La Ciudad de México, DF (Parte 1)

After Teotihuacan, we went to Mexico City, Federal District. It was a packed weekend, so I am going to write probably three installations about DF, partly because I can only upload 5 photos at a time and partly because it would get too long and no one really wants to read that much in one sitting. 

Fast facts about Mexico City:

 1. With 20 million inhabitants, it is the largest metropolis in the Western Hemisphere. As a reference, 20 million is the number of inhabitants in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota COMBINED.

2. Mexico City is sinking. 

3. It's sinking because it's built on a lake.

4. It's built on a lake because the conquistadores took over the Aztec civilization Tenochtitlan, which was a city of canals and rivers.

5. The Aztec people chose this lake (Texcoco?) because it is where they saw an eagle eating a serpent on a prickly pear cactus. Ever wonder where the picture on the Mexican flag came from? Now you know. 

6. There are big pollution problems in Mexico City. Note the smog. 

In these pictures are a few of the things we saw: I can't remember if that's the cathedral or the basilica or what, but there it is big and old, El Palacio Nacional, the view from the Torre lationamericana, Bellas Artes, and the Latin American Tower. 

After touring around, we explored a little around the neighbor, outside of the centro, which was really cool. We got to see where people really live, the less touristy part. It was loud and crowded. Vendors with random things stood on corners shouting what they offered, so loudly I couldn't hear what they were saying. There were stores packed with stuff and streets stuffed with people. We walked around a block or two just to see and then headed back. It was cool to see, but I don't want to live there. 

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is the city of Aztec ruins outside of Mexico City. When the conquistadores came, it had long been abandoned. No one really knows why -- epidemic, battle, who knows. The ruins were rediscovered many years later and the pyramids were rebuilt, so "El Sol" and "La Luna"(The Sun and The Moon) are not exactly the original pyramids. They are restored but still really cool. 

"El Sol" is the bigger one, and "La Luna" is the one with the view of the Avenue of the Dead. These pyramids were used in rituals of human sacrifice. The Aztecs were warriors, and their life was about growing food and going to battle. They would capture men from other tribes to sacrifice. I don't remember all of the details, but there was a long process that ended in bringing the captive to the top of the pyramid, cutting out his beating heart, and shoving his body down the pyramid. Afterward, the captor had to wear the captive's skin for awhile because if he hadn't been the captor, he would have been the captive. 

Because being taken captive was considered dying in battle, it was an honorable death. Men who died in battle and women who died in childbirth were considered to be warriors who died honorably. 

We climbed these pyramids last weekend, which was pretty awesome. I climbed both of them because El Sol is impressive and La Luna has the cool view. Ancient history is fascinating to me, and going to ancient civilizations is surreal. Like, woah, I just walked where people lived thousands of years ago. I always wonder what happened to them, how the city fell. How are our cities going to fall? Will people find artifacts of laptops and cellphones? 

Guanajuato

Last Saturday we went to Guanajuato, a colonial town that is supposedly about two hours away. We left school at seven am, yeah, off to a bad start already. No, the day wasn't really that bad, it was just long. This is what my day looked like:

6:02-- wake up

6:20 -- eat breakfast

6:35 -- leave house

6:40 -- wait on the corner for a combi

6:50 -- call Brenda to share a taxi as there are no Roja 3 combis in sight

6:55 -- get in taxi

7:05 -- arrive at school

7:15 -- leave school; drive for awhile; watch the sun rise

9:00 -- make a pit stop at a convenience store that has no bathrooms; walk to find bathrooms; use bathrooms; buy a snack 

9:45 -- get back in van and drive for awhile

10:30 -- stop to see a view of a city and the house of Cantinflas (a Mexican comedian/filmmaker comparable to Charlie Chaplin)

11:00 -- arrive at San Miguel to see the church

12:00 -- see some other church

12:30 -- stop in Dolores to see another church and try a lot of weird flavors of ice cream: avocado, mole (a cacao sauce, not the animal), shrimp, rose petal, beer, angel breath, weird black fruit, guayaba 

1:15 -- another church with a lot of steps

2:00 -- graveyard with a famous Mexican singers grave, which was huge and colorful and would have been cool if it hadn't been the 8th stop for the day

2:45 -- arrive in Guanjuato. Go to the legends of Guanajuato museum with moving dolls and teddy bears in dark hallways. yeah. 

3:45 -- go to Diego Rivera's childhood home and see some of his artwork

4:30 -- arrive at the hotel.

5:00 -- sleeeep

6:00 -- dinner in the centro

9:00 -- follow singing, instrument-playing, colonial-dressed men around town for a tour -- p.s. it was Valentine's day. Couple parade plus 10 gringos. 

10:30 -- walk back to the hotel and go to bed

The next day was way more relaxed. We went to an agriculture museum and then to the top of the mountain. Guanajuato is a really pretty city. I love the colors of the houses, and the down-town area is all for walking. There are not street lights in the town to keep it colonial looking. It is very colonial looking, at least I imagine it is. 

Zihuatanejo

Last week, I went to two days of classes. Monday we had off because it was "Festival del 5 de febrero." Thursday, I was sick, but made a full recovery to go to the beach on Friday. There's not much to say about the beach other than it was the beach, so I mean, it was great. Our hotel was really nice, and we had hammocks outside our rooms. The beach wasn't too full, the water was warm, it was sunny and beautiful. We went snorkeling, which wasn't really that exciting but kind of cool. I saw some pretty fishies and a little sting ray. The cool part was that when we were coming back on the boat, I was looking out at the water, blue and clear, and I saw something large emerge on the surface. We weren't very close, but I'm pretty sure it was a giant sea turtle! So cool. I think the best part of the weekend (other than the turtle) was on Friday when I was floating in the water thinking, "If I were at North Park right now, I would be in class and/or trudging through Chicago winter slush." It was a pretty satisfying thought. 

The worst part of the weekend, though, was the other American tourists. Zihuatanejo, the beach-town we stayed in, did have Mexican tourists as well, but the Americans just drive me nuts. By and large, there were a bunch of fat old people and drunk young people. None of whom really speak Spanish. I mean, I'm not a great Spanish-speaker, and it's not that to go anywhere people need to be fluent in the country's language, but you should at least learn "No, gracias" and carry around a little phrase book. Point to the word if you don't know how to say it. And, when the waiter brings you your beer on the beach without a cup, don't be mad that he doesn't know exactly what you mean when you say "cup?"  You are in his country. At least try to speak his language. If you don't want to deal with communication and cultural barriers, go to Florida. I didn't want to speak any English because it made me ashamed of myself. 

Moral of the story, there is reason behind the ignorant, arrogant American stereotype. Let's try to change that.  

Uruapan

This weekend, we went to Uruapan. It was by far the coolest excursion yet. 

We went to another old church, but this church was covered in volcanic rock. Years ago (I don't remember when), the volcano Paricutin erupted and destroyed the town, all except the church. Now, the towers and altar of the church still stand. 

To get to the ruins, we rode on horses up through the mountains. The horses knew how to get there, so we didn't really have to do anything but sit there. Due to my many vacation experiences in the Smokey Mountains, I am an expert at riding horses on a mountain path. I knew all about leaning forward going up a hill and backward going down. Plus, we had little guides. There were about five 10-year-old boys who walked with the horses to keep them in line. The boys were funny and cute and knew what they were doing. We talked to them as we went. Since their first language was Purépecha, not Spanish, they were easy to understand.

When we got up into the hardened lava, most of the ground was black, but vegetation has started to grow again, so it was black with bright green popping up. It looked cool, but I was on a horse, so I didn't take a picture. 

I think it's pretty amazing how everything else was destroyed but the church still stands. I mean, yeah, it probably was the tallest and best-built building in the town, but the rock just stops in front of the altar, like there was some sort of shield around it. Something super-natural. 

Oh, and note my sweet new headband.