Down in the Valle and Mexico City

Those of you that have been following this blog might recall we met a couple in a few different places along the Copper Canyon. Gary is English but lived for many years in Australia. His partner, Lourdes, is Mexican and they live in Mexico City. They very generously invited us to join them for a couple of days at Lourdes' holiday house at Avandaro, near Valle de Bravo, about two hours west of Mexico City.

We bussed there from Cholula. Again, Mexico's public transport system made it fairly easy to get in and out of Mexico City. We shared a lovely night at their house, catching up on things and meeting Lourdes' son, Juan Carlos. Lourdes is an archaeologist and has a wealth of knowledge about many of the ancient sites we had visited in Mexico.

The next day they took us out to explore the area. Valle de Bravo is a beautiful colonial town, although it almost looked medieval to me. It was stunning!

Houses have to conform to historic building standards so even the rooves have a uniform appearance.

We ate breakfast at a restaurant with fabulous views over the town and nearby lake.

There was a troll shop in the town!

There was a wonderful spiritual retreat place nearby called Carmel Maranatha. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take photos inside but it was beautiful.

We then went to an amazing hotel on the lake. The views over the lake were stunning.

There was one area that had a stained glass roof over it. The light underneath was incredible!

The family looked after us wonderfully. The next day we farewelled the beautiful property in the trees and Gary and Lourdes very kindly drove us back to Mexico City. They showed us their apartment and we finished the visit with a superb meal at a local cafe. Thank you Gary, Lourdes and Juan Carlos!

We checked into a great place in Mexico City (it's very quiet for such a big, noisy city) and spent the next few days exploring the places we didn't get to the first time we were here.

First stop was the Anthropological Museum. This place was enormous! It could take all day to see it all properly. The entrance was very impressive.

Inside were artefacts from many ancient Mexican civilisations. Some were incredible. I've just added a few select photos in here.

There were a few life-sized representations of what some of the pyramids really looked like. Imagine entire pyramids decorated like this!

The colours in some of the artwork were amazing.

There were some weird and wonderful pieces of ancient art.

Olmecs are famous for sculpting these huge heads, about two metres high. They must be accurate depictions though because, even today, we sometimes see Mexicans who have facial features like this.

Olmecs often made smiling statues. I loved them!

This marker stone with writing is from Yaxchilan, the ruined city we visited near the Guatemalan border a while ago. They had distinctive picture-style writing.

The next day we explored the famous Templo Mayor. This temple was the very centre of the Aztec civilisation. It's located in the heart of Mexico City. It was discovered during renovation works on a building and the decision was made to demolish buildings around it so archaological digs could be undertaken. Today, the ruin sits surrounded by grand colonial buildings.

One of the raised walkways we were on ran on top of an old water or sewer pipe. This pipe ran right through the main pyramid. Whoever built this pipe clearly knew they were going through an ancient building but I suppose that people didn't care about these things for a long time.

There was a museum on site and I loved the way they showed the colours some of the walls were painted.

The amazing thing is that the Aztecs built their entire town on islands on a lake. They extended the land by driving timbers into the water then gradually builing up the land. The idea behind this was that the lake water gave them a huge benefit in growing crops. They could grow three crops per year compared to the usual one. This helped make them such a dominant force.

This also means that the current Mexico City is also built on the old lake bed so there is a problem with buildings sinking. Look closely at the different angles on the buildings below.

This church with the dark stones and the white steeple is leaning significantly.

Next stop was the National Palace to see the Diego Rivera murals. (Diego was Frida's husband.) His work was very political and often portrayed the history of Mexico in some form. This mural was huge.

I was most fascinated by one of his murals that showed what the Aztec city looked like when it was built on the lake. Note the two volcanoes in the background. These are the two we saw from Cholula on the other side. The pointy one is the famous active Popocatepetl.

We visited a gallery showing art from artists who were allowed to pay taxes with their artwork. There were some cool things there!

Out on the busy streets, I realised just how homogenous this world has become.

There was one last Diego Rivera mural to see. He was famously commissioned to paint a mural at the Rockefeller Centre in New York, but they didn't like how he included his anti-capitalist ideals in it. When he refused to remove the offending parts they demolished the entire mural. He reproduced it here in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

By this time it was late afternoon so we made our way north to Plaza Garibaldi. This was a much rougher part of town with people sleeping in the streets and the smell of pee everywhere. There has been a big push to clean this area up.

The plaza itself was fine and is famous for its mariachi bands. Men, and the occasional lady, roamed the plaza with their instruments hoping to play people a song for a fee. I loved their distinctive black suits decorated with silver.

There were different styles of silver decorations.

The buttons on these pants were owl faces!

We had the best margaritas in all of Mexico here. They were tamarind ones and were the perfect blend of sweet, sour and salty. Yum! Note the mariachi guys dressed in white in the background. The white costumes indicated they were from Veracruz.

Not only were the margaritas amazing but I loved the glasses they were served in too!

In true Mexican style, free music was being played in the square. People obviously knew what sort of music it would be and came prepared with their hankies. We hadn't seen this sort of dancing elsewhere.

Much to our amazement, a group of perfectly groomed horses and riders, all with matching gear, rode past. It turned out that they were policemen! They were dressed like mariachis. It was great to see!

Soon, we heard thunder and it started raining. It had been so long since we saw rain that we can't even remember where it was. It didn't last long. Wet season is coming so we can expect a bit of rain from now on.

We walked 4kms back to our hotel. Our maps programme on the phone took us through some pretty seedy areas. Everyone is so friendly though that when John saw a lady standing on a corner he said hello to her. I made the comment (discreetly) that perhaps he should have asked "how much?" as she looked a bit suss. To our surprise, on the next corner was another lady. On the following corner was a lady who was bursting out of her dress at the top and the dress was so short that we could see what she had for breakfast. There was now no doubt we were in a red light district!

The next day we explored the huge artisenal market. We had bought almost nothing on the entire trip as we didn't want to carry things with us. I was tempted so many times by the amazing arts, crafts and foods in Mexico.

At one stage we stopped at a cafe for a cold drink and were amazed to see a series of tables set up in the middle of the arts market. The tables were full of people playing chess.

There were old and young alike. This girl only looked about 6 or 7 years old!

Next to the artisenal market is a big square. Every Saturday afternoon, people come here to dance. Free dancing lessons are given and these were very popular. I love the way Mexicans just get out and enjoy themselves.

A few couples even had the matching outfits happening. John was very pleased about their choice of colours.

We stopped for some tacos at one stage and I just had to take a photo of the variety of sauces available. They love their sauces in Mexico!

Our last day in Mexico was a Sunday so we thought we'd do the Mexican thing and join the hordes and head to the local park. As expected, it was packed but there were still places where you could find a bit of relative peace and quiet.

Inside the huge park were restaurants, street stalls, museums and even lakes where you could hire boats.

Although Mexico City is terribly polluted and is very busy and noisy, we were rapt to have such a selection of food. We ate Japanese, Korean and Italian. As much as we love Mexican food it was so good to have something different after four months.

It'll be sad to leave this amazing country but it's time to go home - almost! We're spending a few days in San Francisco on the way home so I'll be back again soon. 

Adios!

Heather and John

The Magic of Taxco

Hello again!

As cold as it was, I would love to have stayed longer in our little mountain village and to have seen more of the butterflies, however the "kids" only have a limited time with us so we had to move on. Again, we would have to go back into Mexico City, move from one terminal to another, then catch another bus out to our destination. We calculated how long it would take and what the cost would be and realised it would be much quicker, and only slightly dearer, to organise a car and driver. It turns out that the B&B owner's cousin (everyone in this village is related) had just bought a brand new car to ferry tourists around. We negotiated a reasonable fee and we were set. The only problem was that the car was quite small so we were jammed in like sardines for the whole trip.

Our destination was Taxco, a gorgeous, historic town. It's about the same size as Ballarat but it was built on the discovery of silver, not gold. The feature of the town is that new houses must conform to building codes that keep the whole town looking historic. It was beautiful! It looked very European with its whitewashed walls and orange-tiled rooves.

We arrived at our hotel where we had arranged to have a small apartment. It had two small bedrooms and a tiny kitchen. Space was tight but it was so cute! We were then shown through a small door (watch your head!), up a narrow flight of stairs and out onto a balcony. The balcony was wonderful! We had an amazing view out over the town and it was all ours!

The views from our balcony overlooking the famous cathedral.

The view from our street.

To top it off, we quickly realised we were near an ice-cream and churro shop. Could this place get any better?

We wandered around the small town square. The facade of the baroque church was incredible!

Courtney found dairy-free ice-cream at a little stand in the square.

The reason we had chosen to come to Taxco at this time is because there was a four-day festival on. We would be here for two of those days.

On the first day, people brought their animals to be blessed by the priest. We hung around the square and watched people arrive with various animals in tow. A band got the crowd warmed up.

Some people arrived by local taxi - complete with their animals. This lady brought her cats by taxi. Strangely, the taxis here are mostly white VW Beetles.

The largest animals brought in were these two donkeys. They were blindfolded for the trip in the back of a ute!

I need to warn you now - cute animals pics ahead!

Nearly every animal was adorned in some way. Ribbons were put on the donkeys.

There were even mice and a dove!

Dogs were by far the most popular animal there though.

The priest came out, gave his blessing and splashed holy water over the animals. The animals looked so cute in their Sunday best!

Then the best-dressed dog competition began!

Bob Marley won one of the categories. He actually really looked the part because he sat so still and looked so relaxed in his owner's arms that he looked completely stoned!

Frida Kahlo won one of the Chihuahua categories!

A winner of one of the "Best Disguised" categories was this taco dog!

All through the weekend, people selling various things wandered around. The hat sellers wore their many hats!

While I wandered around checking out the dogs, John hung out in what quickly became our favourite bar, Bar Berta. Its narrow balcony was only 65 cm wide but it could fit us comfortably and we could look out over all the activity in the square below.

The view of the town from the square.

Back on our own balcony, the cathedral looked spectacular after the sun set.

The next morning we explored more of the town. Some of the cobblestoned roads were beautifully decorated. I can't believe I actually got this shot without cars on it. The narrow roads were so busy!

Most of the time, the roads looked like this. When cars had to pass each other there was very little room left for us pedestrians. Fortunately, most of the roads are one-way.

That afternoon, we caught a local transport - a kombi van - out to a chairlift. We rode the chairlift up past the amazing cliffs that sit beside this town to a flash hotel. We had a drink there and cheked out the view.

Courtney and John just chillin'.

Silly kids.

On the way back we decided we'd try one of the local VW Beetle taxis. "Will it fit the four of us?" we asked. "Of course" was the answer, so we went to get in the car - only to find that it had no passenger seat! Apparently none of the Beetle taxis have front passenger seats. This makes it easier to squeeze into the back and bags can go where the seat would normally be.

We got us all in by having Cara, John and myself crammed into the back seat and Courtney sat on the floor where the front seat would normally have been! It was so funny!

Of course, the car in front of us then broke down in one of those narrow roads where nobody could turn around or pass. There was suddenly no end of helpers to push it out of the way so the traffic could move again.

The town sells a lot of silver and every silver shop has armed security guards outside. There is a police presence everywhere too, and they always have enormous guns. They look fierce but they usually seem friendly.

Courtney and I bought delicious churros (long doughnuts) from this guy in the square.

As the evening drew near, a crowd started gathering in the square for an outdoor mass. It was difficult to get information, but someone had mentioned something about a parade so we hung around, watching the activity from Bar Berta.

Much to our delight, the parade started before the mass did! For about half an hour, costumed performers danced and acted scenes out in one long parade. Drums were played and music blared from speakers on the back of trucks. The costumes were amazing!

We had no idea what most of the costumes depicted. There were a few scenes being acted out where people seemed to be trying to catch a jaguar. Twice the 'jaguar' and a person wrestled, and the wrestling seemed to be real. There was lots of cracking of whips too!

Other times, people in costumes danced or just paraded. Many of the performers wore elaborate masks. I wish I knew what they depicted.

These dancers looked amazing.

The local saints were carried though the town as a part of the parade.

It was a fantastic night! We would love to have stayed a few more days. The Mexicans sure know how to party!

The next day we caught a bus to Mexico City. We checked into a swish hostel where we had bedrooms, not bunks in dorms. We're too old for that now! It was a Saturday and the streets were soooo crowded!

Despite booking months ahead and asking well in advance for quiet rooms at the hostel, we were given the only two rooms left - one on the first floor and one on the third. John and I took the one on the first floor and it was incredibly noisy. The hostel's own rooftop party went til 1am, blaring music all down the street. On one of the few occassions when we managed to get to sleep, the noisy rubbish truck turned up. We watched the rubbish collectors one night when we were wide awake at 2am. They pulled up in the street, directly below our window, dragged the bags of rubbish to the truck from our hostel and the hotel across the road, then proceeded to sort out the recycles on the spot! They sifted through the rubbish with their bare hands, pulling out bottles, papers and plastics. Heavy bags were hoisted onto the truck using hydraulics that sounded like a freight train was running through our bedroom.

On the second night, someone that lived underneath the hostel blared music til really late. John was out in the street in the middle of the night trying to sort it out. In the end, the hostel management was able to bang loud enough on their door for the people inside to hear and turn the volume down.

On the third night, John went to shut the French doors in our rooms that opened to the street and thought he'd look a bit closer to see if we could block the noise out somehow. Above the door was a window that we had assumed was shut but it turned out it was wide open! We slept a lot better the next two nights!

Sights around the historic city centre: this stunning cathedral was on the main square.

Colourful buildings.

Sunday is the big day for activities in the main square and these dancers were performing Aztec dancing. The costumes were amazing!

This guy looked like he was straight out of the movie  "Apocalypto".

Nearby, costumed people were performing traditional Aztec cleansing. We thought this was a bit of a fake tourist thing until we realised that it was mostly locals lining up for a cleansing, so Courtney and I joined in.

The Aztec healer held a container of burning incense and did certain actions with it. He used a bunch of basil to tap over our bodies. It was cool!

Check out what the healer was wearing!

I later videoed the same healer doing a cleansing on a local lady.

There were female healers too.

More dressed up 'Aztecs'.

Inside one of the amazing cathedrals on the square.

A massive Mexican flag flew in the square.

Nine years ago, we met a Canadian lady on an island in Belize. We spent two days together playing cards because a storm blew up and we couldn't get off the island. We then moved onto another island where we had a huge night together at a karaoke bar. We have kept in touch and we finally got to meet again! Leanne flew into Mexico City a day after us and it was so exciting to meet up again after all these years! 

To celebrate we had to head out and find some nightlife. We were told there was a street nearby with lots of bars so we headed there. On the way we found this tree with photos of people hanging from it. It turns out that it's a memorial to the 43 students who were murdered by the government five years ago. They were protesting against the government of the time. It was a dark time in Mexico's recent history.

We found a bar with tables outside and John ordered a large beer. It came complete with the tradtional chili and tamarind mix that they add to lots of thing here!

Here's the first taste!

We started talking to two girls at the next table. They were working their way through a five litre keg of beer! By the end of the night they were pretty plastered. One of them spoke good English and they were great value.

People come past all the time trying to sell things. This guy was an amazing guitarist. He played 60's surf music. He was awesome!

The next morning over breakfast at the hostel, we met Mariana. Mariana is half Mexican, half American. She lives in the US and had to spend a few days in Mexico City. She got on well with all of us and was great value.

There was a walking tour being run by our hostel so she joined us on it. The tour wasn't great but we saw a few interesting things. This was an ancient carving taken from a temple and used as a foundation stone in a colonial building.

The modern city of Mexico City is built over the ruins of older civilisations. The ruins of El Templo.

The inside of the first Post Office was incredible! The iron staircase was imported from Florence.

We ended the tour at a great taco place. Cara got blue tacos! These are made from blue corn. There are a huge number of different varieties of corn here.

Leanne, Courtney, Mariana, Cara and John.

Since they were little, our kids have called us Mumso and Dadso. We couldn't resist a Mumso photo in front of this shop!

Courtney dyed her hair blue!

The six of us headed out for drinks and dinner that night. First stop was at a pulqueria that Rick Stein visited in one of his shows. A pulqueria sells pulque, an alcohol made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant. It sounds horrible, but it was great! You drink it with fruit juice and there are heaps to choose from. Mariana took control of the ordering and got us a sample of five different juices. They were all good! We each chose our favourites and ordered a full glass of it.

Salude!

The whole place was painted from floor to ceiling. It was such fun!

We wandered around looking for a place to eat. We found a place upstairs in a big building where you could sit at tables then order from a number of different shops around us. This worked well as we had many different eating requirements in our group. John ordered a flight of mescal, the local drink here, to share with Mariana. It came with oranges, pink grapefruit and fried grasshoppers! They're eaten a lot around here. John and Mariana ate some of them and I tried a tiny piece. They were really just crunchy.

We kept going back and ordering more food (the local food was great but the wedges were the winners!) and the drinks kept flowing. My favourite photo of the night is when we decided to leave and Mariana slid down the bannister! Sorry to put this photo up on our blog Mariana but I couldn't resist it!

It was Cara's last night in Mexico. We dropped her off at the airport and she has now made it back home ok. We won't see her for months!

Mariana had things to do so Leanne, Courtney, John and I caught an uber out to see Frida Kahlo's house. We got there and there was an enormous queue. John hates crowds so he immediately caught another uber back! He spent the afternoon checking out some sights near our hostel. The remaining three of us took turns standing for about an hour in the queue.

When we finally got inside we watched part of a rather long movie about Frida. Frida is Mexico's most famous artist. She was born in 1907 and when she was 18 she was hit by a bus and suffered horrific injuries which left her in pain for the rest of her life. She wore bracing to support her back for most of her life.

Frida was born in 'The Blue House' and later lived there with her husband, another famous Mexican artist, Diego Rivera. The blue was striking. 

One of her most famous paintings that shows she was still strong and loving life right up to when she died of pnuemonia in her 40's (the words say "Live the life").

On our last night, Mariana, Leanne, John, Courtney and I sat on the rooftop bar of our hostel and saw a gorgeous sunset. It was a fitting end to our time in Mexico City.

Hasta luego!

Heather