Centro Historico - Day Two

Gail wanted to see the murals at Bellas Artes, and we wanted to see the other collections there. On our way, as is our way, we stopped in to look at a church or two. I often don’t take many shots as I’m not all that excited about them. I find the glorification of the death of Christ hanging on the cross a gruesome sight. A few of the churches spend more of their art/altar space reserved for the good works of Jesus instead.

Before heading over the museum, Sheryl had read about this really cool coffee roaster that was started by two refugees from the Spanish Civil War. If you are so inclined, you can read about the history of the family and their journeys as refugees in Spain, France and finally in Mexico. https://cafevillarias.com/historia.html It is in Spanish, but with the magic of the internet, you can translate it.

Bellas Artes did not disappoint. There was one exhibit that I really loved. The artist had taken his mom’s cursive handwriting and created metal sculptures that when hung with a light above, showed in shadow her alphabet. There was no way to see that the sculptures would create these shadows without a good long look.

We walked along the impossibly crowded pedestrian streets to the Zocalo. It is the center square in this Centro Histórico of Mexico City. It was fun to see all the shops that sold, well, everything. I like how the bathroom fixture shops were all clumped together and the lighting places, and other household goods were organized along specific blocks. It certainly makes shopping and bargain hunting convenient.

Just next to the Zocalo archeologists discovered some amazing ruins from the peoples who lived here - like the ruins at Teotehuacán. Everyone I talked to about visiting Mexico talked about the Templo Mayor - and this was it. It seems that the Spanish over the centuries made it a habit to deconstruct the buildings and temples of the people to use the materials to build their own colonial buildings. This was one of the few not completely destroyed.

What was on our agenda the whole day was going to San Ildefonso. It is a building covered with beautiful murals. Again, it didn’t disappoint. Having had a bit of a history lesson from the other murals, I was able to understand much more of what I was seeing and what the symbols and characters meant. This one was a keeper.

We walked back to the apartment and there was a whole row of shops selling Quinceañera dresses. They were spectacular! Cinderella-worthy confections. A couple of the stores had young women modelling the dresses outside and calling for folks to come into the stores. Not something you see in Canada or the US.

After dinner we decided to explore the advertised roof deck on our building. As they were doing all kinds of repairs from the last earthquake, the building security didn’t want us up there. But we had time to get in a gorgeous city-scape sunset. Another great day.もっと詳しく