Mexico City

I'm back with a long-overdue update on my adventures in Mexico, although this one will mostly be about my trip to Mexico City this past weekend.  Here, we call it D.F. (day eh-fay), short for Distrito Federal, or in english, the federal district.  The trip was sponsored by UPAEP's international student organization.  Mexico City is MASSIVE.  There is so much to see and do there, and this trip checked a lot of the boxes for things I wanted to do there.  Plus, it was a good price, so I was excited to go.  Four of us ND students went, along with maybe 14 other international students.  So, the group was a little bigger than I would have liked it to be,  as the size made it harder for us to have a flexible schedule and just have free time to explore.  Nevertheless, we got to see a lot of really cool stuff, and I got some great pictures.  We were there almost all day Saturday and Sunday, so I probably don't have enough time to describe everything.  Instead, I'll just post a lot of pictures with some short descriptions so you know (sort of) what's going on.  Enjoy!

A Photo Tour of D.F. 

El Palacio Nacional (The National Palace) as seen from the Plaza de la Constitution (Constitution Plaza).

Gardens inside the palacio nacional.  These had all kinds of cool native plants,  There were also lots of cats.

Courtyard inside El Palacio.  It was a beautiful building.

The best picture I could get to capture this famous mural by Diego Rivera which depicts the entire history of Mexico.  This was incredible.  There were several other murals by Rivera throughout this part of the palace.

Subtle signature by Rivera in the corner of his mural

Another mural depicting Mexico City before it was conquered by the Spaniards.  At the time, it was called Tenochtitlan, and was the center of the Aztec empire.  (Also, note the upside-down eagle people hanging from the pole toward the center of the pole, it will come up later.)

Aztec ruins close to the national palace.

Cathedral at the Plaza de la Constitucion

The upper half of the famous monument, Angel de la Independencia

Me in front of La Piedra del Sol (the Sun Stone) which is located in the Museo de Antropologia e Historia (Museum of Anthropology and History).  The stone is often referred to as the Aztec calendar, but it was more likely some sort of ritual altar.

Here's the whole group.

Outside of the museum, people demonstrate this indigenous tradition, which I pointed out in Rivera's mural earlier.

They played instruments while spinning around upside-down probably 100 feet off the ground.  It was impressive, to say the least.

Elote (corn on the cob) is popular street food in Mexico.  They serve it with mayonnaise, cheese, and chili powder.  It's delicious.

A view of the Castillo de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Castle).  Chapultepec means place of the grasshoppers.  This place has served as royal/presidential quarters as well as a military base over the years.

A view of some of the city from the castle.

More views from the castle

Outside the Plaza Garibaldi, where Mariachi bands wait to be hired.  These guys look like they got caught in the rain.

Image of La Virgen de Guadalupe on the tilma (tunic) of Saint Juan Diego.  This is located behind the altar of  the 

Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe.

Enormous Sunday crowd at the basilica.

Mexico city is actually very pretty.  Unfortunately, the smog there hides a lot of the beauty.  As one of the biggest cities in the world, it has had a lot of problems with air pollution.

Path leading up to the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, outside Mexico City.  To say there were lots of vendors there would be an understatement.  This place was amazing, but it was also one heck of a tourist trap.

The Pyramid of the Moon, as seen from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.  Climbing the pyramid was really cool.  The view from the top was incredible.

This picture describes the view better.  

The view from the other pyramid.  You can see how big Teotihuacan actually is.  It must have been extremely impressive at its time.

 Update on Hospital Rotations

Now that I've gotten through all of that, I'll give you a quick update on how my hospital rotations this week.  I had a nice 2 days of rotations this week.  I followed a surgical pathologist, and saw how she took different cuts of tissue samples from operations in order to get a good picture of what is going on at a microscopic level.  She also showed us different slides and helped us determine what tissues they were and whether or not there was some sort of pathology.  It was super interesting, and I think the experience will be helpful with my histology class.

Tomorrow, I'll be heading out (yet again) for an extended trip to Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido.  I'll be heading there with my host mom and 5 other ND students.  We'll be meeting up with my host brother in Puerto Escondido, where he's currently working on some sort of architecture project.  I don't know a ton about Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido, other than that Oaxaca is well known for its tradition Mexican cuisine and Puerto Escondido is known as the surfing capital of Mexico.  I'll let you know about the places once I get back.  I'm sure I'll have a lot to talk about and a ton of pictures to share, as we'll be gone until Wednesday night.  Plus, we will be in Puerto Escondido during Mexican Independence Day.  I'm super excited, and I can't wait to tell you all about my travels.

Adios