Guanajuato

March 17, 2009

On an early sunny morning we loaded ourselves onto a highway bus for a trip from San Miguel De Allende to the City of Guanajuato. The hour and a half ride took us through mountainous countryside. Small villages are fewer here. Most of the land is cattle land with few smaller farms.
We crested a hill and peered down at our first glimpse of Guanajuato. The open lands end abruptly in rows of colorful buildings crowded together from canyon bottom to near the canyon top. We wound down a curvy road to a bus yard on the edge of town. At the bus yard we changed to smaller buses. The streets of Guanajuato are so narrow no standard highway sized trucks or buses will fit. Everything that arrives in Guanajuato on larger vehicles is re-loaded for delivery in town.

Our little bus entered the city via a maze of narrow roads sharing lanes with all manner of vehicles including a donkey cart. The fearlessly frugal Mexican driver can always turn two lanes into three – one for passing and one for parking, one for going the other way.

The river that runs through Guanajuato used to divide the town. Over the years ingenious engineering and a miners' mindset has transformed the river from a problem, to a fixture and an asset. Surprisingly enough, there is no glimpse of the river in midtown Guanajuato! Here's why:
As roads, shops, churches and homes lined both sides of the river more and more bridges were built to span the stream. Eventually, there was very little river left showing, so the City finished the project, creating a continuous “roof” over the river. This created a cross-town roadway. Another build produced a stone roof over the roadway, new buildings and new roadways as well.

Today a series of seventeen tunnels create an expressway system through the city. Many are cut through rock, many are stone and brick structures with new city constructed on top. The river flows, the traffic flows, streets disappear into the ground, streets pop out of rock walls or from between buildings and the city moves at a merry pace. Should storm waters rise to the level of the tunnels – don't take the tunnels! They're storm drains today!

After lunch in a street-side restaurant on a little plaza we toured the magnificently restored opera house. We found the symphony orchestra in rehearsal. Music was echoing as we walked quietly through the halls, lobbies and boxes. The hall is very ornate, done up in gold gilt and red velvet. The luxury from an elegant era of the past live on. It's fun to imagine glittering gala events of another day.

A walk through narrow streets leads us to visit the house of Diego Rivera's mother. Diego lived there with Frida Kalho for some time. It is a narrow little house with a wrought-iron railed square central staircase around an indoor atrium. The staircase spirals up four floors. The house has been converted into an historic landmark and museum - all ornamented with sketches, watercolors and oil paintings by Diego Rivera. An incredible assortment of styles and sophistication. It's easy to imagine bits of the artist's life; So much living hidden behind a plain wooden door on a narrow street. A cloistered abode with an artist's vivid global view. What hidden lives people live.

As our time in Guanajuato waned we rushed along narrow streets to a small narrow alley where legend has it that a tragic love affair occurred. The alley is so narrow that the window balconies almost touch. A poor young man and a very rich young lady fell in love. The rich girl's father found about the love affair. His daughter refused to stop seeing her young suitor. They descended their stairs for their one and only kiss. Her father killed her rather than have her marry someone below her class. There stands that fateful step in the stairs of that narrow alley, directly under the star crossed lovers' windows.

Legend has it that if two people kiss while standing on that very stair their love will last forever. We kissed... and so far it's working beyond all our expectations!!

A quick finish-up tour of the city and back to the big buses for our return to San Miguel de Allende. Our heads are full of so many stories, tastes and views. So many corners were left un-explored. We hope to return one day to this heady little mining town. I hope you make it one day too!

San Miguel de Allende

3-16, 2009

We left our campground while the morning was still crisp and set out on a double-deck bus to tour the city of San Miguel de Allende. The little undersized bus took us up and down impossibly narrow cobblestone streets. The homes in San Miguel are tidy, brick and stone front buildings that look as if they belong on mountains of northern Italy. Mexico's flair is present, however in the brilliant colors of the stucco work.

We wound our way to the top of a hill to see the city from “El Mirador” (the lookout, or overseer – aptly named).

March brings a special moment to San Miguel de Allende. The vibrant, earth-tone palate of Mexican stucco is celebrated by thousands of brilliant lavender-blue clouds of jacarandas.

We savored a city that is not only a dazzling array of colors, but a dazzling array of the modern and antique architecture. Fresh new homes and businesses are snug and comfortable neighbors to sixteenth century baroque churches and government buildings.

An artistic mosaic of square modern buildings is punctuated by rococo spires of magnificent old churches. No view of this town seems complete without a wonderful old church front.

Teotihuacan Ruins

12 March, 2009

We stayed in a little village about 30 miles NW of Mexico City. The town is San Juan Teotihuacan. Adjacent to the town is a huge archaeological site that protects and researches the mid-classical city of Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was once a planned city home to well over 100,000 people (possibly a quarter million), making it -at its time one of the biggest cities in the world. The site covers 83 square kilometers in size.

The fall of Teotihuacan came some 500 years before the arrival of the Spanish. Already picked over, the site was left pretty much alone by the Conquistadors. Because of this the site reveals many artifacts that other sites have lost.

In spite of the rich resources at the site, the details of who occupied the site and just what influence and control they brought to Mesoamerica is lost in antiquity. Cultural exchange can be seen between surrounding cultures and here at Teotihuacan, but the exact roles these cultures played in each others' lives is lost.

We visited the museum first where we discovered just how huge the site is. A model showed us that the main street (dubbed “Street of the Dead” by Aztecs who believed the smaller structures to be tombs) is many miles long! As a result, we found ourselves walking from structure to structure with little time to contemplate them individually.

Three structures stand out, however. The Pyramid of the Sun, The Pyramid of the Moon, and the Hall of the Jaguars are really treasures. Each for different reasons.

Pyramid of the Sun is the largest of the structures. It is the second largest structure in the new world, second only to the great pyramid in Cholula.

Pyramid of the moon, while smaller holds a more prominent position in the city. It sits squarely at the end of the long Street of the Dead where it dominates the street, the landscape and the symmetrical architecture on both sides.


Hall of the Jaguars is impressive because of the extremely fresh stone carving on pillars and panels. The surviving sections of ceiling and interior walls still have crisp plaster finishes with many murals intact. A stone floor still retains its shine.

Again, we lament that our moments here are too, too brief. We left late in the afternoon, wishing it was still morning.

The Floating Gardens of Xochimilco

March 13, 2009

In the Xochimilco district of Mexico City there are still canals between the raised-bed gardens built by the ancient Aztecs. A flourishing vegetable and cut flower industry is still going strong here. While the gardens don't float, they've lived with their name “Floating Gardens” for generations.

For years Hollywood has been bringing us romantic images of Mexican Gondolas; Colorful flower-strewn boats full of families and lovers with gondoliers polling along green canals. Mariachis entertain, beverages and lunches are served and partiers enjoy a shady green retreat while servers and gondoliers take away the cares of the world.

Boats full of sellers of flowers, jewelry, tequila, toys sombreros and serapes all jockey for positions to wave their wares at the most likely-looking boatloads of revelers.

No new culture was discovered. No astounding insights unfolded. Scenery was relaxing. Lunch was tasty. Music was classic mariachi, and the cares of the world were polled away by the gondoliers.

Life was just right.

Museum of Anthropology

March 13, 2009

Mexico's Instituto National Anthropologico y Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History) Has taken charge of ruins in Mexico. They work to conserve that which is unearthed, and to unearth more as time goes by, and to leave buried those that can't be defended against time, weather and people. . The I.N.A.H. has taken the most important and the most fragile of all the artifacts to a central location. Anyone interested in Mesoamerica, archeology, anthropology, history or fine museums owes themselves a trip to Mexico City to see the Museo de Anthropologico.

The complex actually contains many focused museums, each connected to a central courtyard. Each has neighboring museums much like the neighboring cultures they document. The ground floor halls display stone, clay, gold, wood, gourd and feather artifacts of different cultures.

The second floor is filled with dioramas of current indigenous groups in their daily lives. Houses, households, furniture, tools and clothing are all carefully authentic right down to the brand of beer in a particular region.

I realized as I walked these upper halls that this is a view for urban citizens of their rural countrymen. We've recently been from Mexico's isolated villages to the Capitol City itself. Ancient, current, northern, southern, rain forest, desert, rural and urban, Mexico is a land of cultural extremes. Her richness lies in her diversity. I.N.A.H holds this dear and presents it in microcosm here in these world-class museums.

MEXICO CITY

March 13, 2009

Mexico City is the most populace city in the world. After going into town at 8 AM I've no reason to doubt this statistic. We were using the “Autopista” - a toll road with few on and off ramps and no cross streets or traffic signals. The rush hour traffic was world class to say the least. Speeds ranged from 30 to 2 MPH.

Mexico runs on public transportation. A bus ride for instance across Mexico (city) costs less than fifty cents US. The metro, a rubber-tired light-rail system is priced similarly. It moves people through town at a speed of up to 50 miles per hour while virtually nothing in the rest of the city moves at a pace much above 10.

The streets are filled with compact taxis, buses of all sorts and sizes, local trucks and private vehicles – pretty much in that order.
Driving styles in Mexico are distinctly different than in the US. It really seems to be based on a different philosophy. Lines on roads indicate the direction the road goes. Just where one drives in a roadway depends pretty much on the spaces one sees. If you think you fit in the space, and the lines are going generally in the direction you want to go, by all means, stick your car in the space. People are relatively polite, and only honk if they think you are missing out on a perfectly good space in front of you.

Plaza De La Constitucion

March 13, 2009

Mexico City was founded by Aztecs. The legend goes that a shaman was asked by his band where they should settle. He told them to travel north until they see an eagle on a cactus eating a snake. They saw the vision on an island in the middle of a shallow lake. There they settled and built the the main Aztec Temple.

Aztecs rose and fell (like all societies seem to do). Legends and a few ruins remained and farmers still maintained and farmed the raised beds built in the shallow lake. A colonial city flourished on the old site.

Today in the Plaza De La Constitucion where the Cathedral and the National Palace of Mexico reside there is a flagpole. It marks the legendary spot where the cactus, eagle and snake were seen.

An open-air market features indigenous handicrafts, shamans and Aztec dancers.

The National Palace houses the offices of the President and the original legislature. The legislature has long since moved to larger quarters, but the hall is preserved and revered as the place the constitution was adopted. Diego Rivera painted 15 murals in the National Palace. They draw huge crowds of school children and adults alike on tours of the expansive building.

In the early 90's work on new buildings commenced just off the square and the excavators found foundations of huge buildings, some nearly a block long. The myths and legends have become more real and believable as the archaeologists take over, unearth and document what indeed appears to be the Aztec's main temple.

The Cathedral is filled with faithful and visitors alike. The massive stone structure is being saved from sinking sideways into its sandy underpinnings. Massive engineering projects are underway. The efforts are plainly visible by a plumb-bob hanging from the dizzying top of an arched vault high above the floor. The progress of over three hundred years of settling and fifty years of salvation show a path coming halfway back to plumb, as she was built so long ago.