Field Trip

The provincial capital is one of the most spectacular cities that I've ever seen. With a population of 140,000, it's located in a canyon with most of the city climbing the sides of the canyon. Because of this, there are only three streets and the city is served by a network of 3115 alleys where cars cannot go. But there is an amazing network of underground tunnels, built in the 16th century, where cars and buses travel. These tunnels were originally the path for an underground river but the Spanish dammed the river and reinforced the tunnels with bricks to use for transport. The city was very important for the Spanish because of the silver mines and even today it still supplies 30% of the world's silver.

As you can tell, we had an excellent tour guide who gave us reams of information about the city. I came across him in a notice in the local paper which stated that he would give a lecture about the tour at a local university on Wednesday afternoon. A small group of us, mostly retired seniors, showed up and seated ourselves in a courtyard in front of a gigantic colorful mural that illustrated five hundred years of Mexican history. The first thing the tour guide said was, "My name is Cesar, like the esalad, and I am going to explain to you in one hour over four thousand years of the historia of Mexico."

And he did. The lecture was fantastic, beginning with the four main ancient native tribes. Cesar was a great story teller. My favorite story was about why Mexico City is located where it is. Legend has it that there were tribes in the north who lived in a perfect region but who made their gods unhappy by their behaviour and by not appreciating the garden of Eden that they had. So the tribes were expelled from the garden. But one god still liked them and told them, when you see my symbol, an eagle and a snake (and something else) all in one place, you will have found your new home. So the tribe went south for many years until they found a mountainous area with a lake and an island in the middle. On the island were the three symbols they were looking for. So they founded a city there and used logs and stones to extend it out from the island. When the Spanish came in 1541 they called it the most beautiful city they had ever seen. It had streets and markets and huge buildings all built on the lake. It took the Spanish three years to conquer the Aztecs, after which they made slaves of the natives and made them dismantle their pyramids and use the same stones from the pyramids to build the colonial buildings in Mexico City.

The next Saturday, we started our tour of the capitol city from the top of the canyon and gradually made our way down through the alleyways to the main square. Cesar told us that all deliveries were made by hand and that people on top of the hill had to give special perks to the delivery people to get their gas and water. There was even a movie made about a delivery man who was in love with a woman at the top of the hill that he delivered to.

At the bottom of the hill we went into the Don Quixote museum which was full of paintings and art of Don Quixote, who had been chosen by the university students as the town patron. After that we went to the main town square which was dominated by a huge teatro and full of European-style cafes. We were given time to explore a bit then had lunch in a fancy restaurant.

After lunch we went to the museum which was located in the house where Diego Rivera used to live. The first floor was mostly preserved furniture arrangements. The second floor was an outstanding collection of paintings and sketches. On the third floor there was a small movie theatre with a huge mural on one side and large framed photos of Diego and Frida on the other three walls.

We toured some more of the city before leaving and had tequila on the bus on the way home. It was an outstanding day and I decided to take Cesar's next tour the next weekend.

A street near the town square. You can tell that it's a university city.	The main university. In the fall the hazing ritual is to make the freshmen run up and down the steps once for every semester of their program. If they fail then their heads are shaved.
A restaurant on a bridge!	The city viewed from funicular we took to get back up the hill.