A Little Bit of History

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As soon as we were done eating breakfast we headed over to view one of the best murals I have ever seen -not that I have seen a lot in my day -there was 500m2 of painted murals that filled up the entire room, including the walls that surrounded the stairs to the second floor. It was truly incredible. The murals started by depicting the natives and showing a little bit of their culture and how they lived life throughout the years. One of the murals showed 'el arbol de las mil maravillas' which meant 'the tree of a thousand wonders'. This mural was all about how the natives had various uses for the tree, be it for food, medicinal use, clothing, shelter, paper. This 'tree' was actually the maguey (century cactus). Good tips just in case you're ever stuck in a desert!

While the entire mural itself was amazing, the one that really stuck out in my mind in the mural that was painted right by the stairs. It was a depiction of what appeared to be the end of the world. The most interesting, and ironic, part of the mural is that this particular one was painted before the arrival of Cortes. Incredibly ironic that they would have this mural painted and then all of a sudden Cortes came, and then the end of their world really did happen. Mind blowing.

The last mural was painted the 3rd of December in 2001, it would be neat to go back and see if any of these murals give any insight to the future? Hmmm...

Overall I would have to say I don't think I would survive during that time period as their way of telling stories was through pictures and I'm a terrible artist -even my stick people look odd...

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