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Published: January 3rd 2014
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As we were unlucky with the weather and then Christmas holidays meant that everything was booked up, we haven’t had a chance yet to just hang out on the beach. This has meant that Mexico has been all about culture, art, history and most importantly, food. As with most countries these things are linked in many ways. All of these things have culminated in a trip to Mexico City. It is a little bit off our route which has meant lots of long bus journeys and a flight back down south but has definitely been worth it. The bus journey from Oaxaca to Mexico City was amazing, this is Mexico as I imagined it to be. Rolling desert with cactuses everywhere, eagles and vultures hovering, you can almost hear the hiss of rattlesnakes.
Mexico City is one of the biggest cities in the world but as we have been here during the holiday season it doesn’t feel like it at all. We have been able to travel around easily on the metro and it feels very safe. I’m sure this is very different when everyone is back to work as the metro has women and children only sections
mexico city east side
Overlooking the Palacio National during rush hour. We only really got a sense of how big it is when we went to the observation deck of the Torre Latinoamerica which is the tallest building in the city. We had to wait for the smog to lift to see into the distance but when it did the panorama was incredible.
The only problem with coming at new year is that some of the galleries and museums were closed but we have still seen most of the things we wanted to and had a great new years eve. We started off by joining a party in our hostel put on by the bartender. He convinced us to stay by literally pouring tequila down our throats. He then gave us some dance lessons which involved using more tequila as a motivational tool. As the night wore on I decided that if we had wanted to get drunk with Europeans and dance to really bad music (Gangnam style, YMCA, you name it), we could have stayed at home. So we made the decision to head to the big street party on the Paseo de la Reforma. A quick taxi ride took us down there and
with 30 minutes to go we joined a crowd of thousands watching live music on a stage followed by some really impressive fireworks at midnight. The music continued after 12 with people dancing in the street.
One of many things that I love about Mexico is that men will walk up and ask you to dance, and they really can dance. I resisted this time as until I learn how to dance as well as the Mexicans I don’t want to embarrass them and myself. It was a great atmosphere with lots of families and no drunkenness, much more civilised than my usual New Years.
Our first day of exploring the city involved seeing the many murals which Diego Rivera was commissioned to paint in various public buildings around the city. Diego Rivera is one of Mexicos most famous artists. His works are very political and the mural he painted in the Palacio National tells the history of Mexico in brutal detail. Mexico City is full of art galleries and many of them are free so we spent the day seeing what they had to offer.
I had not been interested in coming to Mexico
City until I watched the biopic Frida. Starring Salma Hayek it tells the story of Frida Khalo who is an artist and the wife of Diego Rivera. She is an icon in Mexico now and can be seen on bank notes as well as t-shirts, bags and posters. Frida and Diego were the it-couple of their generation in Mexico and had a tumultuous and seemingly very public relationship. They were both political and mixed in political circles. Trotski lived in their house after he was exiled from Russia and was killed in Mexico City.
We visted Fridas house which is now a museum of her art and her life. She suffered from polio as a child and had a bad accident which meant that she had multiple operations throughout her life, having a leg amputated and having to wear a brace to support her back. This as well as several miscarriages influence her art work as well as her fashion sense. She had a very unique style and featured in American Vogue when she had an exhibition in New York. At her house is a temporary exhibition looking at her style with dresses by world famous designers, such as
Death mask of 'Pakal The Great'
This was taken from the tomb inside the Templo des Inscriptiones in Palenque. Jean Paul Gualtier, inspired by Frida.
New Years day was a bad day to visit the Museo National de Antropolgia as it is huge and we were quite hungover. I am glad we did make the effort though as it is a fascinating museum. It tells the story of Mexico up to the Spanish arriving. Going through Mexico we have been visiting some of the many ruins from the pre-Hispanic period and a lot of the items that were excavated were either stolen or are now in this museum. Items such as jade death masks, sacrificial altars etc. and all the gory details with lots of explanations in English. I now know more about Mexican history than I do about British history.
Mexico City is built on a lake which seems like a really bad idea. At the museum we found out why. The Aztecs saw a vision of an Eagle sitting on a cactus eating a snake which they saw as an omen to start building a city. This image is now everywhere and is the symbol on the Mexican flag. They built huge pyramids and this was the centre of their civilisation until the Spanish arrived, took over and knocked it all down. I can’t help but think how amazing the city would look now if they had not been so short-sited.
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