S. Kathleen Kitao
Table of Contents
Day 1 (March 24): Arrival in Mexico City; Cathedral and Temple Mayor
Day 2 (March 25): Tepotzotlan and Tula
Day 3 (March 26): Cholula and Puebla
Day 4 (March 27): Anthropological Museum and National History Museum
Introduction
This is Kathi's travel journal for her second trip to Mexico in spring, 1998
Day 1 (March 24): Arrival in Mexico City; Cathedral and Temple Mayor
We arrived in Mexico City in the middle of the afternoon and checked into a hotel on the Zocalo, the main square. It was a beautiful old hotel, with a lovely lobby and a hall and stairway decorated with blue and white tiles. From our room, we could see the cathedral at the north end of the Zocalo, if we craned our necks a little.
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Vendor
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After arranging for tours the next two days, we went to the Zocalo and to the cathedral. The exterior of the cathedral is very beautiful, intended to look like the great
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Altar of Cathedral
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cathedrals in Spain such as Toledo and Granada, which we saw when we were visiting Spain. It was built over the part of the Aztec city where human sacrifices were made, and it is said that 136,000 skulls were found there. The cathedral was built between 1573 and 1813. It is rather amazing that in what must have been a hostile and difficult land, the Spanish went to such effort to recreate the life they knew in Spain. There was a lot of scaffolding in the interior, mainly between the chapels--I understand that the problem is that the cathedral is sinking into the soft soil. (Mexico City is built over an Aztec City, which was built over a filled-in lake.) There are 14 beautiful chapels along with the sides of the cathedral. Most of the altars are covered with gold, and the chapels have fine paintings and sometime statues. Its most famous artistic treasure is the gilded Altar of the Kings, which is behind the main altar.
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Dancers
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In the Zocalo, we saw some dancers doing Indian dances.
Next we went to the Temple Mayor, which is the excavation of the temple that was on the site in the Aztec city. We looked at the excavation briefly--we saw it the last time we were in Mexico City in 1990--but spent most of the time in the museum. (For
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Temple Mayor Excavations
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10 pesos [the exchange rate was a bit over 8 pesos to the dollar], Kenji bought a photo permit. Several of the museums we visited required these, though some required permits only for videotaping.) It is an excellent museum, though unfortunately, the explanations are all in Spanish. (The only museum we visited that had English explanations was the Anthropological Museum, which we visited on our last day.) There
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Stone Disk Carving of Aztec Goddess
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was a model which showed the Aztec city, on an island in the middle of a lake. The exhibits included ones about the history of the Aztecs, their government and gods, their agricultural system, etc. The most famous item in the museum is a large stone disk carving of an Aztec goddess. One thing we found out about Mexican museum is that they tend to be strict about the route you take through museums. As long as you keep going in the right direction, you are fine, but if you go in the wrong direction, a guard will re-direct you.
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Zocalo
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View of Cathedral from the Restaurant
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We walked around the Zocalo a little more, with Kenji taking pictures. There were a lot of people selling handicrafts, CDs and tapes, etc., etc. We went to dinner at the hotel's restaurant. It has a terrace overlooking the Zocalo. We really enjoyed the view. It is a beautiful square, and one of the largest in the world (second only to Red Square in Moscow).
Day 2 (March 25): Tepotzotlan and Tula
First thing in the morning, we moved to a different hotel.
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Altar of Domestic Chapel
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We took a tour to two cities near Mexico City, Tepotzotlan and Tula. In Tula, we saw the Church of San Francisco Javier, which was built in 1670 and 1682. It is a beautiful church. Like other churches, it has many beautiful altars. We also visited the National Museum of the Viceroyalty (the colonial period), which is located in a monastery connected with the church. It had art, etc., from the colonial period. It's Domestic Chapel has an altar with gold, paintings, and small mirrors.
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Stone Carvings at Tula
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Next, we visited Tula, the probable capital of the Toltec empire, which preceded the Aztecs. It was an important city between 900 and 1150 AD, and at its peak had a population of 30,000 to 40,000 people, a huge city for that time. According to the stories told by the Aztecs, the city was founded by Topiltzin, who was trying to establish the peaceful (i.e., non-human sacrificing) worship of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god. He was, however, driven away by another god, and he left for the Gulf Coast. (According to one story, he founded the great city of Chichen Itza
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Pyramid in Tula
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in the Yucatan, which has a definite resemblance to Tula. However, this is controversial, since it may be that Chichen Itza was built before Tula.) He set sail in the Atlantic and promised to come back. When Cortes arrived in the New World, the Aztecs believed that he was Topiltzin returning. In its time, Tula was a fantastic city, with palaces of gold, jade, and turquoise. We visited the Archeological Zone,
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Stone Figures on Pyramid in Tula
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where we walked to the site. There were two ball courts, where a ball game that had religious significance for the various peoples of Mexico, was played. (Not much is known about the game, except that it was played by men with a very hard rubber ball. They could hit the ball with their forearms, hips, or knees. It is not known whether it was the losers or the winners who were sacrificed to the gods.) We also climbed to the top of Pyramid B, which had huge warrior figures on the top. From there, we could also see a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside.
After going to lunch, we returned to Mexico City.
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