Weblog: Mexico Day 15: Mexico City
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Ed, Natacha, Jeff Wagg (a recently arrived grad student from Canada, who I had met before) and I spent the day in Mexico City. We cought an early bus from CAPU, then took the Metro from the bus station in Mexico to the Zocalo. Since I would be catching a plane the next day, I had all my luggage with me, and the first thing we did was find a hostel near the Zocalo where I could leave my stuff.
The rest of the day was spent in museums. We walked through the historical district. I think it must have been a 5x4 block part of the city where all the roads were torn up. I guess this was part of the general sprucing up of the city that has been going on, but I would have thought they'd go one block at a time, instead of the whole thing at once!
The Palacio de Belles Artes didn't have an exhibits going on, but it is a beautiful building filled with huge murals. At the Museo de Arte Moderno one of my long time dreams was fulfilled, to see in person the paintings of Remedios Varo. I also bought two posters of her paintings. Overall the museum had an excellent collection.
Next was the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. In the plaza in front of the museum, we saw the Valedores rite, which is a Totonac traditional act of worship that has turned into a tourist attraction. Four men climb to the top of a tall pole with ropes. The ropes are attached to the top, and to themselves, and they turn the rotating platform at the topof the pole, winding the ropes around it. Then they drop off and slowly, gracefully, they are swung around, farther and farther away from the pole as the ropes unwind and they get closer to the ground. It truly is a beautiful spectacle.
The anthropological museum is immense, and there is no way the hour or two we spent there did it justice. All I could do was look at all the artifacts, but with little understanding of the history and not enough time to read all the descriptions, it didn't mean much to me other than being aesthetically pleasing.
We were tired, so we made our way back to the Zocalo and had dinner at the rooftop restaurant of the hostel.
Mexico City is quite amazing. The wide, tree-lined boulevards make it feel airy despite the polution and huge population. The historical areas are beautiful, and there is public art all over the place. Of course, that just describes the touristy parts I was in, I have no idea what the rest is like except as seen from the windows of busses and the Metro.
Posted on Sat, 19 Oct 2020
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