Day 97: Chronicle of a trip to The Heart of Mictlan

I have spent this wonderful long weekend doing a lot of stuff I wanted to do that had been conveniently procrastinated (house chores, basically) with the wonderful excuse of lacking enough time to proceed with them.

Even though, I decided that Friday the Second was the perfect day to visit the monumental shrines and offerings presented by Mexico City’s government at our main square called “El Zócalo”. The sky was clear, blue and cloudless, the sun was shinning, the air was cool and I was in ther right mood, even after spending one sleepless night thanks to my fu**ing neighbors downstairs who threw the most raucous party that ended at 4 am (and the bastards didn’t even had the kind gesture of inviting us over). Needless to say I spent the night watching all my pending Halloween movies, which have gained with the addition of Pirates of the Caribbean I and II.

But anyway, I decided to grab my sun blocking lotion, my cap and my backpack and take the subway downtown.

All an adventure by itself if you take into account I hadn’t used this means of transportation for two years and the service is not what it used to be. Anyway, I was able to make my way to “Zocalo” station and visit the shrines. It is very sad to say they were kind of a disappointment due to the huge amount of people around them. I was only able to get a look at the traditional wood ovens that produced free “pan de muerto” (bread of the dead) for senior citizens and children only, admire the “Tzompantli” with more than 700 plaster heads in remembrance of an ancient Aztec war ritual and admire the monumental Machepaper skeletons of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The rest of the exhibits were so absolutely crowded and the queues were so long that I decided it was not worth even trying.

It was then when I decided that having taken the trip, a visit to The Major Temple Museum was in order, just not to waste the trip. I had forgotten my Teacher ID, so I had to cough up $45 pesos (around 4.20 US Dollars) for the ticket, but I thought it was OK, since this used to be my favorite museum. And I remark the “used to be” because INAH, the National Anthropology and History Institute has really neglected it. Empty cases, missing stuffed animals, low quality index cards, awfully accented tour guides… Obviously they haven’t taken care of it. I am obliged to say, though, that the splendor of ancient Aztec pieces survives the worst display.

The nicest thing was getting home to my husband, take a wonderful two-hour long nap to recover from the party and taste our Bread of the Dead accompanied by a large mug of hot cocoa, which is mandatory during these days.

Templo Mayor pictures by George and Audrey DeLange.

None of these pictures were taken by me.

Reproduced with cultural, non-profitable purposes only.