Teotihuacan Adventure V

Early dawn, just before sunrise, a mist still lingering over the City of the Gods we enter the Avenue of the Dead heading towards the ancient Aztecan Pyramidas del Sol (Sun Pyramid.) This ancient site just 30 miles north-east of Mexico City in San Juan, Mexico. Darkness lingers a while longer as you hear high in the distance the haunting melody of a wooden flute, the ethereal chords of an ancient stringed musical instrument, or the muted beats from a leather covered drum in the far distance. Shadows of a mysterious ancient civilization envelope you as you're dwarfed by the magnificence of twelve square miles of great structures surrounding you.

Teotihuacan, Avenida de Morir

As we walk down the avenue we pass by talud-tablero (inward sloping-platform) structures. This great city had reached its zenith between 100 - 500 CE, and to be mysteriously abandoned around 700 CE. It was my endeavor to climb to the top of the Sun Pyramid just before the sun rose. The Sun Pyramid is 158 feet high with 248 steps (with 12" rises and 7" treads) to reach the top. Paco stayed below while Mario and I tediously climbed to its peak just as the sun rose above the eastern horizon. With each step we were ascending in our present time with the ghosts of those ancient ones a thousand years before as if there wasn't any time barrier between us and them. We were out of breath and a little fatigued by the time we reach the top because the steps were obviously made for someone used to making high strides up each narrow step. We practically climbed step-by-step on our toes. Above all, it was an Aztecan epiphany, to say the least, imitating an ancient ritual of ascension in the greatest city of Mexican antiquity and reaching its summit.

We spent the entire day exploring the temples and pyramids of Tlaloc (Rain god), Quetzocoatl (Feathered Serpent), and Xipe Totec (Our Lord the Flayed One) a god of renewed vegetation, Sun god and Moon goddess, the old Fire god incense burners, and a goddess called by archaeologists as
Spider Woman, to name a few.

Pyramid of the Sun

Map of Teotihuacan

Quetzalcoatl, The Feathered Serpent Relief

Cuenavaca Adventure IV

Outside Mexico City is the beautiful resort of Cuenavaca. Paco and I joined family and friends for picnicking, swimming, and relaxation. Throughout the resort-like park are waterfalls, pools and canals for wading or swimming under trelasses of  beautiful Bougainvillea draping overhead.

It was here that some Aculpulcan cliff divers were training during the off-season. After enjoying a couple of beers after our late lunch, I decided to try diving from the 25-foot diving board. As I climbed up the ladder with professional cliff divers trailing behind me, I walked out on the board and was panicked as I look down at the small round pool below. I sat down on the board and crawled back. Two of the cliff divers urged me on to complete my mission, to dive into the pool waiting for me far below. They followed me out to the edge of the board and instructed me to sit down on the edge of the board. I could hear them snickering behind me as one of them directly behind me told me all I had to do was to lean forward and fall feet first. It was then I felt a hand on my back push me off the edge of the board. As I fell feet first through the air I knew this was either going to be my last moments alive, or I was going to be crippled for the rest of my life. When I felt the soles of my feet hit the hard surface of the water and was submerged in splashing water and bubbles rising all around me, I knew the worse was over. When I came back up to the surface of the water I heard applauding hands from the crowd of people who were standing around me as in gasped for air and quickly swam over to the edge of the pool. That was an experience I will never forget nor want to ever repeat again.
Below I have added pictures that best describes the beauty of Cuenavaca and the Palace of Cortez.

Waterfalls & Streams

Garden Pools

Patios & Pools

Winding Streams

Palace of Cortez

Mexico City Adventure III

After the escapade in Mexico City's subway, Paco and I decided to go to one of the many chocolate cafés you will find throughout the city. These cafés offer many varieties of international hot (or cold) chocolate drinks served with sugar and cinnamon coated sweet braided bread sticks you can dip. My favorite was actually the Mexican chocolate. You can buy your chocolate by the pound in solid blocks where you shave off however much you need to add to milk and slowly bring to a boil. I preferred chocolate shavings in goat milk.

We walked downtown into the Zona Rosa over to the National Museum of Anthropology. Paco and I spent the rest of the long afternoon into the early evening touring every crook and cranny of the museum. We must have read every exhibit marker and historical documentation while we examined every display of artifacts. After so many years of seeing pictures of the Aztec calendar, I was ecstatic to finally see the actual stone right before my eyes. Latin American history and culture was one of our concentrations in college. We gained further insights as we conversed with actual archaeological guides scattered throughout the museum. Most all of the guides spoke Spanish, French, and/or English; and all documentation was written in those three languages as well. Thank goodness, because I had very limited knowledge of Spanish. Both of us more control of the ancient Mayan Nahuatl language than we had of Mexico's official language - Spanish.

National Museum of Anthropology

Afterwards, we met with Mario and two of his amigos to dine at an American restaurant called "The Tasty Freeze" in the Zona Rosa. The restaurant was quite formal inside with drapes and table cloths with pictures of Americana on the walls. American old time "Rock and Roll" music quietly wafted through the air. Customers were well dressed and ate their hamburgers with knives and forks using Mexican relishes and garnishes on their sandwiches and potato fries.

That night, after dinner, we went over to the Hotel Isabella to drink a few ron y refresca (rum and coca cola) while enjoying one of Mexico's famous pop-singers entertain us up on stage.

Aztec Calendar

Mexico City Adventure II

Even though Maximilian's castle museum provided us with an all day study in the culture of military and political life of the French in the new world and some pre-Colombian history and artifacts, we were more focused in the archaeological histories of the Olmec (1400 - 400 BCE), Mayan (2000 BCE - 250 CE), and Aztec (1350 - 1525 CE) peoples as well as the Toltec (900 - 1200 CE), Mixtec (800 - 1500 CE), and Zapotec (500 BCE - 900 CE) peoples to name just a few we had studied in-depth in college. Therefore, we wanted to go down into the subways (the Metro) to take an investigative and adventuresome glance of the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec city beneath modern day Mexico City which was originally built on landfill in Lake Texcoco. Also, we wanted to visit the Museo Nacional de Anthropologia (National Museum of Anthropology) in Mexico City. Now, I don't want this to be a boring and technical account, it's only meant to be a story of my own personal observations and experiences. But also to remind you that this was so much more than just a vacation - it was a passionate quest - to see with my own eyes; to touch with my own hands; to hike, set camp, and climb with my own arms and legs, and to merge my imagination with reality; and to listen to the voices of those who came before me, and to breathe-in all within my surroundings - living in the moment.

Tenochtitlan, the ancient city under the modern city, was difficult to see from the subway, so we got off at the next stop. Walking along the boarding platform towards the old city took quite awhile, but when we got there it was fenced-off to pedestrians. Regular tours wouldn't take you underground, even though it wasn't the right thing to do compromising our safety by disregarding the authorized restriction, our strong-willed determination led us to take advantage of this opportunity regardless. We crawled through the fence's narrow openings while looking around cautiously for any subway guards. We walked on until we found an opening in the subway wall. There were flood lights inside and you could see some of the ruins that were being reconstructed or repaired by archaeologists. The opening was barred so you couldn't climb inside, but we found one small area we could crawl through. We wandered around inside and took in everything we could see. After about an hour or two we decided it was time to go. So we walked back to the fenced area where we had entered, checked out the other side for guards, and crawled quietly back onto the platform. It crossed my mind what could have been the consequences if we, Americans, had been arrested by the subway guards or even the police and locked-up in a Mexican jail. We decided that from this time forward we would pursue our explorations by doing it the right way. But, what we saw was an ancient historical site few people will ever see.

Drawing of Tenochtitlan

Mexico City Adventure I

I'd only been in border towns in northern Mexico, like Tijuana across the border from San Diego, California,  and Nogales just south of Tombstone, Arizona. Now, here I am, far down into Mexico in one of the largest cities in the world - Mexico City, FD. Mario drove us to our lodging in the district of Chapultepec. We would reside there with (Tia) Marta, a matronly looking Mexican woman with black hair piled up on top of her head held by combs. It was a nice flat with two bedrooms and a bathroom off the main room. In the main room was an open area for the cooking and dining areas, and a sitting room or parlor. The main room had French doors leading out onto a large balcony overlooking the quiet street below and a park across the way. It is here that Maximilian and his wife Carlotta built their palace out in the forested hills. Maximilian's castle is presently a museum of the French occupation and various Mexican antiquities.

Now Marta was an excellent cook. For breakfast she made sweet and hot tamales, sliced papaya, eggs, fresh homemade tortillas and milk. Now, the milk (leche) and eggs (huevos) were home delivered. The milk came in those quart size glass bottles with a paper cap stopper, and best of all, the cream rose to the top so the first one to pour received the thick silky cream in their cup to drink. I think Marta wanted her "huero" (light skinned Mexican or white boy) to have it. Lunches was usually soup like menudo or tripe-soup especially beans served with flour tortillas. For dinner Marta made chicken mole. It's chicken thighs and legs broiled in chocolate with hot red peppers. I was introduced to lotus, corn on the cob rolled in butter and dry cheddar cheese. One thing you must get used to is tequila. Marta had little earthenware clay shot glasses to pour tequila for breakfast, lunch, and after dinner. I preferred some semi-sweet red wine because tequila "will get to you."

I'll never forget going shopping at the mercado in Mexico City! It was a huge open market with small cafés inside. I almost got ran over by a wheel barrel full of hog heads zooming down through the market aisle. The market had a mixed odor of decaying meat, over ripening fruit, wilting vegetables,
aging cheeses, and aging herbs.

Now, if anyone has had the opportunity of sleeping in a feather-filled mattress will understand what I'm about to say here. The ropes zigzagging back and forth on the side boards don't do much for the mattress deeply sinking in the middle. The problem is when you find gravity pulling you into the center of a deep, feathery and suffocating abyss. One thing Paco and I discovered was that if you start at the edges, "scoop and scoot" towards the center you can build up a pile of feathers in the center. Then if you hold on tight to the side rail of the bed, you can actually have a rather decent nights sleep.

Palace of French Maximilian I

The Old Treasure Chest

Each of us have an old treasure chest filled with stories, tales, secrets, memories, and experiences we've collected over the years. This blog is just that - stories of my travels, the people and the places. It's also stories about a boy and a son, a man and then a husband, a father and later on a grandfather.
As you can see in the picture I posted of an old treasure chest, I'm going to be taking out souvenirs and treasures and telling you the story behind them.

The Old Treasure Chest

                           

Imagine the old treasure chest made of planks of oak and walnut trees, covered with leather hides fastened down by grommeted brass corners and edges. This weathered chest by gusting winds, pelting rain and salt water, grating sand, dense humidity, and faded by the rays of the glaring sun. With the "key" we begin our journey by unlocking and removing the rusted iron lock, lifting the gritty latch; and as we lift the creaking lid the scent of cedar wood and dusty musk fill our senses.

Now, let the adventure begin . . . by the way, that reminds me of a story . . .

Mexico, The Arrival

In Septmber of 1977, Jose Francisco Reyes (nick name Paco) and I planned a trek to Mexico to visit some of the archaeological sites.  Paco had a degree in anthropology and archaeology like me, and family in and around Mexico City. From 1970 to 1973, I studied Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology at Fairleigh Dickenson University at the Madison/Florham Campus in New Jersey. So, we booked round trip flights from Chicago O'Hare International with United Airlines to Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico. Money exchange was in our favor, 22 pesos to the U.S. dollar. Our flight tickets were about $300 round trip. We had planned being there for four weeks to see everything we had studied ahead of time. We were interested in experiencing the city beneath the city, Tenochtitlan; San Juan Teotihuacan in the state of Mexico; Tula (de Allende) in Hildago state; and a long journey to Chichen Itza down in the Yucatan state to see the Aztec ball courts. Besides, Paco had family living in Mexico City, FD; Penjamo and San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato; and Taxco (del Alarcon) in the state of Guerrero. Not only were we going to see ancient pyramids and sites, we were going to experience the genuine culture of contemporary everyday life, that is, non-touristo in Mexico.

We chose to go in September because the weather would be nice and we would be able to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day on September 16th. Besides, Paco and I would be able to pack away some more bucks before the trip during the Summer of '77. I wanted to take about $5,000 with me; gold in the U.S.A. was $700 or more an ounce, but in Mexico it was less than $150 U.S. Dollars an ounce. I didn't want to come up short to take advantage of every opportunity as it presented itself. I'd turned 25 in 1976 when our country celebrated its bicentennial, so Paco and I were young men in their mid-twenties and prime when we embarked on this adventure. In those days I had dark brown bushy hair that could be brushed into an Afro, but would return to wild billowing sails blowing around my face. Some thought maybe I might have a little African blood in me.  Most of the Mexican people I met thought I was either one of them because of my olive complexion (and pigmentation) 
that turned very dark from the Mexican sun, or of European Spanish origin with my hazel eyes. Ifhey only knew that my ancestors were Eastern European (semitic) with a jig of a tartar clan.

The last Thursday in August of 1977, we took off to Mexico. We wouldn't return until the first Tuesday in October. We both packed our bags with hiking, backpacking, and camping gear. We also packed both everyday and some dress clothes for when weren't exploring. We packed several cartons of Marlboro cigarettes as gifts and bribery tokens. At that time you could buy a carton of cigarettes 

for under $8. I remember when we landed I noticed that the bus terminal was larger than the airport. It was still very warm weather when stepped down out of the airplane onto the tarmac. We found our bags and walked over to the bus concourse.

The name of the bus company was Amarillo Estretcha, or the Yellow Arrow, like we have Greyhound and Trailways. The manufacturer was called Dana, like we have Bluebird and Peterbuilt. Now, did I take a ribbing having the same name as a bus-maker. Now, I thought about using my middle name, George, but in Spanish it's Jorge (pronounced Horhay) and the sound of it made me feel like a gigolo. So, I stayed with my first name they pronounced "Donya." Some of my acquaintances called me Daniel which was fine with me just as long I could remember all of my aka names. We boarded and arrived in Mexico City proper at the bus depot. Mario, one of Paco's cousins, met us there in his taxi cab. He helped us with our baggage and loaded them in the taxi cab.

Skyline of Modern Mexico City