Beautiful weather here in the City for the weekend. Sunny skies and moderate temperatures made for some excellent sightseeing. Saturday morning began in Tlatelolco, the sight of Moctezuma's surrender to Hernan Cortes, and 400 years later, on October 2, 1968, a gruesome student massacre that left (at least) several dozen protesting students dead. After reading press predictions for el Tri's (nickname for the Mexican national soccer team) game against Honduras--which as it turns out went very poorly for the Mexicans--I wandered around before eventually coming upon the Plaza de la tres Culturas, where the massacre is commemorated (see monument below).
I visited a great museum nearby that commeorates the events of the summer/fall of 1968 through oral histories of professor and students activists who participated in the student movement. A 30-minutes film in Spanish of personal accounts of the events was quite moving...
Below are two photos from the musuem's entrance and entryway.
A tasty lunch followed of chicken topped with mole (a sauce that is a combination of chcolate and spices--made famous in Oaxaca) with nopales (cactus strips--similar to bell peppers, minus the crunch). Sorry, wasn't able to snap a photo for you. The I took off to one of the northernmost points in the city served by the metro, the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. This is the most visited religious pilgrimmage site in the Western hemisphere and supposedly the location where Juan Diego first saw the apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1531. It was also a sacred sight of the Aztecs prior to the Spanish arrival. Fortunately, it wasn't terribly busy during my visit on Saturday afternoon as you can tell from the pictures. The Old Basilica still houses small gatherings and services, but the new more modern one has taken its place as the major site of daily and weekly services.
This is a view from atop Tepeyac hill, hust behind the Old and New Basilicas. (The Old Basilica has the gold dome). In the background, the skyline of Mexico City is visible.
Got back to Colonia Alamos in time for the Mexico-El Salvador game and learned two lessons. One, in Spanish a jarra is a pitcher--as in beer (and yes, I consumed it). Two, the local neighborhood bar is a distinctly gay and lesbian joint, and at this bar, locals like to drink...a lot. I was too focused on the US game earlier in the week to notice this, but it became very apparent Saturday evening.
Sunday:
Set off for Coyoacan late morning, a nice little neighborhood in the southern part of the City, and stumbled upon a great open air market filled with vendors selling clothes, trinkets, magazines, candy, etc. It was noticeably cooler there and the area seemed very tranquil. Proved to be a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city center. I wandered through a nursery on my way to the main plaza (my what beautiful plants aad displays) and settled in at the main square for some people watching. Ony my way to the Frida Kahlo museum, I stopped in at El Jarocho, which according the the guidebook, serves some of the best coffee around. (Yes, it was good, as was the chorizo and egg sandwich I had). The photo of the sandwich certainly lacks some artistic merit, but it is the first of what I hope will be many.
The Kahlo museum was located in a beautiful house that Frida and her husband Diego Rivera lived in from 1929-1954. It was gorgeous, especially the courtyard. The only downside--photos werent allowed inside the rooms where all Frida and Diego's artwork was.
I made a final stop at the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) before heading back home. This small university has an enrollment of just over 100,000 students (and yes, I did type that correctly). Of course, this meant the campus was way too large to walk, so I took a free shuttle to the Museum of Contemporary Art on campus. I got a backstage tour of the Theater and wandered around a bit, without fiding the building-size mural I had hoped to see (as it turns out, I saw it from a distance on my way back home on the Metrobus).
A definite highlight of my day was figuring out the Metrobus transit system (as opposed to the Metro which is the subway). It provides a nice alternative to the Metro while still getting you places quickly. And what's best, there's a stop just outside my apartment.
One other lesson learned: despite what the weather reports predict about it being overcast and cloudy, wear sunscreen. Or end up burned like I am. Off to bed, but more to come later this week, especially as regards the whereabouts of my (currently) missing student ID, which parted ways with me sometime during my adventures today. Argh...the perils of travel.
That's funny about the bar... and even funnier that a neighborhood bar of ours in Berlin had the same slant and we didn't figure it out until haven't stopped twice for cake to go - we went in b/c they had nice looking pastries and cake under the glass and were open late so we had stopped to get a slice to go.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget that high altitude means your closer to the sun ;-)
And we thought ASU's student body was big! Nice start with the food photos...keep at it.
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