Month: July 2006

First and foremost – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRANK, JR. 1 DAY LATE. Now do not think I am a terrible mother. I desparately wanted to be able to get on here and wish my boy a happy day on his actual day, July 28, but the master of the house was in when I finally got home and I could not use the computer.  I am a guest in their house after all…  It is still hard to believe that I now have 2 of my 4 children 21 or older.  I hope his father and he enjoyed their planned night of manly beer swilling and bowling. hehe

I am not doing anything today except for packing and  I am told, tasting Tequila.  I did not get to finish my blog about the Great Temple and then yesterday I took the city tour and went to the Museum of Anthropolgy.

EEK! I am here alone and all of a sudden a guy comes into the house. It is a family memeber, but scared the begeesus out of me.

Back to the boring travelogue.  Anyway, I was trying to tell you guys about the Great Temple, or Templo Meyor, as it is called here.  When Mexico City was originally founded, it had been built on a swampy kind of island in the middle of a lake. ( now all the buildings climbing the sides of the mountains resemble the missing water) They found a type of tree that resisted rot and used it to make moorings for their buildings. They then used rock and mortar, covered in stucco (which is amazingly strong and durable) and built their city where they had seen the sign. The sign was an eagle which had landed ontop of a cactus with a serpent in his beak. This was the sign that a great city should be built. ( I do not follow that thought, but I am not an ancient indian either) In the center of this city was the temple that they used for sacrificial rituals, burial of the dead and all the other important things that go on in a city and religious center. Thru each ruler, another layer of temple was built because each ruler wanted a  better temple.  Six stages of construction have been found at this site and many artifacts have been recovered, including the Sun Stone. Most people mistakenly believe that the sun stone is the Aztec Calendar, but even tho it does have symbols relating to the days and months and such, it was actually the stone that warriors would do battle on with the loser being the sacrifice to the sun god. Too cool.

Ok, there is so much information to convey, I get a little off the track, but the general gist is this. Current Mexico City, sits on the archeological treasure trove of the old city. This one part , Templo Mayor, just happened to be found and they began to excavate the place in 1978. Even tho they had found things previously on this site, they did not really take the place seriously until an archeologist named, GET THIS , Moctezuma, finally showed the government what a national treasure it was. So, now the Presidential palace, the Cathedral, the Zocalo and much of the historic district of Mexico City sit on the old city.  When the Spanish conquered the Mexicas, they destroyed and salted the old city and just built right on top. In fact, the Presidential palace sits on top of the house of the leader, Moctezuma.

Many of the artifacts that have been found at the multiple ruins sites all over Mexico are housed in the Museum of Anthropology.  It was awesome to finally see the Sun Stone and many other treasures. It is incredible how much detail went into the carvings and decoration for thier cities and temples and the art work that would accompany the dead or be in boxes as offereings.

I see that Yahoo will let you embed video as well as photos now… maybe I will try that when I get home so that you can see some of the things that I did.

Tomorrow I come home, so I will probably have some pics for anyone interested on here soon.

Many of you know that I have a terrible onion allergy.  I am also sickeningly (hehe get it) sensitive to far tooooooooo many things to make life simple.  Darn it!

Early this morning, I got to check out how the Mexican hospital system works.  I was feeling terribly ill with either a horrible reaction to a bit of onion juice that was on my avacado that I had eaten, or Moctezumas revenge. When we got to the hospital, I was ushered straight in.  I was immediately put thru the vital signs, I was taken over to a bed and had an IV inserted in less than an hour.  I was given a shot of cortisone, given a shot of anithistimine and a shot for nausea. I was constantly monitored by a nurse and the doctor checked on me frequently. All my blood work was done and back in a very short time and I was released about 2 hours after being put in. I came home, slept like a baby and feel pretty good today, although I am on strict orders to rest and drink plenty of fluids. Diagnosis? Toxic reaction with a stomach infection. Double whammy!!! The bill??  $140.00 US dollars, give or take. Wow!  Except for the language difference,  I was not at all unhappy with the care that I got here.

My travel partner, Lupita, is threatening to call and change my plane tickets if I do not get better, so I have to go lay down and read or write in my journal, or maybe nap..

 

Today was a little slow.  One of my roomies is sick with a nasty cold and had to stay in bed.  I sure hope I don’t catch anything and I hope she gets better soon.

Since Susana was down for the count,  Lupita and I decided we would stick fairly close by.  We went to a town that specializes in green glazed pottery and also to a temple ruin. The people had built ontop of most of the ruins site and just this run down overgrown temple was left with no one trying to recover it. I was told that the State of Oaxaca has 7000 archealogical sites alone, but no money to excavate them. The Mesoamerica area has 70000 and the same applies. No money, so time ravages what’s left and people to the rest. It´s a shame they don´t take their own heritage seriously at times, but you see that in the USA too, so it’s a global thing.

A few funny things. There are signs alllllll over the place for Bimbo. I think it´s a frozen treat of some kind, but the sign is just tooo funny. Also, to look up and see Ferreteria makes me think of a buffet line with little ferrets and trays picking up seeds and fruits and chatting merrily. OK… I admit I´m odd.

Got to thinking about my tomb crawling too! When I was trying to get out of the tombs at Mitla, they were getting ready to close and my tourmates were calling my name for me to come out so as to not be locked in for the night. With the accent, my name sounds like Charron… now correct me, but isn´t that a god of death for some culture… pretty sure it is. In fact, I´m pretty sure he´s the ferryman for the river Styx who helps you to cross over.  So, they were calling for the ferryman of death to come out of tombs.  🙂 fun thoughts, eh?

Too much free time you say?? Maybe. The ladies nap in the afternoon and then go to bed pretty early and otherwise, they are glued to the tv watching spanish soaps at incredible volume. I can´t even think while I´m in there, so the hotel lobby has gotten used to seeing me come for my internet, reading, writing in my journal and just hanging out.

 

Today I went to the  Centro of Oaxaca and visited the Santo Domingo Church among other places, but this place was incredible. Gold leaf on EVERYTHING.  Of course the minute I turn my camera on,  I get the low battery icon.  WHAT!!!! grrrrr.  And since I AM in a church, you can´t  use flash. This equates to taking about 8 shots of the same thing and praying (get it) that one will come out clear. But with no batteries that means you only get to photograph about 2 things.  My compromise was that I tried my best to have a steady hand which of course means I was wobbling all over the place and take a few shots. Then at the gift shop, I bought postcards of the shots I really wanted to be clear.

After leaving there, I felt it was ok to risk not finding another thing so spectacular that I could just keep shooting pics until the battery died. The thing lasted the ENTIRE day.  ( is that the same as the oil that lasted 8 days… but I digress). I got gorgeous photos of Oaxaca. Maybe all that praying did some good.

On a slightly separate note,  how many people who read my blog believe that God would be happy that the church spent tons of money on sparkly vestements and church decorations. Do you think that gained them any more favor than the plain little churches with nary a decoration and poor devout parishoners??  How can you preach the words of Jesus Christ and then make extremely ornate churches instead of taking the money and putting it back into the community…..

Ok, religious rant now complete. Time for bed and if God isn´t pissed off at me and decides to come collect me early, I´ll send you some more news from Mexico.

 

Buenos Noches!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Domingo,_Oaxaca

http://www.camino-real-oaxaca.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Alb%C3%A1n

for anyone who is interested….

But Mescal. Pretty good stuff. I´ll have to bring some home,  if I can.  Just a quickie, internet is going to time out really soon so brief update.

 

Went to Oaxaca to see the dancers.

Went to Monte Alban to see the ruins

Went to a crumbling Dominican Convento that is really a monastary.

Went to a cool place where they carve wooden animals.

Went to a cool place where they invented and perfected black pottery.

Went to a buffet where everyone gorged themselves and I had fruit and a few veggies with bottled water.

 

Until next time! Adios!

Sorry  I  can´t  share the lovely photos of the tombs I crawled on my hands and knees to see today… maybe when I get back.

 

And  I ate the worm!!