July 14, 2007 :: Zocalo (Mexico City), Teotihuacan (Pyramids), & The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe

Finally a Great Adventure
On Sat, July 14 my co-worker, Henrik, and I left our hotel at 8:30 am to have a day-long adventure seeing different sites around Mexico City. We signed up for the combination Mexico City / Teotihuacan Pyramids tours with our hotel concierge and although it meant waking up early on a Saturday, we were psyched to get out and about around here.

First Stop: Zocalo Plaza
After being picked up, brought down into Mexico City by a tour-company transport, and being "sorted" into our vans for the day, we zoomed off through the streets with out tour guide describing everything that was flying by us through the windows. See the previous entry about driving in Mexico City for kicks :) We arrived at the main plaza, referred to as Zocalo (although technically the word zocalo refers to any plaza). Here the three main attractions are the Placio Nacional (main government building), the Metropolitan Cathedral (one of the oldest Catholic cathedrals in the city), and the excavation site for the Tenochtitlan temple.

Our guide took us through the sites listed above, imparting as much knowledge as her five years of experience + who knows how many years of studying the local history allowed for. She told us all about Diego Rivera's mural work inside the Palacio National, about he and Frida Kahlo's relationship and how he drew the two of them into his murals.

She also told us about the story of how they discovered the Tenochtitlan temple in 1978 when the city started to dig out an area for a new metro station and discovered a large stone disk with carvings on it representing the fall of the Moon goddess from her brother the Sun god's temple. This discovery instantly halted the dig for the subway station and turned it into an archaeological site where in time they would uncover a large portion of the ancient Aztec Sun and Rain gods' temple.

After seeing the dig site, we took a stroll through the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was built practically on top of the former Aztec temple, however we couldn't do much talking and touring inside because a service was going on. Our guide told us that the church is open from 8a - 8p or so every day with services going on throughout the day in order to make sure the vast population of Mexico City can have a chance to worship and commune. The Cardinal for the arch dioses in Mexico preaches there every Sunday, which brings in the largest draw with standing room only! (which if you're Catholic you know is tough since there is a lot of sitting and kneeling during a normal service)

A Step Backwards Through Time
After seeing the cathedral our van whisked us off to the Museo de Antropología. There we went through the entire Tenochtitlan room looking at the various artifacts that were either discovered in the most recent temple discovered or other digs around Mexico City. Some of the artifacts in the museum were as old as 1350 AD...almost 1000 years ago!

Next on the List: The Teotihuacan Ruins
After a brief stop for lunch (and boy do I mean brief! We only had 20 minutes!), we regrouped with a new tour guide and started on the hour-long trip outside of Mexico City to the abandoned city of Teotihuacan. Here in the city, abandoned by the Teotihuacan people in 700 AD (over 600 years before the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan), there are still several temple ruins, but the main attractions are the temples of the Sun and the Moon.

Climbing the Steps of the Temples
Over 1000 years ago the people of the time built these amazing structures for irrigation, controlling the flow of the waters from rain and the surrounding lake, and for worshiping their gods, especially the gods of Sun, Moon, and Rain. The temples we got to climb up and admire were the ones for the Sun and the Moon. In the Teotihuacan traditions, the Sun and the Moon were in constant struggle against each other. Talk about your ultimate sibling rivalry, every sunrise was seen as a triumph over the Moon and a new opportunity for Life. If you ask me, the Moon got a bad rep! Poor thing :)

The Sun Temple had over 200 steps, most of which were so steep there was barely any grade to them at all! We climbed all the way to the top taking breaks at the three plateaus to breathe and take pictures. It was a crazy climb but very rewarding. The pictures I got from the top of the city and surrounding valley were amazing!

I was all too eager to climb the smaller Moon Temple after we descended (carefully!) from the Sun Temple. We had a bit of a walk to reach this other temple, but once there, climbing it was much easier than her brother's. Along the way we stopped at one of the other, smaller, temples. Painted on a portion of it that had been covered over nearly a century ago was the mural of a puma. The Teotihuacans had painted this mural as one of the many that decorated the original temples. Although the temples we saw were rocky and not very beautiful on the outside, back in their day they were covered in alabaster, smooth, and covered with murals of animals and traditional drawings.

One More Stop: The Virgin of Guadalupe's Cathedral
The last stop on our journey for the day was to see the cathedral which was built in order to honor the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. According to legend, the Virgin appeared to a native farmer and told him to convince the Catholics to build her a church. She produced a field of roses on a hill, however roses were not native to, nor had they been brought over to, Mexico at the time. It was also winter! The farmer put the roses into his tunic and carried them to the Catholics to show them the proof of his vision to convince them to build the church. When he poured the roses out onto the ground, on the tunic was the image of the Virgin. Today the church still stands next to a basilica containing what is said to be the original tunic with the image of the Virgin on it.

The basilica is fairly new and a modern looking building. The church, however, is beautiful and very classic looking. The front side of it, however, is pitched forward due to the sinking nature of Mexico City itself.

Finally Home
Almost 12 hours of site seeing, walking, climbing, and picture taking later we arrived back at Stadía Suites. Henrik and I were exhausted, but that didn't stop us from going to the mall for dinner and to see the new Harry Potter movie. Well, at least I watched the movie...Henrik enjoyed the dark theatre and reclining seats to take a nap. Haha to each his own! In any event, the day was a great success, educational, cultural, and fun! Check out http://pictures.brooksny.net to see the rest of the pictures, which I did my best to label for you. :)

Cheers,

M@