After yesterday’s adventure and a day in the sun, I feel asleep at 8pm. I went into the room to watch some TV and was out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I slept until 8am so a whopping 12 hours!
We started our day off, after breakfast at the apartment, walking to the Instituto National de Antropologia e Historia or the Anthropology Museum. We walked through the business area to the Bosque de Chauitepec which is giant park that has a zoo, a castle, an art museum, a natural history museum among other things. It was a beautiful park which did not allow dogs to enter.
We did get quite turned around but eventually made it to our destination. The museum was an interesting set up. You walk in to get your ticket, once purchased, you walk out into an open court yard that is a giant square with various entrances. Here is a map with explanation of each to the exhibit.
We only made it through the first 9 exhibits in our 2 hour and 15 minute tour. We were tired and hungry so we left.
This picture is of second exhibit and is not a replication as anything behind glass was from that era.
This picture was from exhibit three showing how people were “buried”. In some cases, they found multiple bodies from the same dwelling.
This is from exhibit 4 and a continuation of what we learned yesterday. The one thing I didn’t take a picture of was the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent. This is a replication of what they assume it would look like and was mostly destroyed in real life though you can still see some of these characters on the destroyed pyramid.
My descriptions for the next few photos will be minimal as there was a lot of info so enjoy the pictures.
This was in between exhibit 5 and 6 and is a game called Ballgame. To me it looks like something out of Harry Potter but much darker in nature. The players were only allowed to use their hips to get the ball into the goal. The ball was made rubber (mind blowing yes) and weighed roughly 8 lbs. The rubber came from rubber trees so as crazy as it sounds, it was a thing. The craziest thing about this game is that this game is a ritual and the winners get sacrificed. Yes, you read that right. It was a right of passage to get to the gods. Yeah no thanks. This was a common game played.
Start of exhibit 6- The Mexica’s.
This is a replica of the Mexica royalty section of their bigger city. This is very similar to what we say yesterday. Only high nobles were allowed to live in these dwellings.
Exhibit 7 Oaxaca which seemed to be one of the longer standing timeline wise civilizations (500 BC – 1521 AD).
Exhibit 8 Gulf Coast
Exhibit 9 Mayan
Unlike the pyramids in Egypt, most in Mexico were not tombs for their rulers. I believe this is something of a rarity.
Tired of walking and hungry, we left without seeing the rest of the exhibits. I over heard a guy say you could go through everything on your own in 1.5 hours but guided is 4 hour. Considering we only made it through 9 of the 22 in over 2 hours, I don’t believe this. A very cool experience and highly recommend.
After the museum, we went to lunch which hind sight was a bad idea (to get to this comment later). We went to a pizza place that we have passed daily (it’s very close to our apartment) and after drooling over everyone’s food as we passed by. Even though the pizza was going to take some time (per the reviews we read), we wanted to experience it. Pizza del Perro Negro it is.
Knowing that the pizza was going to take time and we were hungry, we ordered wings. The sauce was amazing.
This place allows you to mix pizzas which is awesome because there were to many to choose from so we chose the
I will honestly say that this has been the best pizza that we both agree on was the best we’ve had in a very long time. We shouldn’t have had pizza…..
Before our next adventure of eating and biking, we went to the apartment to relax for a couple hours. Wasn’t enough time to settle our stomach before we headed back out.
Meeting with our guide, Mario, at the place we had dinner last night (good fail JD) we started off with our first meal of many.
We then took off on bikes to see the city and to out next stop.
On to the next stop…Tacos Al Humo an Asian fusion taco joint.
Next stop was street food of Mexican corn cup. As an Iowan, I fucking love corn but at this point I was full to the point of past stuffed (hence why pizza was a bad idea so now you know). JD and I shared one and didn’t even finish regardless of how great it was. Fun fact, we didn’t throw the food away. Instead our guide said that if you leave it on top of the trash, homeless folks will come and get the food and it wasn’t contaminated by other trash. I love this fact.
Though I didn’t get a picture of our food, you can see what it looks like a this street vendor makes his own special (and damn good) salsa.
We stopped along the way at various places which we were too far way to get pictures of the in the dark but the we learned about 43 students that went missing and the conspiracy around it by the Mexica government. They still peacefully protest their missing still after 10 years!
We then went to another section that, at one time, was a homage to Christopher Columbus, which we all know was not great for many reasons, where a group of women tore down his statue and put up on dedicated to women’s. Did you know that almost a million women’s gather each year to peacefully protest in this area and the government has actually made women specific sections on buses and the metro. GO GIRLS GO! How it is that Mexico is more progressive than the US? Oh, and the right to choose is a federal right. Wow!
We then headed to the Monumento a la Revoucion. A place where at once a president want to crate a castle for himself before exiled to France and the location turned into a homage to the revaluation.
The last food place we went to was another street food place, no joke, a block from our apartment and we had considered eating there. Luckily we got the opportunity which is ran by a grandma, mom, and kids from 7pm to 12am. Their food was damn amazing and I didn’t get a picture.
So if you are wondering what this outfit we did this with, it is: https://foodhoodtours.com/
If you are here, check them out. They were a great tour and knew all the great places!
I’m now going to roll myself into bed!
katie palmer moore 