Mexico City

I have been busy with a project and haven't had the time to write since I got back from Mexico City, so now here (if you'd rather skip the rest) are my top 3 thoughts on the place:

-The city (one of the largest if not the largest in the world) is gigantic and is a combination of Aztec ruins, skyscrapers, modern art, and Mexican traditions.
-There is a lot of smog and smoke and I've gotten a pretty bad cough.
-Churros filled with hot chocolate syrup are my new favorite food and I might have to stay in this country and just live off those for the rest of my life (if it weren't for the coughing).

Day 11 of my adventure here began at 5 am to get to the bus by 6 to leave for Mexico City (though some girl didn't get there until 7 so I could have slept in!). This is more or less the same group as Guachimontones, English-speaking exchange students. It was a 7 hour drive there so we watched a couple movies including Frida with Salma Hayek. Frida Kahlo, a painter who was married to fellow painter Diego Rivera, was a strange lady with a crazy life but I really enjoyed the movie: there was so much artwork and there were so many historical Mexican events in the movie that we would see on the trip, so the nerd in me really liked applying that knowledge later.

Important buildings we saw: National Palace (full of Diego Rivera murals; Mom-Jeans tour guide talked about each one for 20 minutes: "This demonstrates how important corn is in Mexican culture. It can also be called maize. We use it for tortillas, enchiladas..."), the Metropolitan Cathedral (I couldn't go in part of it because I was wearing shorts, but the other half has 14 chapels inside, one made of solid gold), and El Templo Mayor. El Templo Mayor was the old center of the Aztec city Tenochtitlan on top of which Mexico City was built. Each time they expanded El Templo, they built on top of it, so it is actually like a 7 layer cake. It's amazing what's still intact today. Just 4 years ago they found some large important myth-telling stone (Coyolxauhqui and no I can't pronounce it), is on display there now.

Cafe Tacuba for dinner - they saw Americans were coming so they gave us baked chicken and fries. We did, however, get serenaded by a mariachi band, so that was neat.

We saw old Cabellito (like any other statue) and new Cabellito (modern art that is supposed to look like a yellow horse) and the Bellas Artes theater (below)



Day 2 of Mexico City, Day 12 of Mexico:
I got almost NINE hours of sleep! Honest to goodness one of the most exciting parts of the trip. Typical continental breakfast food at the hotel (plus quesadillas).

We went to Chapultepec (which means "grasshopper's hill" in Nahuatl, language of the Aztecs). This is where Maximilian and his inappropriately young wife Carlota lived for the 3 years he was in charge. Not as much gold as Versailles, but close to the same scale. It has the most beautiful view of the city, 360 degrees around.

Next, Museum of Anthropology. Outside, five men hold a reenactment of the Papantla fliers (those guys who hang out on top of a pole and pretend to fly at Guachimontones). Thankfully theirs lasts a few minutes, not several hours.


Inside is a gigantic stone with water spraying from the top, pretty cool.


Daisy and I saw the most important thing to see there (according to Mom Jeans), the Aztec sun stone/calendar, and lots of other old rocks too. There were lots of exhibits that were set up with characters - Barbie-sized Neanderthals - to demonstrate the hunting and gathering era.

Next stop: Frida Kahlo museum. It was kind of far away, in an area called Coyoacan, but it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I'm not really an art person, but her work is so unique (and strange) that it was fascinating. She was in an awful car wreck when she was around my age and was immobile for a very long time. A mirror was installed in the ceiling of her bed for self-portraits (the original bed was there) and she also painted on her body cast (the original was there too... it must stink something awful). There were lots of photos there of her and Diego (I don't know what she saw in him, man the size of Jupiter) and a garden also.

Then a few of us on the trip went to el centro artesanal ciudadela, a gigantic marketplace. I was so proud of myself (I haggled) but then I got lost, so those sorta even each other out.

Dinner at VIPS, the Mexican Denny's (breakfast all day) owned by Walmart. I had flautas which are kind of like taquitos. They gave us chips and dip for an appetizer so everyone of us ate them, but apparently it was a test and we weren't supposed to, so we had to pay for it. This happened a couple times on the trip, I'm not sure if it's a typical Mexican thing or just bad service twice.

We walked back to the hotel and there were lots more piropos, or things guys yell from cars or from the street. Even a group of cops! Thankfully we were in a group of 6 so it was safe, but still kind of creepy. It was definitely worse in Mexico City than Guadalajara.

Final Day of Mexico City, Day 13 of Mexico
I know this is present in the US too, but I notice so many more things being in a foreign country: there are so many poor people living near so many rich people. Santa Fe is an area of Mexico City that has both the poorest and richest people in town: homeless people sleeping in front of gated mansions. This was sadly one of the first things I saw on this morning. It's kind of frustrating because Daisy, Chenoa, Anna and I came here on this volunteering, almost mission trip, but we are not accomplishing a lot and there is certainly nothing we can do for people in those situations (like homelessness).

We saw Tlatelolco (sight of 1968 riots between students and police, hundreds died), Acolman (the first Mexican monastery) and learned what piñatas represent: the batter is blindfolded and the star has 7 points to represent 7 deadly sins, the one who can break through it has the most (blind) faith.

Next was the Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe. There's the old and the new, and the new has the painting of Guadalupe inside: visitors can see it while mass is going on by standing on moving sidewalks underneath. I will talk more about this experience later, in its own post.

Finally, the pyramids at Teotihuacan!! We were given 2 1/2 hours - plenty of time, right? Nope. And we hustled for sure. Anna and I walked up the Pyramid of the Moon - the smaller one with 30-40 steps - then the larger one - Pyramid of the Sun - with 300 or so steps (which are very narrow and very steep). Definitely my workout for the month. What a sight at the top! Even with the smog from Mexico City, you can see mountains all around - imagine the view thousands of years ago. And to think they built this without having yet invented the wheel!!

There were literally hundreds of people selling goods (who chased us down quite a bit, and no they don't barter, I asked, you have to use real money), we got a little lost and were told that we were on prohibited territory, and finally made it back to the bus for the eight hour drive back. We stopped once at a rest stop where we had to pay to use the bathroom, the toilets didn't have seats, and you had to get TP on your way in the door (I missed that memo). However, I survived, and we made it back to Guadalajara safe, sound, extremely sunburned, and exhausted at midnight.