One day, out
of the blue, I was invited by Alfonso's son, Alfonso Jr., to make an
excursion to the archeological site of Tula with a couple his friends, Delfino and Inez. The site is located in the town of Tula de
Allende about an hour and a half by bus north of CDMX. Tula was a very important site in terms of it's wide influence as the capital of the Toltec empire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tula_(Mesoamerican_site)
On the walk to the ruins
Not well known
to foreigners, it was very quiet there with only a few visitors (but lots of
vendors). Alfonso Jr and his friends go there often to do rituals and ceremonies and are into some sort of new age spiritualism.We were there for a couple of hours and the three of them, chiefly Delfino, spent the entire time haggling with vendors over the very high prices of what were obviously fake artifacts. Hmmm...... Be that as it may, it was an interesting place and the statues of the Toltec warriors atop the pyramid were impressive.
In the distance, the new deities: petroleum refineries
Alfonso Jr.
After seeing the site we took a cab back to the town and had dinner in the market there. That was an experience. They chose one of the restaurants and first rice was offered accompanied by very nice, blue corn tortillas hot off the comal with some salsas and mediocre mole. I ate a couple of tortillas with some rice and mole and thought that was it. I was full. The other three, especially Delfino, ate tortilla after tortilla with rice and beans and salsa and whatever else he could get his hands on. That was just for openers. Then came a main course, which I declined but the others tucked right into: big bowls of soup or mole with chicken and more rice and an endless stream of tortillas. Watching them, it reminded me of the gluttony scene in Monty Pyton's "Meaning of Life". I thought they would explode. Then dessert (not a wafer thin mint): fried bananas with a sweet syrup.
A Nestle product so you know itcan't be good.
By that time all I wanted to do was go home which we eventually did but not until Alfonso, a budding opera singer, demonstrated his vocal abilities when a busking guitarist came by.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV64HaLBEmY Then it was Delfino haggling over the bill and jerking the poor, tired server around. Embarrassing.
An interesting day all in all on many levels.
Off to Cuba tomorrow. Probably won't be any posts until after I get back to Mexico. Not much internet available there from what I hear.
Whenever I'm in CDMX I make it a point to visit the Museum of Modern Art and it's always worth it. There was an exhibit of works by Kazuya Sakai. You get the idea from this piece:
Another exhibit there was of pieces by Don S. Shoemaker, the most important representative of Mexico Modernism furniture design. Absolutely stunning work. These pieces using exotic tropical woods I thought were very beautiful and the workmanship amazing.
And there was a very popular show of works by Remedios Varo, para-surrealist painter and anarchist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedios_Varo born in Spain but fled the German occupation in WWII to Mexico where she lived for the remainder of her life. I'm always surprised at how well attended by young Mexicans some shows like this one are.
Three Kings Day, Epiphany, Day of Holy Kings (Día de los Santos Reyes), Reyes Magos, are some of the names for the January 6 celebration and the culmination of the 12 days of Christmas, originally a Spanish custom, also celebrated in southern France and historically the major Christmas celebration in Mexico.
Though USA style Christmas is infiltrated Mexico to a high degree, particularly among the more affluent Mexicans, this is the day when kids have traditionally opened their gifts and there are parades and special foods, like the rosca. This is a sweet bread with dried fruit decorations.
Inside the rosca is baked a tiny plastic baby Jesus, sometimes several.
So, people get together to eat the rosca served with atole (a warm rice drink) or hot chocolate and the person who gets the baby Jesus figure is then obliged to throw a party on February 2 and serve tamales. In Mexico City they do a major production of rosca for the masses in the Zocalo in the Centro.
A rosca 720 meters long is made, enough to serve 200,000 people. Unfortunately, I was out of town that day but was invited out to a rosca party with Alfonso and Sylvia a few days later with friends of theirs. It was Sam's Club rosca, tasty enough and a very nice gathering in a beautiful, upscale home. My brain hurt afterwards trying to follow the Spanish conversation.
I arrived in Mexico City, aka CDMX, about 1:00am New Year's day, 2017, an hour late due to heavy snow in Vancouver that delayed the departure. Nice to arrive totally overdressed. Another exciting taxi ride to Anys Hostal where Alfonso was waiting up for me. Up way too early next morning and Alfoso and I checked out bikes first thing and were relieved that our Ecobici cards worked. Very quiet out and about on New Years day, most businesses closed and we enjoyed the quiet streets.
And, it was car free Sunday so I joined the somewhat smaller than usual throngs on Paseo de la Reforma to enjoy cycling without worrying about traffic. I cycled to the Centro to see the Christmas decorations and the crowds of people ice skating and enjoying the festivities.
A family atmosphere.
Next day things were back to normal and I went to the mercado for groceries then back downtown where I saw a terrific photography exhibit at the Museo Archivo de las Fotografía by Mexican photographer Antonio Turok. His work chronicles the social/revolutionarystruggles in the late 1900s in several Central American countries as well as Oaxaca and Chiapasin southern Mexico. Disturbing and evocative images. Then it was time for tacos al pastor at my favourite place followed by a beer on the rooftop cafe overlooking the Aztec ruins.
Feeling reenergized, I continued on to the San Ildefonso museum, formerly a college built in the 1580s, now an art museum and school where there was an extensive exhibition of traditional and contemporary Chinese art, some of which I liked, some not so much.
A sets for shadow puppetry
Legend has it that Chinese shadow puppetry originated during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.)
Puppeteer and orchestra
Amazing masks
Cut paper art
So, I've been here for a week and am way behind on the blog. Many distractions. Hope you all had a good holiday season. More soon.
