My Grandmother lives in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It is roughly 1˝ hours south of Mexico City.
We were pretty worn out when we arrived at her house.
Here we are hanging in the living room, coming up with plans for the week.
We took a look around my grandmother's beautiful house. Here is the back yard.
and the front...
All the homes near my grandmother's have tall gates and doors. When you walk down the street you see everywhere a flower in several colors called bougainvillea.
Here's Kim and the bougainvillea. I think she got tired of waiting for me to take the picture.
We saw what is known as Palacio de Cortes. Now, Hernán Cortés is viewed here like William Tecumseh Sherman is in Atlanta (not well regarded). Cortés ordered its construction in 1522. As Cortés became more powerful and wealthy the palace became larger and more elaborate. During Mexico's war for independence, it was a jail that held José Morelos (for whom the state is named) and others.
It now houses a museum that traces the history of the area from pre-Hispanic days to the present. Probably the best known artifact is a huge mural painted by Diego Rivera. I remembered the mural from seeing it as a child.
The mural traces conflict from when the Spaniards arrived until the Revolution of 1910. It is large and bold and very, very powerful.
Most of the sections are battles, although some of the more powerful images show the cruelty of slavery. This panel has Cortés putting the Indians to work in the sugar cane fields.
At least the ethnic cleansing of the time was not hidden.
I saw a piece on Rivera on CBS this morning a couple of weeks ago. There is an exhibit of his work in Cleveland right now. They showed many of his pieces. I think he is best known for his murals, but he was also an accomplished sculptor. Like other great painters of his time, his paintings dramatically changed from time to time. He had a surrealist period, an impressionist period. It almost made me want to go to Cleveland. Almost.
The Cathedral of the Ascension in Cuernavaca was impressive. This was initially built by Cortes as well. I was struck by the size and weight and age of the structure. We saw several churches that were painted in this fashion — with contrasting earth tone colors.
This is over the doorway of the largest chapel, Templo de la Asuncion Gloriosa del la Virgen Maria. Again, religion and death and beauty all in one nice package. Recently discovered were some 17th century frescos that were supposedly painted by a Japanese immigrant to Mexico. The frescoes depict crucifixion of Christian missionaries in Japan.
One thing we thought we'd look at was Mexican tile. Kim wanted to make a tile-topped table. We found a few tile places in Cuernavaca.
This one was huge. They had too many things to choose from. This is granny working her way through the store.
Displays on a far wall.
But they all had your basic 10 centimeter designs. We liked the ones that made a larger pattern when you put four or more together.
This is a prototype of the tiles that Kim picked out for her table. (The four big ones in the center match the little ones around the outside and the large tile ring is now green and white.) At the time of the photo, the shop owner ran off to his other store to get some of the tiles missing from this picture. He left us in change of his store. We didn't have any customers but one student asked if we knew where he could make copies. I wasn't sure what he said so I differed the question to my grandmother. She didn't know. Incidentally, the next day in Puebla we walked down what must have been the "copy district." There was one copy place next to another. There must have been 20 of them.
Our first excursion was to Puebla. It was a 3˝ hour bus ride. This is one of the many one way streets that criss-cross the city. The city has four quadrants with the zocolo in the center. From there the streets are numbered and named norte (North), sur (South), oriente (East) and poniente (West). Kim and I learned este and oeste for East and West. Granny said that some cities use oriente (referring to toward the orient) and poniente (away from the orient).
In Puebla we first visited the Uriarte talavera factory. We were told that this was the last such place in Mexico where the Spanish talavera pottery was still made.
The complex was a gallery of talavera. It was closed for tours, but the gift shop was open. We bought small plaques of our address (to be assembled later).
This is the Cathedral in Puebla. Everywhere we went--no matter how poor the people were--there was always a huge cathedral.
Inside the Cathedral was a glass case with a rather gory Jesus inside. I guess this was after the crucifixion. It was amazing to see women and children walk up to it and touch the glass where the wounds were. In the US I think people would shriek and complain about the bad taste of seeing the bloody body.
There were a few streets closed to traffic. One street had painters. This was had various merchants selling pottery, onyx, silver, hand-crafts and sombreros.
My grandmother told us that when she was young and living in Mexico the president closed the churches. Priests and nuns could not be seen in their traditional clothing in public. We visited a former convent in Puebla that had a large collection of art as well as hiding places where the nuns lived during this period. Some of the hidden rooms had slots so that the church across the street could be seen. In a graphic, religious, respectful way (that I thought was very Mexican) this is a monument containing the heart (in the round glass thing) of a priest that helped to keep the convent open during this period.
The next trip was to Tepoztlán. This is a small town that becomes a big town every weekend due to its well-known market. Before we went shopping we decided to climb Mount Tepoztlán. Climbing is apparently a very popular thing to do on the weekend. Many Mexican families bring a picnic basket and eat at the temple at the top. You can tell who are the tourists because we have shorts on.
We take small hike/climbs at home, but this turned out to be a tough two kilometers-straight up. We were told there were some metal steps near the end. It was a ladder and it was not close enough to the top for our expectations.
The view from the top really was nice. We had a good clear day, and wouldn't you know it, there was a snack bar.
This is very old a temple at the top. We were both too out of breath to try to decipher the Spanish sign explaining its significance. We felt kind of out of shape being breathless and all. Some women were wearing significant heels. Small children were dragged to the top.
Our next day trip was to Taxco. If you have a silver Mexican ring look inside. It was probably made in Taxco. The town is on the side of a mountain. There is a very ornate cathedral near the top. At the very top (you need to take cable cars to get there) is the silver mine and a resort.
We had lunch in a place above the Catedral de Santa Prisca. In front of the Cathedral is the zocolo. We sat in nice balconies and split tortilla soup, queso fundido and cheese enchiladas in mole sauce. After eating we went to the top of the building and took pictures. If the Mediterranean were at the bottom, Kim pictures Greece to look just like Taxco.
Back in Cuernavaca, we took a beauty day before returning home. There is a luxurious spa up the street from granny's house called Hostería Las Quintas. It's very deceiving when you approach it. On the outside it looks like a factory. When you finally go around the corner and enter there are gorgeous gardens.
Everything there is meant to calm. We made appointments at the spa. Kim had a manicure, pedicure and facial done. I had a 50 minute massage. Kim loved the manicure and pedicure but was less fond of the facial. It may have cleaned her up pretty good but the process was not fun.
As was our want, we went back to Las Mananitas for dinner. Kim read in Conde Nast last year that Las Mańanitas is considered the best restaurant in Latin America. It is a combination hotel and restaurant. There are exotic birds (peacocks and parrots are the only ones I could name) walking freely in the nearby gardens. When we arrived we were sat in the patio where you have drinks and chips with a sour cream dip.
When you are ready for dinner you order from the patio. When your dinner is just about ready you move to a dining area. There is one inside and one outside. In between these three areas is a lush garden where the birds usually roam. The weather being as it is in Cuernavaca, there really isn't a winter, spring or fall. The garden pretty much looks like this all year.
Here are two of the birds for those of you in the know about such things.
Hope you enjoyed our trip to Mexico.
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