Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Move To Mesoamerica?

A nice, quiet walk in the park in Mexico City

 Hey there. It's been a while since we wrapped at 'cha. This is because we have been hanging out in the 3rd-most populated city on the planet, and there is no room to move, much less type. In fact, to sit down and write this, I had to climb to the top of a flag pole.

To be honest, I have been nothing but impressed by Mexico City. Sure, the traffic & smog are miserable, but there is hardly a speck of trash, the people are nice, and there are tons of awesome museums & cathedrals to while away the hours. As far as megalopolises go (and I would know- I've been to two in the last 6 months), I'd say Mexico City is hardly the post-apocalyptic ruin I always imagined it to be.

The country as a whole was like night and day from Guatemala. Much like when Laura and I crossed the border from Poland into Germany, it was clear right away that these two countries are completely different:

Aside from our wonderful host family, and a visit from our biological family Mary Ellen, I really enjoy all the museums and historical stuff there is to see. Mexico City used to be the Aztec (or "Mexica") city of Tenochtitlan which is difficult to say not only because of the pronunciation, but also because you have to say "tit." The Aztecs were quite the engineers, making aqueducts and awesome floating gardens (If any of my former students are reading this, Tenochtitlan was the city we studied and made out of clay.) And like all great cities (Rome, Sumer, and Detroit) Tenochtitlan eventually fell to fate and was taken over by Cortes and the Spaniards.

       Perhaps the highlight was the Villa of Guadalupe, which is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, more commonly known as "That One Giant Sticker On The Back Of Everyone's Car." According to tradition, this is the place where a local indigenous peasant met Mary (The Mary) on a hill, who kindly instructed him to build a church at that spot. Nobody believed the peasant, and certainly no one wanted to spend hard-earned taxpayer dollars on building a church there just 'cuz some socialist liberal says so.

       So the peasant goes back to the mountain, ready to break the news to Mary. But Mary, who as we know has had to convince people of some pretty miraculous things before, comes up with a great idea. She picks him some fresh flowers (though this is the dead of winter), and when the peasant returns, not only does he impress all the non-believers with the floral arrangement, but his cloak also mysteriously has a painting of the whole interaction (the painting is now on display in one of the buildings). Needless to say, after this whole story spread around town, the Mexicans started to convert to Christianity like it was going out of style. And the plaza is now one of the most visited religious sites in the world (and the #1 for Catholicism).
      Of course, historians tend to love to ruin these things, and this is no exception. The Mary of Guadalupe story, they say, is based off an ancient tale of an Aztec goddess named Tonantzin. Others disagree and say it's the other way around. In any case, the Plaza was packed. So much, in fact, that the buildings are sinking into the ground- no joke.

This picture isn't that great, but you can sorta see one of the cathedrals to the right of Laura leaning over.