From ruins to ruins: All Around Mexico City

Getting close to the Distrito Federal, we hit two sets of ruins in two days: first, we went to Tula, an ancient Toltec capital, then to Teotihuacan, an earlier city with unclear origins.

In Tula, we saw our first ball courts...

Ricardo standing in a ceremonial ball court

We also saw Tula's iconic warrior-columns and Chac-mool altars.

My camera died so I had to get this picture online

Teotihuacan is a much larger site and we were impressed by the city's organized layout and the extent of excavation/restoration.  Everything is neatly arranged around the city's main avenue, "Calzada de los Muertos" or "Avenue of the Dead". 

Looking down the Avenue of the Dead

We climbed the steep steps to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon, and nearly everything in between. 

Made it!

We also explored inside all the structures we could.   On some of the structures you could still see paint from so long ago.  This little guy found a nice spot:

Look close to see the lizard

From the ruins, we went in to Mexico City.  First stop was the Chapultepec Park and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, which was enormous and excellent - we arrived in the afternoon and did not have enough time, this is definitely a worth dedicating a whole day.  In front of the museum, there were "voladores" ("flyers") performing.  This tradition actually comes from Papantla in the state of Veracruz, but since our travel route would not take us there, I was excited to actually get to see it in person.  In this ritual, five men climb an impossibly tall pole, then one plays music with a flute and drum from the top while the other four jump off the spinning platform, hanging upside down from ropes and spinning around the pole as they gradually make it to the ground.  The ceremony is filled with symbolism; for example, the four "flyers" represent the four cardinal directions and also four elements.  The flyers rotate around the pole exactly 13 times, related to the mesoamerican calendar system.  

Voladores

The next day we went to the historic center of the city and found a great spot to park within walking distance to Plaza Garibaldi, famous for being the mariachi "headquarters" in Mexico City.  Indeed, we saw many mariachi groups performing and sometimes just gathering.  There was even a street that seemed to be a kind of drive-through mariachi set-up:  a car would pull over, request a song or two, and the band would perform right there on the sidewalk for the people in the car (who would sometimes choose to get out of their vehicle, sometimes not).  Then the customers would pay the band and drive away, on with their day...  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of this!

Plaza Garibaldi

We enjoyed the sights and sounds of Mexico City.  There were so many things to see and do!



Palacio de Bellas Artes

city view in the background

giant Christmas decorations

 One of our favorite stops was the Palacio Nacional.  It had beautiful gardens, many amazing Diego Rivera murals, and we can't forget to mention...ruins!  Mexico City was built right on top of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, so even right there inside the national palace, you can find ruins. 

Diego Rivera murals in the Palacio Nacional

The mirror above reflects the Tenochtitlan ruins below the palace

So there you have it, our journey in Mexico City took us from ruins to ruins.  A place very full of history and culture, not to be missed!