths in a row. (The latter option will allow for more freedom of movement between beds as needed, but you’ll only have access to a shared bathroom.

View our VIA Rail experience video:

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Tips:

1. Carry-on sized bags only are allowed onboard. Full-sized bags will need to be checked, so plan accordingly. Cabins have space for up to two carry-on bags, but if you opt for a berth, you’d be better off with only a large tote or backpack.

2. Bring a water bottle to refill. While coffee, tea, and juice is on offer at all times, I found the need to also keep a water bottle filled to prevent dehydration. If you like to sip coffee or tea all day, bring a small thermos or insulated mug.

3. Bring a hair dryer if you’ll need one: in cabins, towels, shampoo, and soap are provided, but not hair dryers.

4. Be prepared for plenty of motion and some train noise at night. We slept surprisingly well onboard, but you’ll definitely feel the movement.

Date last visited:

October 2013

Fare cost:

Calculate Via Rail fares here. Definitely plan early and check for fare discounts, offered several times per year. What we found: VIA Rail is not more economical than flying, so you need to consider the fare cost a part of your vacation experience, not part of your transportation costs.

Directions:

If embarking in Vancouver on the Canadian, you’ll depart from Pacific Station. Located next to Science World, it’s easy to get here from SkyRail from either the airport or the Waterfront station in downtown Vancouver.

As I disclose whenever applicable, we experienced The Canadian as guests of the VIA Rail, for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own, and we hope our experience inspires and equips other traveling families to make great decisions about rail travel.

About the author

AUTHOR: Amy Whitley is the founding editor of Pit Stops for Kids and content editor of Trekaroo. She writes on staff monthly as a family travel expert at Go Green Travel Green and Practical Travel Gear, and contributes to Outdoors NW as an outdoor adventure traveler. Find Amy at Google.

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Travel/Graceland: A home fit for a king

Read article : Travel/Graceland: A home fit for a king

Photo by: The News-Gazette

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By FRANK HOSEK

A 1955 pink Cadillac Fleetwood is hard to ignore. It's the difference between the buttoned-down collar, starched shirt, skinny tie and black fedora of Frank Sinatra and the up-turned collar, opened-neck shirt and unruly mop of hair of Elvis Presley. It makes a statement.

The new $45 million, 200,000-square-foot museum, shopping and dining complex entitled Elvis Presley's Memphis, located across from Presley's Graceland home, makes a statement also. The fresh entertainment center replaces an admittedly aged compound that reminded one of an ancient strip center that had been reincarnated into a roadside exhibit.

An impromptu trek to Memphis, Tenn., for barbecue and tunes coincided with the monthlong grand opening and propelled us to again explore the second-most-visited house in America. Only the White House receives more visitors. It's what you do; go to Memphis, go to Graceland.

It's been 40 years since Elvis left the building. In that time, the need and want of both the most rabid and simply curious of fans to visit the world of Elvis Presley has only grown. Since Graceland opened to the public in 1982, nearly 21 million visitors have passed through the iconic music-themed gates.

The Presley Motors Automobile Museum was our first stop into the new undertaking. Besides the aforementioned blushing Cadillac, which Elvis had bought for his mother who could neither drive nor owned a driver's license, there is a purple caddy, reportedly custom painted after he smashed a handful of grapes on the fender to determine the color.

Also, there is a 1973 black Stutz Blackhawk, the last car he drove on the day he died. These are amongst a myriad of automobiles, nearly two dozen, which would make anyone's dream list.

Directly adjacent is a gallery that could aptly be called a boy and his toys but is officially designated Presley Cycles. It is an eclectic collection of motorized playthings, from Harleys to ski-boats to the John Deere tractor he used on the 14-acre estate.

I found the Private Presley: Elvis in the Army exhibit as probably the most humanizing of the displays. It focuses on his two years spent serving the nation. With several of his army uniforms, foot locker and ephemera on display, you see just another man in uniform, albeit one with several gold records.

It was interesting to note that every night that he was home while in Germany, he would come out from 7:30 to 8 p.m. to sign autographs in front of his house.

Elvis the Entertainer Career Museum reminds everyone why, 40 years after his death, he is still one of the most influential and successful performers to date. Walls lined with hundreds of gold and platinum records, early memorabilia from the Sun Records era, areas devoted to his movies, the '68 TV special and Las Vegas concerts with video screens playing some of his greatest performances immerse the visitor into the world of Elvis on stage.

A wonderful, and slightly amusing, experience was viewing the large selection of colorful and extravagant jumpsuits that were Elvis' trademark in the latter years of his concert events.

The rest of the complex included exhibits that weren't yet open; one about Sun Records founder Sam Phillips and another about Elvis' childhood in Tupelo, Miss.

There was also an indoor fairgrounds, where you can pay to play carnival games. It was pointedly empty of fans and staffed by some very bored attendants.

Soundstage A, which screens Elvis movies, was the last stop. As we stumbled into the cavernous hall, Elvis was performing on the huge screen. I believe it was the documentary "Elvis on Tour." We found ourselves, with just a handful of others, watching the larger-than-life legend in full-throated excellence. It was hard to pull ourselves away.

As impressive as the new facilities are, there is still a decidedly commercial air about it. And, for most, it is secondary to the true reason for their pilgrimage — to visit the Graceland mansion and to pay tribute to Elvis.

Little has changed at the cathedral to the legend of the king of rock 'n' roll, except that many of the exhibits that had been crammed into the racquetball court have been removed to the museum and the court restored to its original design.

The throngs are exceedingly respectful as we all crowded into the noticeably mid-sized, two-story mansion with its distinctive interior styling. The stark whites and shimmering gold of the living room; the deep purple bedspread contrasting with the bright pick tiled bath in Elvis' parents' bedroom; the eclectic blues and yellows of the TV room; and the dark, brooding room of green shag carpeting, giant artificial waterfall, ceramic monkeys and simulated animal fur known as the jungle room. The rooms provoke whispers, furtive glances and occasional smirks.

But it is the Meditation Garden where the fervent, somber worshipfulness of an icon is in full display. Elvis is laid to rest here, along with his mother, father, grandmother and brother. Encircled by wrought iron, next to a flowing fountain and overseen by the marbled outstretched arms of Jesus, people pay their respects in silence.

As we watched, a woman who could not have been more than a child when Elvis died, with tears streaming down her cheeks, added a small stuffed teddy bear to the growing collection of flowers and gifts at the foot of his grave.

We had made our way to the mecca of a new sound that had shocked a button-down world to its core. We spent nearly seven hours exploring the new and the old. And just like hundreds of thousands of faithful and curious alike who flock to Graceland every year, we experienced the life, embraced the legend and paid our respects to the king of rock 'n' roll.

More information can be found at graceland.com/. Prices for adults start at $38.75; however, for the full experience (access to home, museum and airplanes), tickets are $62.50.

Frank Hosek of Bourbonnais is director of human resources at Carpet Weaver's Inc. in Champaign. His hobbies include travel, reading, writing and photography.

Bruce Beresford-Redman's prison diaries - CBS News

Read article : Bruce Beresford-Redman's prison diaries - CBS News

Produced by Josh Yager, Paul LaRosa and Ana Real

"48 Hours" first told the story of Bruce Beresford-Redman in 2012. His wife, Monica, was murdered in a Cancun hotel while his family was vacationing. Bruce returned to the United States to take care of his children, but when Mexico charged him with his wife's murder, he was extradited there to stand trial. Nearly three years later, he is still on trial.

Where does the case stand and how long will Monica's family have to wait for justice? "48 Hours" correspondent Troy Roberts confronts Beresford-Redman about the charges against in him in his first sit-down interview.

Video diary: "My name is Bruce Beresford-Redman ... I'm in a Mexican prison, where I've been on trial now ... for more than two years and nine months. I am accused of the murder of my wife, Monica ... for a crime I did not commit."

In a video diary he made for "48 Hours", Bruce Beresford-Redman says not a day goes by that he doesn't "miss and think about his wife."

Monica's family misses her too.

"I wish I could believe that he didn't have anything to with my sister's murder," said her sister Jeanne Burgos in a 2012 interview with Troy Roberts. "It's for the love that we have for her and all the memories that we have about her ... that we are here today demanding justice."

Bruce Beresford-Redman

48 Hours

Recording diary entries in his cell inside Cancun's Benito Juarez Prison and elsewhere around the prison compound over a period of four months, Beresford-Redman says he wanted people to "understand what can happen, to get an idea of, what things are like here in Hell."

Video diary: "Making these video has really made me much more visible here ... which is really not a great thing for me...My existence in here has become a very basic struggle to simply survive."

"For many years I worked in reality TV and the reality of reality television, even at its best ... it's a world that is created. Being in here is real ... it is real and it sucks. .. it's noisy and it's smelly and it's sweaty and hot and cramped ... it's extremely uncomfortable.

"This is not an easy place to be I really don't have any, any what you could call real friends here ... and it's impossible for me to really have anybody in here that I can trust."

Riots there are not uncommon. In his video diary, Beresford-Redman documents the effects of being tear-gassed during an uprising.

Video diary: "It's Friday ... I've heard some pops and then I smelled the tear gas ... I'm getting kind of a choking sensation now ... and my eyes are just burning...it's just really strong ... itchy ... burning ... oh, god, it's awful."

A NEW REALITY

Living behind bars has been the reality for Beresford-Redman since "48 Hours" first met him in February 2012.

"This is not the United States. I really don't know this system. I don't know how it works," he told "48 Hours."

Back then, Beresford-Redman was housed in the high security wing of the Benito Juarez Prison -- a cell block full of drug traffickers and assassins responsible for countless murders around Mexico.

Now, he's in general population where he has more freedom. Beresford-Redman agreed to make video diaries to document his day-to-day life. It is a rare glimpse inside a Mexican prison.

Video diary: "Being incarcerated anywhere, but I think maybe especially here, time just gets warped ... it is almost impossible to live in the present because the present is just absolutely miserable."

"I don't think that I could possibly convey what it feels like to have not seen my children, not held my children, for nearly three years now."

"Everything that I worked my life to build is gone... If I'm convicted, I am facing a sentence of 30 years..."

Beresford-Redman says he spends a lot of time reliving time with his wife and kids -- "just times when I was free."

Bruce and Monica Beresford-Redman

Images of Monica -- lovely, vivacious and headstrong -- haunt Beresford-Redman.

Video diary:"I've had a lotta time to think back on things and to remember things from the past..."

For more than two years, "48 Hours" tried to get permission to do a sit-down interview in the prison. That interview between correspondent Troy Roberts and Beresford-Redman took place earlier this year.

"How did you meet Monica?" Roberts asked.

"Monica owned a restaurant in and a nightclub in -- in West Los Angeles called Zabumba," Beresford-Redman replied. "I randomly went there one night for dinner. And this beautiful woman served me great food ... it was a fun place. And I ... went back to try and get her attention ... and I sorta never left. ...Monica was the most beautiful, engaging-- just-- she was great. She was so cool, and -- very quickly I found that my relationship with her was different than any relationship I'd ever had before and I was in love with her and she was in love with me and it was terrific."

Monica's sisters, Carla and Jeanne Burgos, say that when Bruce and Monica first met back in 1997, they seemed like a happy couple. The Burgos sisters spoke to "48 Hours" in 2012.

"She had life. She was very outgoing and self-confident," Jeanne said. "Bruce was a very well read person. He can be very eloquent ... but not necessarily the emotion."

After marrying in 1999, the couple had two children: Camilla, now 10, and Alec, now 7.

Monica had the restaurant and Bruce had his career, which was taking off in a hurry. He was a top producer on the CBS program "Survivor" and also worked on several hit reality shows for other networks and cable outlets.

As the money poured in, the family moved to a $2 million house in Los Angeles. With the more lavish lifestyle, came some unexpected challenges.

"Things became difficult?" Roberts asked.

"At times, sure," Beresford-Redman replied. "Both Monica and I worked a great deal. ...I worked during the day, she worked at night ... there was a period of time when we were sort of passing one another."

If that sounds like a recipe for marital discord, it was. Beresford-Redman began an affair with his longtime casting director Joy Pierce. At times, the two had trouble keeping their hands off each other, even in front of Monica's sister, Carla.

"I went with him to a party," she said. "It was a club ... we got there ... she jumped on his lap ... and I was ... you know..."

"You were stunned," Roberts noted.

"Yeah," Carla replied.

Beresford-Redman was struggling with the affair on an emotional level. He considered telling his parents, David and Juanita, and eventually confided in his mother.

Asked if she encouraged her son to break off the affair, Juanita told Roberts, "I did. I said, 'You know, that's the only smart thing to do. You will hurt yourself. You will hurt Monica.' ...I got the impression that he had really fallen in love and it was going to be very difficult for him to break it off."

After Monica angrily confronted her husband, Beresford-Redman wrote her a brutally frank e-mail. It was written on March 4, 2010 - only one month before the couple was to leave on their ill-fated Mexican vacation. In the e-mail, Beresford-Redman laid bare the painful truth, writing: "Joy and I were lovers." Monica was devastated.

"My relationship with Monica was good," said Beresford-Redman.

"You can't paint a rosy picture on this, right? Roberts asked. " I mean ... you guys had problems."

"Like any marriage, like any family, we had -- we had issues, certain issues," he replied. "But we were -- we were happily married and we were in love with each other ... We were good."

Beresford-Redman wouldn't talk to "48 Hours" about his affair, but in an e-mail written to Joy Pierce in the spring of 2010, he outlined the steps a furious Monica had taken against him: "She...denied me access to my children ... she shut me out of my home ... and liquidated all my money, " he wrote.

"It was a point where she had decided to get divorced from him," said Jeanne.

But Beresford-Redman did all he could to change Monica's mind. He promised he'd break off his affair with Joy and told Monica he would change his ways. Monica agreed to go with him for the family vacation they took every year for her upcoming birthday. This time, they traveled to the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

"And how was the trip, initially?" Roberts asked Beresford-Redman.

"It was good. It was -- it was really fun, you know," he replied.

"So you and Monica got along well during this trip?" Roberts asked.

"Yeah, we had a really good time," said Bruce.

That's hardly the way Monica described the trip, according to her sister, Jeanne, who says she spoke to Monica by phone the day before she was murdered. Jeanne says Monica was upset about Bruce's cheating.

"I told her, 'Monica, don't worry. You know, come back here, just move on with your life,'" Jeanne said. "...you're just going to build up your life again and you're going to be happy again."

The next day, April 5, 2010, was to be the last day of Monica's life.

"She was gonna do some shopping-- and then she was perhaps gonna go to a spa," Beresford-Redman explained.

"And when did you grow concerned?" Roberts asked.

"Probably 10:30 or 11:00 that night," he said, sighing.

Bruce's concern was made all the worse because he says Monica had not taken her cell phone so he could not call her. Police later discovered that she did not take her passport or a room key, either.

"Was that surprising that she didn't take her phone when you were alone with kids?" Roberts asked.

"No. No, not really," Beresford-Redman replied. "When Monica was off the grid, she was off the grid."

She didn't take her cell phone? She left the kids all day with him? She never does that, ever," Jeanne told Roberts.

Video diary: "One of the things that I remember from the night that Monica was first missing was my children sleeping. I had given them baths and I had put them to bed ...and I thought, 'OK, I'm gonna go outside and I'm gonna take a look. I'm gonna see Monica walking back towards the room."

But Monica did not come back to the room -- not that night and not ever. The long, upward trajectory of Beresford-Redman's once-successful life and career was about to end abruptly.

A LOOK INSIDE PRISON LIFE

When Bruce Beresford-Redman left on his family vacation to Mexico in 2010, he probably never thought home would turn out to be Cancun's Benito Juarez prison.

The prison, where he has spent nearly three years on trial for his wife's murder, houses more than 1,800 men and women in a compound originally built for 700.

Video diary: "When I walk around the prison, no matter where I'm going or what's going on, I am constantly aware that this is just a hostile environment for me."

"I'm completely shut down. I'm simply in survival mode," Beresford-Redman told Roberts. "To make it in here, you cannot indulge in human sentiments. ... you really have to deaden part of yourself and just survive."

Video diary: "My Spanish is still not very good ... So I'm always paying attention ... and you're never really able to relax."

It's a pressure cooker of criminals and contraband that often boils over.

"You're with people who have demonstrated poor impulse control and a number of them may have mental problems,"Beresford-Redman explained. "It's not uncommon to have fist fights ... screaming matches ...it is a very dehumanizing situation."

Bruce Beresford-Redman his cell at Cancun's Benito Juarez Prison.

48 Hours

Video diary: The cell that I'm in is a very small cell ... it's designed for three men. And there are 10 of us in here. There have been as many as 17... This is the bathroom of the cell. All of these buckets are full of water. The water here runs only for a couple hours a day."

"I come back from my workout and I take my first shower of the day ... I shower four times a day ... I wash my clothes ... I do everything I can to keep myself clean and healthy. It's a real struggle ... This place seems like a really great place to incubate a plague. Despite my best efforts I managed to get a rash that everyone else here had that just swept through this place like wildfire."

The cell is open to the elements -- rain and relentless heat. He says the smell from open sewers is blinding, adding that "the whole country -- it feels like is just steaming."

Video diary: This is my bunk where I sleep. I've awakened probably seven or eight times now with a cockroach on me someplace.

Among the personal items Beresford-Redman keeps on a shelf above his bed -- his favorite picture of his daughter and son.

Video diary: "This is breakfast this morning ... brown liquid with some beans on the bottom there I think ... I have gotten violently ill eating the prison food... I have been able to supplement my diet ... with-- food brought from outside. I befriended-- an inmate in here. He has since been released. But his family still comes to see me once a week with some home-cooked meals and some snacks and some other things, so that I don't have to rely entirely on the prison food."

To pay for his food and other expenses, Beresford-Redman's parents send him money from their retirement nest egg. Less fortunate inmates have to rely on meals in buckets served by new prisoners known as "talachos."

Video diary: "They are as close as you can come to slaves. You can buy your way out of it, or you can do your talacho work for your first year here."

"The guards basically maintain a perimeter on the outside and their concern primarily is making sure that nobody gets out... The prisoners discipline each other ... and it's much more dangerous, because there's really nobody to come to your help, to your aid, if you are in trouble in here."

Danger is all around, but he says Mexican prison also means a freedom he never had in American prison, where he spent 18 months awaiting extradition.

Video diary: "In many ways, this is like a very small village that they just threw razor wire around. There's churches in here, there's a mechanic shop in here ... guys making hammocks."

Some of the women prisoners are even allowed to have their children live with them. Three times a week it's visiting day.

Video diary: "...this place is full today of families ... on visit days. From 8:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon the prison ... fills up with families and wives and kids...

"Family is extraordinarily highly valued here and the prison administration and prisoners themselves and the gangs in here have enormous respect for the visits."

He says visit days make him sad, "a little melancholy." There are no family visits for Beresford-Redman.

Video diary: "I would not allow them. I don't want them to be confronted with how I am forced to exist in here."

So Beresford-Redman hasn't seen them in nearly three years. His lifeline is phone calls to his children, Alec and Camilla, who live with his parents in California.

Video diary: "To hear my kids' voices, to hear my parents' voices ... is the best, most human part of my day. ... I have not been able to be a father to Camilla and Alec for ... years now. It is devastating. It takes all of my energy just to keep going."

But there's no choice. Beresford-Redman, his family, and Monica's sisters are all navigating an unfamiliar landscape: justice in a foreign country.

"There's no question that the Mexican legal system is different from ours," said Sonya Tsiros, U.S. Consul General for the Cancun area.

Tsiros says she is closely following the Beresford-Redman case - and that by Mexican standards, it doesn't surprise her.

"Has Mr. Beresford-Redman complained to you about the length of this trial?" Roberts asked.

"He has raised that issue," Tsiros replied. "And we're following through on that."

"Do you have any sense of what the prison conditions are like?" Roberts asked.

"I would say that the prison conditions are not up to what we would consider standards in the United States," said Tsiros.

Beresford-Redman, at least, has a bed. "48 Hours" found another American, 38-year-old Johnny Mintu, from Seattle, who, incredibly, sleeps on the floor under Bruce's bunk. It's not uncommon in this prison.

Video diary: "From time to time ... when I just really need some privacy and a little bit of quiet and just a little more space than I can get in my cell or in the rest of the prison ... I book a conjugal room."

Most inmates rent the room for sex. Beresford-Redman says he rents it for peace and quiet.

Video diary: "You're not supposed to be in here by yourself. But I just put down the name Jane Doe and nobody's ever checked."

Trying to recreate life outside the bars is only a temporary escape.

Video diary: "I cannot afford in here to appear on the outside as absolutely broken as I feel on the inside."

As the sun begins to set, the prisoners are locked in for the night.

Video diary: Another night here ... another night in paradise ... then I just lay down and try to go to sleep...

It's a sleep, he says, that is haunted by the memory of his murdered wife.

Video diary: "I still miss her all the time and I still think of her all the time ... I never lose sight of the fact that this is really Monica's story."

Monica's story is a murder mystery. And for Beresford-Redman, it's a real whodunit.

THE DAY MONICA DISAPPEARED

With so much time on his hands, Bruce Beresford-Redman says he thinks often of the day Monica disappeared.

"As soon as I was awake, I called the hotel desk, I guess, and I said you know, 'My wife didn't come back yesterday. Do you know where she is?'" Beresford-Redman told Troy Roberts.

Monica Beresford-Redman

After reporting that she was missing, he called Jeane Burgos, Monica's sister.

"When Bruce called you to say that Monica was missing what went through your mind?" Roberts asked.

"My sister missing? Monica? Monica's not a person that gets lost, she doesn't get lost," Jeanne replied. "She's a person that she goes anywhere and she makes friends and she knows what she's doing."

A worried Jeanne immediately flew to Cancun to help with the search, but the next day, hotel workers found Monica's body in that sewer situated near the family's hotel room.

"How could someone put a person in the sewage. Very, very, very horrible," she said.

"How did you learn that her body was discovered?" Roberts asked Beresford-Redman.

"I was at the hotel ... I was sitting there waiting ...and they brought me back to my room," he replied. "I had no idea what was going on. ...Finally someone told me that they had found Monica's body.

It would have been her 42nd birthday.

Video diary: "I could not make sense of that. It just didn't seem possible."

Bruce Beresford-Redman became a suspect almost immediately because investigators thought his story of Monica's disappearance defied logic. They didn't believe she would leave the children behind without taking her room key, her passport, or even her cell phone. What's more, Beresford-Redman had visible scratches on his body.

He says the injuries to his hand occurred after a boat ride as he tried to carry his children up a steep incline.

"It was rocky and slippery and I had to lift the kids out and then climb out myself and I scratched my hands a little bit," he explained.

As for the scratches to the back of his neck?

"We were diving ... and I surfaced and there was a nylon rope and it was just a rough nylon rope and it abraded ... the back of my head a little bit and that was it," he told Roberts.

Police also learned that two English teenagers had reported hearing screams coming from Beresford-Redman's room very early on the morning Bruce said Monica went shopping.

Jen Heger covered the story for Radar Online.

"A female screamed crying for help," Heger explained. "The next morning, the teenagers told their parents about what they had heard to the concierge. The concierge called the hotel room to see what was going on and Bruce said that Bruce and Monica were arguing about the children and that everything was fine."

Beresford-Redman maintains that he and the children were simply playing a loud, boisterous game. But now his every move was coming under scrutiny.

Asked why he had a "do not disturb" sign on the door all day, Beresford-Redman told Roberts, "Well, I was in and out all day with the kids. We were napping and doing stuff and didn't wanna be disturbed. It's as simple as that really."

"The Mexican authorities believe that Bruce wouldn't allow the maids to clean the room that day because there was a dead body inside and that dead body belonged to his wife -- Monica," said Heger.

The police theorized that Beresford-Redman had suffocated his wife and, later that night, went looking for a place to stash her body.

"We also know," Heger continued, "someone went in and out of the room nine times in the middle of the night."

Beresford-Redman says he was nervously checking to see if Monica was about to return.

"I was in and out of the room many times to take a look to see if I could see her, to walk down to where the footpath is visible and to take a look and return to the room," Beresford-Redman told Roberts.

Back in Los Angeles, Monica's sister, Carla Burgos, thought back to the last time she had seen Bruce and how agitated he seemed to her. It was just two days before the family left for Cancun.

"I've seen him before they traveled and he was totally angry and crazy. I said, 'Don't be around him ... Monica, please listen to me, get out,'" she said.

"Why do you think Monica's family is convinced that you killed her?" Roberts asked.

"I really don't know," Beresford-Redman replied. "I understand their pain. I understand their sense of loss. After my children and myself, their loss is the greatest ... however, why they wanna blame me, I don't know ... that I don't know."

Monica also had life insurance. Her husband was not the beneficiary, but the children stood to inherit $500,000 each. All in all, investigators believed they had a strong circumstantial case but there remained a huge question -- how could Beresford-Redman kill his wife, and then dump her body while taking care of two young children?

"They were in one hotel room and it was not a suite. It was one room," said Heger.

There was scant physical evidence against Beresford-Redman except for a very small amount of blood investigators found on the bedroom pillow and a balcony railing.

"When people look at you with suspicion, how do you feel?" Roberts asked.

"I've been accused of a horrible, abhorrent crime and I'm innocent," said Beresford-Redman.

"You did not kill Monica," said Roberts.

"I did not kill Monica," Bruce replied.

But the police were convinced Bruce Beresford-Redman did kill Monica and they had no other suspects. The hotel, which says it kept written logs of everyone entering or leaving the grounds, reported it had no record of Monica leaving that day. And if there are security cameras at the Moon Palace, no recordings have surfaced.

Video diary: "My best guess would be that somewhere in the course of her day, she ran into some people that she should not have run across ... I think perhaps she attracted the attention of someone who was very dangerous."

While Beresford-Redman was cooperating with police, his children were taken back to Los Angeles by a friend of Jeanne Burgos. She also arranged for her sister's body to be brought back, even though Beresford-Redman had already paid for Monica to be cremated.

"Why do you think Bruce moved to have Monica cremated?" Roberts asked Jeanne Burgos.

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory," she said.

"Why do you think?" Roberts pressed.

"To get rid of any evidence," Jeanne replied.

Beresford-Redman stayed in Mexico for about a week after Monica's body was found. Authorities took his passport and insist they ordered him to remain in the country. He says his lawyer told him he was free to return to the United States.

"48 Hours" correspondent interviews Bruce Beresford-Redman

48 Hours

"This is what I find a little difficult ... is that they're investigating your wife's murder and you go home? Why wouldn't you stay here?" Roberts asked.

"Well, because I have two small children who were at my home. They just lost their mom and I believed at the time that I had done all I could do to help the police so I went home to be with my children," he replied.

Having no passport, Beresford-Redman got a ride to the Mexican border near Laredo, Texas, and simply walked across using his driver's license for identification. From there, he took a train rather than fly back to Los Angeles. His unorthodox journey raised suspicions.

"You didn't go back to the United States to escape possible arrest?" Roberts asked Beresford-Redman.

"No, I went home to be with my children. I was at my home. I was not hiding. If I'd been trying to evade I would have attempted to evade. I went back to the United States and went directly home," he explained.

Beresford-Redman cared for his children for seven months. But in November 2010, Mexico declared him a fugitive and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was taken to a federal jail in Los Angeles where he stayed for more than a year until he was finally extradited back to Cancun to stand trial for the murder of his wife.

"Bruce probably feels that he is trapped in the worst reality show he could ever imagine," said Heger.

SEEKING JUSTICE IN MEXICO

In February 2012, Bruce Beresford-Redman -- outfitted in a bulletproof vest -- was extradited back to Mexico in a scene straight out of a movie.

Video diary: "I was taken by the U.S. Marshals to the airport ... I was brought here in the middle of the night in a rainstorm..."

"I hoped that my trial would end quickly when I got here," he told Roberts.

That is not what happened. Essentially, the courts in Mexico move at their own pace. There are no juries and in many courtrooms on any given day, there's more than one trial going on at the same time.

Video diary: "The courtroom that I'm being tried in looks like a very busy shipping office above a warehouse someplace."

Criminal defense lawyer Pat Fanning lives part-time in Mexico and has experience with the country's judicial system.

"They just don't have the resources to do the things the way we do," Fanning told Roberts. "Here, it's more like a municipal office in the United States where you'd go to get your driver's license, where you'd go to pick up a birth certificate or something."

U.S. Consul General Sonya Tsiros says the differences are more than cosmetic.

"There's not a trial, per se, in that there is one period of time in which a judge hears all of the evidence. ... It's done through a series of written presentations to the judge," Tsiros explained. "It doesn't occur ... in the same fashion in the United States."

But as the trial has dragged on, what once seemed like a strong prosecution case appeared to evaporate in court. Testing revealed that the blood droplets found in the hotel room did not belong to Monica. That raised questions about where Monica had been killed because she had suffered a substantial head wound.

"Our experts ... say it is not possible to kill someone and produce that type of injuries without leaving blood," said Jaime Cancino, who is one of Beresford-Redman's lawyers in Mexico. "If that have happened there... it would produced a humungous quantity of blood."

In court, prosecutors could not even produce the Q-tips investigators used to collect the blood. Most everything else they took from the family's hotel room as potential evidence turned out to be contaminated by mold and water damage while in police custody.

And some of the physical evidence presented at trial helped Beresford-Redman. Footprints found near the crime scene were not Bruce's. It also came to light that Monica's fingernails were not tested for the presence of DNA because her body was so decomposed.

"There isn't much direct evidence and the evidence they do have has been contaminated, largely," Roberts noted to Fanning.

"Well, it has in -- in large part. But you still have, for example, that they were havin' marital troubles ... that he had a girlfriend ... the life insurance policy on her for half-a-million dollars," he replied.

But in court, even the circumstantial case against Beresford-Redman appeared weaker than advertised.

Some witnesses, like the English teenagers who reported overhearing screams coming from the Beresford-Redman room, did not appear in court. Beresford-Redman says other witnesses did not repeat the stories they had first told police.

"It's clear to me that they have no idea what happened to my wife," he told Roberts. "There was witness, who was a housekeeper, I think. And he came in ... and before anyone asked a question, he said, 'I wasn't there that day. I didn't see anything. I don't know anything and I don't know why I'm here as a witness.'"

Another person not called to the stand or even part of the case was Emily Hamilton from Baltimore. She says she was nearly raped at the Moon Palace one month after Monica was murdered. And her attacker, Hamilton says, was a hotel worker delivering food to her room.

"He threw me on the bed. ... He had his arms around me. I was trying to force him off and I remember feeling pain ... 'cause I thought I could fend for myself, but he was too strong and overbearing ... and that's when I yelled for my friend Casey and she came back in and that's when he was pulling up his pants and that's when he ran out of the room," said Hamilton.

"So you must've been frightened out of your mind," said Roberts.

"Very much so," Hamilton replied.

That worker was fired. In the United States, it's likely he'd be a suspect in Monica's murder, but that possibility was not raised in Beresford-Redman's trial. However, in 2013, an independent criminologist was appointed by the court to review all the evidence against Beresford-Redman.

"He reviewed the case, he visited the crime scene, he did all the things required to make his report," Beresford-Redman told Roberts.

After six months, the criminologist released a bombshell of a report. His conclusion: Monica was not murdered in her Moon Palace hotel room and there was no physical evidence linking Beresford-Redman to her murder.

Video diary: "I naively assumed at that point that the prosecution would drop the charges and would focus their investigative efforts elsewhere ... and nothing has happened. Charges aren't dropped. My trial continues with no end in sight. I'm still here..."

"If you're gonna convict me, convict me so I can appeal. Otherwise just give me a ruling so I can go home," said Beresford-Redman.

"Do you think you're being unfairly singled out?" Roberts asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "It feels at times to me like they don't wanna do anything with me. I'm stuck and ... in many ways I feel like I'm without a country."

Sonia Tsiros says members of the U.S. consulate have visited Beresford-Redman on 19 separate occasions.

"U.S. citizens who are arrested in a foreign country are subject to the laws of that foreign country," Tsiros explained. "We can't intervene in court cases and we can't request special treatment for U.S. citizens."

"Can you use the influence of your office to move things along?" Roberts asked.

"If there's due process violation, we can raise those. But we can't intervene in -- in a case," she said.

"I'm broken inside. I have lost my wife. I lost my children ... I've lost everything else," Beresford-Redman told Roberts. "I'm on emotional autopilot, just surviving every day in the hopes that I will finally at some point get outta here but that is a diminishing hope."

Of course, he is not the only one who's lost a loved one.

"Everybody loved her," Carla Burgos said of her sister, Monica. "She was so awesome, so full of life. She was so fun, so smart. Everything,"

Each side hopes for justice ... and that may soon be coming because after nearly three years, the last witnesses will finally testify.

A LAST HEARING

After years in a Mexican prison - and in legal limbo - Bruce Beresford-Redman's trial finally may be nearing an end.

Video diary: "It's a Thursday afternoon. Tomorrow I will be taken back to court, and I am told it will be the last hearing in my trial...

"It's very difficult for me to get my hopes up... because I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop ... and so often it seems to drop on my head."

He says the trial so far hasn't made any sense. Lost or contaminated evidence, missing witnesses and agonizing delays. It's his first court date in about three months.

On this day, he's set to face the prosecutor's final two witnesses -- hotel employees who may have witnessed Bruce and Monica arguing the day before her murder.

"How many times have you appeared before this judge?" Roberts asked.

"If I had to guess, I would say probably, 40, maybe 45 appearances in court over two-and- a-half years. At the many of those appearances, however-- the witness doesn't show up, and we stand around for a little while and they reschedule the witness for another eight weeks or 10 weeks down the road and we all go home again," Beresford-Redman replied.

But these witnesses actually do show up. Today, it's the judge who doesn't.

Like many of the other hearings, this one goes ahead anyway with the judge's assistant presiding.

Video diary: "...the witnesses arrived ... no one including the prosecution seemed to have any idea what they were going to say..."

Incredibly, the final two prosecution witnesses sound like part of the defense team. Both tell the court they've never laid eyes on Beresford-Redman or his wife.

"We didn't hear them arguing," one of them told "48 Hours" after the hearing. "We didn't even see their faces."

With no more witnesses on either side, Mexican law requires the judge to conclude the evidence phase of the trial within about five days; but that doesn't happen.

"Why don't we have a verdict?" Roberts asked Pat Fanning.

"Because we're in Mexico," he replied. "That's how things are done here and nobody gets excited about it."

For nearly three years, "48 Hours" has asked Mexican authorities to go on the record about this case. But they refused.

Back in prison, it's hard for Beresford-Redman not to hope.

Video diary: "Yesterday was a good day...and you sort of take them as they come..."

"I am absolutely confident that if -- if there is a ruling according to the facts, that I will be exonerated," he said.

"And when will that happen?" Roberts asked.

"Well ... that I don't know. That's my problem," he replied.

But the Burgos sisters insist Bruce is right where he should be. And justice for Monica demands that he stay there.

"If he really killed my sister, which it looks like he did, I want him in jail. But it doesn't make me happy to see him in jail," said Carla Burgos.

Video diary: "I spend a lotta time in here looking over the barbed wire ... I can see birds and green trees and life outside -- oh this Hell...

"It's really time for me to go home. It's time for me to be with Camilla and Alec. It's time for me to try and put back together some kind of a life for them and for myself."

His parents, meanwhile, are trying to keep life in California as normal as possible for Alec and Camilla, but it's not easy -- they're 81 and 76.

Juanita Beresford-Redman has been keeping a video diary, too:

"It's ... about 8:30 in the morning. The children have gone off to school. It's reasonably quiet at the moment.

"Camilla's birthday is coming up ... and she asked me yesterday did I think daddy might be able to home for her birthday this year... and I told her honestly, "No honey...he's not gonna make it this year."

"Is it your fear that this may go on indefinitely?" Roberts asked Juanita.

"It is a fear," she replied. "I can't see why it's gone on this long."

Carla and Jeanne Burgos tried and failed to get custody, but they have regular visitation with the children.

"We love those kids more than anything in this world," Jeanne said. "It's not what is good, what is bad, it's what is the best for the kids."

"We are a family, but we're not their father... we're their grandparents," Juanita said. "We love them, but, it's not the same."

"I will never make my peace with being incarcerated for something I didn't do. I will never rest or stop fighting. I may lose continually, but I'm never gonna stop ... because this is crap," Beresford-Redman told Roberts.

But as memories and milestones slip past, all Bruce Beresford-Redman can do is watch, wait, and wish his children well.

Video diary: "...I love you guys, I miss you. Be strong and ... and all I want is for you guys to have the best life you can."

Prosecutors should be submitting their closing arguments in writing by the end of November.