Bjorndahl

I left Mexico City for the beach. I took a bus to Oaxaca City and enjoyed some early morning tropical feelings. The sounds of birds, thick vegetation and rolling hills. I moved to the second class bus terminal to find more local buses that would head to some of the less touristy beaches, for a more authentic beach experience. The morning coffee and toast was definetly second class, nothing annoys me more than cold toast and nescafe, especially nescafe in a coffee producing region. I made my way on to the bus, with no reclining chairs and a 1970s feeling to experience something that I had not run into for awhile. A pickpocket of considerable talent found his way into my pocket and removed my wallet in a very skilled bump in cramped conditions. He even ... read more

It is Saturday and I don't feel guilty about not being at the Archives! So, with one of my new friends (the one that survived Friday night without drinking too much with me) headed in the fairly early morning to Xochimilco. Xochimilco is in the far far far south of Mexico City. Approximately 13 subway stops and then 17 train stops almost due south (this city is massive) and takes more than 1.5 hours to get to using public transit. Now why would I want to go to this place? Well, because the Aztecs built it of course! It is one of the only remaining places were the chinampas can still be seen today. The Aztecs built a canal system. Now they didn't dig the canals, instead they built the land in Lake Texcoco (which is ... read more

So on my first self declared day off, I forced myself to get to the northern end of the city where the famous farmer held rose petals in his shirt/apron and when he let them go the face of the virgin was left in red stains. The famous Virgin of Guadalupe has become the most central Mexican figure in Catholicism. Way back in third year I wrote an essay about it and I decided being only 15 or so metro stops away I had to go take a peak at the place. The directions I got were, "get off at Villa-Basilica metro station and follow the people. That is all I had to do. There were hundreds and hundreds of people flocking to the Basilica and it was a Friday afternoon. I was extremely impressed by ... read more

So the archive kind of sucks. Everything moves slow (though people told me it is a fairly quick moving archive!) and I spent a lot of the day waiting. Nothing I looked at was useful and so I just went for a walk. I saw some more neat day of the dead things before eating burritos and tacos and deciding that I would buy a beer and go for a walk. I found out that drinking in public was a criminal offence with mandatory jail time. Fortunately for me I was able to convince the cop (or rather, he convinced himself) that I fine would clear everything up (with no receipt of course). He said it was $90 and I said it was impossible. When I walked away (having poured an almost full beer out) I ... read more

I went and saw the Anthropology Museum which houses most of the stuff I have been looking at in books. It is the middle of Cautehauc (or something like that) Park. It was really awesome to see. It is one of the best, if not the best, museum I have ever been in. The Aztec Sun Stone and scale model of old Tenochtitlan blew me away. There were exhibits on Oaxaca and the Maya and Pacific as well as Atlantic Coast people as well. Really neat stuff. I ate tacos (again) and fresh fruit while sweating in a T-Shirt. It was rather nice. I prepared myself for the archives before falling asleep rather early (again). Tomorrow is the Day of the Dead and introduction to the archives!... read more