On Art and Science

Observations, Creations, Voyages

[onartandscience]

Helena Almeida, Study for Inner Improvement, 1977.

I find myself gravitating toward art these days that mention themes of the artist and author. I am currently enjoying reading City of Glass, by Paul Auster, which has a character that pretends to be Paul Auster, the detective, and then meets a character within the book, Paul Auster, the writer. It’s super meta and I love how Auster, the actual author, just throws in academic discussions as scenes that the main character interacts with. The author is a superposition of a alter ego, a false identity, a character, and indeed the author. This is a beautiful story that just brings all those post-modern concepts I learned in Art History classes back to my mind!

Now as far as this painting by Helena Almeida, the artist is pictured with a smattering of (dare I say Yves Klein) blue paint obscures half of her face, and most of her body. What we are left to look at is the hand she paints with and a heavy-lidded stare from one eye. The shape of the paint kind of encompasses Almeida’s body shape, but extends beyond her head into what I imagine to be a thought bubble area to the upper left corner. I love the activity of her hand gesture, as the color of the blue paint joins with the paintbrush in her hand. While her half-face, and the title somewhat lend toward a sad or ‘blue’ feeling, I admire the play with the “death of the author” as the paint is literally superimposing upon her physical presence, making the author obscured by the object of their creation.

Basically I’m nerding out hard core about art. And the death of the author is alive and well in art, but not in the science I’m doing...(Angst, angst, angst)

[onartandscience]

Yummy vegetables. Mmmmm vegetarianism is treating me well enough. I think this is all vegan anyway. 1. Cabbage and carrots with balsamic reduction 2. Beans and rice with cabbage slaw 3. Lentils with sweet potatoes

[onartandscience]

Isla Holbox

After leaving Chiapas, I decided to head to Campeche, a seaside town that I was somewhat unimpressed by. I was firstly exhausted by my night bus after the full full day of ruins and waterfalls. So instead, here’s what I did in the paradise that is Isla Holbox (Hole-bosh, not a Hole-box).

I had to take a bus from Campeche to Merida, and then a night bus from Merida to the port town of Chiquila. This left me with a sunrise ferry ride across the bay to the beautiful Isla Holbox. Honestly I was so ready for this to be a good sunrise, because it was a bit cloudy, and I was going to be traveling over this beautifully blue ocean water. This was—no joke—the MOST INCREDIBLE sunrise ever!!!

The sun changed the color of the clouds from a deep red to light orange pink over the course of my 30 minute ferry ride. The boat was packed with all the tourists arriving by bus, and I managed to get a front row seat. I had good good omens for my time at Holbox.

I realized the town was fairly expensive, as everything had to arrive by boat, so I only ate out once, and cooked in my hostel for all my meals. This ceviche was amazing, and totally made up for my fish on the beach that gave me food poisoning in Zipolite a few weeks ago.

I spent the 3 days reading a lot, and swimming a little.  I guess that’s what beach relaxing is all about.

[onartandscience]

Cascadas!!!

In Palenque, I decided to go ahead and book a tour for transport to both the nearby ruins and 2 waterfalls in the surrounding jungle. I mean it follows that rainforest has a lot of water running through it. And since Chiapas has a good bit of mountainous terrain as well, spectacular waterfalls surrounded by lush plant life just seemed like a GREAT thing to do.

My first stop was the more spectacular and exciting Cascada Misol-Ha. This 70 ft waterfall fell into a pool over an under hanging cliff. I was so excited to climb back behind the waterfall that I totally didn’t mind walking through a few puddles and getting soaked by the mist from the fall.

Next was the mush more built-up Agua Azul. This was more of a complex of waterfalls with literally 100 shops and restaurants all selling the same things: embroidered shirts or empanadas. The water was not “azul” (blue) either, because it was rainy season, so dirt was constantly being mudded up into the pools at the base of the falls. Nevertheless, it’s an impressive about of falling water.

[onartandscience]

The most visited site in the state of Chiapas is the Mayan Ruins of Palenque. It’s a small modern town near the ancient Mayan ruins on the northern part of Chiapas. I stayed one night there, and bought a combined bus ticket from the town to the ruins and 2 waterfalls further into the jungle (I’ll post those pictures in a separate post). The temple complexes and palaces of Palenque give a little bit of understanding of Mayan culture, but honestly I was fairly lost and mostly in awe of the aesthetics of the site. The whole site had to be excavated from jungle overgrowth, and some buildings were more reconstructed than original.

First off, the “Temple of the Inscriptions” is almost entirely a reconstruction, and the inscriptions in the top altar area are plaster copies, with the real carved stone inside a museum. Also, visitors couldn’t climb this reconstructed temple; which discouraged my favorite part… climbing pyramids. Pfft.

Anyway, I explored the palace building with the tower and several different decorated courtyards. Mayan writing is glyphic, so adding words to the staircase seem like fanciful geometries.

I then explored the temple complex “Plaza of the Cross” where 4 temples form a cross. Each was a pyramid with a set of stairs branching from the center of the plaza, but all were differing heights. I did get to climb the biggest one, but opted to show you a photo where you can see the tall staircase leading up to it. In each of these temples altars of bas-relief depict kings and gods, in the little covered parts on top of each pyramid.

I then explored the less reconstructed areas and loved seeing how the forest had taken over these ruins. Also I loved the beauty of the redirected creek and waterfall in the jungle.

***Pink flower are my fave foreverrrr***

[onartandscience]

Visiting Sumidero Canyon

After a very very relaxed stay at the beach in Zipolite, I had a long way to go to get to the Yucatan Peninsula. I decided to spend a few days in the state of Chiapas to break up my journey, and was pleasantly surprised by the things I got to do in the Jungle. I messed up on not getting my bus ticket from Pochutla to San Cristobal, and ended up having to transfer in the middle of the night and only getting to Tuxtla Guttierez, 1 hour from San Cristobal on public transit. Super sleep deprived from my 3 different bus rides to get to Tuxtla, I decided to do something near Tuxtla for the day, rather than just keep going to San Cristobal. I have been looking forward less to city life and more to outdoor activities in Chiapas. So I found that it would be pretty simple to go to the nearby town of Chiapas de Corso and take a boat ride through Sumidero Canyon.

The canyon is basically like a jungle/forest covered spectacle like the grand canyon. There was a good deal of wildlife in the canyon, including crocodiles, pelicans and deer. I was on a 15 person boat packed with other tourists in life vests. I was sort of in the back, and the guide was only speaking spanish, but recognizing animal names and the heights of cliffs was basically all I needed to enjoy myself.

I ended up needing to embrace the way that the other tourists were in my photos, and work with the overcast day, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even if I could only give so much attention in my sleep deprived state.

[onartandscience]

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A bit of my experience at the Playa Zipolite. 

I’m kind of terrible at making videos because I can only hold a camera steady for 1/60th of a second. 

Honestly, I was pretty boring at the beach in Zipolite. It was really hot so I spent a lot of time in front of a fan in the shade. Also the beach is actually pretty small, so there wasn’t too much for me to explore on it. Nevertheless it was a nice place to take a break. As it is simply beautiful, especially at sunrise and sunset.

[onartandscience]

Rugs on Rugs on Rugs!

After hanging out in the city of Oaxaca for a week, I was eager to explore this state more thoroughly by going first to the smaller village of Teotitlan del Valle. I was intrigued that the town’s main product was woven wool rugs. My hosts were a very nice family who wove rugs and raised farm animals. I could mostly talk to the 2 grown sons, Samuel and Celestino, in English. They had both gone to college in the UK and some back to work on their parents farm. It’s difficult to describe this homestay other than as a homestay. I got to learn about their life on the farm and weaving rugs, and participated where I could.

When I first arrived Samuel and his mother (Leonore, who actually went by Nora), were dying some wool red. They bought wool from other farmers/spinners but dyed it themselves using completely natural traditional dyes. Samuel was pretty excited that I was a chemist, as he was starting to test the pH of the dyes to collect data on natural dyes. This particular red came from a crushed squash beetle, dried and actually purchased from other farmers as well. They also add limes for acidity, and potassium nitrate a salt to hold the dye to the wool. The low pH of the red from the limes made it more red. Samuel says the same beetle dye will be a blue color at basic pH. This reminds me of pH testing with red cabbage, which turns blue in basic conditions.

Anyway, after dying the yarn, Samuel shows me the looms, and actually I did about 15 rows of a pattern of pink on a white background. The loom acts to hold the warp (thinner vertical threads in the fabric), and has 2 foot pedals to control two sets of warp. Basically, press one pedal down, and one half is raised above the other, and you have a hand-width of space between the 2 sets, where you can pass your thicker colored yarn that comprises the rug. To achieve patterns of different colors, small sections of a single color can be woven through only part of the warp, and the background is then filled around the shape of the pattern.

After learning about the rugs and weaving a tiny bit, I started telling Samuel about the Pacific Crest trail, and he told me about a trail I could take to a nearby peak just walking from his house. I had 2 hours until dark, so I went off to climb a peak! I managed to get up to the top just around sunset, and could catch the golden hour view of the village of Teotitlan del Valle standing next to some crosses mounted at the top of the hill.

The next morning, I went with Samuel to their alfalfa field, to gather some food for the animals. We used sickle to collect alfalfa and another coexisting grass to feed horses, cows, and goats.  There is something particularly satisfying about a sickle, because the little saw blades just take out maybe 50 plant stems as you pull it towards you.  

He then explained some of the traditional patterns in the rugs and how they symbolized parts of the Zapotec religion. Theirs a swirl motif with steps leading to it on one side, this represented the cycle of life, moving up and forward from childhood to adulthood, then down and backwards in old age and death.

The next day, Nora, my host, dyed a batch green using a variety of plants and I actually got a picture of the process. The plants are boiled in water with the potassium nitrate salt and then the wool is added. It was a fairly rainy day, so I got thoroughly soaked waiting for the bus out of town, but no matter, I had an overnight bus ride to the beach to dry off.  

As I left I realized I regretted not buying one of their rugs, so I emailed Samuel and was sent pictures of the rugs. The one I picked they had to take a new picture of, and it is so big that Celestino and Mario (the father) had to stand on the roof of the kitchen to get it vertical!

[onartandscience]

Food in Oaxaca

To be honest, I pretty much decided to go to Mexico so I could go to Oaxaca and try all the food. The only specific regional Mexican restaurants in the United States typically focus on Oaxaca food. I probably first learned about Oaxaca from going to Frontera Grill (Rick Bayless’s restaurant) in Chicago with my parents. I kept either only recognizing Oaxaca as a regional name of Mexico, or truly was inundated with Oaxacan food at Mexican restaurants. So when I was planning this trip to Mexico Oaxaca was on it purely for food. And the food has not disappointed!

First, in my preliminary research on Mexican food, I actually focused on Oaxaca. I learned of 7 types of mole, a sauce made from a blend of many ingredients from chiles to coriander to tamarind to chocolate. I also learned of more varied tortilla dishes, such as tlayuda (a crisped tortilla loaded with beans and avocados and cheese), and empanadas (made with fresh giant tortillas folded over fillings of mole and cheese). But once I got to Oaxaca I discovered even more delicious classics.

On my second night, I went to a very traditional restaurant that served dishes with unique (to an American) ingredients. I tried a soup made with huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn, but it had so much bitterness, that I could only stand bites with a healthy dollop of melted cheese scraped from the bottom of the bowl. I also ordered a tlayuda (that crispy tortilla loaded with salad basically), that came with the extra crush of fried ants. Yes I HAVE EATEN BUGS! (+1 for adventurous eater Nora). Honestly the ants, even tried alone, have very little flavor, and so honestly I think the white people world really could handle it in their diet; and I think even vegetarians and vegans who are against livestock rearing practices could get behind eating bugs too.

I kept up on my wild ride that night by actually meeting up with a Swedish traveller from couchsurfing.com. His name was Gus, we went to the Mescal festival happening that night and he gave me some good pointers on how to actually get hosted on couchsurfing. We traded tales of travel, trying to one-up on the hipster adventure points, because why the hell not be competitive around other white people. Anyway, I like mescal more as straight shots than the syrupy concoctions I tried in Guanajuato. So more great food points to Oaxaca!

Now, about the mole: There are indeed 7 types in Oaxaca, I’ve tried at least 5 so far, but one was in Puebla (and isn’t even one of the Oaxaca 7). Mole Poblano (Pueblan Mole)

Mole Negro (BLACK AS DEATH MAN)

Mole Coloradito

Mole Rojo

Mole Amarillo (no picture because I didn’t know my “empanada amarillo”, actually used amarillo mole until after I devoured the whole thing)

The three I have left to try: Mole Verde Mole Chichilo Mole Manchamantel

To be honest, I just love mole and I’m pleased every time I have it here. I’ve had it for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and I’m not complaining. For Breakfast, Enmoladas are tortillas stewed for a little bit in finished mole and topped with crumbly cheese, raw onion slices and parsley. For lunch I had an empanada amarillo. And the obvious method of mole delivery is for dinner, Mole with chicken and rice is a very pure way to eat mole, and pretty much delicious.

A last note on Mexican Breakfast:

I’ve been having late breakfasts (brunch I suppose) and dinners for most of my days in Oaxaca, and honestly coffee and spicy enchiladas is just a great way to start the day! It always comes with bread, I often get different meats and sauces, and my days go pretty well after such good food. I am pretty full for the entire day eating like this, so often my lunch has consisted of fruit and aguas frescas (kind of like fruit juice, but its water, sugar, and soaked fruit, rather than a pressed fruit juice).

[onartandscience]

Adventures in Oaxaca

I’ve spent a week in the city of Oaxaca, and I’ve changed up my typical touristing pace to include: late breakfasts, reading books, and watching movies. I’ve actually had some great adventures, mostly in eating, and a little bit of exploring.

By far my favorite part about Oaxaca was my trip to Monte Alban, the ancient city temple of the Zapotec people. Instead of building their city in the valley (where Oaxaca city currently is), they built it on top of a nearby mountain! Around 300 BCE, the Zapotec began flattening the top of the mountain, and over the next 1000 years, they created a temple complex seated on top of that mountain. The architecture is less monumental than at Teotihuacan yet the Zapotec imported precious materials for the construction from the ocean and other parts of Mexico.

Less is known (or explained on placards in English) about the functionality of each temple, so their names were beautiful, objective archeological terms like “Edifice J”.

The structure of the site is pretty amazing. First I came up the south side, where the tallest temple stood on a man-made platform. This complex had a series of pavilions leading up to the highest point. The highest pavilion had 3 pyramidal temples and a platform which used to have a column-supported roof structure.

Moving north, I stopped for a selfie at the sunken pavilion still in this southern temple complex. I then stood at the raised edge of the pavilion for a view of the central plaza, a huge grassy area with temples and palaces in the center as well as on all sides.

Rather than the mural decorations of the Teotihucanites, the Zapotec decorated in carved relief, so preserved decorative panels display ‘dancers’ still on the site.

As I climbed the far northern temple complex, I looked back at the central plaza, and observed that one building was off axis. I later learned that this off-axis building was aligned to astrological observations (as opposed to the cardinal directions of the other structures).

Now everything was going pretty well at Monte Alban, and I was leaving the site when a Mexican couple (Mari and Ruben, were their names, I later learned) asked me if I would like a free ticket to the Guelagueza dance performance that night. It took a while for us to both understand what each other was saying, and to form a plan on how to reconnect at the performance that night.

I manage to find the auditorium back in Oaxaca city, and get my ticket from Ruben, who is working with the backstage crew for the performance. I end up sitting with Mari for the show. It’s pretty exciting because the dancers enter the stage from the audience for almost every number. The whole thing was so over-the-top that it was just very entertaining as there was little story and lots of dance.

After the show, Mari and Ruben insisted that I join them and the hoards of audience members onstage to take pictures with the cast. As someone who is not that into hugging strangers, I was forced to wait in lines of swooning teeny-boppers and actual friends of the cast to do this. Anyway, I got a late-night snack at the street fair associated with the whole Guelagueza festival with Mari and Ruben, and practiced a lot of my shoddy shoddy Spanish.

[onartandscience]

I needed a pit stop between my adventures in Guanajuato, 5 hours north of Mexico City, and Oaxaca, 6 hours south of Mexico City. So instead of returning to Mexico City, I decided to visit Cholula, a smaller city in the state of Puebla. Cholula was a big religious site for Pre-Hispanic cultures, built around the same time as Teotihuacan. However, unlike Teotihuacan, Cholula didn’t have one singular building event, but its architecture was even more superimposed over thousands of years, in the one site I visited 6 different buildings were on top of each other.

Cholula had more significance to the Mexica (Aztec) powers during the 16th century when they were conquered by the Spanish. This meant that Hernan Cortez himself conquered Cholula, and insisted that all religious altars of Cholula be destroyed and a Catholic church would be built on those sites. Therefore there are 4 churches just in the central square of the town. Also they built a church on top of the large Cholula Pyramid (largest volume pyramid in the world).

I visited the archeological site which takes you more into the struggles of archeologists than the reconstructed city of Teotihuacan. I began by walking through the excavated tunnels below the pyramid that archeologists used to investigate the structure and building phases of the pyramid. Then I was directed to the southeast side of the pyramid, where surface excavations reveal the 6 layers of buildings in the temple complex at the base of the pyramid, including several diverse altar structures.

As I left the archeological site, I climbed a reconstructed staircase that lead to a platform on the side of the pyramid, and had a great view of a bustling tourist market. I watched a stunt show, where 4 men climb up a pole, attach ropes to themselves and swing down from the pole to the ground. They first wind up the ropes around the pole, then spin the top part as they are slowly unwinding the ropes before they reach the ground.

I didn’t climb to the top of the pyramid on my first day, because it is the rainy season in Mexico. So in the afternoons, low clouds cover up the surrounding spectacular volcanic peaks. I went instead closer to sunrise, and had the place almost to myself!

[onartandscience]

Corners of San Miguel de Allende

When I first arrived in San Miguel de Allende, I was miffed by how packed the historic center of such a small town could be SO packed with tourists. I mean, I’ve been pushing through crowds every since I arrived in Mexico.  But they have gradually been decreasing as I go to smaller and smaller cities, I kind of imagined San Miguel de Allende as a little more remote than it has proven to be. But as with everywhere I seem to go, it is indeed a tourist destination.

I did a bit better for myself on my second day, and found the beautiful corners of San Miguel de Allende to be in the beautiful courtyards. I spent a lot of time in the morning at the Instituto de Allende, an art school that attracted American expats in the late 20th century as the GI Bill sponsored study here for veterans. It was an incredible courtyard, with great greenery, and a variety of murals.

I next continued to read my book in a courtyard of the Bellas Artes Centro Cultural, which may or may not be associated with the same school. There were sculptures and exhibition galleries, but mainly, really comfy chairs to read in!

I then sort of wandered around looking at all of the churches in this town. There were 5 or 6 Sunday Masses at the main Parroquia (Neogothic church with the huge spires at the center of town). But there were also services at all the other 4 churches I saw that day when I was walking through town. Catholics, amirite? I didn’t particularly want to attend any of these Masses in full, so I tried to respectfully peek into the churches and then take pictures of the outside.

I also loved walking through the Mercado des Artistas, but it’s so full of tourists, that pretty much all of the stall owners do not allow photography. I didn’t want to get yelled at in Spanish, so I just paid my respects and stared at things without seeming interested in buying anything, because I cannot afford any souvenirs really.

[onartandscience]

The Beautiful Hills of Guanajuato

Somehow Guanajuato has the right mix between tourists and locals. Every street maintains its colonial style, with colorful houses made of plaster and no ‘modern’ buildings to obstruct the colonial feel. The streets themselves are very narrow, some are exclusively for walking, and some are so narrow no cars would fit up them. Also since the entire town is built on and between two very steep hills, its pretty much up and down and up and down if you wander around enough.

I climbed up the northern hill to see one of the mines that made Guanajuato established in the beginning to New Spain. The tour was all in Spanish, but they did do some pretty cool things like drop some rocks down the central shaft, and the delay was about 5 seconds, pretty deep! This mine also provided all the rock to build a castle in full European style on the same hill. Scott really fit into the scenery in his uniform/costume of 16th century musicians.

I also explored the western hill, where a museum is dedicated to the natural mummies of the catacombs and graveyard on that hill. The museum tour was again, all in Spanish, so I was a bit lost, but there were a lot of mummified babies and like a newborn that is apparently the smallest mummy in the world.

Finally, my favorite hill was the one south of the central valley of the town, where a huge statue of a warrior in the War of Mexican Independence is. This viewpoint/statue is called the Pipila, and it provides a really cool aerial view of the town, highlights include the 2 huge churches in the center of town, and the University building, with it’s grand staircase. I was up there for an hour or two, reading my book, and watching a raincloud fall across the valley on another hill. 

Finally, check out how they light up the Pipila statue at night!

[onartandscience]

Guanajuato: the tourist industry at its finest.

I decided to visit Guanajuato for very little reason, and have enjoyed myself getting lost amidst its totally different kind of hustle and bustle from Mexico City.

I found the cheapest bed in Guanajuato by looking on Airbnb, and ended up sharing an apartment with a very nice guy: Scott. But the problem is I speak pitifully little Spanish, and Scott speaks similarly little English. We are both pretty enthusiastic about travel and communication is good enough for government work. Scott works for a group of street musicians, a traditional act in Guanajuato: the callejoneadas. There are maybe 5 or 6 troupes of callejoneadas in the city of Guanajuato, and they all perform every night, you can recognize them by their funny Colonial Spanish men in tights costumes, with velvet shirts and puffy sleeves. Different troupes have different color schemes, and Scott’s is black and gold. The groups consist of string instruments, accordions, and tambourines, and I guess they sing well known songs, because the audiences pretty much can sing along to every single one.

The musicians and promoters of the callejoneada troupes run a pretty good hustle. The thing about their shows is that they basically recruit everyone at the central plaza in the prime restaurant area of the city, sell them tickets, then sing and lead everyone around the city through the narrow alleys and streets of the colonial town. Basically you can follow them around, but sooner or later you have to pay at a bottleneck, yes a literal bottleneck in the street. The act begins with a single performer, let’s call him the emcee, who riles up the crowd, gives people different calls and responses and basically gets everyone clapping and shouting, probably to attract more audience members. The emcee then introduces the band, and they break into song. The emcee picks out couples in the audience and has them turn to the crowd, having them do funny romantic things, and dance to the music. The band leads the crowd through the streets, and eventually through a bottleneck, where Scott gets me in without a ticket. He also leads me running around during one of the moves so I end up in front of the band instead of at the back of the crowd. Even without knowing Spanish it’s pretty fun following everyone around and even to watch the crowd struggle as they walk over the cobblestones and dance.

After the callejoneada performance, Scott asks me if I want to drink, and I don’t understand, so he takes me to a mescaleria, and 5 shots of mescal later, I’m still standing. Actually, mescalerias make flavored mescal shots, so it’s more like drinking cocktails in shot form. We try mostly super sweet syrupy flavors, then the ‘animal’ which is the pure liquor but has a scorpion in the bottle for some reason. I’m a straight bourbon drinker, so honestly even ‘animal’ mescal is pretty easy to drink.

On the next day in Guanajuato, I get the chance to observe the hustle of the mariachi bands in the open air restaurants in the center of town. These guys have totally different costumes than the callejoneadas—suits with all these metal decorations lining every seam—and play violins, trumpets, accordion, and guitars. They serenade paying customers, but before they begin are just sitting around waiting to play, before suddenly 15 of the same troupe come from all over the square to serenade a customer.

I spent my last night in Guanajuato chasing all of the callejoneadas along their routes to try to photograph the spectacle!

[onartandscience]

I’m a Museum Nerd and I LOVE IT.

On my last day in Mexico City, I returned to my city-slicker basics: walk a lot and go to museums. And I had a great day. I began with a plan, and I totally botched it. 

I started the day hoping to see some Diego Rivera murals, because they are famous and all. Instead I walked around the historic center near my hostel and found this really cool church all decked out for some government event. 

I then came upon the National Museum of Art. I was still pretty curious about Mexican Academic art, since I had only really learned about archeology and Pre-Columbian art so far in my museum going. I went to an exhibit on Brazilian modernism (kind of like European modernism, but in Brazil), then I went to the exhibit on the Mexican artist José María Velasco, who did landscape paintings and scientific illustration. I loved learning about his 19th-20th century exactness, and his precision seemed like Casper David Friedrich or John Constable but like a hundred years later. 

Image Source: http://www.invaluable.com/artist/velasco-jose-maria-zq16mrr1tk

I then proceeded through what seemed like eons of boring colonial academic art from the 16th-18th century, because honestly the best paintings from Spain were not happening in Mexico then. 

I left the National Museum of Art, and got myself a chorizo torta (sandwich with meat, avocado, pickled peppers, pickled carrots, tomato, and mayo). I then tried again to look at the Diego Rivera murals in the Palace of Bellas Artes. But I wasn’t really sure how to get inside, so I just left and headed toward the museum of Diego Rivera Murals. I got distracted and sat in the park to make sure there wasn’t anything more interesting nearby. I ended up instead going to the Museo de Arte Popular, or folk art museum. 

The Museo de Arte Popular was incredible, it was housed in an art deco building that was all white with great geometry. I was so happy to be surrounded by brightly colored paper sculptures and embroidery and even just sat in the museum for an hour reading my book after I finished all of the exhibits. 

I ended up meeting a nice man in an art shop next to the museum, where I bought a sketchbook. He had lived in Seattle for 4 years, and told me that this was a pretty old art shop, where Frida and Diego would get their supplies. It reminded me of the places I had to go to get conservation supplies during my internship in Paris. I then was hankering for fish, so I went to a restaurant called “Fishers” and had a great grilled snapper, and a free shrimp tostada. But the waiter insisted I needed more food, so sold me on an enormous caramel crepe cake. It was so overly sweet, I had to get coffee just to get the whole thing down (because I cannot possibly  waste food ayaaaaa). 

I noticed that I had only walked 7 miles today, and it was 3 miles back to my hostel, so I opted to walk back. 

[onartandscience]

Visiting Teotihuacan!

I did my good museum learning in Mexico City 2 days ago, and went off on my adventure to my first Mesoamerican archeological site of Teotihuacan yesterday. I did it the cheapest way possible, which meant taking the local bus to the out of town bus station, taking another bus to the archeological site and then walking around the archeological site without a guide, just following the paths. Also I went really early to avoid the MAJOR crowds and heat. 

I managed to get there in one piece, meeting a local guide on the bus, but couldn’t afford to pay him for a tour. Anyway, I told him that I did my research learning at the Anthropology museum, and he told me I was very intelligent. Thanks Manuel. 

I made it to the park by 8AM, and was somewhat miffed by the terrible photographic lighting as I saw the ornately carved Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcoatl). But I persevered and was grateful it wasn’t super hot. 

I walked up the Calle de los Muertos (Road of the Dead), the primary North/South street in the city, passing active dig sites and reconstructed temples and dwellings along the way. The city of Teotihuacan was inhabited from 100 CE - 850 CE, and served as the religious center for worship of several gods, at the enormous pyramids and surrounding temples. They went through several styles of construction, and added onto existing structures, for example raising the floor at this temple to change the staircase banisters from jaguars with split tongues to quetzlcoatls. 

I proceeded toward the larger Pyramid of the Sun, on an East/West axis. While it’s called the Pyramid of the Sun, sun worship was probably not what it was dedicated to, rather the alignment with the sun facilitated ritual sacrifice to the Water/Rain god Tlaloc, and a moat around the pyramid and several burial sites corresponded to ritual sacrifices to the water god. I climbed to the top using the reconstructed staircase with many other visitors, and got a view of the whole site from above. It was indeed a very satisfying venture as there are views the entire time!

After lounging about at the top of the pyramid for a while, watching the other tourists take ridiculous selfies and have full on photoshoots of posing, I took 2 self-timer photos and was happy with it. I walked down and headed north toward the second pyramid, the Pyramid of the Moon. I climbed to the first tier, and got the awesome symmetrical view of the entire Calle de los Metros and the Plaza of the Moon with its pristinely reconstructed surrounding temples. 

Next I got to learn about interior decoration by wandering through the Palace of the Jaguars, with few somewhat intact murals, and continued to the Mural Museum, a little bit off site from the pyramids. I managed to have that museum completely to myself! It was cool and dark in there, and there was a really great collection of murals from Téotihuacan. My favorite was this mural of mythical sea creatures in colorful waves, and the reconstruction placed in front to show the depth of the image. As feathered sea serpents seem to be going through waves at different levels!

I also loved the reconstructed patio mural in black, white, and red of an interior in a ‘suburb’ of Teotihuacan. 

I ended the day wandering through the site museum, catching the quetzlcoatl sculpture in close up and back to the bus stop. I got back to Mexico City to be engulfed again in the mass of people, as I managed to experience the rush of a packed metro car where you can’t grab onto any support but are left completely squashed amidst a mass of people. 

[onartandscience]

From the Anthropology Museum: other regions in Mexico besides the High Plateau

So in the amazing awesomeness that was the National Anthropology Museum, I also got learn about the history of the people in other regions I’ll be traveling to in Mexico. Specifically, I really delved into Oaxaca history, then somewhat stared in tired amazement at Mayan civilization.

So Oaxaca is the coastal region pretty much due south of Mexico City. It was populated by 2 ethnic groups: Zapotec on the hills, and Mixtec in the valleys. Zapotec were very centralized to Monte Alban, a mountain temple complex and city pretty near modern Oaxaca City, and were ‘more’ powerful in the sense of civilization building and artistic production in Monte Alban from 500 BCE - 900 CE. Zapotec art was lauded in fine polychrome pottery. The Mixotec invaded and took control of Monte Alban in 900 BCE, and proceeded to make pretty things too, like painted codices and turquoise mosaic masks.

The Mayans are simply awe inspiring, and their culture reads most like the Arabs do in European medieval history, but perhaps 10-20 centuries before the European Middle Ages. They were amazing mathematicians and astronomers, and maintained a peaceful existence, producing incredible art and architecture. I’m mostly just amped to see their influences in the Yucatan, and visit the beautiful city of Chichen Itza, because there was literally a full size reproduction of a part of it outside the museum! Hopefully I gain more of a sense of Mayan history as I travel through their lands.