Spectacular Museum!

Hola!

Even though we didn’t get to bed until almost 1 am, we were up this morning by about 7.  The day looked fairly clear with some blue sky, and as we showered and dressed, the sun came out and it was quite lovely.  We had heard a lot about the Mexico City “haze” and that moved in this afternoon.  However, more about our day first!

View from our 26th floor window!

Breakfast!

Central courtyard in museum; freestanding waterfall!

"The Acrobat"

From Teotihucan (I think...)

So much was painted!

The carving was beautiful

Hoops through which Pelota ball had to pass

Jaguar ... and me!

Famous Aztec Calendar Stone

HUGE Olmec head ... and me!

R's favorite "Wrestler"

Another Olmec head

Loved the bunny on the chest!

Symbol of the city; eagle with snake

Carvings on Reforma

More carvings!

Now that's a skull!

Tapas for dinner!  Yum!

We went to the Executive Lounge at 7:30 am for their really superb breakfast spread.  They had wonderful scrambled eggs (and I didn’t even have to ask for salsa, as it was right there!), several types of bacon as well as sausages and roasted vegetables on toothpicks.  They also made an excellent Quiche Lorraine, which I tried, along with cold cuts and salmon.  I think the only disappointment was the cheeses.  Neither of us is really an aficionado of Mexican cheeses, but what we thought resembled feta or goat cheese was pretty bland.  The harder yellow cheese was a bit better.

They also had a display of fresh fruit along with muffins and other breads.  Of course, without even thinking, I put some strawberries on my plate, and the first one was already on the way down when Robert said – “Strawberries??”  Ooops…no fruit that wasn’t peeled…so…we’ll see how that goes!  I think I’m going to have to try to remember to have Robert check my plate from now on.  

Back to the room and downstairs to meet our UberX ride about 8:40 am.  The Museo National of Anthropology opens at 9, and we do like to be there when things open.  (That ride, our first in Mexico, cost all of $3.15 US; it was $3.65 US to return to the hotel.)  We drove down the Avenida Reforma, and the decorations as we drove along were incredible!  The street was lined with alebrijes – sculptures of mythical animals and creatures – characteristic of Oaxaca – carved out of wood and brightly painted, and usually with a moving part or two.  At any rate, there were HUGE critters all down both sides of Reforma, and they are stunning!  Then we passed down a long line of huge skulls!  Apparently, there are 50 of them that have all been painted by different Mexican artists; really something to see!  

Were early to the museum, but only had to wait a couple of minutes for the doors to open – and apparently as today is the Day of the Dead holiday, it was free!  Not too shabby!  The museum attracted quite a few people, but it is a huge place, and was never crowded to the point where we couldn’t see exactly what we wanted to, which was great. The ground floor is anthropology, and the second floor is the ethnography halls.  

The museum starts with an introduction, which goes back to Africa, Lucy, and the start of movement out of Africa.  As most everything was in Spanish, and we have covered that material already in prior museums, we walked through it fairly quickly and got to the Olmec civilization and the pilgrimage center of Teotihuacan (where we plan to go on Monday). 

To say the museum is vast is an understatement.  The Olmecs and each of the subsequent Mexican and Mesoamerican cultures were given their own halls, and they wound around each other in a very interesting layout. The artifacts were superb!  We saw the world-famous Aztec “Calendar” (which really isn’t a calendar at all, but rather a ritual altar for gladiatorial sacrifices…) along with amazing pottery and anthropomorphic statues.  There were stele from many different sites, as well as “hoop” stones from the Aztec pelota (ball) games.  Lots of skeletons, as these folks were definitely into human sacrifice, which is a bit over the top for me, I have to admit.  I know that what Cortez and the Spaniards did was unconscionable, but truly, the way these folks went through bodies is truly bone chilling.  

Robert took a huge number of photos, and it’s going to be difficult to pick the ones to publish with the blog.  We could do one entire entry of photos and only use a small portion of what was there.

We hoped that we would be able to get a bite to eat for lunch, or at least something to drink (although we did have water with us), but their restaurant is closed for renovation…so much for that!  We wandered until almost 1 pm and decided we had seen enough.  Honestly, this place is so overwhelming, we are thinking of possibly making a second trip if we have time.  

As I have never been to Mexico City before, and Robert was last here 40 years ago, we are looking at this trip rather as a survey of places and things rather than site specific. We decided to take this trip about 2 months ago, and that didn’t leave us nearly enough time to do our usual planning routine.  [We (that is, Margaret.  R) normally read quantities of books and pour over maps prior to leaving, so we are feeling very much like novices here.]  

Exited the Museum and crossed the street into Chapultepec Park, and called for another UberX (our options for those of you who use Uber, is either “Pool” or “UberX” – and for what we paid, we think it’s a real bargain!) and in a few minutes, Cesar arrived to pick us up!  Lots more people on Reforma than earlier, and I think we’re going to head back there later this evening.  We understand from Cesar that this is the last day of all the decorations on Reforma.

In the meantime, however, I wanted a nap, and Robert had Caltech work to do.  Up again around 4:30 pm and we’ve decided that as neither of us is particularly hungry (which is odd, considering we didn’t have any lunch, but a Wow! of a breakfast) that we would wait until the Lounge put out their evening spread, and go there first.  Then, if we’re still hungry, we will head out for a restaurant.  Then, down to Reforma, even in the rain!

Adios, Amigos!

m

xxx

Scratch Reforma, as it’s raining outside, and we’ve just had a lovely tapas-style dinner in the Lounge, along with several glasses of lovely Chilean wine and we’ve decided as this is “our” holiday, we’re staying in! Out tomorrow to explore more of Mexico City!

m

xxx