Mexico City

Hello, non-commenting blog readers. There has been a famine of comments on the blog. As my dear brother pointed out, it is less natural to comment on a blog than to reply to an email. I like emails more than blog comments, but both is even better J

So this blog comes to you from the lovely D.F., which is Mexico City (D.F. stands for “Distrito Federal”). We came here from the villages on Thursday, and it’s been pretty awesome, I’d say. We’re staying in a hostel near the Zócalo (which is the most prominent plaza in the downtown area of Mexico City). It’s a ton cheaper than a hotel, and so far I’m enjoying the experience. Angela and I are in one of the normal dorm-style rooms, taking up two of the six beds. They aren’t usually all full, but so far our roommates have been from Argentina, Italy, and Israel. They’ve been super-interesting to talk to, especially Liat from Israel, after spending the summer working with Afghanis. I think the hostel is exactly what I thought it would be: a bunch of young people from different countries, many with large backpacks and hiking shoes. The average hair length for guys is definitely above the average for their respective native lands.

On Friday we took an all-day tour offered by the hostel. Our tour guide, Eric, was really personable, and full of the sort of information you expect the tour guide to have. We stopped first at the Plaza de Tres Culturas, where there is architecture from three different cultures: an indigenous culture whose name I forgot, the Spanish conquistador culture, and modern Mexican culture (represented by the ever-picturesque office building of the foreign ministry). From there, we went to see the Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe, which I think is the most culturally significant religious structure in all of Mexico. There are an old and a new basilica, because one end of the old one has sunk several meters since it was built, and it’s structurally unsound. The new one went up in the 1970s, I think, and it houses the most famous image of the Virgin Guadalupe, which supposedly appeared miraculously on the cloak of a man named Juan Diego several centuries ago.

Our final stop was Teotihuacán, which is the site of ancient pyramid ruins. It’s pretty amazing how they’re all lined up in terms of the suns movement, etc. We climbed to the top of the sun pyramid, which is pretty dang tall. From there we had a great view of the rest of the ruins. It’s amazing what archeologists have been able to discover about these ancient cultures, but it’s equally amazing how much information is still unknown. The name Teotihuacán comes from the Aztecs, who discovered the ruins abandoned, and thought that it must have been made by the power of the gods (the name translates to “place of the gods” or something like that…Anyone else think it’s interesting that “teo” means god in the Aztec language?). So the original culture, their language, and their name for the place are all quite mysterious. On the tour we befriended Dana, an Australian girl traveling by herself before meeting up with a friend. We spent the movie hanging out with her, which was a lot of fun.

On Saturday we went to the Anthropology Museum (tons more than you can see in a day), and the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which had an extensive Diego Rivera display up. His murals are pretty intense. A lot of social commentary and harsh criticism.

Sunday (today), we went to church with some friends from Iowa, the Garvins. Elder Garvin is the director of the temple visitors’ center, when it’s open (sadly the visitors’ center and temple are both closed right now). Their apartment is inside the temple compound, and the chapel is next door. It was a nice ward, and it was really great to see the Garvins. They had us over to dinner after church, and I think we all enjoyed some good American fare (mmmmm, apple crisp with vanilla ice cream). After that, we headed back to the hostel. We’ll be going back to Irapuato tomorrow.

Oh, I almost forgot…The main excitement from the villages is that Matt and I got to tumbar maíz this week. That means cutting down the corn stalks so that the corn can be removed later. They do this by hand, using a sickle. We both got a bit blistered and sliced up by the corn stalks, but I’m really glad I went. You don’t realize how much skill supposedly unskilled labor takes until you try to do it yourself.





All of us on one of the pyramids at Teotihuacán (Matt, Angela, me, Brandon).

Angela and me with Liat, the Israeli girl we shared a rom with for a couple of nights.

Me with the Garvins in their apartment.