FAREWELL, MEXICO!

March 19, 2018

Well, all good things trips do actually have to come to an end, and we were at the end of a glorious Mexican viaje. On our last morning in Mexico City, we had time to eat one more incredible breakfast, this time at Casino Español. I can't get enough of the chocolate milk in Mexico, and the fruit plate was fresh and yummy (even the papaya, which I am trying to make myself like, wasn't too bad).

I had an egg, beef steak, nopales (cactus), and beans:

Bob had red chilaquiles with a beef steak:

MEXICO: FINE DINING AT EL HIDALGUENSE, CASA DE LOS AZULEJOS, AND DEL ANGEL INN

While we were in Mexico, we had three meals that really stood out, two in Mexico City and one in Taxco. I thought the meals were unique enough to merit their own post.

1.  MEXICO CITY: EL HIDALGUENSE, 

Friday, March 9, 2018

Bob selected this restaurant when he was researching places to go prior to our trip. He was captivated by the idea of lamb barbacoa, the restaurant's specialty. Sheep are a definite theme of the decor as well as the menu.

The name is a variation of the word "Hidalgo," the state located just north of the Mexico City area. I think that means the food served here is the local cuisine of that area.

The restaurant has a classy interior.

But what caught my eye was this line-up of large glass jars of fruit juice. I would loved to have gone down the row and tasted each one.

We did try three of them: full glasses of strawberry-guava (incredibly good), and samples of not-as-good pineapple and guanabana (aka soursop) juice.

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: 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. 

MEXICO CITY: DOLORES OLMEDO MUSEUM

March 10, 2018

So . . . who was Dolores Olmedo? A very wealthy Mexican businesswoman and collector, Dolores was Diego Rivera's and Frida Kahlo's friend, and even appears in some of Diego's paintings. After Frida died in 1954, Diego spent the last three years of his life living with her in her home in Acapulco, where he died in 1957.  Dolores told Diego that she planned to create a museum to show his work, and he made a list of paintings she should acquire, including 25 pieces by Frida. She did not like either Frida or her work, but she bought up all the work she could anyway, along with 137 works by Diego. In fact, she because the foremost collector of his paintings.

Dolores bought a large piece of land in the Xochimilco district in 1962. She built a beautiful estate home there, which she converted into a museum in 1994. That museum now houses the largest collections of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo paintings. She outlived Diego Rivera by 45 years, dying in  2002.

And this is where I wish I had the pictures from my camera. Bob has dozens of photos of the Mexican hairless dogs and a peacock on the property, and six pictures of the museum interior. SIX.

Maybe photos weren't allowed inside? I can't remember. Sigh.

Frida loved dogs, particularly the hairless Xoloitzcuintle (aka Xolo dog, Colima dog, or Mexican hairless dog).  Dante, Miguel's dog in the Disney movie Coco, was a Xolo dog.

She sometimes included her favorite dog, Senor Xolotl, in her paintings. This one, Self Portrait with Monkey (1945), is in the Dolores Olmedo Museum, but I had to find this photo on the internet. I wonder why Senor Xolotl's name didn't make it into the title?

I think these dogs were the highlight of the visit to the museum for Bob.

MEXICO: XOCHIMILCO CANALS AND UNAM

June 10, 2018

After leaving Coyoacán, we headed south to visit Xochimilco, "The Venice of Mexico." Like Coyoacan, Xochimilco is one of the alcadias, or burroughs of Mexico City. It is best known for its 110 miles of canals, remnants of the extensive canal system built by the Aztecs.

In 2011 Xochimilco was designated one of Mexico City's twenty-one "Barrio Magicos," or Magical Neighborhoods. (Incidentally, the city center of Coyoacan is also a Barrio Magico.)

This is another city that I visited 40 years ago, and in the intervening decades, tourism here has increased dramatically. Dozens of boats were lined up at the dock waiting for passengers.

Victor purchased our tickets and we boarded our boat, "Puros Cuates," which I think means "Pure Friends" (Pals? Chums?)

Many of the boats are named after girlfriends or wives: Adriana, Lupita, Victoria, Julietta, Carmelita, Andrea, Conchita, Maria Cristina . . .

MEXICO: COYOACAN, PART II--LA CASA AZUL

March 10, 2018

Finally it was time to go inside La Casa Azul.

I've always been intrigued by Frida Kahlo, but visiting her home in Coyoacán made me a little obsessed, which I have been ever since. 

Her life was crazy.  She was born in Coyoacán in 1907 to a German immigrant father and a mestiza, or mixed race, mother. She had polio at age six, which made one leg shorter than the other. A very intelligent young woman, she planned to attend medical school, but at age 18 she was in a bus accident in which a iron handrail went through her pelvis, fracturing her pelvic bone, puncturing her abdomen and uterus, breaking her spine in three places and her leg in eleven places, and crushing her right foot. She lived with significant pain for the rest of her life.

She met Diego Rivera, already a famous painter and 20 years her senior, in 1928. He had been married twice (and was still married). They were married in 1929. I don't get what was so appealing about him to her. Her parents, who didn't approve of him, called it "a marriage between an elephant and a dove."

Diego and Frida, 1933  (Photo from here)

They lived for a time in Cuernavaca, then they lived in various cities in the United States where Diego got commissions, including San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. They built a house in 1934 in San Angel that was really two houses, his pink and white and hers blue, joined by a bridge. They lived there together until their divorce in 1939, at which point Frida moved back to her childhood home, La Casa Azul. She began to experience more and more success with her art, which was featured in major exhibitions in Mexico City, San Francisco, and New York City. She and Diego remarried in 1940. However, her poor health and escalating physical problems increasingly confined her to La Casa Azul.

By the mid-1940s she could not sit or stand for any length of time. She had a failed operation on her back in NYC in 1945, and further surgeries in Mexico City in 1950. Her right leg was amputated to the knee in 1953, and she became dependent on pain killers, even attempting an overdose when Diego had yet another affair. She died at age 47 in July 1954 of a pulmonary embolism. Her body lay in state under a Communist flag in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and a few days later she was cremated as she had wished. Diego lived three more years.

Her art can be bizarre, and yet far more approachable for me than that of many others of her era. She spoke for feminism and social justice, and yet there was a deeply personal aspect of much of her work. There just isn't anyone like her--and I have to confess that I am part of the movement that has been called (and criticized extensively) "Fridamania."

In any case, La Casa Azul was opened as a museum just four years after her death; it is one of the most popular museums in Mexico City. It serves to preserve her personal possessions and to highlight the way she lived, as well as a kind of art museum.

I'll start with the art.

Frida started but never finished this Self-Portrait while she and Diego were living in Detroit in 1932.

MEXICO: COYOACAN PART I--HOMAGE TO COYOTES, ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, AND LEON TROTSKY

March 10, 2018

Victor let us sleep in until 9:00, and then picked us up to take us to one of his favorite breakfast spots, Pattiserie Dominique. In spite of its French name, it had a decidedly Mexican flavor.

I had delicious huevos rancheros.

Bob had a croquette, a sandwich with pork and Gruyere cheese topped with a sunny-side-up egg.

MEXICO: MEXICO CITY, PLAZA DE LA CONSTITUCION AREA

March 9, 2018

Victor picked us up at the hotel at 10:30, and we headed towards the Plaza de la Constitución, the main zocolo, or public square, of the city. I've circled a few of the places we went on the map below just to show how condensed the sites are. The Plaza is #2.

On our way to the Plaza, we stopped at the Palacio Bellas Artes, or Fine Arts Palace (#1 on the map), which is where the famous Ballet Folklorico performs. Built between 1904 and 1934, it has an Art Nouveau exterior . . .

. . . and an Art Deco interior. Here is the inside of the dome . . .

. . . and a view of the main lobby:

Photo from here

The next day we saw the Palacio at night--a truly gorgeous building.

Ó