Today started with a seismic activity alert. Sergio had described the possibility of this occurring during our initial conversation - part of the introduction to the house - “here are the keys, the hot water is on the right and if you hear this siren, you have about 60-90 seconds to exit the building”.
There was a strong earthquake in Mexico City last year, and while I have not seen any evidence, Sergio has mentioned buildings that sustained damage.
This alert happened before I was actually up, but after I was awake. Sergio was up on the terrazzo doing chores and called to me that we were having an alert siren. I was in my sleeping clothes, so grabbed a jacket and one of my clothes bags and my phone and exited with the family to the street.
The warning system is a bit like a tornado warning, I guess - sensors in the earth detect movement which suggests the possibility of a quake in the immediate future. There was no quake, and we all filed back in after a couple minutes, but it was a bit creepy, for sure.
Morning excitement over, I went back to my room to get my usual slow start to the day. A trip to El Centro.
In this city, going to El Centro was a different experience than in all the other El Centros I’ve described.
I took the subway, for one thing. A different route today but the experience was now familiar. Study the tour book and metro map to decide which lines and exits to use, buy two tickets upon entry and enjoy the ride.
There was a party atmosphere when I came up out of the subway after a ten minute ride. Dancers dressed in indigenous attire performed on the street for tips,
vendors shouted out their wares in loud conflict with their neighbor vendors and a long street of vendors. The goods were a mixture of food and things, but many of the things were modern in nature rather than the tourist and hand crafted items available in the markets I’m used to in the smaller towns.
I followed my tour book into the National Palace
to see a long wall of Diego Rivera paintings
and a huge mural on the alcove of a staircase.
Each of these paintings had a letrero written in Spanish and English so I could test my Spanish comprehension and review my work.
I walked around an archeological site right at the edge of the huge plaza called Zocolo, but did not go in to the museum area due to my satisfying visit to Teotihuacán yesterday.
I walked along the tour route toward the huge Palacio de Bellas Artes building and surrounding park because it was a must see, stopping for a bite to eat and some after lunch sweets in a recommended restaurant and beautiful old building along the way. The tour book was careful to point out the interesting architecture.
I ran in to a bit of trouble on my way to the Palacio - I entered a small garden area to rest and look at my book, but I was looking at it as I entered, and I fell when I did not see the two inch step at the entry. Embarrassing, of course, a little bit of scraped skin on my right knee and left elbow, but the big problem was my right big toe. Not broken, but not happy. I was invited to sit on a bench nearby by some women who had witnessed the fall. I talked with them for about 10 minutes while I recovered, but I knew my toe was going to be an issue.
I continued on my way, and walked the rest of my day as planned, but at a much reduced pace and therefore with altered plans and no photos to document the rest of the day.
My goal in the downtown area was to visit a museum where Andre, the son of Sergio and Diana works. I was very close when I fell, so I did not change that plan. It was “El Museo de Memoria y Tolerencia”.
Totally in Spanish, but my reading comprehension is solid - and the subject on the top three floors was familiar - the rise of Hitler through the end of his war crimes. The museum was set up very well with a direction of travel from room to room from top to bottom that could not be avoided ( you could not get lost or miss anything). I spent a lot of tome at the top reading many signs about Hitler’s early years and then dictatorship and hurried through the horrible stuff although I did read some along the way to the 2nd flood where we were invited to accept the human race with love and tolerance in hopes that somehow mankind can change their ways. There was a really good bottom floor exhibit about sexuality issues. I left the building at closing time with a bit of a belly ache from the heavy subject, but happy to have had the opportunity to test my Spanish and come out a winner.
Not much else to report this day. I got home pretty early and was happy to relax and give my toe a break - no pun intended!
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