In the Cathedral

Let's backtrack to last week when I went downtown to the Christmas festival on the Zócalo.  After walking around the plaza taking pictures, and shopping at the handicrafts market, I decided to take a look inside the Cathedral to see if there were any decorations for Christmas.

Upon entering the Cathedral, the ornate Chapel of Forgiveness included a Nativity scene.

At the far end of the Cathedral, the incredibly baroque Chapel of the Kings is worth a photograph any time of year.

The main altar was flanked by Christmas trees and had another Nativity scene.

One of the pulpits and a venerated crucifix known as the Black Christ were surrounded by poinsettias.

My dear friend Carol, who passed away in September, was a devout Catholic.  I lit a candle in her memory.

Earthquake Video

Alejandro found a video which has some footage of Friday morning's 6.5 earthquake.  The scenes were all shot here in Mexico City.  You will see the Independence Monument swaying back and forth, a traffic light in the Roma neighborhood falling to the ground, and subway cars rocking crazily.

 

Winter in Ohio

Back in Ohio they did not have a white Christmas, but they definitely had a wintry white New Year.  My former neighbor Sheila sent me some photos from Coe Lake Park in Berea.

 

Lovely to look at, but I'm glad I don't have to deal with the snow anymore!

Earthquake Update

Yesterday morning I reported on the earthquake in southern Mexico.  A 6.5 magnitude quake is quite strong, so I thought that it was extremely lucky and strange that there were initially no reports of damage in Mexico City, nor in the state of Guerrero where the epicenter was located.

More news has come out, and it appears that indeed there was damage to buildings in the region of the epicenter, and there were landslides along the highway to Acapulco.  Even here in Mexico City there was some minor damage.  Photos were posted online showing cracks in buildings.

(image taken from the internet)

There were some scary videos posted of buildings swaying, and the Monument of Independence, a tall column topped by a gold angel, moving back and forth.  A tree fell onto a parked car.  Fortunately no one was in it at the time.  One fatality, indirectly related to the quake, has been reported.  An older man fell and died while rushing down the stairs to evacuate his building.

Thankfully, there was no damage at the family house.  I am now back at the apartment, and there was no damage here either.  Not so much as an ornament fell off the Christmas tree.

A Wake Up Call

(image taken from the internet)

It was just before 8 AM this morning.  We were all asleep when the seismic alert on Alejandro's cell phone went off.  A moment later the neighborhood earthquake alarm went off... "Alerta sísmica".  The alarm gives residents about one minute of warning.  We were all in our bedclothes, and although we didn't go out to the street, we were at the front door ready to go outside.  I felt the ground beneath my feet swaying back and forth for several seconds.

The epicenter of the quake was near the town of San Marcos to the east of Acapulco in the state of Guerrero (about 250 miles from Mexico City).   The magnitude was 6.5 on the Richter Scale which would classify it as a strong quake.  (In comparison, the catastrophic quake of 1985 was a magnitude 8.)  There were several aftershocks reported, although none of them were felt here.

There are no immediate reports of damage in Mexico City or the state of Guerrero, although there were power outages reported in the Acapulco area.

New Year's Eve

I can remember a time, decades ago, when New Year's Eve in Mexico was celebrated quietly at home with families waiting for midnight.  At some point, hotels, restaurants and bars started throwing New Year's Eve events, and then the Paseo de la Reforma near the Independence Monument became the place to ring in the New Year, a la Times Square in New York City.  This year along Reforma they held what was being touted as the world's biggest electronic music party with several hundred thousand people expected to attend.  It was held from 6 PM until 2 AM, and featured numerous recording artists from Mexico, France, Venezuela and the U.S. (None of them are names that I had ever heard of!)  No thank you!!!

We celebrated, as I suspect the vast majority of Mexican families did, the old fashioned way at home.  New Year's Eve supper was served just after midnight  Alejandro prepared another dish that is traditional for the holiday season, pork loin.  He cooked it according to the directions on the package, placing in the oven in a deep pan with wine, chopped pears, and dried apples.  After cooking, he put the juices and fruits, along with several dried hot pepper into the blender to create a delicious sauce.

It was served with apple salad which his sister prepared.

Something that somehow I never realized was that baguettes are such an important part of the holiday dinners.  

Just as on Christmas Eve, Alejandro went to the bakery and bought two bags of baguettes to accompany the supper.  I went with him to buy the bread, and I was rather amazed at the baguettes which had taken over the shelves at the bakery.  I didn't know if this is a Mexico City thing, or if it holds true throughout the country.  I asked Alejandro, and he said that some years ago baguettes took the place of the smaller "bollilos" as the bread of choice for the holidays.  And he said that it was mainly a Mexico City custom.

Anyway, it was a delicious start to the new year!

 

A New Calendar

My readers know that every year I have a custom-made calendar created which features photographs that I have taken on my travels.  Each year there is a different theme.  2025's calendar had pictures of archaeological sites in Mexico.  Now it is time to hang the new calendar for 2026.

And this year's theme (drumroll, please) is...  Germany.

The cover of the calendar has a photo of the pedestrian street which goes through the historic center of old university town of Heidelberg.

By no means is the calendar representative of the entire country.  I have only been to Germany twice, and I have only visited six cities there... Munich, Augsburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Würzburg, and Heidelberg.  But from those cities, I was able to pick out some nice pictures for the calendar.

January's photo is also from Heidelberg.

From Heidelberg Castle there is a beautiful view of the city, the Neckar River, and the forested countryside beyond.

Best wishes to all my readers for a very happy new year!