Mexico City

Click the below photos/maps to enlarge...

Cathedral Plaza de la Constitucion (Zocalo). The largest cathedral in the American continent. Its construction started in 1573 according to the design plans of Claudio de Arcinieaga and its construction lasted for more than 300 years.
(photo from Wikitravel.Org page on Mexico City)

In April 2007 we flew down to Mexico City for a quick, four-day-in-all trip, using up some airline tickets that were "use or lose" from our cancelled January trip to Oaxaca. The flight down from Phoenix courtesy of Aeroméxico was pleasant and featured something not often seen on short flights any more - food! :-)

The view from the air coming into the city was nearly nonexistent, due to the thick blanket of smog that made seeing even the nearby, should-be-imposing volcanoes Popocatepetl and Ixtlacihuatl difficult. However once on the ground, the smog was scarcely noticeable.

Our hotel for this stay was the fine Galeria Plaza hotel on Hamburgo in the Zona Rosa (see map below right). Click the link below for a second page
of photos.

[ Cholula/Puebla Day Trip ]

Monumento Angel de la Independencia, Zona Rosa - literally
about a block from our hotel
(photo by Wikitravel.Org user:Fabz)

Map of the country...Cholula and Puebla
are to the east of Mexico City

An Olmec bust at the National
Anthropological Museum

Volcanoes Popocatepetl (left, farther
back, steaming a bit) and Ixtlacihuatl
(right, "sleeping woman") seen from the
road to Puebla

City districts - our hotel was in the
Zona Rosa

Everywhere you go...there they are! The ubiquitous green and white VW taxi.	Palacio de Bellas Artes (Opera House)	One of many churches...
Street scene	Palacio Nacional on the Zocalo	Palacio Nacional	In the Palacio Nacional, murals painted by Diego Rivera that describe the history of Mexico from the pre-columbian age to the mexican revolution
Murals along the second floor	Robert admiring a mural	View of Aztec ruins beneath the Zocalo	The Zocalo, at 57,200 square meters is one of the largest squares in the world
The Cathedral	Cathedral doors...	Robert out front of the cathedral	...and the gold altar inside
Another altar within the cathedral	Inside the cathedral	A musician playing a hand-organ (from Berlin, no less) outside the cathedral	Equestrian monument to King Charles IV of Spain outside the National Museum
More churches...		Paseo de la Reforma, on our way to el Bosque del Chapultepec	Liza at the Bosque del Chapultepec (tepec is Aztec for hill; chapul means grasshopper)
Robert at the Bosque del Chapultepec	At the botanic garden...	Robert at the botanic garden entrance	Entrance to the National Anthropological Museum
Difficult to see here, but this was a very large, interesting fountain under the entrance canopy, with city view in the background	Rings used in the game of pelota	Sculptures...
The Aztec calendar	Sculpture, note the two sets of hands, the upper are male while the bottom set (more submissive, ha) are female	Not the best shot, but note the beautiful jacaranda tree, in bloom everywhere in the city in April	Click photo to see larger view for more detail...
A Maya temple at the National Archeological Museum	Closer view at head detail	Liza near an Olmec bust, for a sense of scale...	See the larger view to note the detail - one figure is being decapitated - and he was the winner of the pelota game