Mexico: Day #2 Mexico City, Cuernavaca

MEXICO CITY: Day #2

AGENDA:
*Eat Breakfast
*Drive to the Museum
*Visit Frieda Kahlo Museum
*Head out to Cuernavaca


We awoke early the next morning (7:00am) and were excited to go find the famous museum of Mexico City. (The one that houses the infamous Aztec Calender that is known worldwide.) It was unearthed many years ago, and has been kept at the museum. First though, we were hungry. So we checked out of our hotel, and with the GPS on, we braved the streets of Mexico City. I should say, Julie BRAVED the streets, I covered my eyes and held on to whatever I could find. If I dared to look, I would find myself shouting out..."WATCH OUT!!!". I KNOW I was annoying.... to say the least, but, from a passengers perspective, it was a horrendous ordeal. I had to literally close my eyes to preserve the peace in our car. I was the WORST backseat driver I suppose in all of history...... poor Julie endured me with quiet calm and resolve. She deserves a Drivers Award of some type.
Anyway, we drove thru very beautiful streets constructed from the old Spanish Colonial days.
We were in the Central Zocalo district, and everything, including the cobbled streets was beautiful carved stone and cement work, ornate and very Spanish. The ONLY hindrance to really enjoying this area of Mexico City, is the traffic. I know many articles have been written about the traffic of Mexico City, but until you actually experience it, you just cannot imagine the amount of stress, anger, anxiety, and swearwords that escape your mouth despite your best intentions. If I could change anything about Mexico, I would start with their drivers. They are just intolerable to say the least....... they ignore stop signs, they zip thru red lights, they roar right up to your tailgate and then swerve at the last minute and cram beside you, making a two lane traffic street a sudden three or four lane pileup. CRAZY.
We endured though...and found a parking spot. Got out of the car with three sighs of relief, and headed up the street for breakfast............ that was calming. After a bit of coffee, and eggs... we headed out to find the supposed nearby museum. HAH! Nearby my foot! We walked, and walked, and walked. Up streets, across streets, down streets. We asked policemen WHERE IS THE MUSEUM. Of course, no English is spoken...and thus Chuy to continual rescue.
We finally got headed in the right direction...walked some more and found the main entrance to the MUSEUM'S. Yes, I put a plural (s) on the end. Come to find out, this area is miles across and full of different museums. Well, we decided on the Museum of Anthropology? I don't know if I got that correct, but, we wanted to see the really ancient pre-Colombian artifacts. We finally did find the building....and it was fantastic.
I layed eyes on the original Aztec Calender, which is a historically incorrect name come to find out. I think its really the Sun Calender. Anyway...I saw it. Very big, and hard to believe the ancients could make something so intricate.
We spent most of the day at the museum, and we could have easily spent many days there to see everything...but in the late afternoon we left to find the 'Blue House of the infamous Frieda Kahlo, which meant getting in the car and driving AGAIN!
With the help of the GPS, we sailed thru the streets, and there it was! A BLUE house right on the corner of an everyday looking neighborhood. We deferred the tour to Julie. I opted to take a rest...... (getting old I suppose). Julie came out of the tour with raves that the house was very pretty, artistic, and full of artifacts....... so it was getting very late in the afternoon, and we still needed to drive to Cuernavaca. We headed to the Quota Freeway (you pay for the police protection and service should your car break down). It didn't take long to climb the mountain ridge that surrounds the valley of Mexico City. In about an hour, at sunset, we spotted the next valley over the mountain ridge that held our destination; Cuernavaca and the small village nearby called; Tepotzlan. (One of my favorite places).
We descended to the valley below to the Zocola, or city centre where Cortes lived in a fortress like 'palace. There is also large Catholic Cathedrals that the Spanish built to influence the local indigenous population away from their pagan religions........ I suppose they intended to match the grandeur of the pagans stone temples..... and many of the churches were built with the very stones from the torn down ancient temples of the Indians.
We found our little hotel that I favor in Cuernavaca. Its on a side street, and is very plain, simple, and cheap. For the three of us, it was only 12.00 a night, and we were only a block from the Zocalo...the center of the city where all the action is!
We happened on Aztecan Dancers on one end of the center square, and found a place to eat and rest on the opposite side, all in view of the grand government building and Cortes palace, and old Spanish Colonial buildings....very pretty.
So went our second day in Mexico

This is our pretty little waitress. Breakfast in Mexico City before hunting for the Museum......

One of the entrances to the Museum. Come to find out, it was the wrong entrance for the part of the museum we wanted... alot of traffic, and we had to wait some time before crossing...

Me and Chuy made it across, now its Julies turn......

A partition in the middle of the street. You rest here for a bit, before crossing the rest of the way...

Julie was quickly spotted by some local guys. They insisted on a photo with Julie!

Julie spyed this HUGE palm tree, just inside the WRONG entrance....before we had to turn back and recross the street to find the other entrance we needed for the pre-Colombian artifacts.


Many interesting buildings, but still not the part we were looking for.....we walked onward......

FINALLY we found the correct museum...but we still had to walk a ways before the actual entrance...

FINALLY.... AT LAST..... we found the correct Museum. We paid 50 pesos each to get inside, and tour the many individual buildings past the front entrance. They focused on different cultures of the indigenous...such as the Mayan period, the Aztec, the Toltec, etc.

Inside were reconstructed life size models of temple ruins etc.

Amazing sights....

Chuy and I outside the entrance.

Julie was intrigued with the "Federalis" guarding the museum. Of course he was more than willing to pose with Julie....... she tried to talk with him about his gun..... I think she was impressed with it?

Some ornate temple....?

The INFAMOUS AZTEC SUN CALENDER.


Outside the museum, in the surrounding park, there was a huge tall pole, and a dance of the Indians from Veracruz. They sing and dance and play the drum and flute first, then climb the pole and fall off of it backwards, as the pole slowly unwinds around and around with the men hanging from their feet. Eventually they touch the ground and stand up.

More of the park like grounds around the museum....some parts were very pretty with statues around....

Streetside view of Frieda Kahlo's house, which is now a museum. Julie toured inside...and saw a lot of pretty paintings and she said the courtyard had a re-created Aztec temple, and the entire structure was about a block square in size.

They made an 'Altar to Frieda...... typical Mexican culture.. you see many altars here and there, but usually of Guadalupe.












Part of the interior courtyard of Frieda's housing complex.

More of Friedas house...

We finally crested over the last ridge of the mountains separating Mexico City from Cuernavaca and the small village of Tepotzlan. Just down this ridge in the valley below lies Cuernavaca...you have to wind your way down, down, down.....

This is your last view of the huge valley below before you descend.... a winding road that has a couple of large switchbacks ..... beautiful valley.

Cuernavaca....City of the Eternal Spring... they say the median temperature year round is like spring..or about 70 -80 degrees.

Alot of flowers grown in this valley.

Cortes made his home here, after conquering Mexico City in the 1500's .

Alot of Spanish sophistication is here to this day.... A city of fin Arts and languages. One of my favorite cities in MEXICO.