Back to Mexico with Leonardo (2009)
Back to Mexico with Leonardo (2009)
Written by Saturday, 25 September 2010 22:22
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| Back to Mexico with Leonardo (2009) |
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Stefania and I returned to Mexico to meet a person we consider a close friend: Juan Miguel Artigas Azas is close to our hearts regardless of how far he lives. Leonardo joined us this time. For him our trip was another opportunity to understand how big and marvelous the world is. I hope he enjoyed the experience.
29.05.09: The evening before departure our car had an electric failure. In a way we were lucky; if we first had this problem while on our way to Fiumicino Airport we would have lost our flight. The following morning while we were getting ready to go (05.25 a.m.) Leonardo declared he was very happy about our trip: God bless him for that. To reach our destination we had to get to Madrid where we would board an Iberia plane to Mexico City.
At two o’clock in the afternoon we were already travelling for ten hours. I was feeling a bit tired. Leonardo, on the other hand, seemed to run on nuclear fuel: he was unstoppable!
30.05.09: The schedule of the day was to have a Mexico City Tour which we did under a cloudy sky. It was a “déjà vu” for the two of us but full of excitement for Leonardo, who was visiting the city for the first time. Norma, our guide, was excellent. We saw the mural painting by Diego Rivera inside the Government Palace, the Cathedral and the Anthropological Museum, where Stephania and I concentrated on the part we have not managed to see in our previous visit. Norma’s ability to attract Leonardo’s attention to almost everything was really outstanding. Due to her experience and knowledge the tour was relaxing for us and interesting for Leonardo. Great!!!
There are days when, with no apparent real reason, a city seems to be upset with you. Well, that is what happened to us the first day in Mexico City: steamy hot and humid weather (the air conditioning in the car was not working, of course!), nasty smells due to the high pollution level and last but not least, our disappointment on arrival to Xochimilco: dirty water, too loud music, too many shouting people. We thought we would see a natural oasis where lots of aquatic birds have their nests - at least that is what we were told. The Xochimilco swamp area is the place where the Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) has been discovered (Shawn, 1789). (1) Later on this salamander proved to be endemic to this area. It is listed by IUCN as critically endangered (CR). Having visited the place where the Axolotl is supposed to live still I can easily believe its actual conservation status: poor thing!
31.05.09: The day started with a lovely sunshine which, despite the forecast, lasted the whole day. Our plan was to visit Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (this was the main place to visit during this trip) and Tehotihuacan. Stephania and I had already been to both places; we were hoping to enjoy them the way we did the previous time.
After the visit I felt Tehotihuacan is a place I can return to, time and time again, without getting bored. It is a place that can generate inside me deep emotions. This time the three of us climbed the Pyramid of the Sun. It is a bit scary at first but with a bit of effort the climbing is manageable. The pyramid has sixty-two steps some of which are about 50 cm (over one foot) high.
Different, harder to describe (I do hope my English is good enough to do so), was my feeling in Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Our visit there was the main reason of this trip. On Leonardo's birth Stephania received from my mother a gold Mexican medallion depicting the Holy Image. This medallion is a family heirloom: my mother has received it from her own mother. Stefania wanted this medallion to be blessed back at its place of origin. So the medallion, that crossed the ocean for the first time as a present to my Grandmother over a century ago, travelled back to Mexico with us to return to its place of origin for a blessing. This gave me a deep, somewhat strage feeling of continuity.
On arrival we were overcome by the deep, religious feeling - mixing somehow Christianity with elements of the local ancient, religions deeply rooted in this beautiful land. Yet the actual experience of the blessing seemed to be a bit too 'industrialized': the priest blesses the object you offer him and quickly, almost without a word, moves to the following one. Considering there are people from all over the world visiting this holy place for blessings the whole experience appeared to be a bit fake, if I dare say so. Yet, having done it made me feel a lot better.
01.06.09: We went to Cuernavaca, State of Morelos (after all it’s the Estados Unidos Mexicanos we were visiting). Norma informed us that this is the only city in the whole Mexico that has not got a church facing the main square. To get here from Mexico city we used a 'carretera' (a road) that sometimes stretches along a scenery resembling the Alps, with pine trees and sharp roofs which, at certain spots are 3000 meters or so above the sea level.
In Cuernavaca I enjoyed having coffee that strictly resembles the Italian espresso I have not had since we left in Italy. The air was cool, the sun was shining, the company was excellent and I felt good!!!
Our next stop was Taxco, at the State of Guerrero. We decided to take the scenic route which would save us the motorway toll while allowing us to see the countryside. The road we took was full of bends. This slowed us down considerably but allowed us to admire new sceneries after every turn. I noticed the environment is getting drier. Cacti and agaves were poping up here ’n there, a vulture was flying in the sky and a cool wind was moving the few white clouds in the sky.
Taxco is home to very skillful silver crafstmen. The silver comes from three different mines where they collect it at three different levels, the lower of which is 1200 m deep. We stopped at an 'artesanias' (a tourist shop specializing, in this case, in silver ornaments) where I had the pleasure of getting presents for Stefania and her two best friends, Vitalba and Maura. (Guys: read between the lines, that meant I paid for my wife's shopping ...)
We lunched at a very good restaurant; looking at the small town from the window we could not help noticing how, once again, the key point of the town was the church. In Taxco the church is dedicated to San Sebastian and Santa Prisca. We visited it later the same afternoon and were surprised to see it 'wounded' by a large advertising billboard. Que viva Mexico!
On the way back to Mexico city we had another unforgettable close encounter with Mexico city traffic: an endless queue of trucks, cars, pick-ups, buses, so closely stuck together that even motorcycles could not get through. All the vehicles were messily honking, roaring and blowing exhaust gas everywhere in a hopeless effort to get to their destination. This was, regrettably, the price we had to pay for staying in Mexico city.
02.06.09: Cholula (State of Puebla, important archeological site). Excavations in Cholula have brought to light the largest, by the looks of it, Mexican pyramid. The excavation is currently incomplete due to lack of funding so the main part of the pyramid is still uncovered. The 'usual' Church – would you imagine it missing – has been partially built above the pyramid itself. This is quite common in almost all south America; we have encountered it in a number of places, for instance in Cuzco (Peru). I remember the day of this visit for a more personal reason too: Leonardo came out of his jet-lag which meant that, thankfully, we no longer had to wake up at 04.30 a.m.!
The museum of Cholula is quite interesting. Amongst the exhibits the wall painting entitled “Los Bevedores de Pulque” (People drinking pulque), mixing strong hues of red, orange and yellow is outstanding. (2)
Puebla (State of Puebla, you said it) is a World Heritage Site. It is known for its history, its architecture but also for the original way in which some buildings are externally decorated: the walls are covered with ceramics. Leonardo was inspired by the city, grabbed the compact camera (a small Yashica meant to be a back-up unit should anything go wrong with my Nikon) and was taking pictures of everything that attracted his attention including shoestrings, architectural details, even portraits of Stefania. I was amazed by the fact that it took him minutes to understand how the camera, basically, works.
We had lunch in Puebla thus discovering the Mole Poblano, a tasty local sauce the main ingredients of which are, believe it or not, chocolate, anise and … chili pepper.
Later in the afternoon while climbing uphill to see the local church I had a close encounter with one of the oddest delicacies of Mexican cuisine: I tried a small, fried, grasshopper which is locally known as chapulin. After a few moments of embarashment (mainly cultural, I have to say) I found it really tasty. Hard perhaps to believe, but true.
Another great day had come to an end and in the evening we parted with Norma, whose company and knowledge we had thoroughly enjoyed. The following day we had another early start (wake up time wsa set to 04.30 a.m.) to catch a plane to San Luis Potosí to meet Juan Miguel Artigas Azas! Later that evening I called Juan Miguel; after discussing some last minute details with him we were all set to go!
03.06.09: Flying, eventually, to San Luis Potosí! During take off we were taken by the wonderful view of Mexico City and its volcanos, peaking over 5000 m above sea level. We were flying trough a sea of clouds that every now and then disappeared allowing us glimpses of airviews of Mexico. Later that day I was sitting at Juan Miguel's worktable, looking at the large tank standing in front of me. The house was full of tanks: some were emtpy and ready to set up, others required maintenance. All the same the fish were in immaculate condition. I took my time observing them as Juan Miguel was due to return home next day. Each tank hosted one or two species of cichlids (something closely resembling a breeding group) plus a further species of 'guest fish', most of which were livebearers. The set-ups were extremely simple; I would almost say 'bare': a bit of sand or gravel at the bottom, lots of bogwood, a few terracotta pots. Plants were scarce to non existing. Some tanks were lit by natural sunlight only and almost all had extremely noisy filters or pumps.
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