Sunday, November 3, 2019
Mexico City vacation, day 5 of 6. For breakfast I had a small bite of Magnolia Bakery pan de dulce purchased yesterday with water. I ironed a shirt. Phil, Drew, Quyen, Dave, Julio, and I walked to Museo Tamayo where I saw art from many Mexican artists I didn't know as well as other artists with whom I was more familiar such as Picasso, Miró, O'Keefe, Rothko, Nevelson. The major exhibitions were: En Apariencia Otro México, Bocetos Para Murales De Rufino Tamayo by Rufino Tamayo; Otros Cuerpos Detrás by Adriana Varejão; Los Senderistas by Rashid Johnson; Colección Museo Tamayo. Entrance today was free (every Sunday). We continued walking through the park passing a monument for Gandhi. We rode UberXL to Abraham Lincoln Aviary, which was small and disappointing because many of the birds seemed to be in poor condition. The peacock was the highlight for me. We stopped at a nearby Starbucks for coffee and breakfast sort of to go and sort of quickly eaten there. We met a driver arranged earlier for us by Ef, and the driver arrived in a sedan with a small girl in the front passenger seat. We had six people, so there was some kind of miscommunication about our needs, and we apologized and told him that we could not use his services. Instead we arranged an UberXL and drove to Teotihuacan. Like last time, along the way we arranged for the return trip. The driver dropped us at a different entrance than last time, but because we didn't know about different entrances we were thinking on the way in that the shops and buildings along the entrance were new but they looked old. Now we know that it can be helpful to ask the driver to drop you at a specific entrance if you know where you want to go inside the sizeable city area. After we entered and I saw that we were at the Pyramid of the Serpent, I realized what had happened. We continued walking northward up and down stairs multiple times (or, once, some of us went through a narrow tunnel) to get to the Pyramid of the Sun. This was my second visit to Teotihuacan, and my second hike to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. This time, unlike last time, there was a very long line at the middle level to climb the top half of the pyramid. Most of our time at the pyramids this time was spent waiting in line, and it felt a little like being at Disneyland that way. While we waited in line on the middle level of the pyramid for perhaps 30 minutes, the partly cloudy sky slowly turned darker. We reached the stairs then reached the top, took a few photos, and within a few minutes rain began to fall. As the rain grew steadier, we realized that not everyone hiking the pyramid was prepared for rain, so there was suddenly a rush to exit, which meant that again there was a long line to descend the steep stairs, which were now wet and getting wetter by the minute. We got in line. I put on my rain pants and opened my umbrella, sharing cover with whoever in our group needed it. People continued taking photos even as it rained and even as we waited in line to descend. Our driver picked us up outside the entrance without much difficulty, and we rode back to the city center. At the Airbnb, we rested. We walked to dinner at Los Arbolitos de Cajeme. I ordered tortilla soup and shrimp mignon, which turned out to be a shrimp patty wrapped with bacon—like a filet mignon. Ef sang a song by John Sebastian called Eso y Mas (This and More.) Returned to the Airbnb. Julio gave small gifts of Christmas ornaments made in his hometown of Chignahuapan, Puebla. Chignahuapan is famous for producing Christmas baubles, 60 million annually. Ef recommends a visit to Queretaro. Packed.