Fine Days for Us

The last few days have been perhaps the best on this trip so far.  We saw two absolutely world-class city highlights.  On Saturday we visited the National Museum of Anthropology in Parque Chapultepec.  We could see that it was a very special place the moment we entered the property.  It is enormous and is set in a square building bordering a monumental plaza where the focal point is a three-story “tree” fountain.   Water runs steadily from the large disc inside the outer sides of the very high, square “tree top” canopy.   We watched kids excitedly run in and out of the falling water.  They just could not resist its invitation.  A few adults couldn’t pass on the chance to run in and out of the “raindrops” themselves.  The dads especially seemed to think thought they might dodge them but they did not.  Their hair and shoulders were sopped.

As with most museums of anthropology, we walked through the history of the world and the development of modern human beings.  The rest, and oh dear, which was a lot, far more than one can see and absorb in one day, concerned the various well-advanced cultures who lived here from Teotihuacan in AD 100 to Mexica AD 1200-1521.  It was a fantastic experience and spectacle.  For those Arkansas folk familiar with the Toltec Indian Mounds near Scott, Arkansas, the tribe of highly advanced Toltec people with roots in northern Mexico never set foot in Arkansas.  That area near Scott was actually inhabited by the Plum Bayou culture. The name? Early settlers made the assumption the mounds were Toltec and misnamed them.  — I learned this in Mexico.

This wonderful museum rivals any other in the world and is one of the best parts of Mexico we’ve seen yet!

However, talk about a spectacle!!!  We bought tickets for a 9:30 am Sunday performance of Ballet de Folklorico, sometimes called Baile de Folk.  Our seats were dead center, second row.  When I bought the tickets, I told Stan, if we are going, we will sit in the best seats we can get.  It was glorious, dazzling, energetic, fast-moving, colorful; musical . . . I am without words.  Watching it, I felt like a child at the circus for the first time or seeing a Broadway show for the first time.  My face was frozen in a smile.  Before Stan knew much about the show, I think he was a little concerned about attending a “ballet.”  But we both were astounded and thoroughly enjoyed the drumming, the strumming, the horns, the elaborate costumes, and oh, the dancing!! 

Here is a descriptive quote from a much better writer,

“The dancers, clad in eye-popping pink, green and turquoise, move in battalion-worthy, cascading lines, their small stamping steps sharply reminiscent of tap. The gorgeous costumes and breathtaking formations keep coming, dance after dance.”

– Roslyn Sulcas, NY Times; https://www.mayoarts.org/shows/ballet-folklorico-de-mexico-de-amalia-hernandez

Just when we thought we’d seen the best, we set our alarm at 4 am for a 5 am pick-up and drive to the Teotihuacan Pyramids about an hour away.  Surely this place, like many pyramid locations in the world is a miracle of architecture, astronomy, engineering, and religion. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, this place was settled during the first century. The surrounding city with its important religious pyramids and temples grew to become the most important city of all of Mesoamerica. It is amazing though that by 750 A.D., the city was no more. Internal conflict, it is believed, caused its ruin. The Aztecs found the city in the 1400s and named it Teotihuacan meaning “the place where the gods were created.

Buried under grasses and the soil, the site resembled natural hills until the Pyramid of the Sun was discovered by archeologists in the 1920s. Today it is estimated that only 5% of Teotihuacan has been uncovered. Tourists cannot walk up the pyramids any longer.  That practice ceased during Covid and has since been recognized that keeping people off the pyramids is an important step in preserving them.  Here’s what we learned about them.  There are no chambers inside.  These monstrous artifacts were religious temples dedicated to the worship of the Gods, particularly the Sun and the Moon. Only priests and very important people were allowed to walk the avenue or approach the temples. Although they were vital to the construction, ordinary people lived, worked, and worshipped outside in the surrounding area. The structures are miracles and no one knows how the people managed to build them with such precision or how the people understood numbers and mathematics well enough to align the structures absolutely with the movement of the sun and the seasons.  An amazing fact is that pyramids across the globe are at the same latitude meaning the people had the same view and perspective of the stars, sun, and moon.

Here’s the good part, we boarded hot air balloons at just past sunrise along with people boarding maybe twenty-five to fifty other balloons.  We serenely floated over The Pyramid of the Moon, The Pyramid of the Sun, the Ciudadela, down the Avenue of the Dead toward the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the entire religious compound.  We passed over the area where the town of Teotihuacan existed far back in 200 A.D. and the pueblo of San Juan and other surrounding villages that exist nearby today.  It was an indescribable breathtaking, beautiful sight and thrilling experience.

The tall guys onboard our balloon got to help the pilot fire the balloon with blasts of propane as we started to descend.  But after getting help to boost me up to one of the inner edges of the gondola so I could reach the handle, I got to help the pilot land the balloon craft.  Aren’t I lucky!

Shea came for a visit!  Oh, happy day!  Together, just the three of us in such a long time, we had a wonderful time.  In just two and a half days, we tried to show her all the good stuff.  We walked the beautiful sights of the broad boulevard, Paseo de la Forma, and went to Parque Chapultepec. We rode the bus to Zocalo where Shea saw the Templo Mayor ruins, the National Cathedral, and the painted, costumed Conchero dancers cleansing the spirits of willing people with smoke, herbs, and dance. Just a street away, we walked down the crowded noisy, webbed streets of markets surrounding Zocalo. 

Together, we walked our feet off the first day of Shea’s visit.  The next day was devoted to the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco or as it is also called, The Venice of Mexico.  Xochimilco is on the far south side of Mexico City, about 90 minutes away.  There we boarded a colorful boat powered by a single man using a long pole.  He poled us through a network of canals consisting of 117 miles of water.  In reality, the canals are what is left of the original lake on which Mexico City is built.  We sipped cervesas as el capitan de barco poled us peacefully past casas, flower nurseries, shacks, goose pens, and hundreds of other oh-so colorfully decorated boats.  Some boats we passed had only a small group of passengers, like ours, then some had groups so big they needed four boats lashed together.  Some passengers were like us and simply relaxed and leisurely took in the scenery; some had costumed mariachis on board playing lively music.  Fun, fun, Fun!

During the canal ride, we heard fireworks.  We could not help ourselves, when our ride was done, we set out to find the fiesta.  We arrived just in time to see the end of the parade celebrating LGBTQ!  Very colorful and very happy!  Shea and I wished we could have seen the beginning.  Stan, not so much.

Nearby we found a big, bustling old-fashioned mercado.  The colorful fruits and vegetables knocked our eyes out!  Chayote, both smooth-skinned and prickly squash, caught our eye.  There were mounds of strawberries arranged by hand in one-by-one, pointy-end first hills, stacks of huge, two-feet tall pineapples, tomates both rojos y verdes, tomatillos, picture-perfect peeled onions and meats being carved into cuts for purchase right there . . . pollo, cerdo y carne.  It was almost more than one can take in.  If I lived in Mexico City I would do all my shopping in traditional mercados like this and in shops on the street.  As we meandered through the crowded mercado aisles, we found ourselves in the restaurant section.  People sitting around bars in front of small cook areas were enjoying freshly made ceviche, sopas, tortas, tacos, pescado frito and so much more.  We chose a random spot to sit and had ceviches grandes.  Believe me, the ceviche was good and fresh, but we thought, “we’ve had better, and shoot, we could have had a street taco.” 

 I’m telling you, the street tacos are just that good!

Speaking of food, oh yes, we introduced Shea to street tacos – the biggest and best you will ever find.  It was her favorite food here – ours too!  The street cooks gave us a pile of chopped beef cooked on grills right before our eyes.   We loaded ours with mango salsa, guacamole, crema, and lots of salsa picante!  The way I spice mine with salsas, a richly flavored taco leaves my lips smoldering. But the pain goes away soon and I find myself hungry and thinking about another one before long.   We dined at a fancy restaurant one evening where Shea and I had Alhambra Asada – which was like steak fajitas.  Stan had Alhambre Chicarrones.  Chicharrones are fried pork skins made from the meaty side of bacon.  Clearly, chicharrones are deadly but dang, they are so good to eat!  While the dinner was delicious, we thought, “Shoot, we could have had a street taco!”  At the park, we shared a frozen fruit juicy cup similar to Hawaiian shaved ice.  It was made from mango juice and topped with a lime wedge and sweet chili powder.  This little cup of color was refreshing, sweet, and slushy.  This time, we did not miss having a taco.

I can’t even begin to say what a joy the last few days were.  Like having a few days with Coco when she visited us in Panama and Columbia, these three days with Shea were a gift . . .  my daughter, my Stan, and me.