Day 2...now I know how a mole feels....
Took the metro to the gigantic Museum of Anthropology. The efficient metro cost us about 5 pesos each. On some occasions it has been so full that people have been pushed back out of the trains because there is no room for them...they all just take it in stride.
.........once you've entered the Mexico City underground metro, it only costs 5 pesos...you could probably travel for days, weeks on the underground, as you can buy food, clothing, electronics, banos etc. However, like a hairless, blind mole you might want some sun! Once you surface, you need to pay another 5 pesos to ride again.....,....
This Anthropology Museum is so HUGE you could spend days or even weeks while we spent about 5 hours. It basically goes through the stages of life on earth, then focuses on Mexican history. It gets to be very overwhelming after a while. There are massive displays, frescoes, sculptures, model villages and homes in addition to thousands of pieces of pottery, jewelry, clothes and artifacts. Here are a few pictures...
Entrance statue to Museum. That is water falling...
Olmec stone head sculpture was at least 1.5 metres square.
Aztec Calendar Stone or Sun Stone weighs about 24 tonne, is 3.5 metres in diameter and has a thickness
of 98 cm. See descriptor below.
A model of the ancient cities Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco...see below for descriptor...
Entrance statue to Museum. That is water falling...
Olmec stone head sculpture was at least 1.5 metres square.
Aztec Calendar Stone or Sun Stone weighs about 24 tonne, is 3.5 metres in diameter and has a thickness
of 98 cm. See descriptor below.
A model of the ancient cities Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco...see below for descriptor...
It's funny, but after nearly 4 months of travel in Mexico, a lot of what we saw displayed in the museum has been the stuff of daily life that we've seen or been lucky to have passed through.....
The metro didn't drop us off at the museum doorstop. Once we surfaced from the underground, we needed to catch a city bus. No problem, ask a cop, street vendor and they all point us to the right bus stop/bus. Only costs 4 pesos to ride the bus here!
.....transportation in MC has been very safe, cheap and reliable....(OK, apart from flagging random cabs on city streets - which I'm told could be dangerous to one's life)...it takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere in MCity......we survived and thrived in the traffic chaos......
Spent the evening wandering the area streets. Filled with people, vendors, traffic. Cops at all crosswalks. People all out and about!
Day 3 ......So, how many people can you STUFF in a VW van......
Today we went to the Frida Kahlo Museum using the metro and bus again. Who was she? Just the most famous Mexican Latin American female artist and married to artist Diego Rivera. A movie was made about her a few years ago so we had to go see their home. Was quite interesting. I think we have to watch the movie again!!
Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera's home and garden in Mexico City looking up at her studio. Photo
of the two of them with the studio in the background.
On the way back to the metro, we hopped on a Volkswagen van converted to a bus shuttle......so, to answer the question (how many can fit in a VW van) while we got on with only several people, we left with 15!!! And, there was still room for at least 5 more (ok, they'd have to stand, bent over,) Ha...but it did get us to the metro, with the help of twin sisters on board!
....welcome to Quasimodo's world......
On the return from Frida via the metro, we got out at the Zocalo stop near the Temple Mayor and the Metropolitan, the largest cathedral in Mexico and just blocks from our hotel of the famous Zocalo Plaza.
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City, built between
1573 and 1813. This cathedral is the oldest and largest cathedral in all of Latin America.
Door to the Metropolitan Tabernacle beside and part of the Cathedral.
We heard there were tours up the bell towers and one is able to walk over the cathedral. Bought some tickets and lucked out when we returned for the tour, just the 2 of us going! We climbed 64 + stairs with our guide Christian, up the original spiral staircase from the 1500's.
He took us into two of the bell towers where campaneros, (bell ringers), still ring the bells by hand using ropes that are attached to each bell. The ropes are all tied at a central spot so the ringer just reaches to each rope to pull and make his/her own song or the designated song. Our guide was such a ringer and played a jingle for us. The largest bell there weighs 13,000 tonnes!! (Wikipedia)
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City, built between
1573 and 1813. This cathedral is the oldest and largest cathedral in all of Latin America.
Door to the Metropolitan Tabernacle beside and part of the Cathedral.
We heard there were tours up the bell towers and one is able to walk over the cathedral. Bought some tickets and lucked out when we returned for the tour, just the 2 of us going! We climbed 64 + stairs with our guide Christian, up the original spiral staircase from the 1500's.
He took us into two of the bell towers where campaneros, (bell ringers), still ring the bells by hand using ropes that are attached to each bell. The ropes are all tied at a central spot so the ringer just reaches to each rope to pull and make his/her own song or the designated song. Our guide was such a ringer and played a jingle for us. The largest bell there weighs 13,000 tonnes!! (Wikipedia)
We then walked ACROSS the outside dome of the cathedral at about 30 metres up!!! We just couldn't believe we were doing this! We had a 360 degree view of the whole city...now S knows why Quasimodo liked hanging around the top of the Notre Dame. Too bad it was so smoggy- he said on a clear day we would have been able to see the volcanoes too...
After crossing the dome, we went to the second bell tower where he showed us where 2 of the bells are rung by pushing on them so they completely rotate upside down. This takes a tremendous amount of skill and strength. Unfortunately in 1947, a novice campanero was struck in the head while rotating one of the bells, the only person at this church to be killed in this manner, so that bell was put out of commission. It remains in the same spot and has a large red cross painted on it.
Second bell tower
Stairs inside the bell tower to access the highest bells. The two bell towers contain a
total of 25 bells.
Christian pushing one of the bells.
Second bell tower
Stairs inside the bell tower to access the highest bells. The two bell towers contain a
total of 25 bells.
Christian pushing one of the bells.
The cathedral has sagged/sunk nearly 240 cms since being built between 1573 to 1813 - it continues to sink about a cm/yr! It does look slightly off centered on the inside. As if some giant took and twisted the entire length of the cathedral.
Notice how the chandelier hangs slightly crooked to the left ... also, workers were doing repairs at the top.
The Altar of Forgiveness
Notice how the chandelier hangs slightly crooked to the left ... also, workers were doing repairs at the top.
The Altar of Forgiveness
Our guide was also very proud to tell us that one of the bells, the only one ever, was blessed by the visiting Pope about 10 years ago.
This was not the blessed bell, but rather, one that was cracked at the bottom so it was
removed to make way for a new one. This one weighed about 2 tonnes. I'm not sure how
a 2 tonne bell gets cracked...hhmmm...
What a totally amazing experience this was...
This was not the blessed bell, but rather, one that was cracked at the bottom so it was
removed to make way for a new one. This one weighed about 2 tonnes. I'm not sure how
a 2 tonne bell gets cracked...hhmmm...
What a totally amazing experience this was...
This same evening we attended a folkloric performance at the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), one block from our hotel. What a stunning theatre!!! All through our journeys in Mexico we have seen examples of these folkloric dances but this was, by far, the best one! We were in the nose bleed section on the 6th floor of the theater. It was so high, we felt we had to hold on so we wouldn't fall off. One woman beside us almost had a panic attack because of the height!!! Fantastic!
Adios Shayne & Yvonne...more to come Day 4!
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