Mexico Day 1

My Blog as Travelog:

The only touristy thing we did yesterday was visit the Anthropological Museum, but that's a major event all by itself. In addition to Peter, we were joined by John at the museum (and for the day). John also went to college with Kathy and is one of her best friends from then. Like Peter, John's wife Anne-Marie is in the foreign service in Mexico City.

We spent three hours inside the museum, skimming through the entire first floor, which covers the pre-Spaniard part of Mexico's history, divided by culture. And skimming is definitely the right word, as it would have taken more than twice as long to take it in properly. There were sections on the Aztec, the Mayan, the Oaxaca, the Mixteca, and a couple of others. Much of it was devoted to artefacts, but there was certainly enough context, even though not all the signs had English versions. Outside the museum, there were re-enactments. Before we went in, we saw a ritual that involved five people climbing to the top of a pole, four of whom wrap rope around a platform and tie one foot to it. Then, while the fifth plays a sort of flute as the platform slowly rotates, the others slowly descend as the ropes holding their feet slowly unwind. And slowly is the right word (good thing, because I keep repeating it) -- by my estimate, the event took at least 5 minutes. As we were leaving, an Aztec ritual dance of some sort was taking place. Not as interesting, as least to me, but by then we'd been in the museum for hours and were hungry.

After the museum, we ate lunch at a cafe/bookstore near where Peter lives. Then to Peter's for a little while before going to a distant part of the city, where John lives. We hung out with John's family for a while, finally meeting his young daughter Caitlin (~18 months), who other than being a bit sick and dealing with the previous day's immunizations, seemed like a lovely child. We eventually left there and headed for dinner at the area's only brew pub. Food was ok, beer ranged from ok to poor, but I definitely didn't want to miss the only brew pub in town.

After dinner we dropped John back home, then headed bak to Peter's, where he and I watched the end of the NCAA games (and Kathy headed for bed).

Sorry no pictures, but uploading will probably wait until we get back home.

Today we'll be headed for the pyramids. Stay tuned.