Pollo Feliz

Gosh I can be so self-centered sometimes! My apologies to all those who I have hurt in my single mindedness.
Today is our last day in Mexico City.
And during these last 3 months I have totally neglected to mention one important individual during our trip, and how this summer has impacted her.
My deepest sympathies Lulu. I apologize with all of my heart.

So this blog is dedicated completely to Lulu.
Of all the people in our family, I believe Lulu has warmed the hearts of the Mexican people the most. In fact Lulu's twin sister has been summoned from the Amazon(.com) and will be soon get to live here permanently.


Lulu's Mexico City vacation:



























Lulu has had the best 3 months of her little life here in D.F.
Although she has needed a little saving every once in a while...



Oh, Lulu.

Sweet, sweet, Mexico

I think the one thing that my kids will really miss about Mexico is this:



This is from Lecaroz, a fabulous pasteleria in central Coyoacan, not too far from our apartment.
This loot of home baked goodness cost a whooping $5. Can you believe that?

Say a sad farewell to this kiddos, there is no where (that I know) in Tucson where you can get sweets like this at this price! Especially without have to worry about artificial colors (- the maraschino cherry) or sweeteners. Not that High Frutose Corn Syrup does not exists here, it's just rare.

Palacio National

Went to visit the National Palace (or Palacio National,) next to the Zocolo last Wednesday.
It's is an enormous, stunning building that holds a lot history for the Mexican people.
This site was once Montezuma II official residence, then claimed and built over by the man, the myth, Hernan Cortez. Later Hernan's son Martin Cortez sold the palace to the Spanish crown. The palace was set on fire and almost completely destroyed by 1692. It was rebuilt again, and after the Mexican Independence it was renamed the National Palace. So basically this is the third palace built upon this exact same site.
The Palicio National is an incredible building, but it's history doesn't particularly lie because of the building, but on it's walls. Diego Rivera's murals.
Painted my him between 1929 - 1935, they show the rich history of Mexico between 1521 - 1930.
They are incredable!!!
It's often hard for me to really comprehend all of Mexico's culture and history at time, because it's just too overwhelming.
Especially coming from Tucson, where Winterhaven is considered a historic neighborhood.
(If you are not familiar, Winderhaven is a subdivision in Tucson built in 1949, it's famous for it's light displays around Christmas.)

Here are some of Deigo Rivera's murals:













(If you notice, someone is trying to give the prostitute a hand, hehe.)


The other cool thing to see here were the royal punk rock cats! They even have earrings!



Not sure how many cat reside in the palace or why they are here? We counted 20 cats basking in the sun on the lawn.



Lucky cats.

Winding down

Spent our whole day today cleaning the apartment spotless, so that the landlady and her family could come over and inspect it. It's easy enough to throw a pillow over all the ink pen marks on the leather couch, but pretty impossible to ignore the missing window.
Kur-blunk!!!
Down 4 stories it went.
Luckily no one was underneath.
I pointed out the pen stains and the window, and gave her 45 bucks to help with the fixing costs.
Anyway, now that I've paid off my consistence, I am able to go home guilt free.
Oh wait, I forgot to mention the broken chair, the headless statue, and all the wood stains?
I guess sometime you just gotta say "what the fuck."

Which brings me to this ditty that I heard today.
It makes me happy. It makes me smile. It's perfect for today.

Only in D.F.

Stopped in front of the National Museum of Art for this very long, but entertaining performance by a theater group. My favorite part was the dancing/ fighting Lucha Libres.

Good-byes.

Today was our last day of our Spanish classes at Coyoacan Idiomas Were we have all been taking classes for three months this summer. We have such wonderful caring teachers, it was hard to say good-bye. It was like leaving a family. Our maestra left us with an amazing farewell gift, that is perfecto para mi!
Wonderful people and good memories. Even when I was completely flustered, Susana was so encouraging. And the both Abi and Paola loved the kids and made Spanish more like a playtime. In fact the kids were 3o minutes late getting out of class today, I heard Paola had to take pictures of the girls and their menagerie of stuffed animals that they always bring.



Paola is expecting a little Paolita (or Paolito?) So we ordered another Lulu to send to her for her new baby. Cause every baby needs a chicken puppet!

Yet another pyramid? Really now?

Sunday we hopped the metro over to Plaza de Tres Culturas (Plaza of Three Cultures.)
We were actually very close to scrapping the plan and heading over to the nearby Convention Center where many goth-like kids with kitty ears gathered for what appear to be a manga convention.
But no, we dutifully headed onward to our destination.

Plaza de Tres Culturas holds so much history for Mexico City and we had to see this place. That's why we were there.

(Still, I here the Soup Nazi saying "No Manga for you!" in my head.)

Plaza de Tres Culturas received it named from the three different cultures that are represented there. The Aztec ruins of Tlateloco, the Spanish colonial catholic church, and the modern buildings that surround the area. But the value of this place lies within it's sad history.

This tramatic history begins here on August 13th, 1521.
Hernan Cortez and the Spaniards conquer Mexico slaying 40,000 indigenous Indians in the marketplace of Tlatelolco. "...That day was so bloody that it was impossible to walk around because the number of corpses stacked."

In 1968, another horrible tragedy hit this plaza when students protested the Olympics being held in Mexico City. The protesters felt that the government should use money for the Mexican people and not to host the Olympics. Hundreds were shot down and killed by the Mexican government. Not wanting bad publicity during the Olympics, this massacre was covered up and nothing was ever reported about it in the news papers afterward. And because it was covered up by the government for so long, there is no accurate death count, but probably several hundred died that day.

OH, but wait... There is more!

The Mexican government then tried to modernize this area by building a fancy new high rise that was suppose to make this a hip new neighborhood. A large pyramid shaped building was constructed, and many new apartment buildings were built around the plaza. But in the 1985 earthquake, the fancy building collapse and about 8,000 people died. The deteriorating apartment buildings left around the plaza are now low income housing.
Guess plan B was a fail?

So that I have thoroughly depressed you, here are our happy little pictures from The Plaza.
And look! Yes, those ARE yet more pyramids?!
Inside the city limits, this is our third set of pyramids. I hear that there are at least two more too, but I think I'm good on pyramids for the moment.







You can kinda see the four different layers to this pyramid as it was built up more through many years. Those walls are the layers. I believe there are four layers or phases to this one pyramid?









Plum tuckered with pyramids.

Let's pause for a moment of peace...

Took off 5 days of Mexico City-ness to enjoy ourselves and celebrate our 10th anniversary in Zihuatanejo.
Zihuatanejo is a fishing village along the Pacific Ocean about 4 hours north of Acapulco.
It's sister city Ixtapa, is a planned vacation community with huge fancy high rise hotels.
For our honey moon (or luna de miel, it translates word for word) we actually went to Ixtapa. It was beautiful, but we thought this time we would much rather be in the the fishing village than the commercial area. Plus the waves are tranquil in Zihua and the kids are able to swim in the Zihau bay. Summer is the low season here, which is pretty obviuos why after you arrive in mid-August. This place is not only hot, but super humid! Regardless, what an amazing, beautiful, relaxing time we had together!

Arriving at our hotel. My camera lens kept fogging up.


Walking to the main pier to hop on a water taxi over to Las Gatas Beach.





Beautiful beach, but there was so much coral underwater that we kept scrapping our toes.










Lunch beachside. Aaah, life is hard....






...hard for Ari!
She flipped out because she didn't like the type of tortilla chips? Seriously?! Look around you chica, and your going to flip out because of tortilla chips?
We had to leave because she kept screaming. Our nice waiter gave her a shell and we went back home, much to the relief of our neighboring beach goers.
Adios Las Gatas!!!



After this, we decided to stay at the beach where our hotel was, the water is not as clear, but perfect for kids! Soft gentle sloping sand, small waves, plus our hotel room and swimming pool are nearby.












My poor scraped toes...



Beautiful Hotel Brias del Mar. Actually one of the cheaper hotels is Zihua.




A new animal everyday!





(The pink towel was our room!)



And OMG, it that a real smile?





Carola the parrot, very loved by Teagan and Ari.
She only said "Hello" and "Holla."



Oh, and there were coconut trees all over this place, which means one thing... fresh coconut drinks everywhere!



I didn't even realize mine had a face on it. Haha.
And yes there were adult spirits it there!




Even Lulu had a great time, although I was a bit concern about here drinking at times.





It was very hard to leave and come back to Mexico City. But that cool rain felt so good on our skin! It's was very hot and sweaty there.
Sadly, Don and I actually came back with stomach bugs.
Seem to be doing a lot better today.
Thank you, thank you, Imodium AD!!!