Spring Time in Puebla

La primavera en Cholula

Even though my hometown of Las Vegas is already experiencing beautiful weather, I am aware that much of the Northeastern United States is still under a blanket of snow. I guess this is my chance to rub in all of your beautiful faces the awesome weather we have here in Puebla, Mexico. Last Sunday, a friend and I went to the small town of Tonantzintla to see a church we had heard a lot about in our sociology class this semester, and a in a Mexican culture class I took last semester. After waiting an hour for my friend (time change barely happened here on the 3rd) and taking three different buses to get to this little pueblito, we finally found the church, which is really the only attraction in Tonantzintla. The church is world-renowned for its indigenous-influenced baroque style which pays homage to the indigenous beliefs of the indians who were forced to build a church on the spot where they once worshiped the Aztec goddess Tonantzin. The towns name in the native náhuatl means 'the place of the holy mother' or something like that. Tontantzin's adoration was replaced with the Catholic Spanish image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Sadly no pictures were allowed inside, so you all will just have to settle for Google images search results and pictures I was able to take of the outside of the church.

Inside the church of Tonantzintla - Thanks Google

Indigenous influences, such as feathers, fruits and darker skin

Tonantzintla from the outside

Church bells

Mexican Homer Simpson look-a-like

The Virgin Mary, or Tonantzin? You decide!

"Welcome to the longest-named town in the world"

After touring the church and trying some Aztec chocolate drink, we headed down to Cholula (about 2 miles away) on foot. After not wearing sunscreen and burning, I am happy to say that I am now about two shades darker. This Mexican sun is relentless. Anyways, along the way we found so crazy cool street art.

... And the award for most random goes to...

I was excited to see such cool works of art on in such a random place as Cholula, which is like a suburb of Puebla. I guess less people means more privacy and a higher chance of evading the police. I wish Vegas had stuff like this. So finally we made it too Cholula and got to see the ruins of the ancient pyramid there, and also take in an indigenous ceremony known as 'la danza de los voladores' or dance of the flying men in English; it's a cool and quirky ritual that thankfully has survived the Spanish conquest:

So all in all, it was a great day and I got to experience just a little bit more of Mexico's culture. The day before on Saturday, I also captured a few more images of Springtime in Puebla:

That's all folks, ¡hasta pronto!

PASCUAL // Otra vez

Chillin' like a villain

Hey everyone! This next blog post is once again dedicated to my eight-legged, plush friend Pascual! This octopus amigo came all the way from Las Vegas to join me in my Mexican adventures. I'm going to show you what we've been up to, like visiting ancient pyramids and tropical beaches. So far in our adventures, Pascual has lived a relatively safe and comfortable life... That was until about a month ago when he almost met the Aztec gods (no peyote was involved)! So the short story is that me and my friend (Lily M Gelfars) decided to spend the afternoon in the nearby town of Cholula, which as I have said in the past, has a the world's largest pyramid (only by volume, it actually only looks like a hill with trees growing on it). We explored the base of the pyramid again, which still has ruins from the Cholultecas, though Olmec and Teotihuacan influences are also visible in the archaeological site. Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to take Pascual around and take a few shots. That's when (near) tragedy struck!

Not even five minutes into my journey, I made the grave decision in posing Pascual on a post of the fence that separated the older, more delicate ruins from the public. Just as I was about the snap my shot, a freakish wind storm up and came out of nowhere, whisking Pascual away, down into the ancient ruins, right next the sacrificial altar! I was stunned when it first happened, and didn't know what to do. Had I lost my new friend? What was I going to tell my friends in Vegas? I looked down into the ravine of the ruins, and saw one of his bright green tentacles sticking out of a bush. I decided the only way to save him was to kindly ask park staff to please retrieve. I was lucky in that the person working was actually a kid, probably 15 or 16 years old, and he fortunately had no problem stepping over the gate and climbing down into the ravine to go get him. At last Pascual was back in my hands, and I decided not to pose him on anymore fence posts that led to deep ravines.

Here are the photos of our Cholula experience:

Pascual is very happy that Huitzilopochtli didn't eat his soul

Do you see the resemblance???

 

 So if you follow my blog at all, you will know that I recently traveled to the beautiful beach resort city of Acapulco in the state of Guerrero. I had an awesome time there, and so did Sr. Pascual. My octopus friend had the great pleasure of meeting some delightful, though albeit dead, crab friends while on the beach, and even got to see a few pirate cannons up close and personal. Here are some of my favorites from Acapulco:

I didn't have the heart to tell him that his new friend was actually... Dead.

Acapulco is kinda gorgeous.

Pascual is a playahhh!

UNHAND HIM OF YOUR FIENDISH CLUTCHES!

True Fact: Octopi double as ammunition.

STARBOARD SIDE, CAPTAIN!

Pascual is a lady killer, literally.

At the bay by the zócalo.

Pascual is SO cool that he eats his fried plantains with shades.

Sunset at Cuesta de Pie

Hope you liked the pictures. More to come soon as we take the country by storm together!!!

¡LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO Y TEOTIHUACAN!

Hello blogger friends!
I am happy to say that I have finished all my classes for this semester and am ready to head back to Vegas to spend a nice Christmas with my family and friends. I hope to catch you all up to what I've been doing in the last month or so via blog or in persno, so the first adventure I shall share with you virtually is my little excursion to Mexico City and the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan just outside of the city.

The trip to Mexico City and Teotihuacan was planned by the study abroad program that I take classes through. But a friend and I decided to go ourselves into the city the day before to catch a Norah Jones concert. We both kind of splurged on the tickets and got seats 3 rows from the stage and a little to the left. I say this because we saw the show at the National Auditorium in Mexico City, one of the largest venues in Mexico. Norah was awesome, but her set was all too short, and there weren't any opening acts. But I can't complain, I had been wanting to see her ever since I was 12, and to see her in Mexico made it a little more exciting. The staff there were camera nazis, so I only have one blurry picture of Ms. Jones:

So the next morning we met with our compatriots in the zócalo of Mexico City and headed over to the Palacio Nacional, which is basically the White House of Mexico. The Palacio Nacional shares the zócalo with the imposing colonial-era cathedral built by the Spanish shortly after the fall of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital where Moctezuma lived and met Hernán Cortés. The cathedral is beautiful and terribly imposing:

So after meeting up, we toured the 'palace', which is decorated with murals painted by Diego Rivera, the Mexican artist extraordinaire and husband of the equally brilliant Frida Kahlo. With that said, most of the tour was just discussing the work of Diego and the significance and sometimes subtle and hidden meanings in his murals that may not be very apparent to the casual non-art history major. His works are colossal, and took him many years to finish, he intended to paint the entire interior way around the Palacio Nacional, but alas, death caught up with him. His themes are very nationalistic, and he painted about Mexican history and the pre-Hispanic lives of the indigenous Aztecs and other groups. I was really wowed by them and can't wait to learn more about him. I was especially stunned by his depictions of pre-Hispanic Tenochtitlan, the city built on a lake. Here are a few glimpses are his awesome work:

After the Palacio Nacional, we headed over to one of my favorite places in Mexico City, the anthropology museum! I love this place, and have already been there twice, each time 2-3 hours, and still have not seen all of the exhibits. The museum is a national museum, so all of the exhibitions are about the different regions of Mexico and the groups that have lived there. We all went to the Teotihuacan exhibit to acquaint with the history and culture of this ancient city.

Let me give you a quick run through: Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities of its time, having a population of almost 200,000 around the time of Christ. The city even had like modern-day equivalents to Chinatowns, where ethnic enclaves lived together. The architecture and art was very advanced, but the city fell into decline somehow (famine, war, disease) and the city eventually became dispopulated, there is even evidence that fire destroyed much of the city. Which that said, the two GIANT pyramids still remain, and I love ancient ruins, especially pyramids. The city is kinda creepy-cool. The main road the divides the city is translated into being called the 'Passageway of the Dead' and the two pyramids are each dedicated to a celestial body, one dedicated to the Sun and the other to the Moon, thus garnering their respective names Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. The another reason for these names is that popular legend says that Teotihuacan is the site where the gods met together to create the Sun and the Moon. The pyramid of the Sun is much larger than the one of the Moon, and I, being afraid of heights, almost didn't make it to the top. Strangely enough, on the top I found my Swedish friend who I met at my school in Puebla. Small world, huh? Here are some picture to feast your eyes on:

As you can see in the last picture, the pyramid of the sun was preeeeettttyyyyy high up there. In the background you can see the pyramid of the moon, which is also big, but dwarfed by the Mr. Sun. What is especially exciting about Teotihuacan is that it is an active archaeological zone, many sites are cornered off due to ongoing studies. In fact, the top half of the pyramid of the moon is sectioned off because archaeologists found human remains, possibly of royal digniaries or priests. Even though the pyramid of the Moon isn't as tall as the one of the Sun, the steps are hecka more steep and I thought I was going to die:

All in all, Teotihuacan is utterly amazing, and I can't wait to visit again, even though I may fall to my death in doing so. :D

MÁS FOTOS!