What a cool city! I made many trips to the Yucatan peninsula back in the ’80s so returning to Mexico feels like coming home. I had heard that Mexico City was the next cool city to visit and it hasn’t disappointed. I’m particularly impressed now that I’ve found myself in the chic and leafy Condesa neighborhood. I didn’t start out here though, so let’s go back a few days to when I arrived on December 10.

I booked myself into the hotel El Salvador in the Centro Historico which turned out to be a good decision. It was an easy walk to the Zocalo and proposed an amazing buffet breakfast, which turned out to be the best of the whole trip.

December 11

My first day was devoted to first overcoming jet lag of course and then finding a new suitcase as the one that I had broke a wheel on its way down my bumpy street in Nice. Mission accomplished !

At the end of the day, I took a walk around Zocolo which was filled with an open air market which reminded me of the night markets in Asia except there was less food available and more handicrafts of fairly decent quality.

December 12

TEMPLO MAYOR

 I spent most of the following day in the Temple Mayor which was quite an experience, at times overwhelming. It was one of the most sinister and disturbing spots I have ever visited.

The Templo mayor was built by the Aztecs in the 15th to 16th centuries. It was expanded a number of times. Everything about the temple involved human sacrifice. According to Spanish Chronicles at the consecration of the temple no less than 80,000 people were sacrificed in a bloodletting that it would be hard to find a parallel of anywhere in history. For years, the Mexican government of course denied that it had occurred and claimed that it was Spanish propaganda. This worked until the archaeologists dug further and found many, many piles of human skulls as well as doing a chemical analysis of the floors of the temple which revealed human blood and lots of it.

Now it is generally acknowledged that human sacrifice did occur there in quantity. But the question is how much. The consensus is that 80,000 is probably too much that the real number was probably three or 4,000, which still seems like quite a lot.

The victims were dragged up the stairs flanked by extremely ominous looking snakeheads. Their hearts were torn out and the bodies were then rolled to the bottom of the stairs where they would be torn limb to limb and then fed to the elite onlookers.

The stone upon which the victims were placed was next to the temples of the two gods, one a water God and the other a war God.  Below is the ensemble of the two temples and the “cutting stone”

In the center of the temple is a wooden platform adorned with skulls of some of the victims.

There’s also a museum which displays objects recovered from the temple. Nearly all the objects have to do with the human sacrifice, including the blades used to cut them open and remove the heart as well as certain vessels and spiny objects. What were they for ? Apparently the Aztec gods demanded blood and lots of it. So on ritual feast days of which there were quite a lot, the Aztec people would pierce themselves with spiny objects to draw blood and allow the blood to drip into the receptacles which were on display in the museum. These were their offerings to the gods. And where did they pierce themselves ? Lots of places including the genitals.

Not all of these facts were given in the explanations that accompanied the displays. I would say that while sacrifice was referred to the numbers generally were not. Explanations of the more grisly aspects of the Aztec religion were given in Spanish only rather than English and Spanish, which was the general rule. And the explanation accompanying the wooden platform with all the skulls was completely defaced.

I spent a number of hours in the temple and the museum and by the end of it was completely depleted. I was happy to take refuge in the cathedral next door.

It was so nice to hear hymns being sung and people praying to a God that in fact did not instruct his followers to kill people but instructed them not to do so. Big difference.

I won’t go into the complicated Aztec cosmology except to say that their origin story was that their gods demanded sacrifice in order to make the Sun go up in the morning. Did they still believe that was the case? Note that they taught their school kids a complicated solar and lunar calendar which would indicate that they observed regular solar cycles.

Or was all the bloodletting a useful way of controlling their population and scaring the living crap out of all of their neighbors to make them easier to conquer ?

The following day I changed hotels thinking I would try a new neighborhood that turned out to be uninspiring. The hotel Max was quite lovely, Splendid room, Beautiful view but there was just nothing to do around the hotel. No matter. I headed out to the Anthropological Museum where I spent a lot of time

It was appropriate to begin with the Olmecs, A mysterious civilization that arose several centuries before Christ and then mysteriously disappeared, but who left impressive Stone monuments. Little is known about them.

The large exhibition space devoted to Teotihuacan gave a magnificent overview of their city that arose from the 1st Century BC and lasted until about 650 ad when it mysteriously fell. Particularly impressive was the recreation of the facade of the Temple of the feathered serpent.

Then on to the Aztec room which provided a stark contrast to prior civilizations. It was a highly masculinized culture that seemed again almost exclusively devoted to sacrifice. Why do we say sacrifice ? Wasn’t it murder ? So many of the objects on display had to do with blood and sacrifice. Even their masks looked terrifying. Fertility goddesses ? Nope. Gods doing heroic things like Hercules tackling a lion ? Nope.

One of the massive objects recovered was a circular Stone carved with an image of one of their terrifying gods.

But the stone had a purpose. Warriors who were particularly brave and captured by the Aztecs would be tied to the center of this Stone with one rope. Then Aztec warriors would approach them with knives pretending that it was actually a fair fight. Of course it wasn’t and the captive was simply stabbed to death.

Not that the Aztecs were in any way stupid. They built their city in the middle of a lake and it could only be approached by causeways that could be pulled up in case of need. It was a perfect defensive posture.

Their city was essentially impregnable. The Spaniards never would have conquered it except that Montezuma very foolishly invited them in. Whoops. The Spaniards still didn’t have enough Manpower to actually take the city, but they had no problem finding allies in the surrounding regions composed of people who absolutely detested the Aztecs and refused to believe that the Spaniards could be any worse.

So there you have it. I don’t see any way you could consider the Aztec culture as anything other than a death cult. Maybe they needed to be taken out.

Unfortunately that night I sampled chicken tacos which provoked  a real barf-o- rama (curse of the Aztecs!). I spent most of the rest of the day in bed except for meeting my contact Sophie for a cup of tea in a very pretty part of town called the Condesa neighborhood.

TEOTIHUACAN

The following day I headed out to Teotihuacan. It wasn’t hard to get to. I had gotten into the habit of taking Ubers in Mexico City because the transport system was too complicated, the city was too large and Ubers were really cheap. So I took an Uber to the north bus station and Easley. I got a ticket for a bus out to the archaeological site.

The first thing you see when you enter Is the so-called Sun pyramid.

The massiveness of this structure cannot be appreciated until you’re standing before it. Of course we don’t know if it was dedicated to the Sun at all. That’s what the Aztecs called it later on when they arrived in an act of startling cultural appropriation ! Now it’s thought that maybe it was built for the water god Tlotoc because there was a moat around it. Then you walk down this vast 50 m wide highway to another pyramid the so-called Temple of the Moon which I did manage to climb partway for the view.

The people that built this magnificent City that contained I believe about a quarter of a million people at one point probably built the temples with their spectacles and sacrifices as way to control the population with a spectacle of political and military power. I also trekked out to the westernmost point which was the seat of their political power. It was there administrative offices that were here until they were destroyed about 650 ad a date which marks pretty much the end of this whole powerful City that you could call the Rome of mesoamerica. Why was it destroyed ? No one knows, but it seems to have been internal strife because both temples were damaged and the administrative officers. The seat of political power was most viciously attacked. But the ending remains mysterious.

They renovated interiors of what we suppose were Palaces were also very interesting to visit and somehow reminded me of Pompeii that is adorned with carved pillars and decorated with frescoes.

It’s a vast and fascinating site that I may very well revisit before I leave the country. I wanted to see the Temple of the feathered serpent but boy is that hard to find. There were no signs to it and chatgpt gave me a bunch of confusing directions. I was tired, not completely well and already there for a good 4 hours so I decided to call it a day.

I was happy to leave the hotel and today check into my new one Casa Noa in the Condesa neighborhood which I love. Unlike the last neighborhood, there are a lot of fascinating cafes and various restaurants and parks and leafy streets. I spent much of the afternoon exploring it and can’t wait to explore more.

December 17

Unfortunately, I left my Kindle back in the hotel box and had to make a trek across town to retrieve it. I’ve basically given up on the Mexican City transportation system as I found it extremely difficult to even find the stop that was supposed to take me to a Metro bus or something that would take me across town. I wound up having to take an Uber there and back. Fortunately, Ubers are not very expensive. The problem with the system is that there is no direct route to anywhere. You can take a Metro to some place or another and then Google maps tells you you have to switch to some other line, Metro Bus or a bus, which of course is nowhere near the original Metro stop and then you have to find it. And I have a feeling that Google maps maybe does not work that well in Mexico City. At least I can’t get it to work that well.

The hotel turned out to be very unlovable but who knew ? At least at first everything was fine and I spent the rest of the day taking a long walk through La Condesa to Roma Norte and on to La Romita which was really the heart of old Mexico City.

It’s like a world unto itself. So cute. Such an adorable Square and a fierce desire to remain independent first from the Aztecs and then from the Mexicans.

I loved strolling, the wide boulevards of Roman Norte, clearly an exciting neighborhood, but I probably prefer La Condesa for the greenery and the parks.

It’s so swanky. I had a wonderful lunch of grilled tuna on a roll in a restaurant that was absolutely scrumptious.

But yes it was quite pricey. In fact, everything in this neighborhood is quite pricey. You can see that, especially along Amsterdam Street. But I just loved all of the parks, especially Mexican Park.

I wasn’t familiar with typical Mexican gardens which are so very different English and French Gardens. So much lusher and filled with tropical vegetation. I can see that this would be the preferred neighborhood to live in, but a quick glance of real estate prices made it clear that it’s about as expensive as the Promenade in Nice.

Anyway, it was a lovely walk that unfortunately ended in rain. So yes another Uber back to the hotel.

TULA

The following day I decided to visit Tula which was the site of the Great great Toltec civilization. Not much is known about them except that they arose after the fall of Teotihuacan and lasted until the Aztecs.

It was an adventure. Of course there was another lengthy Uber ride to the north bus station to get the bus to Tula which was 2 hours and to be honest not terribly scenic as we passed through. Just endless urban sprawl.

The site was terrific though, Very evocative, practically no one was there which just gave the whole whole site an aura of mystery.

Of course I climbed up to see the giant statues that represented toltech warriors.

Then I looked around the rest of the site which contains the remains of several pyramids

including a ball court, outside of which was a place that had hosted one of those giant wooden structures that held skulls. Who built it ? The Aztecs, of course !

The Aztecs also out up the “Wall of Snakes” which, in typical Aztec fashion showed a snake devouring a human and had to do with human sacrifice

I loved wandering around. It was very, very peaceful. Very few people there but after about a couple of hours you’ve seen everything the pyramids and the ball Court and the giant Plaza

and then it was time to get back. Therein lay the problem. The bus from Mexico City took you first to a place called I believe. Saint Juan and then I joined with a small Mexican family to share a taxi out to the archaeological site. No problem. Coming back was a problem though as I lost track of these people. There were no taxis and there were no Ubers in the area. I was told to just go back to the road which I did. It was a very busy road with no obvious way of hailing a taxi. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do, but I asked around quite a bit first in a convenience store and then in a place that seemed to be an automotive supply place. And eventually I found a guy who told me that I just simply needed to walk around the convenience store and find the taxi. Fortunately, he was there to help. He helped me hail a taxi and I got back to the bus station in time to get the 3:00 bus. All well and good. The bus took 2 hours to get back to the north bus station in Mexico City, but the problem was that it was the beginning of rush hour. First, I decided to grab a snack. figuring I’d wait at 15-20 minutes. See if the surge pricing tempered down a little bit but no it didn’t. It just kept getting more and more expensive. Finally I broke down and ordered an Uber. The station was absolutely jammed with people. I have no idea why but even the legitimate City taxis were overrun with people. It was a mob scene. So finally my Uber arrived really really nice guy but it took at least an hour. Probably more like an hour and a half to get back to the hotel which of course added more charges. The traffic was unbelievable but the whole experience was very good for my Spanish as the taxi driver was very talkative and we had a lengthy conversation about our mutual histories and so forth. So that was the good part. I arrived back at the hotel exhausted and discovered that somehow I managed to lose my key card and then they want you to pay €15 to replace it. I thought it was exorbitant. We had a dispute. The guy was quite nasty consistent with his attitude from the beginning of the stay. Some people shouldn’t go into the hospitality business.

I left the following morning  to catch the bus to Taxco which left from the southern bus station.