El Capital

I think one of the most amazing things about driving through Mexico is realizing how little of the country you actually know. I've been here almost 6 weeks, completley immersed in Mexican culture, living it, breathing it, eating it (which as you've read has come with several of its own trials and tribulations), yet somehow, as I rode the bus from my little enclave of Cuernevaca, Mexico towards the capital of the country I've come to call my second home, I noticed how much more of this culture I've yet to experience...how much of it I never will.

We left for Mexico City bright and early Saturday morning. As if hiking a half a mile up to school to catch a bus at 7 am wasn't hard enough, doing it on a little less than an hour of sleep was even more tramautic. But a few frozen coffees and a pack of chocolate cookies later the trek didn't seem so bad. Regardless, I found myself asleep in just mere minutes from the time I made it onto the bus. I stayed awake just long enough to plug in my one functioning ipod headphone and listen to about 2 minutes of my favorite Tyler Hilton song. Before I knew it I woke up in some rural village lying somewhere on the outskirts of Mexico City. It's amazing these small towns that you'd never register or even think about if you didn't happen to be sitting on a certain side of a certain bus headed a certain place. It's these towns that I feel like would really give the oppurtunity to "live" mexico. The lack of education would mean I'd be forced to use spanish. I couldn't spend my weekends lounging by luxurious pools or shopping in huge gallerias. It's these towns that make me really wonder, make me really think about the Mexico I'm missing as I sit aboard my air conditioned tour bus, passing them by as if they don't matter. They're lack of luxury, of readable history, makes them insignifcant as we stroll right on through them, no one giving a second thought to the dilapidated collection of houses scattered across the mountain.

I don't have too much time to ponder though, as I nod right back to sleep to Kurt Cobain's raspy voice, not again awakened until my roommate shakes me upon our arrival right outside the central plaza in Mexico City. The first thing anyone would notice here is a gigantic flagpole with by far the largest symbol of Mexican pride I've ever seen blowing in the wind at the top. The first place we headed was to the central palace...which is kind of like the Mexican white house. It was gorgeous, especially the murals on the wall painted by Diego Riviera. They were so colorful and intricate, it was phenomenal. From there we saw a bunch of ruins in the center of the city...The government had actually began to build over them and even dug their national sewer system through the ruins, but stopped once they realized what was there and instead paid to excavate them and to this day they still sit in the center of the city right next to the national palace and cathedral. It really is amazing. The cathedral was more disappointing. While the architecture is beatiful, the tour was cut really short due to a wedding going on inside, so we really didn't see much of anything except for the glowing gold altar that sits at the very front of the church.

One more observation...if you want gold or mcdonalds, you should definelty hit up the central plaza in Mexico City. However if you're searching for something practical like a water bottle or maybe some Mexican comida, I'd look elsewhere. My roommate and I literally scaled 6 or 7 blocks surrounding el centro and found little more than a 7-11 convience shop and a Mickey D's which we finally ended up settling for eating due to the fact that our stomachs were growling louder than the entire hustle and bustle of Mexico City. I'm not gonna lie though, that order of deep fried chicken nuggets and french fries really hit the spot and left me much more energized to make it to our next stop in Mexico City.

Unfortunatley our next stop didn't come about for a couple of hours due to that whole Mexican concept (if you can call it that) of time thing. Our bus was of course around an hour late, which put everything behind schedule. We checked into our hotel around 2 and were rushed to freshen up, power nap and be back in the lobby at 4 for a visit to the national museum of anthropology.

As boring as it sounds I was actually quite amazed by the National Anthropology Musuem. Boasting artifacts from all around the country, the museum really was phenomenal. Toltec, Mixtec, Aztech, Maya, over 100 indigenous groups have artwork and artifacts displayed in different rooms throughout the museum. Unfortunatley at this point my camera was starting to act up so I couldn't get a single picture of some of this insanley beautiful and original artifacts, but I definetley reccomend this museum to anyone interested in ancient history, it was fascinating.

However a 3 hour tour was a little more than my running on 2 hours of sleep could handle.By the time we hit the bus again I passed out almost immediatlely in my seat, only waking up long enough to walk back to my hotel and order a huge cheese pizza from Dominos (another great ethnic dish I know).

The next day was fascinating, probably moreso than the first day here. Well rested and properly caffinated for the first time in over a week, we headed out to the ancient ruins at Teotihuacan. Built originally by the Mixtecs ( I think) and later taken over by the Aztechs, these ruins were simply fascinating, made up of around 20 temples, the two biggest dedicated to the sun and the moon respectivley, they really were unbelievable. Climbing up them was pretty fascinating too and our guide also informed us that as of 2009 they won't ever be able to be climbed on again. We relished in the oppurtunity to be one of the last groups of people to climb the ruins and despite the insabley steep and uneven steps, we made it to the top and made sure to take plenty of pictures.

After hiking up the mountain and through a maze of insanley persistant salespeople (selling everything from masks to flutes to woven blankets and lollipops) we finally worked our way back to the bus for another long awaited nap. HOwever, after my 10 hours of sleep I found myslef instead looking out the window and pondering the lives of the people in the small indian villages that surrounded the outskirts of these ancient archeological ruins. Every face I saw, either hiking along the street carrying bags of produce or babies or schoolbooks, seemed to tell a different story. One of struggles, of joy, of passion and emotion and pain. It once again painted a picture of a Mexico I wouldn't get to know, hidden behind my school books and gated communities, swimming pools and air conditioned buses.

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