Palacio de Bellas Artes

We had such a nice day again. Nothing went according to plan, but that is part of the funn of an adventure…the good part is that I woke up minus a backache. All signs of my intense pain from yesterday and the last couple of weeks – gone. Poof. Gone J

We decided to head to one of the most famous Mexican museums, the museum of anthropology. Got the subway and on the way to change subway trains, we found a medical clinic.  Since we are worried about Les’s heart rate and blood pressure … we inquired.   All of 10 pesos and they wd check him out right then and there. How perfect !!  5 minutes later we know that Les is doing great and we are on our way.

We arrive and start walking towards the museum. We see a Korean pagoda.

We see a guard who informs us that all museums in mexico are closed on Mondays. Duhhhhhhh. I guess we have not gone to one on a Monday BUT we have been on Sundays and they are free on Sundays. And some even free to gringoes if you can prove you live in mexico. So bring an electric or phone bill or your FM and you can then prove residence !!  so we walked to Polanco, where there are very posh houses and nice cafes.

We had some coffee and met a very nice gentleman (Alfredo) who has a friend who is selling a hotel for 21 million dollars in Cozumel, close to Cancun. If you know anyone who might be interested, we have a card and  will be getting more details soon !!

From polanco we went to the zocalo and found the millions of st judas worshippers who were buying statues and roses and heading to his part of the main cathedral. Throngs of people. Throngs of sellers. Throngs of police. It felt safe and it felt busy. I began to not feel so hot – looks like I have myself a cold.

As we were walking we saw the palacio de bellas artes and there was to be a free talk in 30 minutes. We waited. It was worth it to see the theater itself. It took decades to build it…it weighs over 78,000 pounds. It has mostly Mexican marble but the statues are all Italian carera marble.  A hangarian woman did the ceiling skylight. The original architect never saw his dream come to fruition -  a revolution in 1910 held everything up for years. There was no show tonight or we might have gone. The opening night had diego rivera, frieda kahlo and the president at the time in attendance, as well as a famous Mexican actress named Dolores del rio (I guess she lived in hollywood at the time).

http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/ab45/BajaBlanca/Palacio%20de%20Bellas%20Artes/

I think if you hit the link above, you will be able to see all the  photos.

Maybe tomorrow we hit the museum of anthropology …. Such a nice day ….

Sunday Feb. 27, 2011 MEXICO CITY

we played hooky today. i woke up woth a bad back - could hardly move, could hardly breathe. ur restaurant at this hotel closes on sundays, so we walked and i barely crawled, across the street to the best wetsern. Les went for some pain meds which I took one with some juice.  Aftr an hour, i still wasnt better so I took anothr one and within about 15 minutes I was out of pain and happy !!

spent the day watching tv and siesta-ing. Les went out and about to window shop, andhe bought us some really nice t-shirts for us ....

time for dinner. adios amigos !!

Feb 26, saturday at tiotehuacan pyramids

what a day ... what a busy and fantastic day.  we had breakfast, got new directions to the pyramids, easier, and left.  first the subway all of 3 pesos each or 25 cents. we got off at INDIOS VERDES  - the last station - and inside they told us to take exit H but upon our return in the afternoon, the best exit is C. air coditioned buses that take half the time. 60 min in the morning and only 30 in the afternoon.  buses cost 35 pesos each.

how to describe teotihuacan ?????  it housed 125,000 people at its peak and the pyramids number hundreds and this is just 1/10th of the city.  the biggest pyramid is pyramid of the sun, scond is pyramid of the moon, and the most interesting to us - the pyramid of the plumed serpent.  I find it amazng that when cortez was leaving mexico city, he never even realized the aztec empire of teotihuacan was there !!  which is a great thing since the spaniards wanted to destroy everything indian that they could....

peddlers are the worst -  they hound you and hound you to buy. quite a shame because i think they might sell more if they relaxed a bit.  i find them extremely annoying.  but they sure have some interesting crafts.

it was hot hot hot and we are not even in summer yet !!  the walking is long too and climbing the pyramids is allowed but i just couldnt do it. les did climb the pyramid of the serpeant !!

thoughts on mexico city: 

extremely polluted.
no homeless to speak of in any of the MANY neighborhoods we have been in
people people people cars cars cars  buses buses buses
requests for employees in quite a few places
nice statues and plenty of them
in every subway or bus, creative sellers get on and sell 10 peso pens, keychains, books/toys for kids
extremely polluted

xochimilco

so we went to xochimilco today. we took the subway and then another line of subway called the tren ligero. it was a piece of cake (only cause Les has an innate sense of direction that is downright uncanny). then we walked abut 6 blocks to get tothe boat rides.  after intense negotiations since the captains were asking for 800 pesos, we got them to lower it to 400 pesos, both of us, two hours.   the full on deal !!

well amigos and amigas, i thought the boat trip would be educational, i thought it would be fun, i thought it would be many things but the reality was far more fabulous !!!!

there are over a hundred boats and they filll up with couples or big groups. then, as you are slowly and gently rolling down the canals, vendors come by with roses (helloooooooooooooo)

they come by with beer

they come by and offer lunch which they set up on the boat

oh i hope all of you come here one day and experience these 2 hours of absolute delight for yourselves.

and now for some history - the aztecs called it THE PLACE OF THE FLOWER FIELDS, and it is still used for flower and vegetable growing nowadays. In spite of being revered by the aztecs, cortez and his men never saw it. the aztecs built up islands with tree branches and soil. they are the only portion of their paradise that remains intact snce the spaniards destroyed all they could when they were conquering mexico.

mexico city tour

well, we spent 6 hours taking a tour of the whole city...would i do it again ?? no way.  one half of the trip is enough....what i did see is that there are way too many cars,way too many buses and tons of parks everywhere. some of the bohemian neighborhoods are just great and remind me of cafes or restaurants all over in europe.  i imagine they are lovely places to live

except of course for the horrendous pollution. 

we still  love our hotel, the location could not be better and the price is outrageously great - i think we are paying 350 a night or 30 dollars. the restaurant has a delicious chicken breast dinner for 65 pesos, i mean, come one !!!!  those are great prices all around.

tomorrow i hit the brazilian consulate.

and tonight sometime i should hear for regina about what is happening in rio with my birth certificate. so many things in the works...and tomorrow we shall go to XOCHIMILCO ... the Aztec capital underneath and before <Mexico city came into being.....

MARVELOUS MAINLAND MEXICO

so today i want to put down some of the first impressions of mexico city

as we were driving, the mountain was so high that on the way down, there were FOUR emergency gravel areas for cars or trucks without brakes.

as we came into town - the famous corrupted police confirmed their pressence. and we were headed for the first hotel that we could park the car and leave it till we left the city.

right outside the entrance to mexico city, there were many, many prostitutes. each within a few feet of the others and all with high heels and all in the bright light of day - we arrived at noon.

the city is clean.

nightmare to drive in town since all the sidestreet are one way.  arrive and park.

lots of police presence everywhere.

mexico city

here we come, we are in mexico city and our first experience was terrible

we had asked our friends for an indication of where to stay outside of the city and they said los reyes. as soon as we took th turnoff the cops pulled us over. after a lot of BS about how we had broken the law in more ways than one could imagine ... I panicked when they said they wd impound the car. the cops were insistant that we were in trouble. Les started to argue - loudly - and i said, pay up and i wi reimburse you.

well, the riginal price was 1500 pesos, then down to 1200 pesos and les offers 200. i think the guy will be offended and tell les. jusr pay it, lets go and have this nightmar over.  and we paid far far too much. 500 pesos.

let me clarify that - I PAID THE DAMN 500 PESOS OUT OF MY POCKET. BIG MOUTH ...

if I could kick myself I wd.  500 is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. but i believed the guy when he said they wd take the car blablabla

what planet was I on ??????????  the plaet called TIRED.  and wanting a hotel already ..

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now, we are in fact in a wonderful hotel that is NOT expensive, has a rasonable restaurant attached. adn is right inthe middle of downtown capital city mexico.

we expored the zolcalo today - that is the main square every town in mexico has...

we found murals tht took a total of 20yrs to paint a la diego rivera
we saw aztc dancers
we visited a crafts shop and didnt buy a thing :)
we walked about 10 long blocks
we took the famous mexico city subway which les figured out in about 10 minutes
we had dinner at our hotel

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well folks, life is vry good and it is time to log offfffffffffffffffff