MEXICO: TEOTIHUACAN

 March 14, 2018

I was very excited to visit Teotihuacan, the massive pyramid complex about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City. I had been there twice before, once in 1978 and once in 1979. It's a place that stays in your head.

We had one note-worthy sighting on our drive to the site: a sculpture called El Vigilante by the contemporary artist Jorge Marin. He has a series of sculptures of crouching, winged, beaked men, including one installed along Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma.  El Vigilante is a little eerie. This isn't a very clear image:

This one I took with my cellphone from the moving car is better, but I cropped off the top of his head and his wings. Between the two photos, you get a good idea, right?

(We interrupt this post for a Frida sighting at the ticket office at Teotihuacan.)

Teotihuacan was once the largest city in Mexico, boasting over 125,000 inhabitants and 2,000 buildings in an area of  about 7 square miles. Understandably, it is one of Mexico's most significant Mesoamerican archaeological sites. Construction of the first structures probably started around 200 BC. The two main pyramids on the site, the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun, were likely built around 200 AD. The city reached its peak size and influence between 350 and 650 AD (almost 1,000 years before the zenith of that Aztec civilization in what is now Mexico City), and then was in a period of decline between 650 and 750, probably due to wars, both internal and external.

Not surprisingly, Teotihuacan is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so designated in 1987. UNESCO notes that the Aztecs, who discovered the city long after it was abandoned, believed this is the place the sun and moon were created, and so they named it "Teotihuacan," or "the place where the gods were created."

The ceremonial center of Teotihuacan is what attracts visitors, although it actually comprises only 10% of the total surface area of the city. (There is still a lot of archaeology work ahead!) It includes a 1.5-mile-long, 103-foot-wide street that is known as the "Avenue of the Dead." The Temple of the Feathered Serpent/Quetzalcoatl is on one end, the Pyramid of the Sun is just off-center, and the Pyramid of the Moon is at the far end. Other temples and structures are scattered along the avenue.

MEXICO CITY: SHRINE OF THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE

 March 14, 2018

Arnold picked us up at 9:00 AM with optimistic plans to visit two major sites: the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Teotihuacan.  But before any of that, we made a quick stop at the Plaza de Tres Culturas, or Square of Three Cultures, where Aztec, Colonial, and 20th century cultures are mixed into a not-very-seamless whole. #1 is a Tlatelolco archological site--an old market dating to the 14th century, #2 is the Santiago de Tlatelolco Church, built in the early 17th century, and #3 is the largest apartment complex in Mexico, built in the 1960s.

We took a few photos and then continued on to one of the major tourist draws of Mexico, the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which turned out to be a huge walled plaza containing several important structures related to Juan Diego's visions of the Virgin Mary in the mid-16th century. A very important pilgrimage site for Catholics, according to Arnold it gets 25-million visitors a year and is second only to the Vatican as the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world. It reminds me a little bit of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, the "pilgrimage site" for members of my own faith (which gets only 3- to 5-million visitors a year).

The story is that Juan Diego, a middle-class Mexican native born in 1474, was one of the first converts to Catholicism in the 1520s. One day, on his way over Tepeyac Hill to perform his religious duties at the Franciscan monastery, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary, who told him in his own native language who she was and asked him to request that a chapel be erected on that site in her honor so that she could bless the lives of those who called on her. Juan Diego ran to tell the bishop, but was told to come back another day. As he was returning home, Juan Diego saw the Virgin again and told her what had transpired. She told him to try again, which he did the following morning. This time the bishop asked for a sign that the apparition truly was who Juan Diego said she was. Juan Diego saw the Virgin again on his trip home, and she agreed to provide a sign the following day.

Image from here

But Juan Diego arrived home to find his uncle deathly ill. He could not return the next day to the assigned spot to meet the Virgin. A day late, he was on his way back to the bishop to get someone to give his uncle last rites, skirting the area where he had seen his visions out of embarrassment. Not surprisingly, the Virgin found him anyway and gently said the words that are inscribed over the main entrance to the Basilica: "No estoy yo aquí que soy tu madre?"  ("Am I not here, I who am your mother?") She assured him that she had healed his uncle, and she told him to go up the hill and gather the flowers he would find growing there. Normally only cactus and scrub grew on the hill, but Juan Diego found a glorious field of flowers. After filling his cloak with the blooms, he returned to the Virgin, who rearranged the flowers and sent him on his way to the bishop. When Juan Diego arrived and dropped the flowers from the cloak at the bishop's feet, an image of the Virgin was imprinted on the cloak.

MEXICO: TAXCO

 March 13, 2018

We drove from Cuernavaca to Taxco, a distance of about 89 km (55 miles), and by the time we got there, it was definitely time for lunch.

Arnold took us to a fantastic restaurant, Del Angel Inn, that was perched on a hillside and had balcony dining, which allowed us a spectacular view of  this hilly city.  The sign for the restaurant notes that it is "Exquisitely divine!", which it was.

And look who the hostess was!

 

It's a pretty good likeness, don't you think?

This little gem was on one of the restaurant walls. Cute, huh?

MEXICO: CUERNAVACA

March 13, 2018

Arnold picked us up at 9:00 AM for a trip to Cuernavaca and Taxco. However, first we had to eat some breakfast, so Arnold chose a fun restaurant, Lonchería Bravo Torta de Suaderó.

I tried something new: a cazuela, or a Mexican version of a breakfast casserole with eggs, meat, sauce, and other ingredients. 

Bob loves a good sandwich, so he had a torta.

From there, the drive to Cuernavaca takes about an hour and a half.

As we were getting on (or maybe off) the freeway, we noticed this horseman amidst the various overpasses--a rather unusual placement for the statue, don't you think?

MEXICO: AMECAMECA AND TLALMANALCO

March 12, 2018

Our hours at high altitude visiting El Popo and La Izta made us quite hungry, and Arnold suggested we stop at Panes y Pasteles de Tenango in Amecameca. Between 1928 and 2012, the building was a grocery store, and in 2013 it was remodeled to become this restaurant.

First course: tortilla soup for me and tlalpeno soup (chicken and veggies) for Bob:

Main course: Enchiladas gratinada con cecina (basically enchiladas verdes with a slice of very thin dried meat) for me and cecina (thinly sliced dried beef with tortillas, guacamole, and beans) for Bob:

Dessert for both of us: Cajeta crepe (goat milk dulce):

We walked past a very ferocious lion. Usually lion statues are more majestic--and tame. I wouldn't want to meet up with this dude in real life.

El Templo de la Virgen de las Asuncion, across the street from the restaurant, is a church that was severely damaged by the 7.1 earthquake that hit this area in September 2017. We could see that a lot of repair work was underway.

MEXICO: EL POPO AND LA IZTA MOUNTAINS

March 12, 2018

We started our morning back at El Tono. Bob had tostadas:

. . . and I had enchiladas verde.  Not exactly what we are used to eating for breakfast, which made it even more delicious!

Ah, the salsas. 

I had hot chocolate, and Bob had tamarind juice.

MEXICO CITY: PASEO DE LA REFORMA AND CHAPULTEPEC PARK

March 11, 2018

I had eaten a large plate of rich, spicy mole, and I had about the worst case of acid reflux I had ever had that night. I was up until 3:00 AM, at which point I finally took two Benadryl just to get some sleep. That totally knocked me out until after 9:00 AM, so we got a late start. We left the hotel around 10:00 and headed for Paseo de la Reforma. 

The Paseo de la Reforma, or the "Promenade of Reform" is a very wide divided street modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as the Champs-Élyseés in Paris or the Paseo del Prado in Madrid. It was designed and built in the 1860s to link Emperor Maximilian's castle to the city center. 

Today it is the hub of the downtown business area and home to most of the city's tallest skyscrapers.

Photo from here

Our goal was to walk along the Paseo de la Reforma to Chapultepec Park (where Maximilian had his castle), about 1.75 miles from our hotel, 

In the aerial photo at the top of this post, you can see that the Paseo splits around a monument. I remember this monument well from my first visit to Mexico City with my mom in 1978. We could see it from our hotel room window. It is known locally as El Angel, and more formally as The Angel of Independence. It was built in 1910 during the presidency of Porfirio Diaz to commemorate the centennial anniversary of Mexico's War of Independence.