Anahuacalli Museum and the University!

Oh my … or rather, Hola!

 

I am truly exhausted, and even though it is only 5:38 pm on Saturday night, I feel like I’m ready for bed!  We did have a busy day today.  We didn’t get an early start, although we did have breakfast about 8 am.  Unlike yesterday (the holiday) the lounge was almost empty this morning!  R was wondering where all the people went!  Absolutely no answer!  Finally, about 10:30 am we headed out to get an Uber to the Anahuacalli Museum, which is the museum that Diego Rivera built to house his collection of ancient Mexican artifacts.

 

The Uber took a few minutes to get to us – and we were off!  The Museum is in a southern suburb of Mexico City, and truly, how our poor Uber driver found it was a miracle!  I think he was using WAZE, and there were corners he had to navigate that literally must have had 2 inches clearance on either side of his vehicle!  And that’s not to mention topes, which are HUGE and very WIDE speed bumps, as well as the huge holes in the street!  Wow!  Quite an adventure!  

 

The Museum is really fascinating! It is made out of closely fitting volcanic rock of the region, and is a beautiful black stone color.  First of all, Diego Rivera served as his own architect for the first floor of the museum.  And, unlike many museums housing ancient artifacts, it was arranged by Rivera on the basis of beauty, not geographical or different tribal connections.  He put the things he liked – and thought were beautiful – together and didn’t bother with where things had come from or what era they were from.  He also designed the ceilings personally, and each one had their own story based on Rivera’s interpretation of the creation myths of various tribes.  

 

I LOVE this building!

Stunning gardens in volcanic soil

I definitely have days like this!

Ceiling!

More ceiling!

Fanged diety ceiling

On the roof!  Quite a view!

He died after the first floor had been assembled, and the museum was completed by his daughter, an architect, and Juan O’Gorman, another Mexican architect.  I think it is a really beautiful building, and it is built in the area where Rivera painted and where both he and Frida Kahlo loved when they were married.  One interesting thing is that there are paragraphs on the room descriptions about what is contained therein.  One of Rivera’s wives (not Frida) wrote about the fact that Rivera was absolutely obsessed with obtaining as many ancient artifacts as possible.  She complained that they were everywhere all over their house, and there was no room for people to live anymore!  Also, that he would drag her out to Teotihuacan to look for treasures in the dirt – and be so thrilled when he was able to uncover something to add to his collection!  She also complained that it seemed like every penny he earned went to purchasing artifacts that he didn’t want to see fall into the hands of private collectors!  Apparently he had already determined that he would gift his collection to the nation, and he was trying to protect everything that he could!

"Dora" the Explorer! LOL

Ceiling

Ceiling

 

I do love popcorn!

The museum is about three floors, and takes about an hour to view well.  After that, we called once again for an Uber, this time to take us to the Stadio Olympio Universidad, the Olympic Stadium from 1968 that is next to the campus of UNAM, the University of Mexico’s largest school.  The first Olympics I remember were in 1960 (I was 9) in Squaw Valley CA and Rome, Italy.  The games in Mexico came later, and featured the “Black Power” salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two American track stars.  I remember that there were concerns about the altitude (over 7,000 feet) as well as the heat, but I don’t remember it really making a difference.  

 

It was about half-an-hour to get to the stadium, and Martha Cecilia, our Uber driver, wasn’t exactly sure where to let us off!  Of course, we weren’t either, but thanks to Google Maps, you can get anywhere!  From the stadium (which is really unusual and lovely) and built, like the Rivera Museum, of volcanic blocks.  Truly, after the normal cement structures that constitute stadia these days, the volcanic block must have truly made a very unusual statement to the rest of the world!  We loved it!  Our next stop was the UNAM Central Library, which was the only other building I remember from the games.  It took us about 15-20 minutes to walk around the stadium, under the highway, and up into the central plaza of the university – and there was the library!  It is spectacular!  Truly!  It’s possible that the mosaics that completely cover the building have faded a bit in the years since 1968, but you could never really tell.  R insisted (and rightly so) that we circumnavigate the entire building to see every side – and it was definitely worth it!  Wow!

 

May need to enlarge to see stone work!

Olympic Stadium!

Olympic torch base on top of the stadium

UNAM University Library

Front side

Mosaic on another university building

Side mosaics

Back mosaics

From there, we decided that we should head back to the hotel, as the laundry that we left across the street on Thursday was due to be picked up today between 3 and 4 (when they close).  So … Uber to the rescue!  Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly easy to find the right place to wait – and of course, where we thought we were, we weren’t!  UGH!  Fortunately, a wonderful young man who was running a book stand close to where we were waiting, came running to our rescue!  Our Uber driver said he was “there” – and we had no idea where his “there” was!  But with the help of our young man, he spoke to our driver on the phone, explained to us where we needed to be, and voila!  We connected!!  Thank you, very nice young man!!

 

Now, the problem was the long drive back to our hotel.  It took, truly, about 45-50 minutes to get us back (thanks to all the traffic) only to find that when we were a block from our hotel, Avenida Juarez was closed right at our hotel!  At that point, we just bailed out of the car, and walked the block and a half.  Through the hotel lobby (with bathroom stop for me!) and out the back door and across the street to the Lavanderia – and surprise!  Our laundry was clean AND dry and ready to go!!  Back to the hotel’s lobby, and I took the laundry upstairs and then back down to the lobby where R had two nice glasses of Sauvignon Blanc waiting.  Yes…As we hadn’t really had any lunch (unless you count the half a bag of popcorn that we got at the Museum) we decided to try Los Dones, the Hilton’s restaurant on the first floor.

 

I think we were the first folks there – it was about 4 pm – and we got a lovely table overlooking the main entryway to the hotel, and across the street to Alameda Park.  Interesting menu – not exactly Mexican, but not exactly anything else specifically either.  I ordered tortilla soup for starters, and R had an excellent Cesar salad.  For mains, R had sea bass, and I had a marinated (in lime juice) chicken breast with asparagus, zucchini and potatoes.  Truly, it was incredible!  We do NOT get chicken that tastes that good in the U.S.  It was so tender that I could cut it with a butter knife!  We both cleaned our plates, and then came Postres or “afters” … i.e., Dessert!  (Also with dinner, an excellent bottle of Mexican Sauvignon Blanc from San Michael de Allende, which is north of Mexico City.)  R had a glass of Courvoisier, and I had their Mamey Crème Brulé.  Mamey (which I spelled incorrectly after our trip through the mercado) is a fabulous Mexican fruit that grows between April and September.  It was wonderful – different – and not as well brulé-ed as I normally like it, but the taste was fabulous and I enjoyed it very much!  Oh!  And as we were eating, it started to absolutely POUR!   I mean, it really came down – people were scrambling for shelter everywhere!  And there we were, above it all, warm and safe and definitely dry, munching away contentedly!

R's Cesar salad

My tortilla soup

My chicken, potatoes and veggies

R's sea bass with rice and pineapple

My Mamey creme brûlée!

 

Back upstairs right after that, and I am hoping to get the blog posted shortly and go to bed!  Doesn’t that sound like a great idea!  As it is, we need to be heading to Xochimilco to our boat trip along the canals about 11 am tomorrow – hoping that allowing 1 ½ hours to get there will be enough!  So!  More tomorrow!

 

Lots of love,

m

xxx

 

PS – We’re having dinner with our mercado guide Diana when we get back to Mexico City from Oaxaca!!