Toluca and Metepec

We decided to take a trip to Toluca (pop. 505,000) to see what it was like.  It wasn't the prettiest city we have visited but we took in some sites.  The Cosmo Vitral Jardin Botánico (Cosmic Stained-Glass Botanical Garden) was amazing!  The building was built in 1909 as a market and now has more than 3500 sq. ft. of lovely gardens.  The light comes from 48 stained glass panels that were created by Tolucan artist, Leopoldo Flores.

Unfortunately, El Centro of Toluca was a mess because they were doing lots of construction, however, it looks like it will be beautiful when they are done.  We were able to walk through the construction in El Centro and also visit some of the churches. 

We just happened to be in Toluca for Día de Candelaria (Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple), which is a follow-up to the festivities of Día de Reyes (Three King's Day) on January 6th.  Traditionally in México on January 6th, children receive gifts in commemoration of the 3 kings bringing the gifts to the child Jesus.  In addition, most families own an image of the Christ child, a niño Dios, which receives gifts as well.  A special bread, Rosca de Reyes (a crown-shaped sweet bread decorated with jewel-like candied fruits) is served on this day.  Tiny figures of babies are hidden inside the bread and whoever gets a piece containing a baby is obliged to host a party (complete with tamales) on or before Día de Candelaria (Feb. 2nd).  Also, this person is responsible for dressing the niño Dios and presenting him at the church on Día de Candelaria .  It was interesting walking around the town seeing people carrying baby Jesus' everywhere we went.  We happened to walk to a park where there were many booths selling clothes for the babies and even booths with people redoing the paint and patching the dolls.

Later, we went to a bar to watch the Supertazón (Super Bowl).  Believe it or not, it's a pretty big deal here.  I was just happy to be able to watch it and drink beer at the same time!

The next day, we took a bus to Metepec (a suburb of Toluca) which is known for elaborate and symbolic pottery such as árboes de la vida (trees of life).  We climbed up to the Ex-convento de San Juan which is on a hill overlooking the city.  From there we continued up the Cerro de Maguey (Maguey Hill) to the Capilla del Tepeyac, a small church at the top of the hill. Afterwards, we toured some of the potters' workshops, made some purchases and ate some lunch.

For pictures, click on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/TolucaMetepec#

Coming next:  Tapachula and Guatemala

In between Oaxaca and moving...

(Sorry about the delay in blogs, we have been having problems with internet in our new house!)

In between Oaxaca and moving, here are some things I (we) did:

1)  Reed and I spent New Year’s Eve in Mexico City.  We went to the Zócalo thinking that there would be a big celebration but it was eerily quiet.  The big celebration was at El Angel, a glorieta on the Paseo de la Reforma (one of the huge streets that go through Mexico City).  After walking around the El Ángel area, we decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to fight the crowds and hang out so we ended up going back the apartment that Reed’s friends lent us while they were gone.  We ended up falling asleep before midnight—what fuddy-duddies!  :o)

 2)  The next day Reed left for Washington DC to visit her dad for 7 days and I was all by myself in Cuernavaca!  Obviously, I survived.

 3)  When Reed returned, her brother Heron from Seattle, was with her.  We all went to Amecameca which is a little town at the base of the two largest volcanoes, Popocatépetl (Popo) and Iztaccíhuatl (Itza).  Unfortunately, we couldn’t climb them so we climbed a hill opposite to get a good look.  Well, as bad luck would have it, the wind seemed to be blowing from Mexico City so they were barely visible through the pollution. 

4)  We visited Xochicalco, which is an Unesco World Heritage site and one of Central Mexico's most important archaeological sites located 15km southwest of Cuernavaca.  Xochicalco is Náhuatl for 'place of the house of flowers' and was a commercial, cultural or religious center representing several cultures--Toltec, Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec and Aztec.  The astronomer-priests met here at the beginning and end of each 52-year-cycle of the pre-Hispanic calendar. 

 5)  Reed had to work the next week so I was Heron’s guide which was good for me because it meant that I had to use my Spanish a lot!   Heron and I roamed around Mexico City, Taxco (I bought some silver, again), Tepotzlán (I climbed up to the pyramid, again), and toured downtown Cuernavaca.  We had the misfortune of going into the torture/death penalty museum in Mexico City. I think we were both sick to our stomachs when we came out--I was absolutely appalled at the types of methods humans think/thought of to cause pain and death to other humans!  AND, most of the humans called themselves 'religious'!

6)  The three of us went to Acapulco for a weekend. We visited a fort, park, zoo, saw a beautiful sunset, watched the cliff drivers and then relaxed on a white sandy beach for the rest of the time! 

7)   Fulbright invited Reed (Heron and I got to tag along) to the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City to watch the Inauguration.  It was great watching it with other people from the US as well as people from other countries.  Everyone was interested!  Reed and two other Fulbrighters that were there were asked to do many interviews by newspaper and television stations!

 8)  We spent the night in Mexico City and went to the ruins by the Zócalo the next day before Heron took off for the US.

For pictures, click on this link:http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/InBetweenOaxacaAndMoving#

Coming next:  Toluca, Metepec, Tapachula and Guatemala