Story of Mexico

After Caye Caulker, flying in to Mexico City was an incredible culture shock! My mom and I stayed in a beautiful colonial hotel near Chapultapec Park. We were there for a few days in the beginning of our trip and were overwhelmed by a huge outdoor book fair (I bought Roald Dahl's Matilda in Spanish), hundreds of public sculptures (many in the shape of chairs) and an enormous park. Oh yeah, and the shower in the hotel was HOT with plenty of water pressure. We went to the Anthropology Museum, to a wonderful modern art museum (Alan Glass exhibit of fanciful diaramas) and a movie (Vicky Christina Barcelona), and took a double decker bus all over the city. After a few days we took a bus up to Queretaro where we stayed in a beautiful B&B (Casa de Santiago). The owners provided everything from a lint brush to delicious cookies to the softest blankets imaginable. And a huge selection of books and movies. Here is a picture from their website of the view from the roof:


Queretaro is a beautiful colonial town a few hours outside of Mexico City. There is everything you could need in this small city! Well, maybe no movie theater. Anyway, we went to San Miguel Allende (think Santa Fe) for the day to visit my aunt's friends. They have lived there for 20 some years and love it. They had a very old and sweet dog who I got to hang out with, but I found out she died the next day :( We also went to a hotel where the mom of a friend of my mom's used to stay for 6 months every year, for 20 years! The ladies there remembered him and were thrilled that my mom's friend had sent us.

The next day we took an 8 hour bus ride to get to Xilitla which is the home of Edward James. James was an eccentric millionaire in the early-mid 1900s who built a surrealist garden in the middle of the mexican jungle, called "Las Pozas". The garden itself is hard to describe, but you can imagine Dr. Suess's illustrations come to life ... Here is a picture:

Anyway, we stayed for two nights in Xilitla and then headed back to Queretaro and then finally back to Mexico City. I fineggled my mom to stay for 5 extra nights which was quite a coup! This time we stayed near the Zocalo and explored that part of the city. They had set up an ice skating rink on the Zocalo as well as a hill with snow on it for kids to sled down. The area was incredibly crowded and exciting! After going inside the main church we watched people getting blessed with incense and feathers ... The juxtaposition of Catholicism and traditional religious/healing rituals was striking! We spent a day down in Coyoacan which is a suburb of Mexico City where the Trotsky House/Museum and Frida Kahlo House/Museum/Studio are located. Both museums were fascinating, especially because Frida and Diego Rivera and Trotsky were all revolutionaries together (until they had an ideological falling out perhaps relating to Trotsky having an affair with Frida). We also went to Museo Diego Rivera -- Anahuacalli -- which he built like a Mayan temple to house his collection of ancient artifacts. Besides hundreds of pieces of pottery etc., this museum housed a installation art exhibit with skeletons (made of animal bones) that dance when you play an organ that is rigged up to them like marionettes. Here is a picture of the artifacts:

The last place in Mexico that we travelled was San Cristobal, Chiapas. San Cristobal is another beautiful, colonial city. We were very lucky to find Bela's B&B on trip advisor (http://belasbandb.com). There was a lush courtyard, fruit/granola/honey/yogurt for breakfast each morning, a very comfortable bed, 3 sweet dogs, and a fabulous hostess. And I got a 90 minute massage (the best!!!) for about $25. We visited a Mayan Medicine museum and an Amber Museum and mostly relaxed. It was a welcome change of pace from Mexico City! Unfortunately, after a few days in San Cristobal, my mom and I had to go our separate ways :( I took a shuttle down to Guatemala and she flew back home to New Mexico. We had a wonderful trip (as usual)!

The shuttle took about 10 hours and I didn't arrive in Panajachel until 6PM at which point it was getting dark and I had to pay someone to take me across the lake since there were no more scheduled boats. It was a little bit scary in the boat, but I very much wanted to get back for New Year's Eve with Traci and Jared and Matt in Santiago. Everything ended up just fine and we had a relaxed but enjoyable end of 2008/ beginning of 2009.

Tomorrow I am going to meet Jess in Guatemala City and we are headed up to Semuc Champey which is supposed to be georgous. I'll update soon :)