Time for a change

It is time for the "Richard and Marianne on the Road" blog name to be retired, and to create a new blog without Marianne's name on it.

The new Blog is "Richard's adventures", with a URL of http://ricardoaventurero.blogspot.com.

Mexico City and home

Friday was a rest day, with all of us recovering from Montezuma's Revenge.    We did walk down to "La Fabrica", an old textile factory converted into a high end retail space, especially art and home decoration.   Very nice.   We ate at the restaurant at the factory.

Saturday was a travel day, and had us taking the ETN bus back to Mexico City.   We took at taxi back to the same hotel, the Hotel Catedral.

Richard decided to visit the Soumaya museum, the new museum created by the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim.  Unfortunately, Richard went to the wrong campus of the museum.    He went to the Plaza Loreto campus, not the Plaza Corzo campus, which is the architecturally impressive building.    The Plaza Loreto was interesting, but not that interesting.   These museums are not convenient to reach by public transportation, involving two subway rides and a bus ride.   Richard had to jam himself into the packed subway car, and it took him three tries to do so.

Richard's big adventure started when he returned to the subway.   After he bought his ticket, he noticed two kind of rough looking men watching him.   It just felt wrong, so Richard stayed put.  The two men passed through the subway turnstiles, stopped, turned around, and kept looking at him.   Obviously almost everyone who goes through the turnstiles keeps walking.  This more or less proved that they had bad intentions, so Richard left the subway station and walked seven blocks to the next subway station.   He made it to the hotel without further incident, but a little shook up.   This is probably the closest that Richard has come to getting mugged in his life.  He is not sure whether to credit his alertness, his special caution in Mexico City, or his guardian angel, but felt very fortunate.

Sunday we took a taxi to the airport.   The ladies were dropped off first, then Richard was dropped off last.   Richard took some time to do additional research for his airport article.   The flights home were uneventful.

A good trip, nice to be back in Mexico.

Guanajuato, Gto.

Guanajuato, Gto.

Guanajuato is the capital of the state of Guanajuato, and our destination for Wednesday. We got out of the B&B in time to catch the 8:45 AM bus to Guanajuato. We rode ETN bus line again, very nice. The internet on the bus worked near the cities, but not out in the country, as one might have expected.

We took a taxi to the Jardin (central square), and then took the funicular up to the monument to Pipila, a hero of Mexican independence. The story is that Pipila put a stone on his back to protect him from Spanish bullets, and burned the door to the grainry where the Spaniards were holed up. A guide gave us a few minutes of description of the city, pointing out the landmarks.

We took the funicular back down, and went into the Juarez theater to admire the architecture. The theater was built around 1900, and is extremely ornate. When Marianne and I were in Guanajuato for the Cervantino festival, we saw the Royal Shakespeare company perform there.Guanajuato, Gto.

We had lunch on the jardin in the upscale Casa Valadez. After lunch we strolled downhill, seeing a few other small parks, and visiting the Basilica. We stopped in the Mercado Hildago, where we were able to find Eileen some “papel picado”, the cut out paper that Mexicans use as decorations.

We took a cab to the Templo Valenciana on the hill, a kind of over the top Churrigueresque style of architecture. The painting shows the bible story where the crowd was going to stone the adulterous woman, and Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” We took a cab back to town to sit in a park while waiting for our bus.

Barbara really liked Guanajuato, which is one of my favorite places in Mexico also.

We took the Primera Plus bus back to San Miguel, not quite as nice as ETN, but very good.

Unfortunately, Thursday was a sick day, with literally all three of us sick, spending lots of time in the bathroom. We strolled to an expensive hotel ($300/night US) for an evening drink, but none of us felt like eating anything.

Barb has decided to cut her stay short and return to the US with us.

San Miguel de Allende and Atontinilco

San Miguel and Atontinilco

We spent Sunday, our first full day in San Miguel,exploring the city a bit, mostly the center of town, the jardin. We went to church in the gothic style church on the square, and then watched some dancing in the square, including danzon.

Monday we took a cab to Atontinilco, a pilgrimage place and part of the world heritage site of San Miguel de Allende and Atontinilco. Atontinilco is a few miles outside of San Miguel de Allende. Richard recalls the church and murals as in poor repair, but there has been a tremendous amount of work in the last few years, and the murals are glowing.

We then went to the hot springs at “La Gruta”, near Atontinilco. Since it was a weekday, the place was quiet and pleasant. We ate there, and then entered the man made tunnel and cave, where the water was quite warm. We took a bus back to San Miguel, and then a taxi to our B&B.

We attended a danzon class downtown, and then went for dinner at Ten Ten Pie.

Tuesday we had planned to go to Guanajuato, but Eileen did not feel well, so we took the opportunity to get some business done. We had dinner again in Posaditas rooftop restaurant.

From the Museum of Anthropology to San Miguel de Allende

From the Museum of Anthropology to San Miguel de Allende

In the morning, we went to the Cathedral and the National Palace.   The curious photo literally shows hundreds of locks, locked to a stand, in front of the image of San Ramon Nonato at the Cathedral.  San Ramon is the patron said for protections against gossip, rumors, and false testimony.  When Ramon was a captive with the muslims, he would not stop preaching, so they literally locked his mouth.  The locks signify the desire of the person to lock the mouths of those spreading gossip against them.  He is apparently a popular saint in Mexico, although I had never heard of him before.

The national palace has the monumental Diego Rivera murals, depicting the history of Mexico.  The conquistadores and the church were targets of his murals.

On our way back to the hotel Barbara decided to let a Maya shaman clean her cosmic aura, using incense and ritual. The shaman would not let me take a photo of the ceremony or the altar, but would let me take a photo of the sign.

We rode to the museum in an electric taxi.  The Voladores of Papantla were flying around a tall pole, playing a drum and a flute.  Yes, he is hanging upside down.

The National Museum of Anthropology is justly famous, for its size, breath, and for the amazing pieces that they have. We did a kind of quick visit, ducking into various sections for a short visit, not attempting to visit even 25% of the museum. We had lunch in the museum.  The small statues are of ballplayers in the ritual game.

After we got back from the museum, Richard went to visit Miguel. This involved a Metro ride and a bus ride, but was fairly easy and painless. Miguel was very happy to see Richard, and show him travel photos. Richard particularly enjoyed the photos from the 1940s, a very different Mexico. Miguel is an inveterate traveler, and still goes on bus tours of Mexico!

Saturday we checked out of our hotel, and took a bus to the north bus terminal. We bought tickets to San Miguel de Allende on ETN, a luxury line. I was surprised to realize that ETN had significantly upgraded since I had last ridden it, including internet on board and individual video on demand. The seats are three across, and are comparable to first class airline seats.

We took a taxi to our B&B, which is run by our chatty hostess, Marcia, (Mar-see-a) from New Jersey and New York. We had dinner at the nearby organic restaurant.

The Pyramids of Teotihuacan

The Pyramids of Teotihuacan

We had the hotel call a taxi to the busstation, but Lalo persuaded us to let him take us to the Pyramids andback. We stopped at the Plaza of Three Cultures, an archeologicalsite, where the ladies each bought a water color from an artistthere.

It was getting hot when we got to thePyramids. We first walked to the Pyramid of Quetzaquotal, the plumedserpent god. It is within a very large square punctuated by smallpyramids.

We continued on to the pyramid of theSun, the 3^rd largest pyramid in the world. We stoppedbriefly to drink a coke and visit the bathroom.

The steps were challenging for theladies, especially Eileen, so we did not even consider going to thetop of the Pyramids.

The complex is vast and veryimpressive. Almost hard to get your head around, even after walkingthe length of it.

We then headed for the Pyramid of the Moon, near which our driver was going to pick us up.

The drive home was routine. We had an early dinner at Hostelaria de San Francisco, a very old restaurant near our hotel.

Richard called his friend Miguel, who lives in Mexico City, and he came by bus and subway to see Richard. Richard did not realize that Miguel is now 92, and was a little shocked to see Miguel tottering along, when he remembered him as so vital, and able to walk us into the ground. Richard and Miguel chatted for some time in a hotel lobby. Richard walked Miguel back to the subway, with Miguel holding onto his shoulder. This involved walking through the center of the Zocolo, which was full of tents of demonstrators occupying the zocolo. Richard would in no way have walked through this on his own, but somehow felt safer escorting an elderly Mexican through the encampment. Richard agreed to come to his apartment Friday night to look at photos.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Wednesday we took a taxi to the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where in 1531, Catholics believe that the Virgin Mary appeared to an indian peasant, Juan Diego. An image of the Virgin Mary appeared miraculously on the cloak of Juan Diego, and this cloak is found behind the altar of the Basilica. Over the hundreds of years since the original apparition, a whole series of churches have been built; I will not attempt to list them all. The new Basilica was built in the 1970s, and holds 10,000 people. The site is reported to receive 8 million pilgrims per year, many of whom arrive on December 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

When we arrived, the Bishop of Orizaba Veracruz was preaching outside to a group of pilgrims from Veracruz, many of whom were indigenous, including dancers in indigenous clothing and women dressed in colorful blouses. We strolled around the grounds, entering the various churches, and seeing the impressive group of statues depicting indians worshiping the virgin.

When we returned to the main Basilica, we found a mass in progress, with many priests on the altar, and the church full of people. After mass, I asked in Spanish one of the indian ladies, in her colorful blouse, about their group. She looked at me like she had no idea what I was saying. Luckily a young man nearby explained to me that many of the women don't speak Spanish very often, and speak Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. He explained that they were part of a group of ten busloads of pilgrims from Veracruz who had come to the Basilica on pilgrimage. The priests on the altar were also from Veracruz. There were a number of banners representing the various groups who were participating in the pilgrimage.

Later we saw another group of pilgrims, from Monterrey, Matachine dancers. This group was as light skinned as the indians from Veracruz were dark skinned, and appeared to be upper class Mexicans. People come to the Basilica from all parts of Mexico and beyond, from all ethnic groups and all economic classes.