Day 2: Easter Sunday, March 31
The hotel flyer and concierge told me that the breakfast room opens at 6 a.m. I got there at 6:45...they didn't open until 7 a.m. I wonder if this was because it is Easter Sunday today!
I was told by Erick yesterday that he would be picking me up at 8:30 a.m. to then proceed on to pick-up 2 other people at another hotel. But instead, someone else met me outside my hotel and walked me around the corner to another hotel where the company van was waiting. I just learned that there are 12 people on today's tour. There are 3 of us from the Los Angeles area (the other two are from Culver City and Torrance, and in fact one person works at the Skecher's corporate building on Sepulveda Blvd. in Manhatttan Beach! Small world. The other 8 people are from different countries: Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru. The language for all of the other guests is Spanish, so our guide, Urlia, will be presenting all information today in English and Spanish.
Our first journey was to visit the remains of the original city built by the Aztecs--the Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan. This is an area I cover in world history. At this stop, we could see remnants of the original pyramid where the Aztecs had sacrificed many people to their gods. We could also see the first church that the Spanish and the Christian Church built to cover the old Aztec City. And we can also see at the site the modern day buildings of today's society. This will be another reason why I would like to revisit Mexico City.
We then stopped at a location to shop for trinkets. Though there was a lot of items I would love to have purchased, I did not...it is too early in the trip.
Next, we drove through the city to visit the stadium built in 1952, but used in the 1968 Olympic Games. Since then, the university located at the same site now uses the stadium, called Estadio Olímpico Universitario, for their college athletes. The 1968 Olympic Games are known for uncertainty and protests during the games because of the student protest of the government using funds for the games instead of the university that was 10 days before the games. In the student protest, over 200 college students were killed. It was an incredible site to see today. We also crossed the path to take a look at the university college sites. The name is National Autonomous University of Mexico City (UNAM) What incredibly beautiful buildings designed by famous artist Juan O'Gorman. I can't wait to show you my photos of their great, artistically historic buildings. They have been proclaimed as a UNESCO site by the United Nations. I have so much to share just about the library at the university! The university system is similar to that of UC or CalState in California. In Mexico, UNAM has 342,5442 students at different sites across Mexico, but only approximately 5,000 are at the Mexico City site.
We then moved on to take a quick look at the Estadio Azteca built in 1966. It is the largest stadium in Latin America and the 8th largest in the world. It also was used in the 1968 Olympic games. It was used for Mexico-Brazil soccer game in 1968 and held 119,853. It was also used for a boxing tournament in 1993 and held 132,247 people!
We then moved on to the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco. This is another place I look forward to visiting again. It is an example of the times of the Aztecs when they found their eagle pearched on a prickly pear cactus eating a rattlesnake. Here, they formed their first city Tenochtitlan. (Later, the Spanish will destroy it and build Mexico City.) The eagle was found in the middle of a lake, so the Aztecs built their city on water. They also created chinampas which they used to plant their crops. The chinampas were more perfect than exepcted...they could plant many crops 3 times a year instead of one. These canals are remnants of the chinampas. Today, this part of Mexico City is used to plant beautiful flowers. We spent an hour on our sailing through the canals. We saw many tourists, but also many local families who were celebrating Easter by spending the day with their family to have a great fast. Many families, and our group, also hired mariachi groups to spend some time on your boat. What a fantastic time!
We then spent another 45 minutes to travel through Mexico City to visit the Plaza Coyacán. What a very beautiful, and very crowded for Easter, square with many many booths to sell trinkets, many restaurants (where I had a fantastic enchilada), mariachi bands, statues and fountains. We spent 2 hours at this location. While there, I visited the San Juan Bautista Church & Monastery. Construction started on this church in 1522. What a beautiful and historic site!
For my students...the plants in the photo are of a style we just finished studying last week in Japan. What are these trees called? An Asian-style tree for sale in Mexico! E-mail your answer...if you are correct, I will give you extra credit. Be sure to also tell me what period you have world history!
What a long day to see so many beautiful parts of Mexico City. As a side note...I see the symbol "CDMX". I thought it was Roman Numbers (more specifically, the number for CDMX could not exist because you cannot put a CD to the left of the M...I know my students all know this!)! CDMX is an acronym for "Ciudad de Mexico".
Another side point...this past summer was the first time I traveled abroad in 10 years. Another great innovation that I had never heard of is "WhatsApp", a great tool when traveling around the world! Used it with the guides a few times already!
You can see below a box of 20 small photos. You can also see the numbers below (up to 2) meaning there is another box of up to 20 photos. You can click on any photo to see it enlarged OR just click on the 1st photo and wait....it will present a slide show of all 40 photos that advances every 5 seconds.