Spring Break = shorts, flip flops, & MEXICO!

This year...as you all may know, is Tyson's third and final year of Law School. He officially graduates this May which is insane!...but exciting at the same time. We have been putting away money into our travel account monthly including our full tax returns for the past few years so we can take lots of trips before we have kids. This was our last spring break and the last two were lame because Tyson had school stuff to do so we decided to go all out and visit my parents in Mexico for a week, and let me tell you it was a blast! We flew into Mexico City and my parents and Jennifer picked us up and toured all over with us. It was amazing to fly in and see 2nd largest city in the world. The houses and buildings stretched as far as the eye can see, and there were huge mountain regions sourrounding the whole area.My dad had a driver for the day which was fun. He drove us over to the Zocalo which is the largest public square in the western hemisphere where you will see Mexican dancers all dressed up with feathers and preforming traditional dances. There are little shops and vendors sitting on the ground with their array of hand-made souvenirs. We saw a modern-day medicine man that was taking out the evil from people by smoking incense and blowing a conch shell at them.

The huge building right in the Zocalo is the Metropolitan Cathedral which they started building in 1573. I don't think I've seen a building that old before! The inside had gold all over with different rooms barred off where you can pray to different saints who help you with different things. Supposedly it has sunk a lot since it has been built which is interesting.

This flag that is flown in the center of the square was created in 1821, when the Independence movement had ended victoriously. They have a ceremonial lowering of the flag by the Army at 6pm. It was fun to see them all dressed in their uniforms with the trumpeters and drum players. The flag is so huge that it took around 7 guys running around trying to make sure it didn't touch the ground in the wind while lowering it.
I don't remember what this guy represented but I thought it was kind-of funny. I think it was the God of Death or something like that which they found while they were excavating. This is just one of the many statues and artifacts around the area.
It was so much fun to see the dancers with their huge feather headdresses and listen to the shells making sounds on their ankles. The guy below looks pretty good for his age playing the drums every day! Right by by/in the Zocalo they started building a parking structure and they found old ruins underneath! They kept excavating and it seemed that there was an old pyramid which had 7 other pyramid's built around the original inner layer. In those times when someone would conquer a city of people they would keep all of them as slaves to use as sacrifices. They would also make them build their "own" pyramid outside the original one so it would be taller and more grand. The picture on the left of me w/the dancer is an area they found where they carved sculls into the walls.

That night we drove back to Puebla to spend the night because it isn't safe to stay in Mexico City. We were in the WORST traffic jam in this one intersection I have ever seen!! There were cars coming from all directions into one intersection and we all know people there don't obey the laws so we (and a ton of other cars) were surrounded! It was amazing...

So the next morning we drove in again to Mexico City and went to the Museo Nacional de Antropología which has a lot of different artifacts and interesting discoveries from old cities they've uncovered. It was amazing to see all of these super old carvings and try to see how their way of life would have been. I kept thinking it would be cool to live in that day in age...but only if you were rich and were never conquered or you would end up pretty much being sacrificed.
Here is the Original Sun Stone which was excavated in the Zocalo in 1790! It is commonly misconceived to be an Aztec calendar. We found out that it was actually used by the descendants of the Aztecs and they had warriors fight on or near it and they would preform human sacrifices on it. It was interesting how they explained that the tongue represented a sacrificial knife and the hands are holding human hearts. With how gross all of that ends up meaning, it was pretty cool and a lot bigger than I though it would be. A copy now sits on our bathroom wall.

One of these things is not like the other....one of these things just isn't the same. Tyson wanted in on that head-dress action.
That concludes our Mexico City portion of our trip. It was a blast to see our first glimpses of old ruins and artifacts which would prepare us for Teotihuacan. Below is the Angel of Independence which is well known (and is also sinking) and we also went to the Palace of Fine Arts but the tour was closed by the time we got there...I did, however use their restroom and we were able to see the murals painted on the inside of the building. The outside was neat with the huge dome that lights up at night.