Goodbye Mexico City

I stayed in the Historic Central District when I was in Mexico City last month, and that was a perfect location for touring.  But Mexico City is so big, that I decided to try a different neighborhood this time.  I chose Condesa, which is supposed to be hip and cool (that's me) with a lot of restaurants and bars (that's me, too).  From the description, I thought it would be like Greenwich Village, but it turns out to be more like the Upper East Side.  There are plenty of restaurants, but the neighborhood is quiet, upscale, and residential.  My apartment is on the sixth floor with a terrace and floor to ceiling windows on two sides for a great view.  Downstairs in my building is a Japanese restaurant and there are four other sushi restaurants within a few blocks, as well as two falafel places, several other international restaurants, yoga studios, dog groomers, and a cupcake shop across the street.  There are two parks nearby, one with a large dog park, and while this is the first place in Mexico that I have seen people walking with strollers, there are way more dogs ,and people walking dogs, than babies.

On Sunday I took a bike tour of the city.  Every Sunday, they close the Paseo de la Reforma, the main avenue in Mexico City, to cars.  Our guide said that over 50,000 people ride on the Paseo every week.  The riding is incredibly well organized.  At every intersection there are two young girls with huge banners.  When the light is red, they block the road with the banner so no bikes will go into the intersection while cars are crossing.  When the light changes, they move the banner away.  Usually the Reforma is closed to cars until 2, but on Sunday it was only closed until 1 because they said the air pollution was particularly bad.  I use that excuse and the 7,000 feet elevation, rather than the fact that I had not been on a bike in over six weeks, to explain why I was getting winded on an easy ride.

Besides, the Paseo de la Reforma, we rode through several nice neighborhoods, including Condesa, and several parks.  Mexico City, at least the neighborhoods we rode through, is tree lined and very green.  One park had a replica of Michelangelo's David.  Lincoln Park had Abraham Lincoln across the street from Martin Luther King, Jr.  I took my Claremonster Riding picture in front of Lincoln.

It turns out the the most visited Catholic site in the world, and the third most visited sacred site in the world, is the Virgen of Guadalupe in Mexico City.  Who knew?  How could I not visit it while I was here?  I was going to visit it on Monday, but parts of it are closed on Mondays, so after the bike ride, I took the Metro all the way across the city to visit the Virgen.

On December 9, 1531, only ten years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, a native Mexican peasant named Juan Diego was walking on the hill of Tepeyac when Mary appeared to him and told him to have a church built to her on that site.  Juan went to the archbishop who did not believe him.  The archbishop told him to have Mary give him a tangible sign.  Juan Diego saw Mary three more times.  When he told her that the archbishop needed a sign, she told him to bring him the flowers growing there.  Quite surprising because normally nothing grew there in December, and the flowers were non-native Castillian roses.  Juan wrapped the roses in his cloak and brought them to the archbishop.  When he opened his cloak to show the archbishop the roses, the image of Mary was painted on the cloak.  The archbishop finally believed Juan Diego and the church was built.

And now, the rest of the story ...  The hill of Tepeyac was sacred to the Aztecs so it was important to the early Spanish clergy to establish the site as sacred to Catholics.  This very detailed story, with specific dates, does not appear in writing for over a hundred years, and there are no contemporaneous references to it.  In fact, Juan Diego probably never existed although he has been canonized.  Oh well, as my father always said, never let the facts interfere with a good story.

Juan Diego's cloak was on display for years in a small chapel, but is now in a huge, modern basilica.  The complex also include a museum, chapels, dioramas, waterfalls, and fountains, as well as shops selling replicas and religious items.  It kind of reminded me of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.  I think there are non-stop masses in the main basilica, and three moving walkways let you pass in front of Juan Diego's cloak.

Juan Diego's cloak

Original basilica

Modern basilica

Lifesize diorama

I have to say that I wandered the complex for over an hour looking for Juan Diego's cloak although I had first gone into the new basilica.  I saw the picture hanging behind the altar but didn't realize that that was it; I thought that was a painting.  After wandering through the entire complex, I went back to the basilica and followed the crowds and found the cloak.  A few people go on their knees from the entrance of the basilica to the cloak, or at least to the seats.

On Tuesday I visited Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo's home and now a really interesting museum of her life and work.  Casa Azul really is blue.



Casa Azul is in Coyoacan, another beautiful, tree-lined residential neighborhood.  Some of the houses even had yards instead of wall up to the sidewalk.  With its fairly small houses, the neighborhood reminded me a lot of older California neighborhoods.

Then I made my last trip back to the Centro to visit the Monument to the Revolution.  This is a massive concrete structure with tombs of the revolutionary heroes in the corners, and a glass elevator that you can take to an observation deck.  Then you can keep walking up stairs between the inner and outer layers of the dome to the very top.  Kind of like climbing to the Statue of Liberty's torch, but this monument is supposed to be Mexico's answer to the Eiffel Tower.

And that is the end of my Mexican adventure.  In the morning I will fly to DC and spend the next two weeks with the grandchildren.  A different kind of adventure.