Mexico City - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - February 5 - 8, 2023
Hola, amigos!
Anne, flying from FL, and and I, flying from TX, met on Monday, 2/6/23, at the Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City for a 14-day tour of several Mexican states. We discovered we arrived at different terminals when we couldn't find each other until our driver checked with an airport employee. That was an avoidable hassle. But we're pleased with our hotel, the Zocola Central Hotel in the historic center. Light snacks, salads, beer are all available 24 hrs a day, gratis. We are both feeling pooped out. A phone call two days later with Roddy Lake reminds us we are at a higher elevation than Denver! We'll feel crappy for a couple days. We are so sad to learn of the strong earthquake near Gazientep, Turkey, an awesome area we visited a couple years ago. Our guide, Orhan, lives in Gazientep. Our driver, Murat, lives further east; he hasn't responded to my email inquiring about his safety. We hope they and their families are safe. Here's what we've been doing:
Tues 2/7: Our guide today is Jose, and we visit the neighborhood of Coyoacan and see/listen to a organo, a German-type instrument played by one of only 20 musicians in the country. We visit the Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo's (the artist) house. We're reminded of all the suffering she experienced in her life, including her 1932 miscarriage in Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital. Did you know that the Marxist Leon Trotsky and his wife fled Stalin and came to Mexico City? They lived with Frida and her husband, Diego Rivera, for a time; but Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico City in August of 1940 by a man under Stalin's orders. We stopped by the Olympic Stadium to see the 3-D stone mural at the stadium's entrance by Diego Rivera. Our next stop is at the temple-like Museum Diego Rivera - Anahuacalli. This isn't a museum of his works but a collection of ancient pre-Hispanic works. We enjoyed seeing this collection. There are 22 million people in the metro Mexico City area, and the traffic is pretty congested. Much of the building and road construction is done with lava rock. The mountains we see are the Sierra Madres, part of the Rocky Mountain range, which extend to the Andes in Peru.
Wed 2/8: Today our driver Angela takes us about an hour north to Teotihuaca, the City of the Gods. It's a great site with several pyramids and remains of pyramids and temples. Our hazel-eyed guide Eloy (who had a blond blue-eyed great grandmother) gives us so much information about the Aztecs and the culture. So interesting. We walked into a cave where rock and stone was extracted to build the pyramids. And we had a chance to help support the community at some local workshops. We both really enjoyed today. The hotel has advised of two 45-minute power outages tonight. We'll be sleeping, so it doesn't matter much.
Thurs 2/9: This morning at breakfast on the top floor, we witnessed a military gathering in the zocalo square across the street from our hotel. We were advised of a large 'demonstration' in the historic district; streets were closed for blocks around our hotel. We never got an answer to our question about what type of demonstration. Our bellboy said something about Venezuala's Maduro visiting, but we saw nothing in the news about it. We left for a visit to the National Museum of Anthropology, which was filled with marvelous items from centuries of Mexican cultures. We were back in time to catch our ride to that really irritating Benito Juarez Airport. We are in Oaxaca now for four nights. We notice many short people here with more of a Native South American look. We're in a lower altitude now and feeling good. Anne reads a notice in our hotel room telling us we're in a seismic zone and may experience an earthquake. Main thing is to stay calm, grab pillows and get in a doorway or under a table. Cripes.
First day in Mexico City our TOUR guide took us to the Coyoacán area in Mexico City
Colorful, nice area - Coyoacán derived from the word coyote
An organo, a German-type instrument
The house is situated around very nice grounds. We saw Diego’s studio room overlooking the garden area
After going thru the house I have a new respect for Frida and her works. She died in the house at the age of 47 in her bed looking at a picture of butterflies on the ceiling.
We visited a local market
Olympic Stadium with the 3-D stone mural at the stadium's entrance by Diego Rivera
University of Mexico Library - the university grounds encompass an area so large that students are provided free bus transportation on the grounds.
The temple-like Museum Diego Rivera - Anahuacalli
Built from lava rock from the area
Views from the top of the museum
Mirrors on two of the windows with reflections of the mountains and the surrounding area - pretty neat!
Sunrise from our hotel overlooking the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption and Constitution Square (El Zocala)
Sun Temple in the City of the Gods
Center pathway to the Moon Temple with numerous side temples
Remnants of a mural in a side temple - a jaguar with claws open meaning he/she is swimming in water. Red color comes from cinnabar which contains mercury and found near areas of volcanic eruptions. People who were chosen to frind the rock would inhale the dust from grinding and eventually die - but they considered it an honor to sacrifice their lives to the gods
Sacrificial Altar in front of the Moon Temple
Eloy, our guide, demonstrated the acoustics from the Sacrifical altar to the side altar where we could clearly hear him
Photo where we stood at one of the side temples - looking at Eloy we could hear him.
Moon Temple
View from the Moon Temple toward the entrance to the City of the Gods
Entrance to cave
Cave opening that was used as a calendar for planting crops
Anne wondering….
After our lunch, Madalyn asked the musicians to sing their version of Sin Ti (Without You)
We visited the Anthropology Museum
Situated around beautiful grounds with an interesting fountain
Aztec Sunstone
Reproduction of tomb from Monte Albán which we will visit in Oaxaca tomorrow
Sunrise view from the restaurant of Constitution Square where armed forces of Mexico are preparing for some sort of celebration - we never found out exactly what it was for but all the streets around our hotel were closed.
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