Mexico City- Zocalo, Anthropological Museum

Continuation of Mexico City trip...   On our third and last day, we woke up bright and early to get out and see what we could before our flights left that afternoon. 

Our first stop was the anthropological museum. The roads to the museum were closed due to a marathon in process, so the taxi driver dropped us off as close as he could which was still about a 1/2 mile away. But it was worth it, because we got to walk through a beautiful park and got to see the runners/walkers for the marathon and 10 k going on. According to our taxi driver, they have a marathon every Sunday in the city.

A building under construction on our walk to the museum.

The museum was huge and pretty dang awesome!  We learned a lot about the history of Mexico. (Can I remember it now? Not so much. But it was fascinating at the time;)

The Mayan calendar.

After the museum, we walked to the closest open road and found a taxi which took us to Zocalo, which is in the city center!  I really liked Zocalo.

Inside the church pictured above.

Isn't it beautiful?!

Nate took some pictures of me here at Zocalo, but I do not have those pictures, so we're going to have to deal with my self-portraits. :)

 

Nate has more pictures from Zocalo but I've had a hard time acquiring them from him.

After we finished walking around Zocalo, we made our way to the Monument of the Revolution. (I was glad for the map I bought before we got to Mexico that showed us that Zocalo and the Monument of the Revolution were within walking distance, otherwise we would have taken a taxi for a not very long ride.)

On our way to the Monument we walked past the Palacio de Bellas Artes. We didn't go inside, but the outside was pretty cool! 

 This is the only picture I got of Nate and I together the whole trip. He wouldn't let me take self-portraits of both of us and we never asked anyone to take one of us together. So I caught him unawares and took this one, hence the expression on his face.

We also saw this work of art along the way to the Monument of the Revolution. I thought it was pretty interesting looking. I didn't know at the time what it was for, but I guess it has some meaning for the skyscraper behind it that we did not get a picture of. 

I have one more post to do about Mexico City and then I will be done with these posts... finally.

Snow!

This winter we have had a lot more snow days than the past few winters combined.  When it snows here, pretty much everything shuts down. And today was no exception.  I worked from home today and did not attempt to go anywhere. Neither did any of my roommates, except one. Not only did it snow, but it is really cold too, so there's ice and I did not want to be out on the roads.

 This is what my car looked like when I went to clear it off after work.

It may not look so bad but there was a layer of ice that was hard to scrape off the windows, even with the defrost running full blast, because it was so cold.

The wind must have been blowing last night or this morning because the back of my car got a lot worse than the front.

I've lived lots of cold places in my life and I know this cold and snow does not compare to most of those places but this is the first place I've lived with snow and had a car.  To me, it's a little different story when I have a car to deal with on the icy roads and not just my own two feet or someone else who is willing to drive in the snow.

My roommates Melinda, Kara and I built Olaf during our last snow day on February 13. Isn't Olaf cute?! :)

A Little Roadtrip- JMU

I told, my nephew, Spence that I would go and visit him at school and take him out to lunch since he began JMU in the fall of last year. This weekend I finally made it! 

We ate at Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint and can I just say the burgers there were delicious?! I think it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. I had The Cowboy, which had bbq sauce and bacon and it was juicy and cooked just right.  

 I told Spence he had to let me take at least one picture of us together before I left and he appeased me and let me take one picture. :)

After Spence and I parted ways I walked around campus for a bit. I had never been there before and it's a pretty nice campus!

I was planning on trying to do other things around the area while I was there but I decided I wanted to take the more scenic route home which I wanted to see in the day time so I headed for home. Even though it's winter time, the drive was beautiful!

Thanks for letting me come and visit Spence! I will let you know when I come to the area again and I can't believe I forgot the peanut butter bars. :)

Hot Chocolate!

Can I just express how much I like hot chocolate in the winter time (and sometimes in other seasons too:)?  It is delicious and it warms the soul. That is all.

Stay tuned for two more posts about Mexico City...

Mexico City- Temple of Quetzalcoatl

Temple of Quetzalcoatl. This is along the Avenue of the Dead near the Pyramid of the Sun and Moon. Archaeologists found over 200 human sacrificial burials at the site of this temple.  Click here to read more about the temple.

Enjoy the pictures!

 Nate.

Looking at the Pyramid of the Sun and Moon from the Temple of Quetzalcoatl.

After we finished at the temple our guide stopped at some other ruins off the beaten path. Although they were not too far from the pyramids, there were no other tourists there. But we did have to drive on a bumpy dirt road to get to the ruins and they were cool but definitely underwhelming after just seeing the pyramids.

After the ruins, it was time to go back to the hotel. By the time we got to the hotel it was almost dark and we were hungry.  We didn't want to go too far away from the hotel, so I asked a concierge if he recommended any restaurants nearby.

 This was one of the restaurants he recommended and it was awesome!  I got a delicious chicken dish with yummy sauce and Nate got fajitas that he said were the best fajitas he's ever had. :)

Apparently in Mexico they eat cactus. We, of course, had to try some. It was okay, but it definitely was not my favorite.

My legs were sore from hiking to the top of the pyramids and we were tired from the walking we did that day, so we just spent the rest of evening chillin' at the hotel.

Mexico City- Pyramids of the Sun and Moon

Our tour guide, who barely spoke English, got us safely to the Pyramids in the ancient Aztec city of Teotihuacan, one of the largest urban centers of the ancient world. It was about a 50-60 minute drive from our hotel.  (If you want to learn more about the city, click on this link.)

This is the Pyramid of the Sun.

We were there early enough in the day that there were not too many people and it was pretty cool (temperature wise) at first, but it soon warmed up with the sun beating down on us. The weather really was pretty good the whole time we were there though.

We climbed to the top of the Pyramid of the Moon first. We could not climb all the way to the top as they had it blocked off, but we went up as high as we were allowed.  Look how tall those steps are!

The side of Pyramid of the Moon from the highest point we could go to.

On the Pyramid of the Moon with the Pyramid of the Sun in the background.

Looking down the steps of the pyramid. My legs may or may not have been sore for the next few days after climbing both pyramids.

Nate.

So my camera stopped working at this point and I didn't get anymore pictures with my camera on this day, but Nate took tons of pictures so it was okay and the rest of the photos are his. (My camera did start working again the next day, thankfully.) This is the Pyramid of the Moon.

 On the steps of the Pyramid of the Sun.

 Pyramid of the Moon from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun

After almost 250 steps we made it to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun!  People claim that there is an energy at the top of the pyramid, and we sat down for a few minutes to try and feel it, but alas did not ;)

 The view from the top!

To be continued... Temple of Quetzalpapalotl next post...