The Basilica of Guadalupe

Another day, another adventure here in DF! To take advantage of this sunny Monday morning, I jumped on the Metrobus and took off to the famous La Villa, a site that contains several churches and religious buildings. The Basilica of Guadalupe, the most famous site in La Villa, is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Roman Catholic religion. Every year, millions of people make a pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay homage to the Virgin Mary on December 12th. It is believed that Mary appeared there (about 500 years ago) to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, and she asked him to build a temple for her.

"I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection. Because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; to listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows. And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me."  (From http://www.sancta.org/basilica.html)

People now walk for days to visit this site, coming from states all over Mexico, and many walk the last few miles on their knees. Today during my visit, I saw a few people walking on their knees in the square in front of the Basilica. Maybe they're starting early this year?

The new Basilica, where people make a pilgrimage each December. See the man in the red shirt walking on his knees?

The old Basilica, where construction began in 1531. 

The front facade of the old Basilica.

The front of the new Basilica

Inside the old Basilica, a beautiful building with marble shrines and large paintings on the walls.

One of the paintings in the old Basilica.

Another section of the old Basilica, with a small golden chapel inside, connecting the two larger buildings.

The small golden chapel between the two larger parts of the old Basilica.

In the picture of the full outside of the Basilica, this is
the inside of the building on the right side of the church.

The inside of the new Basilica. I didn't want to take too many pictures during mass, but I had to
 snap at least one to show you! Besides, they have mass every hour on the hour from 6 in the morning
until 8 at night, so there's really no time that could I get a picture without people worshiping in it...

Behind the old Basilica, and up several flights of stairs, is the Capilla
de Cerrito. From there, you can get a great view of all Mexico City.

In front of the Capilla de Cerrito, there are four statues of the angels Gabriel, Uriel, Michael, and Raphael.
But, ever since I've started watching Dr. Who, I'm terrified of angel statues. And I never blink.

The view from the Capilla del Cerrito. You can't see in the picture,
but in real life, you can see the mountains surrounding the city.

The shrine to the Virgin Mary, where Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
 is said to have seen an apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The Capilla del Pocito, the last stop of my day in La Villa. 

From there, it was only a 15-minute walk to the Metrobus station, where I was able to take a direct bus for about 45 minutes back to my apartment. But, not before grabbing a delicious horchata-water to quench my thirst from walking all over La Villa! (For those who don't know what horchata-water is, it's a sweet and yummy milky water made from rice, almonds, and cinnamon. It tastes like the nectar of fairy kisses, unicorn tears, and essence of rainbow. It's that good.) After shooting a half-liter of horchata directly into my veins, I jumped on the Metrobus and witnessed two ladies get into a hair-pulling and face-slapping fight over a box. Jerry Springer should have been there. The police even escorted them off the bus! Oh yes, it's the little things that keep Mexico City an everyday adventure.

DF's Historic Center (Part 2)

Happy December 1st! Even though I've been in Mexico for the past 13 months, it still amazes me that I can walk around in a t-shirt and jeans, and still feel warm in December! Today I went walking in DF's historic center yet again, even though Sunday is the worst day to go, crowd-wise. Unfortunately, three of the places I wanted to visit were closed! Two were churches (churches closed on Sunday...wait, what?), and another was a government building that is filled with Diego Rivera murals. Sigh. Maybe another day. But, today was not a loss! Here's what I did get to see today.

I started off by walking past the Hemiciclo a Juarez, a monument to one of Mexico's favorite presidents.

More of Hemiciclo a Juarez

I worked up the courage to get near the giant spider/nope/nope
combination statue. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, DF?

Christmas decorations up in the Zocalo!

Another picture of the Metropolitan Cathedral... 

The giant Christmas tree is up in the Zocalo!

On the plus side of visiting the historic center on a weekend, you can always find a performance.

The Santa Catarina church. Old, crumbling, and has stuff growing out of it...and not open to visitors today.

Last stop: the Capilla de la Conchita 10. Why 10? Not a clue. I'm aware of two Conchitas located here in DF.

Aaaaand, that was all that I saw today! I'm hoping to make it back to the historic center next week to see the Diego Rivera murals, and maybe a few of the many museums there. So, maybe in the near future, there will be a "DF's Historic Center, Part 3"...maybe. I've got a few more places on my list that I'm hoping to get to before I visit Iowa for Christmas, so there could be another post or two up sometime in the next 10 days!

DF's Historic Center

...Guess who has a camera again? (Thanks, papa!)

With the rainy season ending, and a more open schedule, I'm able to spend much more time outdoors these days. Earlier this week, I walked to the Historic Center of DF to take some pictures of the famous buildings and visit some of the 16th, 17th, and 18th century churches.

Parroquia de San Fernando, a nearly 300-year-old church nestled at the end of a quiet side-street.

Iglesia de San Juan de Dios. This church's construction began over 400 years ago.

Built in the early 1700's, the Parroquia de la Santa Veracruz is in a state of disrepair, and
the building itself is actually crooked due to the church being built on soft ground and years
of earthquakes shifting  the land. The inside of the church is simple in comparison to some
of the other churches, but still has the archways and ceilings adorned in golden decorations.

El Palacio de Correos de Mexico, or the Postal "Palace." It was built not too long
ago, in the early 1900's, and is a fully-functioning (and incredibly fancy) post office.

In the Postal Palace. I've never wanted to work in a post office so bad before. (Yep, those are marble floors).

El Templo y Ex-Convento de Santo Domingo, a church built in 1773 (still older than the USA).

Inside the Santo Domingo church. It's so eerily quiet here, I felt like each footstep would echo throughout the church.

Iglesia de la Profesa--yet another 300-year-old church, off of the pedestrian street Francisco I Madero.

Inside the Iglesia de la Profesa. There are no half-assed churches in DF, not even the smaller ones.

The first Franciscan Temple in Mexico City, the Iglesia de San Francisco, is nearly 500-years-old.

The inside of the Iglesia de San Francisco, complete with the golden apse and huge religious paintings on the walls.

Bellas Artes on a beautiful November day. On the bottom right of the building, see that thing
that looks like a giant spider/nope/nope combination? That's not usually there. Thank God. 

Easily the most iconic Cathedral in Mexico City, the Metropolitan Cathedral is huge! (Probably because
they started building it in 1573 and then spent the next 240 years adding sections on to it). Fun fact: stones
from the ruins of the Templo Mayor, which is directly beside/behind the cathedral, were used to make the
original cathedral way back in 1573. Cortes even made the Aztecs build his cathedral with the ruins of their city.

A section of the inside of the Metropolitan Cathedral. I got in trouble for taking a picture with worshiping people in it...

Another section inside the Metropolitan Cathedral. Wowza!

This walk around the Historic Center ate up several hours of my morning, and then I had to run off to work, but there is much more to this area. I'm sure I'll be heading back there soon enough, as it's one of my favorite areas to go for a walk!

Dia de los Muertos -- Day of the Dead

Happy Halloween and Dia de los Muertos to you! The Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico is a huge cultural holiday, and while it is sometimes reduced to the Mexican version of Halloween, it is really really different. Shortly speaking, it's a two-day celebration to remember loved ones who have passed on. November 1st is to celebrate the children who have passed, and November 2nd is for the older people who have passed. Unexpectedly, it's a really happy day: people aren't mourning their losses, but celebrating lives lived. During these days, it's common to see a lot of "ofrendas" or offerings, "catrinas" or skeleton ladies, sugar/candy skulls, "papel picado" or paper cutout scenes, "cempasúchil" or Mexican marigolds, candles, holiday breads, and drinks. During the nights, people take to the cemeteries, and make offerings to their deceased loved ones using their old favorite foods, flowers, candies, drinks, toys (if it was a child), et cetera. While I am for the moment still camera-less, my awesome roommate let me use the camera on her phone (thanks Anabel!) when we went to see the ofrendas competition at the biggest university in Latin America: UNAM. Here's some of what we saw.

I don't know what these guys were supposed to be, but they were interesting to say the least!

The absolutely gorgeous library at UNAM, where we attended the student offerings competition.

Panoramic picture (rearranged some faces) of the crowd at UNAM.

The corn husks on the ground make me think of tamales, another traditional food...Mmmmmmmmm

A Catrina

That's it for Dia de los Muertos pictures this year! I was super-thankful that I at least got to take some pictures of the celebration. Perhaps next year I'll make the trip to Michoacan, where they're famous for their Day of the Dead festivities.




P.S.

Remember when I first arrived here last year and:

Myself with a catrina (that's actually a man under there) by the Bellas Artes Palace.