Mexico to the USA
Mexico City
I had planned badly and arrived in Mexico City on the Sunday. I had intended to visit the archaeological museum on Monday, but I was to find that all the museums and art galleries were closed on Mondays. So I spent the day just wondering around the centre of Mexico City. I went into the cathedral in the Main Square and explored the streets around my hotel. On Tuesday, I’ve booked a tour to visit the Aztec Pyramid, temples of Teotihuacan and the basilica of Guadalupe. The huge step pyramids were extraordinary, but sadly most of the carving and painting has been destroyed or taken into the museum. What is remains are the temples themselves and the ruins of settlements around them. I know so little of the history of central America to be able to say very much about the archaeology. But what I saw compares with some of the great temples of India and Southeast Asia. On the way to the temples, we stopped at the obligatory, tourist souvenir shop. In fact, it was rather interesting because we got shown the many uses of the agave plant and the several types of obsidian, black, gold, silver and purple. The obsidian was basically black, but when dipped in water, the several different colours shine out depending on the type. We were shown how obsidian can be flaked like flint to make weapons and tools and how larger pieces can be carved into sculptures.
I was not so impressed with the basilica at Guadalupe. There is a huge cathedral, built the house, the image of the Saint, which hangs on the wall and pilgrims file by offering prayers and supplications. The image used to hang in an older church until there was a bomb attack during a church versus state conflict after which it was moved into the larger new cathedral in the 1970s.
In a group were a party of Spanish Americans from San Francisco, who really came to see Guadalupe American couple from El Paso and the Brazilian, whose wife was working in Mexico. I had foolishly left my phone in my hotel room and could not take simple pictures, although I did have my GoPro camera, but those photographs will have to be uploaded later. At lunch, the American from El Paso introduced me to the dish of Mexican fried crickets. They are cooked in a lot of lime juice and I found them very tasty, although the legs were a little offputting.
Tomorrow I fly off to America.
I had planned badly and arrived in Mexico City on the Sunday. I had intended to visit the archaeological museum on Monday, but I was to find that all the museums and art galleries were closed on Mondays. So I spent the day just wondering around the centre of Mexico City. I went into the cathedral in the Main Square and explored the streets around my hotel. On Tuesday, I’ve booked a tour to visit the Aztec Pyramid, temples of Teotihuacan and the basilica of Guadalupe. The huge step pyramids were extraordinary, but sadly most of the carving and painting has been destroyed or taken into the museum. What is remains are the temples themselves and the ruins of settlements around them. I know so little of the history of central America to be able to say very much about the archaeology. But what I saw compares with some of the great temples of India and Southeast Asia. On the way to the temples, we stopped at the obligatory, tourist souvenir shop. In fact, it was rather interesting because we got shown the many uses of the agave plant and the several types of obsidian, black, gold, silver and purple. The obsidian was basically black, but when dipped in water, the several different colours shine out depending on the type. We were shown how obsidian can be flaked like flint to make weapons and tools and how larger pieces can be carved into sculptures.
I was not so impressed with the basilica at Guadalupe. There is a huge cathedral, built the house, the image of the Saint, which hangs on the wall and pilgrims file by offering prayers and supplications. The image used to hang in an older church until there was a bomb attack during a church versus state conflict after which it was moved into the larger new cathedral in the 1970s.
In a group were a party of Spanish Americans from San Francisco, who really came to see Guadalupe American couple from El Paso and the Brazilian, whose wife was working in Mexico. I had foolishly left my phone in my hotel room and could not take simple pictures, although I did have my GoPro camera, but those photographs will have to be uploaded later. At lunch, the American from El Paso introduced me to the dish of Mexican fried crickets. They are cooked in a lot of lime juice and I found them very tasty, although the legs were a little offputting.
Tomorrow I fly off to America.