A Bit of Shaking

 

(image taken from the internet)

At around 9:20 this morning, the earthquake alert sounded in the neighborhood.  "Alerta sísmica, alerta sísmica."  I didn't see anyone leave their buildings and go out to the street.  Since I live on the third floor (the fourth floor by U.S. counting) heading down the stairwell, through the lobby and out to the street is rather impractical in the brief warning period that we have.  I headed to the corner of the living room that Alejandro deemed the safest spot.  The dogs in the neighborhood were barking before I could feel anything.  I leaned my back against the wall, and I began to feel some vibrations.  Looking out the window on the other side of the room, I could see that the utility wires were swaying.  After about a minute it was over.

Later, on the internet, I found that the quake, which measured 5.7 on the Richter Scale, was centered in the rural town of Zocoteaca de León in the state of Oaxaca, around 200 miles away from Mexico City.  The quake was not felt in all parts of the city.  (Alejandro did not feel anything.)  Initial reports indicate that there were no victims nor damage even in the area around the epicenter.  

Abundant Portions

When Europeans travel to the United States, they are usually amazed at the size of portions that are served in restaurants.  There are a number of eateries here in Mexico City that rival their counterparts in the U.S. for the abundance of their servings.

One notable example is a place called Café C which is located in a small shopping mall across the street from the World Trade Center.  The food is good, the prices are reasonable, and service is very friendly.  Because of its convenient location, we will usually go there at least once every weekend for breakfast.  Sometimes we also go there for dinner.  I am usually a member of the "clean plate club", but this is one of the few places where I have on occasion asked to take part of my meal home.

Here you can see what we had to eat last Saturday...

Alejandro ordered a dish called a "tecolote".  The base is a "mollete", a sliced roll with melted cheese.  On top of that is a heaping serving of "chilaquiles", tortilla chips simmered in salsa.  It is all topped with two fried eggs.

I had the "croque madame" based on the classic French sandwich.  A slice of bread is topped with turkey breast, gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, a mustard dressing, bechamel sauce, and a fried egg.

Is it any wonder that we are not ready to eat again until early evening?

 

Spring Flowers

The day before my surgery, I took a walk in my neighborhood.  I used my cell phone to take some pictures of the flowers that I saw.  (Unfortunately, the photo quality is not as good as if I had used my camera.)

I don't know what kind of flowers these are...

 

Trumpet flowers

Although the peak of the season has passed, there are still some blossoms on some of the jacaranda trees.

Bougainvillea

Some variety of lily

 

Hibiscus

Street Signs

Most of the streets in my Mexico City neighborhood of Nápoles are named after states and cities in the United States.  I was walking down Dakota Avenue, a street that I have walked countless times, when I saw a street sign that I had never noticed before.

The rusted metal signs and the eroded concrete post make me think that it must date from the 1940s when this neighborhood was laid out.

It is interesting that the old sign spells the cross-street of Missouri that way it is spelled in the United States.

However, the newer street sign spells it phonetically in Spanish... Misuri.

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.

 

New Glasses

When you walk down Madero, the pedestrian street in the heart of the Historic Center, you are always approached by touts trying to get you to patronize their tattoo parlor or piercing studio.  Even more ubiquitous are the people shouting "Lentes.  Lentes en una hora." (Glasses.  Glasses in an hour!)  Of course if you need bifocals, progressive lenses or photosensitive lenses it will likely take a week rather than an hour.

It is amazing how many opticians are located along Madero Street.  Take this multi-story building, for example.  Every floor above the ground floor is nothing but "ópticas" and labs where prescription lenses are made.

On the fourth floor is "Miranda Optica", an optician where Alejandro and his family have purchased glasses.

Several years ago, before I had made the final move to Mexico, I decided to get new glasses while I was in Mexico on a trip.  I brought the prescription from my ophthalmologist in Ohio, and Alejandro took me to "Miranda".  I picked out new frames, and in about a week I had my new glasses.

That was about four years ago.  My glasses are still good.  My vision has remained pretty stable, and I can read all but the smallest line on the eye chart when I visit my ophthalmologist here.  However, the lenses are scratched to the point where it is sometimes a nuisance.  I decided it was time for new glasses.

Last Saturday, we went back to "Miranda".  The lady who tested my vision said that it had changed very little.  But she said that with the new glasses I should be able to read even the smallest line on the chart.  I picked out the frames and was told that they would be ready in about a week.  So any day I should get a call from the optician.

And no, this is not a paid advertisement for "Miranda Optica".    

 

 

More Handicrafts, More Art

Next door to the Mexico City World Trade Center is a structure known as the Poliforum Siqueiros, a cultural center designed by the famous mural painter David Alfaro Siqueiros.  The exterior and interior murals together constitute what is claimed to be the largest mural painting in the world.  The Poliforum was opened in 1971.

In 2017 the building was closed to the public, and a program of restoration was announced.  However, nothing has been done in all these years.  The outside murals are deteriorating, and the interior is only open for private events.  The grounds around the building have been converted into a parking lot.  It is truly a disgraceful situation.

Last week, I noticed a sign advertising a handicrafts fair to be held at the Poliforum.  I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to go inside and see the murals which I had not seen since before the closure.

Handicraft vendors had set up their stalls in the enormous circular hall where Siqueiros had painted his mural "The March of Humanity".

The hall is covered on all sides, even on the ceiling, with Siqueiros's monumental work.  I do not particularly care for his art, but to be surrounded on all sides by this gigantic mural is an impressive experience.

As far as handicrafts go, I really had not planned to buy anything.  However, as I browsed among the stalls, I found one with textiles and crafts from the state of Oaxaca.  There was a table filled to overflowing with "alebrijes", the brightly painted wooden sculptures of animals which are one of Oaxaca's best known forms of popular art.

I looked at an intricately painted figure of a bear that I liked.  On the underside, it was signed "Roberta Angeles".  I wondered if the artist was related to Jacobo Angeles, who is one of the most celebrated creators of "alebrijes".  His works are very expensive and are to be found in museums.  I visited his workshop many years ago in the Oaxacan village of San Martín Tilcajete, and I bought one of his figures... also a carving of a bear.

I have posted photos of my bear by Jacobo Angeles before.  Out of all of the Mexican handicrafts, it is probably my most prized possession.  It was rather expensive back in 2010 when I bought it.  I can imagine what the price tag would be now that Jacobo's fame has increased.

I asked the lady in charge of the stand if Roberta Angeles is a relative of Jacobo,  She responded "I am Roberta Angeles, and I am a cousin of Jacobo."

We had a nice conversation, and I ended up buying the "alebrije" from her.  It is now keeping yet another bear company.   Last year at the Christmas market on the Zócalo I had purchased a figure by an award-winning "alebrije" artist, Agustín Cruz Prudencio.  The two look very good together.

My new bear is the one to the left.

I'm still upset over what has happened to the Poliforum Siqueiros, but I am glad that I went to this handicrafts fair.

 

Gift Shopping

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are visiting my cousins in England and Switzerland this summer.  Last week I started shopping for gifts for them.  I went to the "Ciudadela" Market.  With over 350 vendors, it is the largest handicraft market in Mexico City.

As I have written before, the market has its share of kitschy tourist junk, but you will also find handicrafts of good quality here.  While I was there, I found gifts for my Swiss cousin Brigitta and her husband Peter.  The last time that I went to Switzerland, I bought Brigitta a "rebozo", a Mexican shawl, and for Peter I bought a "guayabera" shirt.  They seemed to be genuinely pleased with their gifts.  

They frequently spend their winters at a yoga retreat in Thailand, and from the vacation pictures that I have seen of them, they favor tropical-style clothing on their trips.  So, I figured I would buy traditional Mexican clothing for them again.  Brigitta had previously told me that her favorite color is soft pink and that Peter's is light blue.

I found this cotton blouse, made in a town in the mountains of the state of Puebla, with embroidery at the bodice.

I bought another "guayabera" for Peter.  This one has blue embroidery down the sides.  It was made in the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta.

Hopefully they will enjoy these items.  Since they rarely look at the blog, I don't think the surprise will be spoiled.

Summer Travel

We are in the process of making reservations for a trip to Europe in July to visit my cousins in England and Switzerland.

We will take British Airways non-stop service from Mexico City to London's Heathrow Airport.  We will spend a couple of nights at an inexpensive hotel near the airport, and take the train to central London to spend a day simply walking around and seeing some of the iconic landmarks.  Then we will take a bus to the small town in Devonshire on the English Channel to visit my cousin Kevin and his wife Sue.  The last time that I traveled to England they lived in the outskirts of London, but, now that they are both retired they have bought a house just a short walk away from the coast.  

After spending three days with them, we will head back to Heathrow for a flight to Zurich.  My cousin Brigitta and her husband Peter live outside of Zurich, and we will spend a weekend with them.  We will then take a train to the city of Aarau where we will visit my cousin Walter and his wife Helen for several days.  During our time with them we will have a chance to visit other cousins who live nearby.

Finally, we will take a train to Frankfurt, Germany.  After spending a night there, we will board the non-stop Lufthansa flight back to Mexico City.

A 900 Page Novel

It's been quite a while since I have written a review of a book that I have read.  That's because since before Christmas I have been reading a massive, historical novel called "The Memoirs of Cleopatra".  I finally finished it last night.

Don't think that the length of time that I took to read it is an indication that I didn't enjoy it.  I most certainly did.  However the book is over 900 pages long and is in small type.

Historical novels are my favorite genre, and the author, Margaret George, is one of the foremost writers of historical fiction.  I have read two other books that she wrote... "Helen of Troy" and "Confessions of a Young Nero".

George's novels are painstakingly researched, and this one is no exception.  She took two and a half years to write it, and made four trips to Egypt to research it.  She has provided a vivid depiction of  Egypt in its last days before the Roman conquest by Octavian (who later took the name of Caesar Augustus).  And she provides a sympathetic portrait of the Queen that Roman propaganda portrayed as a scheming seductress, a femme fatale who used men to her advantage.  The author said the Cleopatra was not the "bimbo that the Romans would like you to think she was."  She was in fact an extremely intelligent and astute ruler who spoke at least nine languages.  Her affairs with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony were based on genuine love, and were not just politically expedient sexual adventures.

Of course, the reader knows from the very beginning how it is going to end with Cleopatra's carefully planned suicide, but in the meantime it's a fascinating journey.  I found myself wishing that Cleopatra and Mark Anthony would have defeated the forces of Octavian and wondering how the course of history would have been different if they had won.