Visit Day 4: Chapultepec Park

Even though we were all weary from the pyramids yesterday, I cracked the whip and said "Onward!" to a full day in Chapultepec Park. After another delicious breakfast at Maque, we walked over to the entrance to the park. Since is was only about 9:00 am, we were the only ones there, which was unlike any other time that I've gone when it is usually a complete madhouse with face painting, thousands of kids and hundreds of stalls selling everything from cotton candy to baby leashes. This morning, however, it was very peaceful and we had it virtually all to ourselves.

After walking around Lago Mayor and Casa del Lago, we hopped on the train up to the top of Chapultepec hill to tour Chapultepec Castle. For all you history buffs, this was the former palace of the French Emperor Maximilian / former fort / former president's house / current museum (among many other things). Anyway, it's half reconstructed mansion and half history museum. Today we toured the mansion and pretty much skipped the museum side. Once we were done admiring the great views and opulence, it was time for lunch!

We descended the hill and crossed out of the park to downtown where we were meeting Autumn at the Casa de las Enchiladas (a hot tip we got from Rick Bayless's show on PBS!). After mixing and matching our toritillas, fillings and toppings, we headed back to work for a quick tour of our office, and then it was onto more sightseeing at the Museum of Anthropology. We stopped for a quick break before heading in to see the Voladores from Veracruz doing their upside-down-spinning-rain-dance-flute-and-drum-show.

I think we were on tourist overload, because the museum trip seems like a blur to me, but it was huge, and amazing, and chock-full of the best stuff from all the archaeological sites in Mexico. The weirdest this I learned all day was that the infamous "Aztec Calendar" that is available for sale everywhere in Mexico as a clock, a coaster, a tablecloth, a wall hanging, and just about everything else you can think of was actually...a "large gladiatorial sacrificial altar," according to the sign.

If that weren't enough, we grabbed tacos al pastor from Taco Inn (aka the best street tacos available, but with running water!) before we jumped into taxis to head over to Arena Mexico for Lucha Libre. After much drama with the evil, world dominating ticket-monopoly TICKETMASTER at the will call booth which even included calling them...in SPANISH!...and then calling the AGAIN! for some other helpless foreigners (read Australians), we finally got in and enjoyed the show. A few beers later and a quick ride home on the subway, we all crashed back at the apartment after a very busy day.

The only ones up before noon!

 Views of Chapultepec

The lake, mom with a recycled garbage can and hod dogs, 3 for 15 pesos! 

(I've learned the hard way that spelling is very important when eating here!)

 Mom and me atop Chapultepec hill

 Views of the castle

Ruth and Chris

 Ruth's panoramas with her iPhone 4...jealous!

 Mom, Rich and Torre Mayor

 Los Niños Heroes

 Group photo!

Stained glass babes!

 Inside Maximilian's palace

  Los Niños Heroes, again

 Torre Mayor, El Angel and some new-fangled art installation that closed down the bridge into the park for more than a year!

 Los Voladores calling down some rain...it really appears to be working!

Heading into the Anthropology Museum

 Oooh! Cantilevering in action!

 The alleged Aztec Calendar....of death!

 We found the hidden jungle temple! IN the museum!

Lucha Libre wrestling fun with masks!

One the way home in El Metro.

A Night of Lucha Libre

One of our favorite things to do in Mexico City is to go to see Lucha Libre, the special brand of Mexican wrestling that involves masks, crazy costumes and various levels of absurdity.  It is especially fun to take visitors, in order to watch their minds blow.  :)  A few basics about Lucha Libre:  there are 2 teams, the Tecnicos (good guys) and the Ruidos (bad guys).  Each wrestler (luchador) belongs to one of these 2 teams, and at the end of the night, one team is declared victorious.  It is also very bad to have your mask removed during the match.  It can end your career as a luchador when your secret identity is revealed.  Remember, mask removal = worst.  There are no cameras allowed in Arena Mexico, so please try to tolerate the less than awesome quality iPhone pics.

This was an extra special lucha night in honor of Day of the Dead, complete with a Michael Jackson impersonator and a performance of Thriller.  You can kind of make that out from this picture.

Here, during the second round of luchas, we have luchador Ultimo Dragoncito (Ultimate Tiny Dragon) reeling after being thrown out of the ring.

This is Maximo, a favorite Tecnico...albeit (more than) a little over-the-top...he inexplicably is toting around a child dressed as a leprechaun.   The child was whisked away before the fight started, fear not.

Here we have Alebrije of team Ruido gloating about his awesomeness.  He gets the award for craziest outfit of the night.

La Mascara (the Mask) of the Tecnicos had a rough night.  Here he is reeling mere seconds after his head smashed into that CMLL logo on the announcers' booth.

Then Averno and Volador Jr. scooped him up, and, judging from the splayed open positioning of his legs, you can imagine what fate befell poor Mascara then...

Yup, that's right.  Slammed into the pole.

And if that wasn't enough, Averno nearly pulled off his mask too!!  The horror!!

Averno gloats, thinking the Ruidos have it in the bag as our hero La Mascara appears defeated...

But no!  It was all a rouse!!  La Mascara and his team, Rush and La Sombra, came back to win it all!  Tecnicos victorious again!!

Ron & Julie Visit: Day 6: New Year's Day

Unfortunately, Julie had to take the day off from her vacation and rest today, so Autumn and I walked around the neighborhood and through Chapultepec Park with Ron. After a failed attempt to visit the Chapultepec Castle,due to a ridiculously long line at the ticket window, we decided to go through the history museum instead. It was kind of weird, and was filled with dioramas of scenes from Mexico's history. Particularly awkward was the section on the Mexican-American war and the numerous invasions of Mexico by the US. However, we didn't get too many angry stares from the other visitors, so I guess all was well.

Our attempts to translate the numerous plaques and descriptions for Ron helped lighten the mood with their complete lack of detail and sweeping statements like, "This one is showing some guy getting shot" and "Here's one that is showing a famous battle." I think the dioramas probably told us all a lot more then the signs!

Our day took a much more fun turn when we took a cab over to Arena Mexico to take in an extra-special-super-scandalous LUCHA LIBRE!! (aka Mexican Wrestling).

Lucha babes!
Marcela, Rain and Goya Kong
VS.
Princess Sugehit, Tiffany and Zeuxis!

Highlights from the program:


Round 1: Beginners - Super cheesy beginners - not worth translating!

Round 2: Lady combat - see above

Round 3: Cybernetic Tournament - Kings of the Air 2011!! Featuring:

Delta, Gold Angel, Diamond, Silver Angel, Fire, Comet King, Pegasus and Molotov Cocktail
VS.
Gunpowder, Virus, Raziel, Goalkeeper, Archangel, Puma King, Scorpion and the Tiger Kid!

Round 4: Scandalous Semifinal - Featuring:

Rotoporky, Maximo and Son of the Ghost
VS.
Underworld, Mephistopheles and Hephaestus

Round 5: Grand Combat - Featuring:

Mystic, The Shadow, and Golden Mask
VS.
The Black Pest, Pirate King, Black Houses, and Catman

Lucha Libre

This evening we headed out with a big group from work to watch a Luche Libre match (Mexican wrestling). It was a pretty wild spectacle. Very choreographed and obviously fake, but it was pretty entertaining. We each got an extra-large-big-gulp sized beer for 100 pesos and enjoyed the show.

Lucha babes and Volador versus La Mascara!

Flipping for fun!