Today’s main adventure was go to the anthropology museum. Here is a couple of street scenes on the way.

The National Museum of Anthropology is the national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. It is divided up into different halls. The divisions are either by location or time. I was able to visit five halls in the two hours that I was there. There is just too much in this museum. It would take a couple of days to do it justice. After five halls, everything was beginning to look the same. Unfortunately, there was not English description for everything there. So a lot of the pictures that I’m going to post, I don’t have a description for. They were, however, so interesting, I posted them anyhow. The first hall I went into was the Teotihuacan Hall. This culture’s zenith was in the first five centuries of the common era before the Aztecs. There were a lot of female sculptures in this hall. This culture associated agricultural fertility with the female figure. They also must’ve had some kind of belief in an afterlife because they buried their people with every day items like pots.

The last picture is of the Teotihuacan Water Goddess. It is the largest freestanding figure found in the city of Teotihuacán. It represents of complete body with hands on the belly. She has a typical Teotihuacan face with elliptical eyes, wide nose, and trapezoidal mouth.

The next hall I visited was the Toltecs and Epi-classic hall. The Toltec culture was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerica culture that ruled a state centered in Tula, Hildago, Mexico during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period reaching prominence from 950 to 1150 CE.

The next hall is the Mexica, also known as the Aztec. One of its main features is the dominance of militarism in all aspects of life. The structure for political and social organizations were military hierarchies made up of young men that showed enormous bravery.

Next came the Maya Hall. The culture of the groups in the south east of Mexico and parts of Central America began to develop over 4000 years ago. The Maya formed one of the most brilliant Meza-American cultures, especially in science and art.

My last hall was the Oaxaca Hall. Oaxaca is now situated south of Mexico City. The first inhabitants of this area arrived at about 10,000 BCE. This is where Moctezuma II built his city.

After the museum we went and had a late lunch. The restaurant we found was excellent. I’m beginning to really like Mexican food.

Here are some more street scenes. I basically take pictures of buildings that I really like.

This is Mardi Gras or carnival time in Catholic countries. We got to see 2 interesting events. One of them was outside the museum where there were a group of people in costume, dancing, and playing instruments. It was fascinating. The other was later in the evening near where we’re staying. It seemed to be an impromptu event. It was in a plaza, and there were a group of drummers with many people dancing.

Our last adventure of the day was when we went to get some ice cream. Actually, I only had ice cream. Berni went out a little later and had tacos and tequila. So when we tried to pay for the ice cream, the gal told us that the bill was a forgery. Berni tried with one of her bills and she said that one was a forgery. She had a way of determining whether a bill was good or bad. My bill I had just gotten out of the ATM that morning and it was one of 10 bills. She checked all the other bills and they were good. So right now unless I can get something from the bank I am out 500 pesos or about $30. Turns out there’s a lot of fake money going around in Mexico. Berni got hers at a bank too. It’s scary when banks are handing out fake money. Anyhow, the gals of the ice cream store were so nice. It seems like they were a daughter and a mother. It was fun to chat with them, even though they knew a little English and we knew a little Spanish. However, we did manage to communicate. It’s these kind of adventures that make traveling so much fun and so meaningful. So I have a picture of the owners of the shop and a picture of the name of the shop. So if you’re ever in Mexico City, I recommend this place for ice cream.

Tomorrow we’re going to be taking a full day tour of the ruins in the Mexico City area. I think going to the museum was a good introduction as to what we’re going to be doing tomorrow. That’s it for today.