The Merry Month of May

Today is May 1st, a legal holiday in Mexico... "Día del Trabajo" or Labor Day.  As is my custom on the first day of the month, I will show you the photo that I selected for for my custom-made calendar.  This year's calendar features pictures that I have taken on my trips to Germany, and May's photo is of Heidelburg Castle.

On a hill, overlooking the picturesque university town of Heidelberg, are the remains of a  castle.  It was begun in the 13th century and was expanded numerous times.  It eventually included a palace that was considered one of the most outstanding Renaissance structures north of the Alps.  It was largely destroyed in wars during the 17th century, and still stands in ruins. 

The Heat is On

 

April and May are the hottest months in Mexico City.  It is the one time of the year where daily high temperatures regularly reach or exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  April began a bit cooler than normal, probably because of some thunderstorms that passed through.  (We are still in the dry season, but it seemed as if the rainy season were beginning early.  According to Weather Channel statistics, however, the half inch of rain that we have had this month is slightly below average.)

In the past week, the temperatures have been in the upper eighties.  On Tuesday the high temperature was 90, and yesterday the mercury reached 92.  Most Mexican homes do not have air conditioning, and the last several nights we have had the fan running in the bedroom.

The heat has not been nearly as stifling as in some parts of the nation.  In Guadalajara the high temperature yesterday was 100 F, and in Mérida it was 102 F! 

City on the Water

Mexico City is built on the site where the Aztecs founded their capital of Tenochtitlan.  The city, located in a high mountain basin, was built on an island in the middle of a shallow, saline lake.  Actually, there were a number of interconnected lakes in the valley.  The largest of them was Lake Texcoco.  Beginning in colonial times efforts were made to drain off the lakes in order to control flooding.  Today there is only a remnant of that lake system.  Nevertheless, even though Mexico City is landlocked and 200 miles from the ocean, its beginnings as a city on an island in a lake have influenced a large part of its history.

Currently in the courtyard tucked between the Latin American Tower and the Church of San Francisco there is an exhibit of historic images and photographs that portray the city on the water.

In this 1683 painting of Mexico City you can see Lake Texcoco in the background.

Tenochtitlan was the Venice of the Americas with canals forming many of his streets.  If you look closely at the painting you can see that many of those canals still existed in colonial times.

In fact, some of those canals survived into the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In this 1869 lithograph you can see the Canal de la Viga which connected the center of the city with Xochimilco in the south.  The first steam boat in Mexico City plied its waters.

This early 20th century photograph shows that canals were still used as thoroughfares for transporting goods.

This painting from 1874 shows that a sizeable portion of Lake Texcoco still survived.

This painting from the 1860s shows Chapultepec Castle.  Today, the castle is in the heart of the city, but in those days it was far off in the rural outskirts.  In the painting Mexico City is in the distance.  You can also see that there were still wetlands between Chapultepec and the city.  You can also see the aqueduct that carried water from the fresh-water springs at Chapultepec into the city.  Remnants of that aqueduct can still be seen along busy Chapultepec Avenue.

That aqueduct ended at a colonial era fountain in the city known as "Salto de Agua".  The original fountain is now in the National Museum of the Viceroyalty.  An exact replica now stands in its place in the middle of multi-laned Arcos de Belén Avenue.

The draining of Lake Texcoco did not end the problem of periodic floods.  This photo from 1865 shows a flooded street in the center of the city.  Entrepreneurial locals would build wooden footbridges across the streets and charge people 6 cents to cross them.

Even today, heavy downpours during the rainy season can turn some streets into impassable lakes.  It almost seems as if the ancient Lake Texcoco wants to reassert itself. 

Post-Op

The last five posts on this blog were written ahead of time and scheduled to be published automatically.  You see, beginning last Friday, I figured that I would not be able or would not feel like writing on my blog.  On Friday morning I was scheduled to undergo minor, laparoscopic surgery.

Alejandro took this photo of me prior to surgery.

Even though the doctor referred to it as a "very friendly surgery", I was frankly quite scared.  In my entire life I had never undergone surgery.  I trusted the doctor, but the thought of going under anesthesia at my age frightened me.

The surgery went well, and I was released on Saturday morning.  However, if this was a "very friendly surgery", I hope that I will never have to undergo a "not so friendly" major surgery.  The last few days have been miserable..  Getting in and out of bed is torture.  Thankfully Alejandro has been here taking very good care of me.

I still have several topics in reserve so that I will still be able to post something daily on the blog.  Hopefully, by that time I will be up and about and will be able to write about something other than my aches and pains.  

Foreign Money

Obviously, for this summer's trip to Europe I want to have some Swiss francs and some British pounds.  I already have a decent amount of Swiss francs from my last trip to Switzerland.  It should be enough until I am able to get to an ATM there.  

I should mention that one thing I like about the ATMs in Switzerland is that you can select the denomination of bills that you receive.  I wish that banks here in Mexico would adopt that custom instead of always spewing out large 500 peso bills.

I was looking at the Swiss banknotes, and I saw "Twenty Francs" in both French and Italian...  "Vingt Francs", "Venti Franchi".

Of course, I know that French and Italian are both official languages of Switzerland.  But where's the German?

I turned the bill over and there was the German... "Zwanzig Franken".

But there was also a fourth language.  Many people have never heard of Switzerland's fourth official language... Romansh.  Romansh is a tongue that developed from Latin (notice the similarity to French and Italian) that is the primary language of around 40,000 people in Switzerland.

I have Swiss francs, but it did not have any British pounds.  So, I went to a currency exchange located inside the World Trade Center and asked for 300 pounds.  I was happy to receive the cash in 20 pound notes.

I don't know whether or not the U.K. has started to issue banknotes with the portrait of King Charles, but these crisp bills still had the face of Queen Elizabeth.

When I turned a bill over, I did not recognize the person pictured on the back.

At first I did not notice the name printed in small type to the side, but after studying the bill a moment, I recognized the image in the background as one of the paintings by J.M.W. Turner, an important 19th century English painter and a precursor to Impressionism.

Moneywise, we are now set for the trip.

By the way, I converted these photos to black and white because I did not want to possibly violate any anti-counterfeiting laws!  

 

A History Lesson in the Metro

I saw this tile plaque at the entrance to the Balderas subway station.  It commemorates Father Hidalgo, the village priest who began Mexico's war for independence from Spain in 1810.

The caption on the plaque says... "Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla began the fight for independence, abolished slavery, returned land to the native peoples.  He died before a royalist firing squad."

In the picture, Hidalgo is holding a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe with which he marched into battle.  In the background is the church bell which he rang in the early hours of September 16th to arouse his parishioners to revolt against Spanish rule.

Sprucing Up

Throughout Mexico City it is obvious that the government is busy sprucing things up in preparation for the millions of tourists that are expected to arrive this summer for the World Cup.

Scaffolding covers the Palace of Fine Arts as the white Italian marble building receives a cleaning.