Adventures in Mexico City

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I wish I could upload my 250+ pictures, but it will take hours on a slow internet connection. I am actually leaching internet from the Starbucks down the street from my hotel room.

The last three days have gone by like a whirlwind...I have to admit I've done a good bit of sleeping while in Mexico City...This hotel room is just so nice and there are big fluffy blankets and air conditioning...it's so difficult to get out of bed in the morning because it's just so dang comfortable.

Adventures have included...
Monday: The three culture plaza--the site where a massacre occurred during the 60's (see ) when a group of students wanted the Mexican government to spend less money on the Olympics and more money on education...Hundreds died; a trip around downtown and Zona Rosa...we saw buildings galore...post offices, etc....a government-run pawn shop where families in financial crisis can go to sell valuables to the government to be auctioned off again...ate a big late lunch and fell asleep at 6:30P.

Tuesday: Slept till 7A, awoke to a very nice buffet-style breakfast, and headed out to see the sights at Teotihuacan! We also were given a tour of a local stone working factory...there was an incredibly attractive tour guide named Alejandro (ladies, you'll notice him in the pics)...who showed us different stones that are used to create the Aztec- and Olmec-inspired art. He also showed us a type of cactus that people have been harvesting for thousands of years that is good for soap, paper, food, and alcohol (to make the drink pulque).

We then headed out to the pyramids! At an altitude of 7500 ft, the weather was perfect with a nice breeze...the thin air made climbing a little more challenging too! The pyramids are the largest in the Americas, but only about half the size of the biggest of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. However, the pyramids have been refaced and re-built for preservation. Most of what you see on the outside has been recently refaced. But, you can still get an idea of the size that Teotihuacan had! There were, of course, buildings made of wood, adobe, etc. atop of the pyramids, but this is all gone now. At 600AD, Teotihuacan was larger and more technologically advanced than anywhere in Europe at the time.
(see ).

Wednesday: Museum day...first the National Museum of History out in Chapultepec that Octavio Paz lived in (used to be outside Mexico City, but due to reapid urban growth, is now in the middle of the city)...reflects heavily European nostalgia of the early 1900s...then, to my enjoyment, we went to the National Museum of Anthropology...the place was HUGE! It had 8 or 10 different exhibits that featured every major indigenous Mexican group from the Mayans to the Teotihuacanis to the Olmec. Mexicans say it is more important than any other museum in Latin America. Then, Dr. Fernandez led a smaller group of us to two Modern Art museums…I especially enjoyed the National Museum of Modern Art…there was this one exhibit of this guy of Jewish and Mexican decent that was really interesting…he liked to paint patients in mental institutions with various mental illnesses….the expressions were impeccable…I could tell the people were mentally disturbed before I even read the descriptions. (see ).

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Photos

Photo 1
breakfast at hotel

Photo 2
private breakfast room...looks kinda Russian

Photo 3
plaza de tres culturas...Templo Mayor

Photo 5
in front of Templo Mayor...the most important Tenochtitlan building ruins

Photo 20
Tres Cultures: 1. this building (spanish colonial), 2. The apartment building (modern), 3. Templo Mayor (old)

Photo 6
stelae dedicated to the students who perished during the massacre

Photo 7
apartment building to where many students ran when the shooting began

Photo 8
new church and old church...sinking on one side...can see the left is lower than the right

Photo 14
showing a straw that people used to use to suck the nectar out of the cactus