Mexico City after Marie...

Marie left last week and I've missed her... so, in order to deal with her absence I've been keeping myself busy by revisiting all sorts of places that I went to while Marie was here (the National Anthropological Museum, Teotihuacan, and the Zocalo)... ok, so as much as I love Marie I really haven't been revisiting these places to deal with her absence but so that Dan, who arrived after Marie left, could get a chance to see them. Surprisingly, I've actually seen a few new things at all these places.

On Tuesday it was raining (it's been raining pretty much non-stop since Marie left - Mexico City is crying because it misses her too) so Dan and I visited the National Anthropological Museum where we could stay dry. We spend the whole day there and saw ALL of the Anthropological Museum this time. Here are a few things we didn't see with Marie...

There is a second floor to the museum (yeah, we totally missed that the first time) and the upstairs has displays representing several groups of people that live in different regions in Mexico.

We totally missed the Olmec heads the first time around too...

And we never saw this thing... whatever it is. We decided it had lost a head and really needed one so Dan volunteered his :).

And, although Marie and I did see the burial replicas, we totally missed the ghost of Quel (and the ghost of the statue of the woman given birth) floating above the replica.

On Thursday, the rain decided to let up for a few hours, giving us a chance to visit Teotihuacan. Dan and I climbed the pyramid of the moon, which Marie and I didn't do for some reason...

The steps of the pyramid of the moon were by far the biggest and steepest... not really and issue for people with long legs but my legs aren't exactly long...

Still, I did make it to the top and here's the proof... :)

Dan and I also discovered (really, it wasn't exactly like we discovered anything it was pretty obvious but Marie and I managed to miss it completely) a covered area where they had really well preserved pyramids where you could still see the stucco and the painting on the pyramids... it was awesome (sorry you missed it Marie).

Here's Dan at the entrance of this really cool area.

See how the steps were cemented and stuccoed and painted? Teotihuacan must have been pretty darn impressive in its hay day.

Friday was overcast but we managed to escape the rain, for the most part at least, so we took a cab down to the Zocalo (the historic downtown) and also saw a few places that Marie and I didn't get to see. We visited the Palacio de Bellas Artes and saw an exhibit with some of the works of the Mexican artist Jose Luis Cuevas.

This is a self-portrait bronze sculpture by Jose Luis Cuevas outside of the Palacio de Bellas. Jose Luis Cuevas must be a fascinating individual (those of you who are into art and psychology Google his works and we'll talk sometime).

We also stopped by the Casa de los Azulejos where Dan got his shoes shined. We were totally ripped off (and we knew it too) but we figured the money didn't mean as much to us as it did to the guy shining Dan's shoes - at least that made us feel better about getting ripped off :).

We had lunch at the Cafe de Tacuba... there's a story behind this place but I can't remember it. Whatever the case, the place was beautiful and the food was great.

We also visited the Museo del Templo Mayor... ok, so this place is an old Aztec temple located in the middle of the Zocalo right across from the Catedral Metropolitana and yes, Marie and I totally missed it... I have no idea of how we managed to do that but we did :).

I'm standing in the Templo Mayor in this picture and you can see the Catedral Metropolitana in the background. Yep friend, we were right there... HOW DID WE MISS IT?

And here's a picture of what we missed. The Templo Mayor is fascinating. It has seven different layers - each successive ruler would build a layer on top of the previous layer making the temple bigger each time. Most of it the temple has been destroyed leaving the different layers visible.

Today we visited a town called San Angel (which Marie didn't get to go to). Once upon a time it was considered a rural community well outside of Mexico City but with the expansion and growth of the metropolitan area it's not all that remote anymore and actually just seems like part of the city. Still, San Angel definitely has a different feel than other parts of the city.

There are still a lot of old colonial buildings in San Angel and it is an area largely inhabited by artists and writers. Every Saturday they have a market where these artists display and sell their work.

They also have the BEST quesadillas, really, probably the best food I've had while I've been here! They make the corn tortillas right on site and fill the quesadillas with Oaxaca cheese and your choice of chicken, beef, chorizo, mushrooms, or all sorts of other stuff. If you look closely, you can see Dan and my dad in the upper righthand corner of this picture.

Messy... but DELICIOUS!!!

And, of course, like any good place in Mexico City they have museums all over the place. This one was once the house of some ambassador and is a great example of the colonial architecture found in San Angel.