This Delayed Update will Vale your Pena

Grammar lesson #2: Vale la pena = worth the trouble. This was one of the first phrases I set out to conquer when I got here. :)

Now for the BIG news. Judging from this update, you can see that I have returned safely from Mexico City. Apart from one creepy Chilango (Mexico Cityan) taking pictures of some of my group members and I at the Palacio Nacional (never fear, I adopted my menacing Chicano friend Osvaldo as my big-strong-boyfriend-who's-gonna-beat-you-up), the most trouble I ran into was finding out upon getting back to my hotel on Saturday night that Enrique Iglesias was performing, but that we were about 15 minutes too late to get in to the show. :(

This weekend blew my expectations in every way. Hearing so many negative reports about Mexico City, about how crowded, polluted and dangerous it was, I expected it to be a big, ugly, boring city. But what I found was a beautiful city, full of energy, beautiful architecture, and endless options to fill my time. I could easily have spent two weeks there and still be looking for more time.

We left Guanajuato at 5:45 AM on Saturday, and five hours later arrived and directly started about our adventure. Saturday we went to see some of the famous sites around the Zócalo, the central plaza, including the Palacio Nacional (like the White House) and the Templo Mayor of the Aztec captial of Tenochtitlan. After the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they built their city right over the top of the Aztec ruins, and it has just been since the 1970's that they finally tore down the buildings to uncover the Templo Mayor (pic below). There is a BEAUTIFUL museum along with the site, and it was absolutely sobering to be standing on this site of one of the most influential events and civilizations in history! The schedule was only to be there until 2pm, but we enjoyed the museum so much that we were there until 4pm, and were tired and out of time to see anything else. There was a soccer game between Mexico and Costa Rica at 5pm, so like good tourists, we went to watch it at the Hard Rock Café. :) We were actually the only Americans there!
One peculiar fact about Mexico City is that it is built right over the top of what used to be a lake. The Spanish filled the lake to make streets, and since then Mexico has been pumping the water out from underneath. Even with these efforts, that doesn't make for very solid ground, and the city continues to sink. In the picture above, if you run your eyes along the street you can see that the part farthest away is a full brick taller than the part in the foreground.

After breakfast on Sunday, we spent our last few hours in Mexico City at the National Museum of Anthropology, one of the world's most important anthropology museums. I was worried because we only had plans to spend two hours there, but I actually saw most of what I had hoped so see... certainly not all that there was to see! The famous Sun Stone of the Aztecs (better known, although incorrectly, as the Aztec calendar) was there, along with relics of all of the most important ancient cultures of Mexico. One of my favorite things I saw was a scroll/book (pic below) chronicalling the Aztec migration from their native Aztlan to Tenochtitlan, in search of the prophesied site where an eagle holding a snake in its beak would show them where to build their city. I also loved the pottery of the Mexica people (from Oaxaca), and these little statues called caritas sonreintes from Veracruz. Those things won't mean much to you, but remember this is also my journal. :) I put pictures up on facebook as well, but there are just WAY to many to put them all on here!

Heading out of Mexico City, we spent the afternoon at the ruins of Teotihuacan, one of the greatest ancient cities of Mexico. The city was at its best in the first centuries AD, with nearly 100,000 people- making it the largest in Mesoamerica in that day, but it was abandoned by 600AD. Most of what is known about it today, including its name, is from the legends of the Aztecs, nothing is known about who populated the city. The pyramids there are like nothing I've ever seen- effectively indescribable. I'm sure these pictures don't do them justice either... We got to climb to the top of the Piramide del Sol (second pic below), the third largest in the world! I also have more pictures of this on facebook... too many... too many.

When I got home Sunday night, I was EXHAUSTED, but the thought of all I had done and seen over the weekend kept my mind buzzing like crazy! Relics this ancient, and ruins of civilizations that were so enormously influential to world history- it's amazing. I feel like the experience was especially special reflecting on how much time we spend in the US learning about Europe and European history. In my Intro to Art History class at SPU, the farthest outside Europe we looked was to Egypt. So this weekend, augmented by the art class I am taking right now, has been like discovering a hidden gem.