Journey to Oaxaca

We started at 8am so caught this sunrise from the rooftop restaurant of the hotel

A reminder of how poor some of the people are is shown by the homes of some of them

under the arches of the motorway and

this young girl selling at the side of the road

We passed then at some distance the two volcanoes outside Mexico, the smoking one

and the other larger showing over the cloud level.

Stopping at Puebla for lunch. A very pleasant city with a fine Cathedral, some good stained glass and painting

along with finely decorated panels and arches

and interesting modern sculptures outside.

A visit to a franciscan monastery with the obigatory Mary chapel followed. Extremely over decorated with lots of gold leaf in evidence

and a rather simpler side chapel

although the pulpit was quite pleasing.

It has a pretty artist quarter

and market where I bought a hand painted plate for not a lot!

A devil was patrolling the cross roads with his whip as some festival was going on

There were yet more volcanoes on view before we reached Oaxaca

We stopped to view a very large cactus plant

yes, that is me in front of it!

The scenery in the shadows was quite spectacular

And caught a good sunset before arriving late in Oaxaca.

Mexico Extra

As I walked around there were some lovely places like this statue of the eagle and serpent again, surrounded by Jacaranda

This is the opera house, through the bus window!

and a strange bench behind the cathedral and outside a lovely restaurant

You might have to play a bit with your computer to see clearly.

We also had a visit to a touristy sort of place where first of all they explained about the uses of the cactus plant which range from producing drinks of various alcoholic intensities, arrow heads, sewing needles and thread and effectively paper which is the outside skin of each leaf.

They also tried to sell us some fancy hand carved masks, copies of the ones found in Teotichuan, but they were very expensive as using proper semi-precious stones to decorate.

Teotihuacan

Visited this vast site some 35 kilometres from the city via the plaza of 3 cultures, showing aztec,

colonial, Franciscan monastery

and modern architecture. It was also the site of student rioters being killed in 1968.

On the way out of the city we were passed by this van, street food  I think it's called!

In the car park of the site we clubbed together to see the men do the following one of them playing a pipe!

 They spin round 13 times which is to do with the Aztex calendar and as their are 4 of them it makes 52 which is not their weeks but the number of years in a century but I suspect something has got lost in translation.


Teotihuacan is an extraordinary area and it is difficult to understand how the whole place was originally conceived. There are 13 temples in all and I did climb the hightest one but the following few pictures hardly do it justice

 

I climbed this one which is the biggest and the pictures show me at the bottom and the top

The picture above shows just how steep some of it was, my toes just showing at the bottom looking down a flight of stairs.

Leaving the site for a late lunch we then headed for the shrine of St Mary at Guadaloupe which is apparently the most revered place in catholic Mexico as it houses a piece of cloth with a depiction of the virgin herself given to the Bishop in the area at the time so that he would build her a church. Personally it looks like a painting to me but...... 

 What was more interesting was that the buildings are sinking in different directions and walking round the old church is somewhat disorientating.

A new modern church very similar in layout to Liverpool Catholic Cathedral holds the piece of cloth and was built when the current Pope came to beatify the chap who collected flowers (on my birthday) as a sign to the Bishop that his visions were real.

So I know where to come to celebrate my birthday with a real fiesta!

Chihuahua and Mexico City

Chihuahua and Mexico City

Chihuahua is a large city and had time to explore a little before having to go to airport to catch the plane. Went to the city hall where there are huge murals round a central courtyard depicting the history of the city. It turns out that many towns and cities have them,famously in Mexico city itself.

This is a picture of pastor hilgado who is credited with starting the Mexican Independence fight with his cry of Viva Mexico from his pulpit being executed in Chihuahua.

 

The cathedral has the distinction of having 2 altars built one in front of the other, what was originally a large church became the cathedral and it was decided that it needed a grander altar and so a new one with posh marble was built in front. From what I could see I preferred the earlier one, no accounting for taste I suppose.

Its most famous inhabitant was 'Pancho' Villa who had a grand house in the city which was turned into a museum on the death of his widow in the 80's (I think) certainly relatively recently. It has lots of momentos plus the car in which he was assasinated complete with bullet holes.

Another very classy (grey leather seats) flight back to Mexico and reasonably trouble free taxi ride to the hotel on the main square which I now know is called a zocalo in all places large enough to have a square! Had a little wander but ate in the hotel which was pleasant and not too expensive. Had to ring someone to find out what time the tour started, not impressed with the organisation skills of Bales/Native Trails other travellers also had problems so a number of complaints will be made I expect.

However friendly group of people from all over England and in one case Scotland plus a couple from Bulgaria who speak good enough english and in the case of the wife a few other languages as well. Luigi is our guide and unfortunately his english is not good enough for the speed he speaks at and he is very fond of his history in great detail so it is difficult to keep listening and everything takes longer than necessary.

We did get to see part of the cathedral

 it being Sunday bits were closed for Mass, so we looked at the place where the President stands to commemorate Independence on 15th September each year and rings the bell at 11.00 o'clock  precisely, along with bells in every other town in the country lots of frieworks etc follow.



 and then at extreme length the murals in the city hall by Diego Riviera 

husband of Freda Kahlo, which show the complete history of the various struggles through history of the peoples of Mexico and the types of produce and it's uses.The following shows the eagle (god) who found the right place in a lake(!) to build Mexico City, the serpent is also important but it was all rather to much by then!

,

We then went to a suburb called Xochimilco which is an area of waterways and islands just to confirm the lake is still there underneath the city) where brightly coloured boats are punted along

 and we had lunch along the way. Mariachi bands

 would serenade for a small fee and there were other boats selling plants and trinkets etc. 

Eventually we got to the main museum housed in a lovely modern building with the history of the various peoples/tribes who have occupied the various parts of the country. Their abilities to calculate and build are astounding, this is the Sun Stone found near where my hotel now is, showing theAztec knowledge

but they also were a very cruel race and methods of torturing and killing people seem particularly gruesome, this is a sacrificial stone, nice drainage channel. 

They also had carvings to hold the hearts taken out probably when the person was still alive

this fluteis made from a human bone

 

 but as ever there is always a slightly brighter side especially for the ladies, probably make some of my followers feel a tad inadequate!