Today was a long day! We got home (Marty and Ruth's) absolutely exhausted, at about 9pm, after a super eventful day. Here's how it went...
Morning: as we did yesterday, we got up around 8am, not too early, not too late. Marty'd prepared a nice and simple breakfast for us: fresh fruits (papaya, mango, melons, and watermelon), juice, and coffee. By 8:30, Sanjit, Jennifer and I'd washed up, eaten breakfast, drank coffee, and gotten ourselves ready for an eventful day. Marty and Ruth'd mapped out a "plan of attack" for us last night, places for us to visit today. They'd suggested about 10 different things for us to do, knowing full well that we'd only accomplish - at best - 4 or 5 of them. There's just so much to see, so much to do.
Ruth'd also given us detailed instructions on how to get from their neighbourhood, Cafetáles, to the céntro histórico of Mexico City. So shortly after 8:30, we left Ruth and Marty's place. We walked to Cañaverales, where we got on a micro bus which took us to a metro stop, and from there we took the metro to the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
It was my first encounter with the history and culture of Mexico, and an impressive encounter it was. The Palace of Fine Arts was a beautiful building, clean and well kept. Unfortunately we got there before it opened, and because it was Monday and we didn't know if it would open (most museums are closed on Mondays), we didn't stick around, but rather, we went on to Tacuba street in order to go to a breakfast place Ruth and Marty'd suggested: Café Tacuba.
We were not disappointed with the restaurant. It used to be an ex-convent, that was evident in the religious art inside the building. The highlight for me was the Café con Leche (coffee extract, served in a tall glass, filled with milk) though. It was the best coffee I´d tasted in months!
After Café Tacuba, we continued on, towards the Zócalo, the central square of the city. I would later find out that every single city has a Zócalo, surrounded by the Catedrál and a government building. In our particular case, the Catedrál was none other than the Catedrál de la Asunción de Maria, the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas, and the Palacio Nacionál. The Zócalo was impressive in size, probably the equivalent of two square blocks, but disappointing in its lack of greenery. Not a single tree, not a single blade of grass; just a giant square of concrete stone.
We went inside the national palace, and looked a the Diego Rivera murales. Again, I was impressed by the art and history the murals told of. The building itself, while not particularly creative in its architecture, it was nevertheless effective in communicating stability in its simplicity.
By the time we finished a tour of the murals with a guy who described himself as a true mestízo Mexican, we were quite hungry. Time had flown by, and it was now past 1pm.
Afternoon: Ruth and Marty´d suggested that for lunch we go to a restaurant that has a terrace with a nice view, just around the corner from the cathedral, but we were disappointed to find out upon our arrival there that the restaurant is closed on Mondays. We did, however, manage to go to the terrace and take a few pictures.
In the first picture below, the cathedral is to the right, the flat surface in the middle (towards the back) is the Zócalo, and the Palacio Nacionál is to the far left. In front and to the left is the Templo Mayór, the ancient Aztec temple. The cathedral was more or less built over the Aztec temple, representing the replacement of pagan gods with the Christian God of the Bible.
Exhausted and still hungry, we continued our search for a place to eat lunch, finally settling for a hotel-restaurant nearby. I don`t remember the name of the place, but that´s just as well, I don´t have anything good to say about it anyways.
After lunch though, we went back out into the mid-afternoon heat, headed for the cathedral. As we walked up to the church we noticed that we could get a tour of the bell tower, so we paid the $40 pesos or so to take in the tour. It was not a special tour by any stretch of the imagination, but I did manage to take the next picture from top of the cathedral. The view overlooks the zócalo.
After the tour we went back down and entered the church. I´d previously decided not to take pictures inside churches on this trip, but made an exception here. Here´s the capílla, the chapel, upon entering the church. The sanctuary was behind the chapel.
Our final goal for the day was to go up to the top of the Torre Latinoamericana, built in 1956, and Mexico´s tallest landmark until 1984. A couple brown cows (Alfonso 13, as they´re called there) - kahlúa and milk on ice - went down very nicely, while taking in the breathtaking view.
Morning: as we did yesterday, we got up around 8am, not too early, not too late. Marty'd prepared a nice and simple breakfast for us: fresh fruits (papaya, mango, melons, and watermelon), juice, and coffee. By 8:30, Sanjit, Jennifer and I'd washed up, eaten breakfast, drank coffee, and gotten ourselves ready for an eventful day. Marty and Ruth'd mapped out a "plan of attack" for us last night, places for us to visit today. They'd suggested about 10 different things for us to do, knowing full well that we'd only accomplish - at best - 4 or 5 of them. There's just so much to see, so much to do.
Ruth'd also given us detailed instructions on how to get from their neighbourhood, Cafetáles, to the céntro histórico of Mexico City. So shortly after 8:30, we left Ruth and Marty's place. We walked to Cañaverales, where we got on a micro bus which took us to a metro stop, and from there we took the metro to the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
It was my first encounter with the history and culture of Mexico, and an impressive encounter it was. The Palace of Fine Arts was a beautiful building, clean and well kept. Unfortunately we got there before it opened, and because it was Monday and we didn't know if it would open (most museums are closed on Mondays), we didn't stick around, but rather, we went on to Tacuba street in order to go to a breakfast place Ruth and Marty'd suggested: Café Tacuba.
We were not disappointed with the restaurant. It used to be an ex-convent, that was evident in the religious art inside the building. The highlight for me was the Café con Leche (coffee extract, served in a tall glass, filled with milk) though. It was the best coffee I´d tasted in months!
After Café Tacuba, we continued on, towards the Zócalo, the central square of the city. I would later find out that every single city has a Zócalo, surrounded by the Catedrál and a government building. In our particular case, the Catedrál was none other than the Catedrál de la Asunción de Maria, the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas, and the Palacio Nacionál. The Zócalo was impressive in size, probably the equivalent of two square blocks, but disappointing in its lack of greenery. Not a single tree, not a single blade of grass; just a giant square of concrete stone.
We went inside the national palace, and looked a the Diego Rivera murales. Again, I was impressed by the art and history the murals told of. The building itself, while not particularly creative in its architecture, it was nevertheless effective in communicating stability in its simplicity.
By the time we finished a tour of the murals with a guy who described himself as a true mestízo Mexican, we were quite hungry. Time had flown by, and it was now past 1pm.
Afternoon: Ruth and Marty´d suggested that for lunch we go to a restaurant that has a terrace with a nice view, just around the corner from the cathedral, but we were disappointed to find out upon our arrival there that the restaurant is closed on Mondays. We did, however, manage to go to the terrace and take a few pictures.
In the first picture below, the cathedral is to the right, the flat surface in the middle (towards the back) is the Zócalo, and the Palacio Nacionál is to the far left. In front and to the left is the Templo Mayór, the ancient Aztec temple. The cathedral was more or less built over the Aztec temple, representing the replacement of pagan gods with the Christian God of the Bible.
Exhausted and still hungry, we continued our search for a place to eat lunch, finally settling for a hotel-restaurant nearby. I don`t remember the name of the place, but that´s just as well, I don´t have anything good to say about it anyways.
After lunch though, we went back out into the mid-afternoon heat, headed for the cathedral. As we walked up to the church we noticed that we could get a tour of the bell tower, so we paid the $40 pesos or so to take in the tour. It was not a special tour by any stretch of the imagination, but I did manage to take the next picture from top of the cathedral. The view overlooks the zócalo.
After the tour we went back down and entered the church. I´d previously decided not to take pictures inside churches on this trip, but made an exception here. Here´s the capílla, the chapel, upon entering the church. The sanctuary was behind the chapel.
Our final goal for the day was to go up to the top of the Torre Latinoamericana, built in 1956, and Mexico´s tallest landmark until 1984. A couple brown cows (Alfonso 13, as they´re called there) - kahlúa and milk on ice - went down very nicely, while taking in the breathtaking view.
Here are some pictures of the Zócalo, la Catedrál, and the Palacio Nacionál. The first one was taken shortly after 6pm, the second picture was taken at about 6:45, the third one at 7pm, and the last one at 7:15pm.
At around 7:30 in the evening we began making our way home, taking the same route we took in the morning. We got onto the metro at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and 20 minutes later switched to a micro for the final stretch.
We didn´t eat any dinner at all, but I was ok with that. I was more tired than hungry.
Tomorrow´s going to be another crazy-busy day. We`re going to visit the pyramides at Teotihuacaán.
We didn´t eat any dinner at all, but I was ok with that. I was more tired than hungry.
Tomorrow´s going to be another crazy-busy day. We`re going to visit the pyramides at Teotihuacaán.
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