Chapultepec Park, Section One: Castle, Zoo, some Monuments

In Mexico City, there is no park more famous or loved than Chapultepec Park. This park is always bustling with every type of person: parents with small children on their way to the zoo, school tours of all age groups wanting to see the castle and monuments, joggers looking to get in a nice run, couples out for a romantic stroll, and of course, tourists hoping to see all the famous historical sites and museums that this park has to offer. Chapultepec offers something for everyone. The more popular paths are lined with vendors and their stands, selling food, souvenirs, miniature paintings, and even plants. The less popular paths, however, are very quiet and well-suited for those who seek a bit of peace within the metropolis.

One sunny September morning, I visited a portion of Section One of the park. Chapultepec Park has three sections, and visiting them all could take well up to a week. I had 5-6 hours to visit the castle, zoo, and some monuments in Section One.

Upon entering the park at the Gate of the Lions, the first monument is called Altar a la
Patria, or Monumento a los Niños  Heroes. It is dedicated to the six young military cadets
 who died defending the Chapultepec Castle in 1947. The center sculpture is actually a
mausoleum where the remains of the six cadets and Colonel Santiago Xicotencatl are buried. 

A view of the castle atop the hill

Many of the interior castle walls are covered in murals depicting the history of Mexico.

In one wing of the castle, all of the original furniture and decorations are still in place.

Originally built as a watchtower for the Mexican Military, this structure later served as an observatory.

If you are interested in the castle's history...here is a very choppy, rough-draft, short version of the story:

Construction began in 1785, as ordered in 1784 by Viceroy Matias de Galvez. Following the Viceroy's death soon after, his son, Count Bernardo de Galvez, ordered construction to continue. However, when he died two years later, the Spanish court/crown ordered architects to stop the project because they were uneasy about the pro-independence movement in Mexico. The construction was abandoned and the castle remained unoccupied until 1841, years after the Mexican Revolution and Independence, when it was used to train army officers. In 1847, the U.S. invaded Mexico, and the castle was defended (and lost) by the soldiers and cadets who were studying at the academy during that time. After the conclusion of the war where Mexico lost half of its northern territory to the U.S., the castle was returned to the Military Academy. Starting in 1859, the castle was used to house military generals. During the French Intervention in 1864, the castle was used to house Archduke Maximilian, who was named emperor of Mexico shortly following his arrival. Maximilian had the castle's construction fully completed. Eventually, however, due to his inability to please either political party, the Archduke/Emperor was executed by Benito Juarez in 1867. From 1876 to 1883, the castle served as the grounds for an astronomical, meteorological, and magnetic observatory. In 1881, Porfirio Diaz had another wing added to the castle for the Military Academy. A few years later in 1877, Porfirio Diaz was made President of Mexico, and he adopted the castle as a summer residence. The castle served as the military academy training / presidential manor until 1917; and as solely a presidential manor until 1939, when President Lazaro Cardenas proclaimed the castle as the headquarters for the National History Museum.

After leaving the castle and all its history behind, I made my way to the zoo. Passing one of the lakes on my way, I made a mental note to try out the paddle-boating there sometime.

At the zoo: I'm sure you've all seen about 300 million zoo pictures, so I'll only add two--black bears getting ready to play-fight and lions being lazy. But, the Chapultepec Zoo is really large, and has tons of different species!

Exiting the zoo and taking the long way back to the exit, I walked along a quiet path and passed many fountains and a couple monuments.

Idyllic Chapultepec

Though I did cover a lot of ground in the park, I missed out on 6 museums in Section One, as well as botanical gardens, the Korean Gazebo, Gandhi Park, the lakes, other monuments...well, there's a lot more for me to see. Until another day, Chapultepec Park!

Aventuras en Acapulco

One rainy Saturday afternoon, I found myself in the back of a taxi headed for the Mexico City International Airport. The 30-minute ride seemed to take something like 2 hours—but time always passes too slowly when one is looking forward to something. For the first time in the 10 months that I’ve lived here, my mom was on her way to visit! After waiting at the arrival gate C3 for a painstaking 20 minutes, she was here. Tears were shed, snot was wiped, and confused stares of strangers were ignored. We caught a taxi and departed back to my apartment—the plan was to drop off some of the luggage at the apartment, pack a small weekend bag, catch a bus to Acapulco, and enjoy sun, sand, and family in the famous bay. Everything was going to plan, right up until shortly after the “catching a bus to Acapulco” part.

The rain started in pretty hard when we were about four hours out of Acapulco. Game on. The first in our unusual series of events started when the bus jolted to a stop on the highway. While no one was ever officially informed of the reason for our emergency stop, passengers who checked for themselves found that there had been an accident ahead of us caused by falling rocks (we should have known right there and then that we wouldn’t be getting back to D.F. anytime soon). After arriving in Acapulco quite late, we were greeted by the nightman working the front desk at my uncle’s condominium, telling us that the elevator and water system weren’t working as a result of the storm. We hauled our bags up the six flights of stairs and were pretty quickly off to bed.

At around 3:30 in the morning, I woke up to the scariest-sounding wind I’ve ever heard. I crept out of the room to get a better look at the storm. I quickly learned that all of the electricity had gone out in our building. Out of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors, I couldn’t even see my hand if I held my arm out. Though, I did notice a pool of water that had formed on the floors, so I shut up all the doors and windows as best I could, and went to wake my mom up. We moved some of my uncle’s furniture to dry ground, left him a note, and went back to bed. (What else could we do?)

The next morning, we learned that an electricity distributer on the top of our building had been destroyed in the storm, and that the building would be without water for at least a few days. Later that day, we moved to the Hotel Casa Inn. Driving there, we saw that the Costera (the main road) was a mess—water, sand, debris, and damage lined the street. The Casa Inn was swamped with people, but we still managed to procure a couple rooms. Perhaps it was their completely-occupied status, but the hotel staff seemed quite unprepared: we had no drinkable water in the room, lines of 2-3 people took 20 minutes to move, the restaurants were unstaffed (or the security guards had to go track down the restaurant staff somewhere in the hotel), there was no internet, they only accepted one type of credit card…you get the picture. However, we did greatly appreciate having water and electricity again, and accepted the minor inconveniences as they were. By this point, the rain had been on for four days nonstop.

Found shoes lined up on the beach.

Beginning of debris clean-up

Flooded boat

By the time Tuesday early afternoon rolled around, my uncle told us that a friend of his had offered to take us in. A short drive from the Hotel Casa Inn brought us to the Costa Victoria Resort, where we were whisked up to the 23^rd floor. To say the apartment was luxury would be an understatement.  We felt very lucky to have such a nice place to stay, and our host was kind beyond all measures.  Come Tuesday night, the rain finally took a break and we started having some nice weather! 

Acapulco sunsets are the best sunsets.

The helicopters were out making rounds as the President of Mexico visited.

The view from our room--I could get used to this ;)

The Costa Victoria resort on a sunny day.

Roughin' it down by the resort pool with our complimentary beverages.

The living room in the apartment where we were staying.

Wednesday took us on a new adventure entirely. Our host has done a lot of work with an orphanage in Acapulco (and he has done a wonderful job), so he took us out for a visit. On the way, he told us, “The only risk you’ll have out there is falling in love.” And that we did. The kids were wonderful, happy, and kind. In this community of 80+ kids, there are only two salaried employees to keep everything running. There are no issues with kids fighting, refusing to share, or throwing temper tantrums. It’s amazing how well-behaved and smiley these kids are! By the way, if you’re interested in learning more about them, their webpage is here: http://www.marshchildrenshome.org.mx/english/index.php. 

On the way to and from the orphanage, we passed through the area that had the worst of the flooding. Water levels had fallen tremendously since the rain had stopped, but we still saw a lot of damage and devastation in the area. (Luckily for us, the alligators that had been swimming on the streets were forced to return to their rivers when the streets dried up). 

The Marsh Children's Home. Our host even paid to get them a little swimming pool!

These two cutie-patooties weren't staying in the
 home--they came with us. They are our host's nieces!

Our host, bringing food, products, and brand-new jump ropes!

The dining room at the Marsh Children's Home.

The remainder of Wednesday and Thursday allowed us some time to relax, take in some sun, swim, walk on the beach, and enjoy ourselves a little bit. So far, Friday has got us packed up and ready for a free flight back to Mexico City! Luckily for us, the government is paying for the flights right now, and the only downside is not knowing what time we'll get to leave. At this very moment as I'm typing, we're among a large group of people waiting to return to D.F.. We're hoping they'll call our group in the next couple hours. Until then, we wait! Despite all the bad weather and unusual circumstances here, we've been very fortunate to have safe places to stay, electricity, water, fun things to do, and great company. Gracias, Acapulco!