We had a great visit with our friends from home Joann and Sophia. Nataly and Sophia played non-stop, leaving the grown-ups with time to work on our spanish, talk, and drink Margaritas in relative peace.
We had a chance to visit the studio and grounds (and to peer through the windows of his house) of the man Anado McLaughlin who made many of the artworks in the house we're currently staying in. This first picture shows the most beautiful compostable baño in Mexico.
This was the ceiling view in the art gallery.
Joann, Sophia, Nataly and I were checking out his collection of giant puppets.
We went on a great day trip to Guanajuato with Sophia and JoAnn. It's a very striking city with lots of lovely squares and multi-colored houses precariously arranged up and down steep hillsides. One fun thing to do is to take a funicular up the side of one of the hills to the giant El Pipila statue at the top. El Pipila was a miner who, at the beginning of the war of independence, stormed la Alhondiga building under a shower of bullets, using a massive stone as a shield. La Alhondiga was where all the wealthhy families of G were taking refuge. He is now a huge hero in Mexico and the storming is reenacted every year in September. Maybe we'll get to see it.
3 days in D.F. (Mexico city)
We were so lucky to have friends (Raphael and Susana) to stay with and show us around the metropolis of Mexico City. (Unfortunately we were not so lucky in that many of the pictures we took didn't show up when transferred to computer, so pics are sparse). It's huge and sprawling. My first impressions - majority of buildings are 3-5 stories tall and rather scruffy looking. Lots of trash around. We're definitely not in charming San Miguel any more. It feels like it takes forever in the car to get places, though we must have had good karma and didn't get in any of the legendary traffic jams. Raphael said traffic is generally much better when the children are out of school. The air quality seemed much better here than in San Miguel because there are pollution control measures in place (though I guess its horrible at times in the winter). Cool, regulation actually does work! The city had tons of chain stores common in the US, from Chiles to Walmart to Panda Express.
The first day we drove out to the pyramids of Teotihuacan. These pyramids were found by the Mexica and used by them, but it's still a mystery what culture built them and for what purpose. There were 3 huge pyramids, of the sun, the moon, and Quetzacoatl, as well as around 15 smaller pyramids, and many grass covered mounds visible in the distance that are pyramids waiting excavation. We were fortunate to have a beautiful, clear, not hot day for climbing. We all took it slow because at 8000 ft it didn't take much to feel tired. The Mayan pyramids we've been to further south are in a tropical rainforest environment, which is what I had pictured, but these are set in the arid landscape of nopales and agave. We were able to see small areas of the pyramids that still had red and green paint, reminding us that these structures originally were brightly colored, rather than the austere stone we see today. Nataly did a great job climbing to the top, especially given that the stair risers were often nearly at hip level for her. We took a break in the middle of exploring to eat lunch in a cave that Raphael knew about nearby. The caves were a cool relief after the brilliant sun of the day. It was a beautiful sight - the dark cave, artistically lit and the tables, chairs, and napkins were brightly colored in Mexican style. Michael was thrilled to finally get barbacoa (lamb) and luckily I liked the one thing on the menu without meat.
The second day we went to the Frida Kahlo "Blue house" museum, which is located in the house owned by her parents that she lived in off and on for her whole life. I'm a big fan of her work, so it was awesome to see many of her lesser known works and to learn about her early life. I learned that she and Diego were big fans of pre-hispanic art and the syncretic art of the religious. They collected a lot of art themselves and were inspired by the legends and practices of the ancient cultures. They even had a small replica of a pyramid built in their garden. The museum showed many exvotes - folk religious art depicting miracles that were painted on small pieces of tin, collected by Frieda, and demonstrated how several of her own artworks came out of this tradition as well.
Later we walked around this neighborhood Coyoacan that used to be a small city outside of the Mexico city, but now has been swallowed up. There's a huge square with a famous sculpture of coyotes (from which the name Coyocan comes) and lots of trendy restaurants around. Later we went to ride the boats at Xochimilco.
This small part of the city still contains the canals which the Aztecs constructed. It is a hugely popular leisure activity to rent the boats, which are punted about the canals by a driver. It was very calm and relaxing, The boats are brightly festooned, now with paint, originally with the flowers that were grown on this fertile land. I can understand that if you live in this hectic busy city it would be especially appealing to spend your off time doing something very mellow and out in nature.
The third day we drove to the downtown area . We got to see the statue of Raphael's aunt in the square that celebrates the mariachi bands and famous singers of Mexico. His aunt, whose name I can't recall, sang for LBJ as well as many other heads of state in europe and was especially popular in Holland, of all places.
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| Raphael with his Tia's statue |
The palace of bellas artes was especially striking as well as the post office. There we saw a cool mural made from canceled stamps.
As well, we saw a display showing an early use of "mail" - relay runners whose job was to transport fish caught fresh from the coast to the aztec rulers hundreds of miles aways in the capital.
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| Michael, Nataly, and Raphael at art deco post office |
Going to the huge National Museum of Anthropology was amazing. We got to see the famous "sun stone" that is now believed to have been a sacrificial altar, rather than a calendar as originally thought. It was found under the main Zocalo, during excavations.
Another great item was the recreation of a part of the Quetzacoatl pyramid with the full color that it would have originally had.
All in all a great trip to Mexico city. And we're happy to go back to San Miguel too.
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