The things that legends are made of
November 1, 2015
Our good friend, Estela, dropped by this morning with a new set of activities for us for today. We returned to the Reforma and took a bus to the Anthropological Museum. Outside the museum, we encountered a shaman who blesses passers-by.
In front of the Shaman was a conch shell in the center of a ring of marigolds, and a chalice, in the center of another ring of marigolds. Placed in the chalice were leaves, some oil and pieces of amber. The contents of the chalice was lit and the smoke from the fire had an interesting smell.
Onwards, towards the museum, we encountered a 30 meter pole where five people climb and perform the Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers).
One performer has a small flute and a small drum. He climbs all the way to the top where he plays and dances. The other four climb to the top, tie a rope around their waist and perform acrobatic dances while descending back down. This represents a ritual that was common among the Totonac civilization of the 15th century. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the day of the performance.
Moving on, we crossed the parking lot and entered the museum.
The museum had collections of archeological finds broken down by age, civilization and region. We started at the most earliest period which dates back six million years to about 50,000 BC.
Pictured above is a common kitchen tool for preparing the much to make tortillas. Corn (maize) is placed on top and the stone is used to crush and squeeze the pulp out of the kernels and the pulp is then poured onto another vessel.
We worked our way through each room learning more about the ancient civilizations such as Teotihuacán, Toltec, Mexica, Oaxaca, Gulf and Mayan.
There was more to see, but we saw plenty and it was time to eat.
We hopped in a cab and Estela had the driver take us to a German restaurant where her dad used to take her. Her parents and I got along famously (even though her mom didn’t speak any English, we communicated well in the kitchen). The restaurant is called Bellinhauser, and that is the only thing German about it. It was a nice restaurant with great food. Estela ordered for us a delicacy called, “Escamoles” as an appetizer.
Escamoles are ant larvae, which we would have never considered to order, but we tried it and we liked it a lot.
After eating the mid-day meal, we headed back to the Reforma to see the alejimbres (creatures of fantasy). There were many of them on display and some had moving parts that animated them when they were in tow.
It was a fun and full day with Estela, and I am ever so grateful that she was able to take some time to show us around her beautiful city.
