A week in Mexico City! Part one.

The goal I had set for myself of fifty new things before turning fifty I did not reach, but the week after completing fifty turned out to be one of most exiting weeks of my life, filled with new and wonderful experiences.

Ever since I was a teenager I have been fascinated by history, and the history of South America was one that I found especially interesting. I read a lot about the Inca and the Maya civilizations, and I had a dream one day to see the magnificent archeological sites for myself. As life, or luck, would have it, I ended up in Brazil, an enourmous and incredible country, but not one known for its ancient civilizations. When one of my best friends suggested a birthday trip to Mexico I was thrilled! Finally! Time to see the country of the great Maya people! And as I soon discovered - of the Aztecs and the Teotihuacan. 

Day one:
After settling in at our charming, historic hotel, right in the middle of downtown Mexico City, we set out to explore the neighborhood and have something to eat.

Our hotel - Hotel Imperial - at Paseo de la Reforma - built in 1904.
Close by the hotel we found the impressive Monumento a la Revolucion:

Completed in 1938 this monument pays tribute to the Mexican revolution. We took the panoramic elevator up to the top and looked at the enourmous city spread out below us - how would we deal with this? Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world, but it is also one of the most interesting, filled with history, culture and pulsating street life. We soon discovered that it was easy, the metro covers most of the city, and as long as we stayed away from rush hours it was a comfortable and cheap way to get around.

Day two:
We went out to look for breakfast, and pretty soon we discovered the bakery that would be our favorite breakfast place for the rest of the trip, Azucar y Sal:

And then we were ready to discover the incredible Mexican arts and crafts, we headed for Mercado de la Ciudadela:

This turned out to be a small city where people lived and worked.

It was love at first sight - the clothing, the jewlery, the glass and pottery - all of it colorful and wonderful.

Of course we ended up shopping until we could not carry any more bags! We had to go back to the hotel to drop them off.

In the afternoon we headed for the Bosque de Chapultepec - an enormous park, in the middle of the city, and where you will find the National Museum of Anthropology.

The National Museum of Antropology might well be the most beautiful museum I have ever visited. The museum designed in 1964 by Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, Jorge Campuzano and Rafael Mijares Alcerreca has an enourmous courtyard in the middle dominated by a fountain-umbrella.

The exhibition rooms are placed around the square, each one of them featuring one of the pre-Columbian civilizations found in the territory of Mexico. Of course we headed for the Maya exhibition first!

It was so huge, there was no way we could see it all, and all the other exibitions? We ran to see the most famous piece of them all: the Aztec Sunstone:

I could have spent a week at this museum!, but that was not possible of course...I left it feeling happy that I had finally seen some of all the objects I had studied so many times in books, and feeling somewhat dizzy that there was so much more I needed to study...that I wanted to study.