Chilli country

We have spend almost a week in Mexico city and surroundings and up to now it is the best big city we have seen. It is a huge city with 8 million people living in the city itself and if you add the suburbs almost 23 million people live here. Auke and Yoli live relatively close to the center and with a good network of metro and buses you can get anywhere. It has its normal big city problems of congested roads during rush hour and old buses with smelly exhausts but it is not as bad as other Latin American cities or Manilla.

The food is really nice here as well and with Yoli and Auke recommending us a lot of Mexican dishes, I'm afraid we will never like eating in a Mexican restaurant in the Netherlands because the food is very different. Chili is very important and they eat it with almost everything. You put it on your popcorn, it is in your ice, in your drink etc. Second most important is lime, which you add to a lot of things as well.

We have explored the nearby countryside and visited the small towns of Marinalco and Taxco. Mexico has very different landscapes, and this area looked a bit like Switzerland with lots of different species of pine trees.

In Malinalco a big party was going on because of the celebration of a saints day. The most festivities were in front of the church. Although the festivities were in honor of a catholic saint, it looked more like an Aztec party with people dressed as eagle or ocelot warriors with big feathery heads and dancing on old music. We also visited a small Aztec temple which was built in 1501 but never finished. Located on a hill, we had a magnificent view on the surrounding hills.
To escape the all night party and fireworks we continued on to Taxco, were we found out that there was another party with fireworks, fortunately not an all-nighter. Fireworks are not just fireworks but the whole village joins in and pays for a huge platform with a tower of fireworks in different forms and figures. Very spectacular, especially because we had a good view from the nearby roof terrace.

Taxco looked a bit Italian, a white city build against a mountain. The city became rich of the silver mining. We spend the night in an old monastery and explored the city the following morning. On our way back we visited the caves of Cacahuamilpa. Although the path in the caves was concreted and the tour group was big (only Mexican tourists), the caves itself were spectacular with a 2 km access in the caves. Our military tour guide showed us a lot of nice rock formations (of course you need some imagination and some were a bit far fetched). Some of the rooms were 70 m high.

The next three days we spent in Mexico City, walking around through the neighborhoods of Condesa and Coyoacán with its colonial houses and many small restaurants. In the city center are many nice things to do. Most impressive were the murals of the Palacio Nacional. This building used to be one of the residences of conquistador

Hernan Cortés and now the official residence of the president. The murals were painted by Diego Rivera and depict the Mexican history from the Aztecs up to 1935.

Mexico city was build on top of the old Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, which was completely destroyed because the Aztecs did not want to surrender and Cortes had to demolish the city to kill the last warriors. Fortunately, some temples have been excavated and the old Spanish buildings on top of them have been removed. A large part is still under the main cathedral, which is a pity because it is highly unlikely that we will ever see this part of history.

The cathedral is built in baroque style and therefore lavishly decorated. The floor is a bit wobbly because the cathedral is sinking (like the whole city; Tenochtitlán was actually built in the middle of a lake which has been drained of water completely by the Spanish) and 150 years ago it must have looked like the tower of Pisa with metal bands around the walls to protect it, but somehow the cathedral is more straight now than 80 years ago and it doesn't need a lot of additional protection anymore.

The most important temple of Tenochtitlán, the Templo Mayor is partially preserved. A sewage canal from the 1900's goes right through the temple (really a pity). The temple is actually 7 temples, each temple built over the other. On the top of the temple are two pyramids for the gods Tlaloc (the rain god) and Huitzilopochtli (warrior god). The different layers are still visible and some statues and decoration are well preserved, including some of the colors, either still attached at the temple or in the museum next to it. Later this week we will visit the Aztec city of Teotihuacan to get an even better view of how the Aztecs lived.

For a nice evening out you have to visit plaza Garibaldi in the weekend, where all the Mariachi bands play. The bands consists of 3-9 people with different guitars, trumpets and a varying other set of instruments ranging from harp to accordion and they wear beautiful clothing allthough it looks better when the males are still slim. The whole square is filled with different bands and if you pay them they play one or more songs for you. It was a nice evening and included a lot of mezcal, pulque (fermented milk of the agave), tequila and beer.