Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is the awesome temple complex about an hour outside of Mexico City. It has the 3rd largest pyramid in the world. Built (I think) about 2400 yrs ago, it had about 200,000 inhabitants. Most of the structures were originally painted red, while the earth was paved and painted white. And, most impressively, it was built without beasts of burden, wheels used as labor-saving devices, slave labor, or paid workers. It was all volunteer work.
Our guide was born here, and his father and grandfather were tour guides. He studied 2 yrs for his credentials, and he really knew his stuff. The place was originally dedicated to water: rain, rivers, lakes. The people who built it used both a solar calendar with 365 day years, and a lunar calendar with 270 days per year. Every 52 years the calendars aligned, and they rebuilt their main temples (pyramids), layering a new 'skin' to the existing. So the main structures you see here are actually the 6th layer of building. After about 300 years of glory, the place was abandoned. No one knows why, although drought is a leading theory. I suspect it was the upkeep.

Lucha Libre

We went to lucha libre, Mexican wrestling, on Friday with a big group. Our friends Megan and Alejandro organized it. We were thrilled to find out that Mistico, who we had seen at the Basilica, was the headliner that night.

It's a great scene. The ring is a boxing ring out of a film noire; the crowd is half the show. 6 or 8 girls in bikinis come out and stand still while the luchadores are anounced and make their (very grand) entries.

Each round is good guys ('technicos') vs. bad guys (rudos). The first round was all women. Then came 2 guys under 5 ft tall, followed by a round of up-and-comers. Then came a round of guys who are well-known, but not headliners, including one called Maximo, who is a technico whose schtick is to act very effimante: pink mohawk, lots of mincing. He has a mascot named Minimo who is a midget dressed in a monkey costume with a pink mohawk. Political correctness has not arrived at the arena.

Then it was the final match, with Mistico and his crew vs the bad guys. It's all very theatrical, very athletic, and very cathartic. 2 rows in front of us was a 70 yr old woman screaming 'chinga tu madre' ('tu madre' means 'your mother'; chinga means anything you imagine would precede that phrase.) We loved it.

They don't allow cameras in the arena.

Tulum

Our neighbors, Meghan and Josh, invited us to Tulum for Meghan's birthday. They rented a beautiful house there. Tulum is beautiful, and only a few hours from NY.
Steve, Josh, Meghan, Lauren (Meghan's sister, in case you couldn't tell) and Gavin.

The owner of the house is a photographer and practically every corner was a photo shoot waiting to happen.

Mexico City Gay Pride Parade

Last Saturday we were heading to Tulum but before we went to the airport we went with Glen to the statue of Independencia where the gay pride parade was assembling. It was great!
Lots of fierce drag.
Lot's of angels.

Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe

Here she is, the most important woman in Mexico. They've installed moving sidewalks in front of her, 4 rows, moving in both directions. They frown on using the moving sidewalk as a treadmill. Don't ask how we know.
This is the new basilica.
This is the old one.
These collection boxes are all over the place. Love 'em.
A portrait of Juan Diego whose hands have been worn away by the devoted. Pass the Purell, please!

Luchadores at the Basillica

Mistico, in the silver mask, is one of the most popular (and handsome) luchadores here. He was at the basilica to pay homage to the Virgin, and his fans were there too.
Not sure whether this little guy was praying to Mary or Mistico, but if we had to bet...

Xochimilco

When the conquistadors arrived here they found a city built on a lake, with stone pyramids and palaces and causeways. The Aztecs created islands by pounding sticks into the lake bed and filling the pens with plant material and earth. Eventually the islands grew and the lake shrank. Now the last place they exist is at Xochimilco, where you can rent boats (trajineras) to tour the canals.
The working boats aren't tricked out. People here grow flowers and vegetables, and work the tourist trade.

Glen hired mariachis to play for us. He really knows his Mexican music so he was able to challenge them by requesting songs beyond the usual La Cucaracha.

Ixtapaluca

We went to a little suburb of the city on Sunday with our friend Glen (in from NY for 10 days) who was delivering a suitcase full of clothes etc to a his friend Berta from her grown daughters in NY. Ana came to escort us their in a taxi. We drove about 45 minutes south on the highway, then pulled off, not onto a ramp, just off the highway onto the dirt. We followed a line of other cars back under the highway through the drainage pipe and came up on the other side, where the pavement started again.
Welcome to Ixtapaluca! (Yes, you can sing it to 'Be-bop-a-loo-bop, that's my baby)
Berta cooked mole with chicken & tortillas and made a big fuss and we ate, laughed, ate mangoes, took pictures, ate her homemade cheese flan, drank tequilla, ate nata (like creme fraiche) with rolls, drank tequila and enjoyed ourselves. 5 hours later, we left in spite of Berta's insistence we stay for pozole.
Berta is in the striped top and her sister-in-law is seated in front of her. Her granddaughter are the 3 younger women. Ana, in white, says Berta's the Queen, Danielle and Diana are the Princesses, and she (Ana) is the Diva.

We love Mexico

Maybe we'll do a post that shows some of the less pretty parts of our trip, but not today. Here are Steve and our friend Anita in a chapel from a hacienda south of Mexico City


Murals from a pyramid near Tlaxcala. Hard to photograph but mind-blowing.


We see things here we never see at home, like Steve dancing!


And what's that peeking out from under Mary's gown???


It's a dinosaur! 'Splain me that!

San Miguel de Allende

We scrambled to get out of town on Friday and headed north through the high plateau, a major agricultural zone in Mexico. We saw beautiful weather - passed through a hail storm, watched a lightning storm in the distance. We ended up here, in San Miguel de Allende, at the Casa Crayola.














We visited our friends Zoe and Oscar, their 3 y.o. son Marlow & 1 y.o. Clio. Zoe's an artist from NY and Oscar's an artist from Mexico City. Marlow & Clio are characters from San Miguel.



















The cathedral (google it for some really spectacular photos) and clocktower dominate the town square.










San Miguel is protected by the government, so no high rises here. But they do have a Starbucks, and it's a very popular destination for Americans.

Colonial era church near Puebla

Last weekend in Puebla Xavier & Marco showed us some of the colonial churches in the area. They took us to Tonazintla (hope I got that right) where stopped along the road to try pulque, the fermented drink made from agave that has been a part of life here for centuries. It’s the ‘beer’ equivalent to tequila, which is distilled from agave. An acquired taste, but let’s just say it gets better with each sip…

The indigenous people who built the church here under Spanish ‘supervision’ used their own plastering techniques to create the very ornate interior. They were freer here with their own figurative style than in the 'fancier' church in Puebla, which is gilded in 23k gold so bright our photos didn't come out. Xavier told us animal blood was mixed into the plaster slurry resulting in a much stronger paste than one using only water. This stucco is then applied to wood undercarving to refine detail and hold paint or gilding. The exterior of the church is tiled, the interior carved, stuccoed and polychromed.









This is the interior dome - so chock full of detail it hurts.









But the details are so sweet they kind of hurt too. And try to take yourself back 300 years and imagine how these images, this spectacle, would have felt.

Puebla

We went to Puebla on Saturday. It's the 4th largest city in Mexico, a colonial beauty with several universities, a beautiful central square (zocolo) and lots and lots of churches. Our new friends, Xavier, a gallery director and Marco, an architect showed us around. (Thanks for the introduction, Joe!)



The town is very photogenic. This is taken from inside a church, with the statue of the patron saint in the doorway.


Charming, huh? Puebla was the first city the Spaniards built as a planned city; they usually tore down indigenous temples and built around them.


The zocolo is the town center in every way. The night we were there the Poblano soccer team played in the semi-finals; I think they lost but that didn't stop the fans from showin' lots of love in a big rally here.

Some pictures of the 'hood

The oval park in the center of La Condesa, Parque Mexico, is always full of people. These little benches are dotted throughout.
















La Condesa has a lot of great Art Deco architecture. Check out the shapes of the panes in the windows, and the beautiful colors.








The neighborhood is beautiful in part because of the mix of architectural styles. This grill work is typical.