A Note about Dinner!

Hola!

It’s Saturday evening, and we are just up from some well-deserved afternoon naps!  But to start with breakfast!

Up about 6 and to breakfast in the Lounge about 7 am.  Very, very nice spread, just enough different from yesterday to make things interesting. Today they added grilled veggies wrapped in tortillas, which were wonderful, along with chilaquiles which we also like very much.  Very full, that’s for sure!  We also got a really lovely view of the Popocatepetl volcano, which looks lovely with snow on the top.  We have heard that sometimes weeks go by without it being visible; so happy to be able to see it!

The Popocatepetl Volcano!

Angel Monument

Me and some new friends!

Love the flowers!

Metropolitan Cathedral

One of the altars in the main Cathedral

Incredible decoration

This altar was inside the Cathedral!

Indians in costume doing some sort of cleansing ritual

One of the snakes at the temple mayor 

Eagle beak at the House of the Eagle

Altar in House of the Eagle

 

Such amazing colors still in the House of the Eagle

Huge monument in the museum

More Indians dancing

National Palace at the Zocalo

Food at last!  Lobby bar

One of the booths set up across the street

Plenty of things to buy!

Interesting corn!

Kids of all ages riding in the street!

Like my new hat?

Hemisphere Monument

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Hemisphere with lots of riders!

Our first stop this morning was to the Angel of Independence square, which was just about where we wanted to be to see the skulls and the alebrijes that we passed yesterday.  This time we waited until we were downstairs in the lobby to call for Uber, and someone popped up within two minutes!  Now that’s service!  Turns out that our Uber driver yesterday was wrong about when everything was being taken down, as the signage on the street said they would be up through tomorrow. Beautiful, lovely day, and I’m very glad that we went to see these things during the day, as going out last night in the damp darkness wouldn’t have been nearly as good.  The Angel herself was stunning in gold, and as the rest of the statue included a very impressive lion, I thought it was great!

We walked first through the assortment of skulls, (does that sound odd only to my ear?) and then through the alebrijes.  Some of these looked rather the worse for wear, but as they only have to stay together one more day, I’m sure they will be fine.   Stopped at a Starbuck’s (and truly, they are everywhere!) for Perrier for me, and coffee for Robert.  Then, out and back across the street to call a second Uber to take us to the Zocalo, or town center.  

I do want to point out just a few of the American chains that we have come across so far: McDonald’s, Burger King, California Pizza Kitchen, Circle K, 7/11, PF Chang, Starbuck’s, and the list goes on!

Getting to the Zocalo was fairly speedy, and we actually went back past our hotel to get there.  We also went past the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the hemicycle on Avenida Juarez which was built in 1910 to celebrate 100 years of Mexican independence, which is just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  A trip there will definitely be on the agenda for tomorrow; the park they are in looks lovely.

So … Zocalo… the old center of town, and the place where the Aztecs built their palaces and capital city of Tenochitlan.  This was also the place where Cortes and the Spaniards defeated Montezuma and began the conquest of Mexico.  I need to say something here about the founding of Mexico City … which was, quite literally in a swamp!  The original Aztec tribe were looking for a place to settle, and one of their shamans predicted that they would see an eagle with a snake in its mouth on a cactus. Well, when the eagle and snake were spotted, on the requisite cactus, it turns out the cactus was in the middle of a very swampy area.  This did not deter the Indians at all, and they built their city in an interesting way. They would use wooden poles to make patches of property inside the swamp, and then scoop up mud from the bottom and put it inside the poles until it became “land” with water around it. Very ingenious, really!  By the time the Spaniards arrived, Tenochitlan occupied a very large area, and the patches of land were all linked together by bridges that could also be removed for defensive purposes.  The upshot of this is that Mexico City is now built on top of that same swampy area, and the area around the Zocalo – the original founding place – is sinking.  

The Zocalo square, which is huge had an assortment of skeletons set up in different scenes, and there were many people milling around; lots of music everywhere.  The National Palace stretches along one entire side of the plaza.  One of the other sides is taken up by the Metropolitan Cathedral and its side chapel.  These incredibly ornate buildings are really quite beautiful, and we enjoyed very much walking through them.  The entire area is really settling, and you can tell that the streets and sidewalks are not level anywhere.  Really need to watch where you walk!  The side chapel especially is not level, even though the Mexican government is working very hard to shore up these national treasures.

From the cathedral, we walked a couple of blocks around the back to come to the only remaining part of the Aztec capital of Tenochitlan – the Templo Mayor, which didn’t come to light until the 1940’s to 1970’s, and excavation work continues to this day.  They also built a stunning museum containing over 7,000 artifacts that have been unearthed up until now.  It is really quite something!

First, we toured the excavations, which fortunately had very good signage in English.  The Aztecs built the Templo Mayor sometime after 1325, and then with each new king, the templo would be expanded and heightened until seven disparate levels were all piled on top of one another.  The seventh and lasttemplohad huge stone snake heads which were still visible, along with the steps and walls built from volcanic rock.  The pyramid was composed of four sloped terraces with a passage between each level, topped by a great platform 262 X 328 feet.  It had two stairways to access the two shrines on the top platform. One was dedicated to Tlaloc, the god of water, and one to Huitzilopochtli, the deity of war and of the sun.  The two temples were approximately 200 feet high and each had large braziers where the sacred fires burned continuously.  

We also were able to tour the house of the Eagle warriors, which still contained some stone eagle heads where the distinctive eagle beaks were visible.  Many of the beautifully carved stones still had their original paint showing; exquisitely done and still visible.  

We then entered the museum, which contained four floors of artifacts, including the enormous monolith of Tlaltecuhtli, the Earth goddess, which was found at the foot of the Templo Mayor’s steps.  

By this time, we were both dragging, and the weather was beginning to change, so we decided to head back to the hotel in search of lunch and a rest.  We were able to pick up our Uber easily enough, but to say that there was a lot of traffic getting back to the hotel is an understatement.  There were, quite literally, thousands of people everywhere.  Knowing very little about Mexican holidays, but knowing that yesterday was definitely one of them, we’re wondering if today was a typical Saturday at the Zocalo, or if it was so busy because families were all together celebrating.  At one point, there was a line of probably 15-20 cars waiting at a full garage for a space to open up!  They’re probably still sitting there!

Fortunately, none of this craziness deterred our Uber driver, and we finally reached the hotel.

Yeah!  We were both a bit peckish, which was surprising after our great breakfast, so for convenience sake, we headed back downstairs to our favorite bar in the lobby!  This time, Robert got the trio of quesadillas, and I had a repeat of my trio of sirloin soft tacos.  We each traded one, and judged that everything was really good, all washed down by the Santo Tomas sauvignon blanc.  

We were still on the lookout for a Farmacia, so headed out of the hotels back door, which actually led to the hotel’s parking lot – and conveniently, right past a Lavanderia!!  Wow! Yeah!!  It’s not a do-it-yourself laundry, but rather the pay-by-the-kilo kind of place.  Will definitely head there on Monday before we head to Teotihuacan!  Found an Oxo (equivalent to a U.S. 7/11) and got my first Magnum Classic of this trip!  YUM! Then, right across the street we found a Farmacia and were able to pick up shampoo and toothpaste.  Back to the hotel and upstairs for naps … which we really needed.  Robert thinks it’s possible that the altitude (over 7,000 feet) has something to do with our fatigue.  We’ll see!

We had a quick stop at the Lounge at 6, but as neither of us were really hungry, didn’t stay long. There is supposed to be some sort of parade passing right in front of the hotel going on right now, but so far, nothing to report!  More later?

m

xxx

Back from the parade! And WOW!  Turns out, it was a bicycle/roller-blading/people passing kind of parade, not like what we imagined in the least!  (Think Rose Parade…) This was basically people of every age and description out for a very family-friendly kind of evening!  It was wonderful!  I have never seen anything like this ever in the U.S.!  People in costume, and with painted faces, all enjoying the evening.  We walked down as far as the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which was actually open!  We couldn’t go into the main venue which has the glassed ceilings, but it is a lovely art-deco building.  We’re going to see if there is something there we’d like to see in our remaining days here.  It started to drizzle a bit on our way back, but it wasn’t really a problem.  One interesting thing – it looks like the bases of columns and statues are all wrapped up in huge amounts of plastic wrap! It must be either to keep people from climbing up, or from any sort of graffiti – interesting concept that I’ve never seen anywhere else!

And, as it’s after 8 pm now, I will finish and get posting!

m

xxx