during the intial sickness phase, i went to about five museums and cathedrals, including the palace of fine arts, municipal palace and national cathedral. the palace of fine arts was great, lots of murals from people like diego rivera (the most famous muralist from mexico), but a good bit was closed so it was not absolutely stellar. plus, this was the day i was starting to feel sick, so.... i went to the diego rivera museum, which was a bit disappointing in that his artwork is spread all over mexico city, the usa (detroit, new york, san fran) and europe. thus, the collection was paltry. again, sickness tainted this visit.

the national cathedral was impressive. the largest and oldest cathedral (begun around 1521) in latin america, it sits on top of the ruins of the once great empire that ruled the valley of mexico city before the spaniards arrived. after the 1985 quake, however, the lean in this building is amazing. standing in the zocalo (the giant square facing the cathedral, municipal palace, etc) the amount of shift away from perpendicular is highly visible. i have never been to italy, but imagine leaning tower of pisa and you might be close. actually, lots of incredibly old buildings were destroyed or severely damaged by the 85 quake and the effects have definitely altered the skyline of the city. it kind of adds something to the city though if you ask me. everything is off-kilter. kind of fits.

the municipal palace, the last sick day, was also impressive. these buildings are enormous, probably two large blocks long and at least 4 stories high. all built hundreds of years ago, they cast a shadow of the past over the street vendors selling, well, just about everything, who set up shop just outside of their doors. more murals by rivera, some more than 30 feet high and 50 feet long. the scale of his work might be the most impressive. that and the communist influence that is more than present in his work, it screams at you. from lenin to marx to the proletariat and workers being the focal point of each piece, his statement was clear. any wonder why his pieces were protested in mexico and actually removed or painted over in certain parts of the states (rockefeller center in ny and his ford commision in detroit was terminated as well).

also in the center of the historical district is the templo mayor. this is the ruin of the largest temple built by the mixecas in what is now mexico city. the area that is now city was once a lake with islands connected by bridges and roads. the ritual and political center, the major temple, was pretty much dismantled by cortez and his merry band of marauders so as to insure that the newly subjugated people realized that indeed their gods had abandoned them and so they should turn over all power, and gold, to the spanish immediately. it worked. the cathedral and municipal palace and zocalo are built on top of these ruins, but there is a small area where some of the first colonizers built mansions that survived. they only survived however, bc these savvy conquistadors, brothers actually, rebelled against the spanish crown. their punishment was to be hung and their mansion turned into a trash pit. hundreds of years later, still a desecrated site that once housed traitors, people realized that below the refuse there were relics and artifacts. long story short, once decadent palace became public dump became archaelogical site. the amazing thing is you can see six different layers of building stages. because there was so much flooding in the region over 600 years ago, you know, b4 the 25 million people moved in and all the water evaporated, they had to rebuild their temples every 70 years or so. instead of tearing down, they just built over what was there. impressive place to say the least.

ok, that is all for today. more tomorrow