Day Trips from DF - From Tula to Teotihuacan...

Mexico City literally sits on top of a vast pile of pyramids, and it is interesting to perceive the layers of history as you wander round the various archaeological sites, from the Templo Mayor to Tlatelolco, where you can appreciate the superimposed cultures and architecture from Ancient Aztec to Colonial Spain to Contemporary concrete....

But sometimes it is nice to appreciate the sites in their uncluttered state, and for that you need to leave the city, but you do not have to travel far. Tula was an important city from AD 900-1150, and was most likely the capital of the ancient Toltec civilisation. The site is most renowned for these striking standing stone sentinels which makes it very different from other sites..

Once a place of treasures and splendour in jade and gold, it is still a fascinating site to visit and the setting is beautifully tranquil...

Teotihuacan is much more well known compared to Tula, and is a very popular day trip from DF. It is an extensive site dominated by two huge pyramids, Piramide del Sol and Piramide de la Luna. Dating from AD 200 - 650, it was once Mexico's largest ancient city and the capital of Mexico's pre-Hispanic empire.

Many years after its decline, it still remained a pilgrimage site for Aztec royalty, and more recently for New Age followers especially at the Spring Equinox, and of course still today for very happy tourists...

Located North of Mexico City, both sites can be easily reached by bus from Terminal Norte in just over an hour, but Teotihuacan can also be accessed on an excellent value Turibus all inclusive day trip for $450 pesos (35USD) with lunch and an additional visit to the Basilica Guadelupe.

Weekend Retreats from DF - Valle de Bravo

Within a one to three hour radius surrounding Mexico City, there is a whole host of wonderful places to escape to for the weekend. One such perfect and secluded retreat is Valle de Bravo.

The air is fresh, the pace is slow, the mood is tranquil, and the views are quite breath-taking...

Many residents of DF have weekend homes here, but it is still possible to rent a lakeside house, or a room in a traditional posada in town, for a very reasonable rate. The town itself is a beautiful traditional mexican pueblo with zocalo, market stalls, street food, and artisan wares, but there is also a wide range of gourmet restaurants, upmarket designer and interior stores, plus spas and chill-out cafes....

For those of you who fancy a bit more action, then there is plenty of wake-boarding, water-skiing, sailing, speed-boating, paragliding, and horse-riding to get your teeth into. Valle de Bravo is only two hours from Mexico City and can be easily reached by taking a bus from Terminal Observatorio (Poniente).

For more gorgeous glimpses around the world, check out MyWorldTuesday by clicking here!!

Shadow Shot Sunday 14 - Tepoztlan Cemetery

Death has been very much on my mind this week, as we had to face the tragic situation at school, whereby one of our students with a heart condition, collapsed and died on the school field in front of her teachers, friends and peers on Wednesday 13th May, on her younger brother's birthday (and mine too.)

It has been a tough week all round as we have worked hard to support our students to begin coping with and expressing their feelings about this tragic event, and dealing with the deep sadness that has descended upon the school; getting that healing process underway...

These shots are thus in memory of our student Ana-Luisa, 12 years old, whom we lost this week from our close-knit school community...

Mexico has its own very special relationship with death, manifested in the amazingly unique Day of the Dead festivities and graveside vigils at the beginning of November, which serve to maintain a close relationship and continuing communication with those loved ones who have passed away. Death is not a taboo subject here, and children are initiated into this openness from an early age; indeed Death is looked squarely in the face and dealt with. It is not uncommon, for example, for close-ups of the dead to be put on the front page of newspapers, even those who have died in gruesome accidents, and it is not regarded as sensationalist or morbid here. I remember seeing the work of a Mexican press photographer, Enrique Metinides, at the Photographers' Gallery in London whose job was exactly that, to get the first shot of the most recently deceased. It is also not unusual for families to take photos of their loved ones immediately after death, and keep them lovingly displayed in their homes....

All these shots were taken at the beautiful cemetery in Tepoztlan, a small village only an hour south of Mexico City. All cemeteries here are well visited, well tended, tranquil places for contemplation and reflection.....

This particular cemetery has a wonderful setting, as you can see more from this overview of the whole place...

And finally here is the photographer at the cemetery gates.............

Did anyone else see that photography exhibition in London 2003? as far from being lurid or gratuitous, his work was really beautiful, capturing humanity and dignity in death. For more thought-provoking shadow shots from around the world this week click here for Hey Harriet....

The Purely Practical side of Processions....

For days I admired in awe the solemnity and intensity of the Easter Processions in Antigua, Guatemala, with floats carried by a hundred bearers or so, wending their way through the cobbled streets in a haze of incense....

And then on the final day of the processions, I noticed for the first time the practicality of those Roman soldiers who headed every procession. Firstly the poles they carried had an extremely important function of lifting the numerous (and often dangerously low) overhead electricity cables out of the way of the statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary being carried aloft...

Forgetting the lavish nature of the spectacle for one moment, I then started looking a bit more closely at the costumes and helmets of these Roman soldiers...

Yes, here the practical side is clearly on display as obviously many ordinary household brooms had been sacrificed for these soldiers' helmets, some more threadbare than others....
Don't you just love the practical ingeniousness and resourcefulness of these processions??

What have you noticed this week to make you smile??

Pyramids in the Projects? - Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Where else in the world would you find an ancient Aztec archaeological site complete with temples, sacrificial altars, and pyramids slap bang in the middle of a huge sprawling modern concrete housing estate?? Pyramids in the Projects?? Why Mexico City of course!! Where else?

Plaza de Las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco is situated in the heart of Mexico City, just a little North of the Zocalo and Plaza Garibaldi, and is so named because it symbolises the mixing of Pre-Hispanic and Spanish roots into the Mexican "mestizo" culture, although most people now view the third culture as the modern housing estate and the tall glass tower which is the Centro Cultural Universitario housing a gallery and temporary exhibitions opened in 2007. Here you can see the juxtaposition of all three - the Aztec pyramids of Tlatelolco, the Spanish Templo de Santiago (built in 1609 using stones from the pyramids themselves), and the modern apartments of contemporary city life in Mexico City....

It is a very interesting site to spend an hour or two wandering about, soaking up the atmosphere and different layers of history....

But unfortunately this site also has a dark shadow cast by more recent Mexican history. It is in fact Mexico's own Tiananmen Square, as a week before the Olympics on October 2nd 1968, this plaza witnessed the massacre of hundreds of student protesters caught up in the wave of youth rebellion and resistance around the world...

This memorial is a reminder of what still remains the worst hushed-up scandal in recent Mexican history with official deaths put at 20 and more accurate estimates placing the death toll nearer to 400 . President Diaz Ordaz, anxious for the Olympics to proceed smoothly ordered the heavy-handed tactics, but no-one is sure who gave the orders for the actual massacre, and even after a more recent enquiry under President Vicente Fox, no real answers have emerged. The powerfully striking Siquieros mural housed in the Plaza nearby seems to echo the violent and bloody history of this country.....

On a lighter note my first view of Mexico City before I came to live here, was on screen in the wonderfully quirky black and white existential 2005 Mexican "comedy" called " La Temporada de los Patos ( Duck Season ) filmed right here in one of the flats in these Projects of Tlatelolco..

I remember feeling at the time, a little apprehensive and disconcerted that this may be what the whole of Mexico City might look like, but wandering around here by myself yesterday with my camera in hand, it felt very friendly and laid back chatting with people and talking about the area.....it soon became just one of Mexico City's many distinctive urban faces which makes this place so diverse and fascinating to explore. What are the different faces of the city you love to discover??

To see the many faces of other places around the world, click here for MyWorldTuesday.

Shadow Shot Sunday 13 - Reforma, Mexico City

Reforma, the main street through the heart of Mexico City, is an outdoor art gallery, and a very popular temporary exhibition of chair sculptures seems to have become permanent. This particular chair is probably the most popular as far as posing for photographs is concerned, whether you are locals...

or tourists just on a temporary visit...

People on average have their photos taken on this seat every thirty seconds, and it is the kind of sculpture that invites and provokes interaction, fun, drama, and amusement. I sat here for half an hour peoplewatching, chatting, taking people's photos on request. Everyone gets roped in without exception...

These photos were taken at the height of the Swine flu crisis here in Mexico, so the Police Officer is masked up like the majority of the population at this time in the city, but the final photo is hopefully a new sign of the times. Can you identify the object left on the seat??

Yes, indeed, it is a forgotten and discarded face mask! Hooray as I am sick of the sight of them!! I do, however, love interactive works of art, and my absolute favourite outside of Mexico is definitely Anish Kapoor's wonderful reflective sculpture called "Cloudgate" more commonly known as "The Bean" located in the heart of another fantastic city, Chicago. Which is your favourite public work of art which always causes a bit of a stir??

For more shadow shots around the world this week click here for Hey Harriet............

Missives from the Mexican Mail....

The Mexican post is notoriously slow and unreliable, with postcards taking over a month to arrive, but what does that matter when this is where you have to go to buy your stamps and post your letters!! Here in all its grand opulence and splendour is the Main Post Office in Mexico City called "El Palacio Postal"...

The bronze railings on this elegant staircase were cast in Florence and transported to Mexico City, as the post office is housed in an early 20th Century Italianate Palace designed by Adamo Boari, the original architect of Palacio Bellas Artes across the street...

As well as fine staircases this graciously elegant interior boasts monumental marble columns and beautiful wrought iron filigree...

Here are the taquillas (windows) where you can buy your stamps.......

And the elevator that will take you to the first floor where the Postal Museum is located with one of the items on display being the very first stamp issued here in Mexico...

And this is a very well-visited and well-used post office even if the counters are set a little too impractically high for some of its customers....

Which brings me to my final point... I love blogging, texting and emailing, but I also still own an ink fountain pen and still write long, rambling letters to friends and send numerous postcards from various locations as well as handmade cards. In fact I still am on a bit of a "Campaign for Real Mail", and so was very amused to read recently in the Taca inflight airline magazine an article in which postcard sending was described as an "old-fashioned activity only done in olden times which now had a vintage appeal" How many other dinosaurs like me are still out there amongst my fellow technobloggers?? I am very interested to find out...........

Palacio Postal is situated at Tacuba 1 in the Centro Historico District of Mexico City.