Mexico City Pt III

And the weekend continues...

Sunday we toured downtown Mexico City. As I mentioned earlier, the entire city was built on a lake. Fast fact: this is because the indigenous people were searching for a place to centralize their empire. They were looking for a sign from their god of an eagle sitting on a cactus with a snake in it´s mouth. They found the sign in the middle of a lake and starting building from there. This is why the symbol in the center of a Mexican flag is the eagle on a cactus with a snake in it´s mouth.

Since there is a plethra of water below the city, it has become the primary water source for the city. This is nifty, but long term it has caused many of the beautiful buildings to sink. Many of the buildings have French or Italian styles, made from marble and heavily decorated, and are absolutely gorgeous while at the same time extremely heavy. It is heart breaking to see these amazing churches and museums slowly ¨sinking¨below the sidewalk. Some precautions have been taken for some of the buildings, but we saw one church that looks as if it was about to split in two because of uneven settling.

Continuing downtown we passed an amazing church known as La Catedral. This is THE church that is in the center of Mexico City. Our group didn´t get a chance to go through it, but I am including a picture because you can see from the outside how surreal this place is. If you notice the different styles of architecture it is even more fascinating. The farthest right side of the church is the oldest, notice the molten type rock and style. Editions were added on the the left side, giving it a more modern and gothic look. Being as Mexico was conquered by Catholic Spaniards, the church is Catholic. We heard that many of the alters and decorations inside were made with gold.

Also in the center of the town is the National Palace. This place is significant for many reasons, namely because the president makes his speeches there and it houses the orignial bell that was rung at the start of the War for Indpendence. For my artists out there, the National Palance is home to a series of murals by Diego Rivera. He painted the history of Mexico from the indigenous times, to the revoultionary times, to what he perceived as the present. The largest one takes three walls and encompasses all three time periods. As you proceed down the hallway, Rivera romances the indigenous life and then shows how brutal the Spanish conquests were to the native people. Very awesome.

We then checked out the National Museum of Anthropology, a nationally renowned place known for its indigenous artifacts. It was very dense, lots of diverse information in a short amount of time. It did bring to life the intricate religions of indigendous peoples.

After the museum, we headed to a small segmant of town that is very Colonial as well as home to the museum of Frida Kahla (wife of Diego Rivera). We had time to do some shopping in the open air markets, listen and watch the dances and music of native americans, and have some food. The trip was a nice chance to stretch our legs before the three hour bus ride home!

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