WTF?

we did make it to villahermosa today. freakin´hot...that´s what it is. imagine a Dallas or Houston summer - year round. luckily, we found an internet cafe with a/c...

well, there was a slight change in plans. we were planning to go to one of our favorite archaeological sites, Palenque, which we haven´t visited in more than six years, but i spaced getting tix for the noon bus and ended up staying in town instead. sigh. sure, we´ve been there more than a half dozen times, but they´ve been doing some extensive work over the past few years. ah well.

now, where did we leave off? oh yeah, blogging in mexico city before the internet place closed early for the independence day celebrations.

i forgot to mention that we had visited a couple other places, the Diego Rivera Mural Museum and the Franz Mayer Museum. both are within a block of each other in the Alameda Park area.

the Diego Rivera museum is not that special. the central piece in there is his most famous work, Sunday in Alameda Park, which depicts mexican history from the conquest to 1947 (whgen he executed it). it´s a massive piece, probably 15´x 60´. i´ll look for a link so you all can see it.

sorry about the vague descriptions, we´re a bit short on time. we still have to eat and get back to our room before we head to the bus station for our overnight to Cancún...

the Franz Mayer museum is mainly a decorative art museum with pieces from the sixteenth century forward. while the pieces, especially the carved wood, were impressive, what really caught our attention was the temporary exhibit of world press photos awards for 2005. we´re talking about uncensored, heart-wrenching pics that are certainly not ´pc´ enough for our society. much of the photos are from war torn areas, recent disasters, and areas of strife. whenever you see stuff like this, you continually reaffirm how damn lucky and fortunate we are. what´s even more powerful is that many of the iraq photos certainly didn´t put the US in a good light...truth hurts.

on to the independence day celebrations...as interpreted by lois. ¡Qué emocionante!! to be in the heart of Tenochtitlan 500 years later celebrating the biggest Mexican holiday with our southern neighbors. We were crushed with the other 100,000 people in the Zocalo laughing, spraying canned foam, throwing confetti and enjoying ourselves immensely. The walk down Madero blvd was a hoot. Thousands of people in the streets where usually we only see crazy traffic. When we arrived in the Zócalo, it was surrounded by vivid light displays depicting the flag of mexico, the eagle, and banners declaring ¨Viva México¨

At 11 o·clock, President Fox came out on the balcony of the presidential palace accompanied by unbelievable noise of cheers, toy horns, screaming...imagine that followed by a stunning display of fireworks over the Metropolitan Cathedral. The wall back through Cinco de Mayo blvd was like forcing a camel through the eye of a needle. We were jostled, shoved as we literally inched our way back to our hotel. It was an experience I´ve waited for for years, and will remember forever.

See ya soon from Cancún.
Spencer & L