So.
Managed to sleep in today but am in bed already – I am too cold around here. Seriously am considering doing half day shopping to solve my airconditioning and the-sun-is-not-shining-enough problem. What the heck, wanted to wait for Puebla or Oaxaca to buy a Frida-like most cozy blanket-shawl something.
Without just yet looking at my photos of the day, a few moments did stick out.
I managed to see the whole darn museum. The restaurant was so horrible, I decided to not go for additional coffee there. Mexicans are not into the art of street cafes yet, something I miss. Maybe that does explain Starbucks a bit, but normally you sit inside, while outside the world is superinteresting. I was advised to try Roma (a part of town) to have some cafes, but count on being bugged 5 times during one coffee by people who ask for money or cigarettes (?) or….
Well a few things bugged me today for some reason, but I wanted to talk about the moments sticking out in a good way.
Sort of hard to tell looking at one full day of Mexicos archeological highlights. One figure caught my attention. At second sight, admittedly. This was due to two old ladies, one of which put her head right between the two hands of the figure, so her head was held by what now indeed looked like a goddess, while the other lady was quite a concentrated witness. They then proceeded and I went to take a look at the goddess. I think it’s a she… She stands for fertility, and maybe some other stuff, the earth?, however in my mind for la vida. And she has a calming energy, not so mind-boggling as a lot of the other stuff, be it great craftmanship or not.
The two ladies returned, and I took a distance, and then I saw them praying, both of them with upturned hands standing in front of that lady.
I sort of left my prayer, too….. but then left those two cuties (they seem cute to me, even if that may be a little disrespectful, but they were a good head smaller than me, which enabled them to be smaller than the figure on its pedestal 🙂
I kept my eyes open and discovered a few viva-la-vida figures – I think mostly from the Oaxaca region – that had the same calmness and love as part of their charisma. Now makes me look forward to Oaxaca in a special way……
Apart from that I loved the pottery. There are these pieces that introduce themselves to me as master of design and with a wink of humor.
And they are so creative, they take the universe, spin around, chose one form and let it become —– a pot. Or a vase. I feel like trying out some of that stuff, I caught myself thinking an normal vase is spiritless and you miss the chance to put a spirit in your house which is such a pity.
I really like a crystal mini-statue of a rabbit.
And a million other things. Of which I took photos out of design-inspiration-reasons and as noone stopped me.
The best story: The goddess of the moon was to have a younger brother, the god of the sun. For some reason she didn’t want him and convinced her brothers, the stars, to kill him upon or before birth. But the god of the sun was already born, and he was a literally born warrior ready to fight immediately and he was too strong for anybody to kill him.
Which is why he killed his sister, goddess of the moon, and beheaded her. Her head was then thrown somewhere (sorry, I forgot). Which explains similar behavior of human bodies or parts of it being thrown from the top pyramid. Nice, huh. There’s tons of creepy stuff like this, just don’t ask, I’m timed on going to bed soon and anyhow I sort of wonder what will turn up in my dreams.
Death is clearly part of everything which I kind of – like. I like all those skulls. I just don’t like the sacrifice idea with the human hearts… and I don’t get it yet how these scary religious rituals made it into today’s dia de los muertos where happy celebration and food-sacrifice takes place.
In the museum, another highlight came at the very end. I discovered from the 2nd floor there is fish in the pond. So I went to see when I came down. Among many small fish were a few big ones, but the one I saw first was white, to me looked like a carp (after my mammal-squirrel experience, I’m becoming careful) —– and had moss on its back. This must be a direct relative from the carp in „the little waterman“ by Otfried Preußler (called Cyprinus, I just googled…). It is exactly like I imagine him.
And then a highlight for all family constellation fans like myself: Every of these old cultures used statues with closed eyes to symbolize death, whereas open eyes mean life. This is completely independent of the rest of the posture.
Another highlight was a second chance. I passed by this statue Sunday (the museum lies in the park that I already visited then) – it’s angels wings with a stair underneath them (stairs in Mexican history through all time seem incredibly important) and you climb up and fit perfectly between the wings. On Sunday, a huge (mexican) crowd took turns to take pictures and I thoroughly enjoyed watching. And lacked the courage to walk up there myself and get my picture. So instead took a pic of a little girl…
Today I was already shuffling (my feet hurt) back home when I realized this must be the spot, turned and saw the wings. And then I forgot all about my diverse hurting body parts (muscle super ache) and hurried over there… Not so crowded and nice Mexicans just down to photo-business who took my concern seriously – now I have my pic like I have seen it before me on Sunday – with wide open arms between wings. HA. Barbarian shyness at its best. It was not a problem AT ALL today – where does that difference come from? Climbing moon-pyramids…..????! In this country, you never know.
Back home made up for all my freezing – take the metro during rush hour and you’re in for a sauna treat. Like I was warned earlier you do get in touch with your co-drivers – at one point I waited for 3 metros to pass by before I courageously took my chance and gave in to being a literally boxed in sardine. Waiting for those 3 metros to pass by, I took in the opposite platform. If there’s one thing abundant here it’s public security. So opposite was a box standing against a red-orange-tiled wall. Upon the box was a female security lady, a little stout, looking very feminine, doing her make-up (eyes). I did not dare take a photo…
If you worry about security in the metro, just stop it. I followed the ladies to a section that is also guarded by security (of course) and has clear indication of „solo par damas“ (or for children…). I remembered having read about that and finding it exaggerated, but as all ladies were heading for that end so did I. And found it quite cute. Make-up in the metro is an expertise of mexican women in general, it seems. And I admit it’s much more enjoyable being squeezed in between las damas then between men. Yes now that was discriminating 😛
In terms of practical tipps: if you do go to the Museo de la Antropologia, skip by all means to eat at the restaurant. Horrible quality compared to yesterday…. but about thrice the price, poor athmosphere… to go there for a drink would be more than enough. Exiting, I saw the usual little stands also with some food – that might be the much wiser choice, even if it means you have to go out and in again. The audio guide on the other hand, is worth it, and if your guide says they take an identy card, this means a colored copy printout will work as well… The winged statue is right from the exit in the middle of the street (paseo de la reforma) between the museum and the entry into Chapultepec park. A must-see….. And I deny the guide was right in advising tourists not to go on weekends to the park – it was deserted and boring today, while on Sunday you were in the midst of Mexican cinema with highlife included for free.
That’s it for now, folks.