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: PUEBLA

 March 18, 2018

Unlike many of the tourist spots of inland Mexico, the city of Puebla was not built on the ruins of an indigenous settlement. Instead, the conquering Spaniards decided to build a "modern" city 9 miles east of Cholula. It was founded in 1531, which I guess is much more modern than when Cholula was founded roughly 2,000 years earlier. 

The original site of Puebla kept getting flooded, so most of the settlers moved to higher ground within a few years. Within about 70 years, the city comprised 120 blocks and a partially-constructed cathedral.

In 1987, the historic city center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Puebla is a wonderful walking city with lots to look at in the old town area. 

The Museum of the Revolution was once the home of  the Serdán family, who opposed the "re-election" of the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz and supported the revolution led by Francisco Madero. A raid was carried out on this house on November 18, 1910. After more than three hours of gunfire between the members of the household and 500 soldiers, almost all of the revolutionaries inside the house were dead.  This event is considered the start of the Mexican Revolution. The bullet holes from the exchange still pepper the exterior walls.  

A huge carved head of Aquiles Serdán Alatriste, the owner of the home and one of the murdered revolutionaries, sits on a pedestal in the entryway.

I include a photo of another beautiful building, the Museo Casa del Alfẽnique, because it is named after the Mexican version of marzipan--alfẽnique. It is an 18th century home built in a style characterized by over-the-top stucco ornamentation. Today it is a museum that celebrates Mexican culture and heritage. (Shouldn't it be a candy museum?)

I love the vibrant colors and crisp details of the Puebla buildings.

MEXICO: CHOLULA

 March 18, 2018

Our last day with our guide Arnold Pedroza in Mexico was very full. The map below shows our starting point, Mexico City, on the left. The two black circles mark the two Volcanos Popo and Ixta (which we had already visited), and the three red circles on the bottom right are our three destinations of the day: Huejotzingo, Cholula, and Puebla.

Our first stop was Huejotzingo (see my last post), so our next stop was Cholula, population 120,000. Arnold told us it is the oldest still-inhabited city in the Americas, having been populated since the 2nd century BC. 

It is said that Cholula has 365 churches, one for every day of the year or, alternately, one for every pre-Hispanic temple that used to be in the area. The truth is there are only a tenth that many churches--37 (or 159 if you want to be generous and include all the small chapels on the local haciendas). 

There were two main sites we were interested in: The San Gabriel Franciscan Monastery and the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies) Church.  

We started at San Gabriel, built in the 1540s on top of a destroyed temple to Quetzalcoatl. The atrium, aka courtyard, enclosed by the monastery walls is huge.

There were several vendors set up in the atrium, and we (okay, I) couldn't resist this frothy cold cacao milk. Notice that there are TWO straws. It was so good that later on I bought a molinillo, or a hand-carved tool used to create the froth, hoping to duplicate this drink at home. 

Two churches are part of the monastery. The Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) was built in the 17th century, replacing the original chapel built here in 1540. I loved the brilliant gold color of this and the other churches we saw in Cholula.

MEXICO: HUEJOTZINGO, SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL MONASTERY

 March 18, 2018

After our three days in the Villahermosa area, we flew back to Mexico City and took an Uber back to the Maria Cristina Hotel, the same place we had stayed in before going on our side trip, arriving after midnight.

Arnold Pedroza picked us up the following morning for a trip south.

Our first stop was the city of Heujotzingo, population about 60,000 and best known for the Franciscan monastery San Miguel Arcangel, founded in 1525. San Miguel Arcangel, whom we know as the Archangel Michael, is the patron saint of the city and vicinity. This building, finished in 1570, was the third one built on this site and is one of the fourteen monasteries around the base of the volcano Popocatepetl that together have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

You can see the monasteries marked on the map below. Heujotzingo/San Miguel Arcangel is in the top right quadrant.

The monastery is almost 450 years old--that is a long time for a brick structure to survive in earthquake country. One article I read about the monastery complex noted that it was in great shape and had never been severely damaged by any of the frequent earthquakes in the area. I'm guessing that either that article has not been updated since the 7.1 earthquake that hit just south of Huejotzingo in 2017, or the author of the article didn't consider the damage done by the earthquake to be very significant.

We did notice there was scaffolding holding up the main entrance.

Certainly the walls of the main church that anchors the monastery were still standing, and there didn't seem to be danger of the building collapsing, but it was closed to tourists and worshipers alike when we visited, with a large tent spanning the walkway serving as the temporary chapel.

This beautifully carved sandstone cross with a base of a crown of thorns stands at the entrance to the temporary sanctuary, denoting a sacred space. 

MEXICO: AROUND TOWN IN VILLAHERMOSA AND LA VENTA PARK MUSEUM

March 17, 2018

We started our last day in Villahermosa by seeing a few of the local sites of the city with our friends. One of the places they took us was the Mexico Villahermosa LDS Temple, built in 1999-2000.  The LDS Church tries to draw from local architecture in designing temples, and that is certainly apparent here.

There were lots of church members milling about, including families (or maybe a youth group) having picnics.

It was fun to be there with our friends, who were somewhat of local celebrities among church members. Everyone wanted them to take their picture or be in a picture with them. 

MEXICO, VILLAHERMOSA DAY 2: PALENQUE AND MISOL-HA

March 16, 2018

On our second full day in Villahermosa, our friends picked us up for a 90-mile drive to what in my opinion is the best of all the Latin American pre-Columbian sites: Palenque. Well, at least it is the best of the ones I have seen. I had been there in 1979, and I remembered that walking around it felt like walking in a movie set (which is a little strange--something real feeling like something fictional). 

The walk between the parking lot and the ruins was lined with vendors, which was good because Bob really needed a hat. We were facing another day of almost 100° weather and over 90% humidity. A hat won't help with the humidity, but a little shade on the head is a good thing, and this shopkeeper seemed especially happy to make the sale.

Tropical climate makes for bodily misery, but it also creates a beautiful setting.

The region was first inhabited by Mayans in about 200 BC, with Palenque's glory days beginning at about 200 AD when it was a power center that ruled over the region. For unknown reasons, Palenque was abandoned by its residents in 900 AD, leaving its temples, palaces, and homes to be gobbled up by the hungry jungle.

The first "modern" account of the city was published in 1567 by Father Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada, the Spaniard who initially ran across the ruins and named them "Palenque," or "fortification" in Spanish. No more official visits were made until the late 18th century. Many archaeologists visited the area throughout the 19th century, but it wasn't until 1891 that the first excavations and restorations began.  Palenque was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and is now one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico.

The restored section of Palenque covers about a square mile, but it is estimated that only a tenth of the city has been uncovered and that there are more than a thousand buildings still enveloped by heavy jungle growth, waiting to be excavated. 

MEXICO, VILLAHERMOSA DAY 1: MISSIONARIES, COMALCALCO, CACAO, GROCERIES, AND BARBECUE

March 15, 2018

On the evening of March 14, after having spent the day at the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the pyramids of Teotihuacan, we caught a flight from Mexico City to Villahermosa to visit some friends who were serving as as the head of the LDS Mexico Villahermosa Mission of our church.

This large map shows the location of both Mexico City and Villahermosa in the context of the country of Mexico.

Zooming in, you can see that the flight time is about 15% of the driving time. Local flights are cheap (although more than the $16 noted on the map below), so it was a no-brainer to fly.

We were met at the airport by our friends and posed for a picture in the same spot they took photos with newly arriving missionaries. 

We picked up a rental car and then went to dinner together at Tacos de la Estancia before heading off for a good night's sleep at the Hampton Inn Villahermosa.

In the morning we made our way to the Mission Office, located next door to the church building that serves the LDS Villahermosa Stake.

The Mexico Villahermosa Mission covers a large area, with one finger reaching all the way down to Guatemala.

Our friends were putting on a conference for the missionaries (which included lunch), and it was fun to see them in action.