Day Trip into Mexico City

We spent one day going into Mexico City to the Museum of Anthropology and to visit the site of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Museum

We first visited the museum, and it is definitely worth a visit -- I enjoyed it a lot! As with all museums, I got tired after a couple of hours, but if I lived nearby, I'd probably visit all the time!

Lots of exhibits, organized by culture -- Toltec, Maya, etc.










This is a water sculpture in the inside courtyard --


And this is a picture of the courtyard, looking back towards the water sculpture --

Gaudalupe

Although I'm glad I went, I didn't really get much out of this visit. It's a nice story about the virgin (looking like a mestizo) appearing to a indigenous Mexican now named Juan Diego. Our guide pointed out that the virgin in this story also was related to the worship of the indigenous goddess, Tonantzin, already being worshiped at the site.

And you can see the feathered serpent (Quetzalcoatl) in some of the imagery on the site --


This is Juan Diego's cloak, viewed by riding one of several moving sidewalks located underneath it.


There are multiple buildings in the complex -- the green building is a modern cathedral (which I didn't particularly like) where the cloak is located. There was a mass going on while I was there.




By the way, the bathroom facility costs 4 pesos, but luckly the attendant can change money. Coming and going you have to go through these little bitty revolving gates, which I found very constrictive!

Final Goodbyes

This was a good trip for me...I am taking time off from work, and I needed to do another trip out of the country. I needed the 'disruption' of not being able to understand the language...I needed the 'disruption' of not being comfortable. I needed to learn to exercise my caution again. I needed to mind my Ps & Qs again as I interacted with another culture.

(Actually, I take 1 thing back -- I WAS able to read many of the signs, and understand maybe 20% of what was being said, just because I can speak a little Portuguese!)

The proprietors' of the guest house were lovely souls, and you can see the 2 of them here as we say our final goodbyes and as he is giving us a gift of some crystals to take back home with us --


Final goodbyes -- I think there were 1 or 2 of us not here --

What I Lost

I lose something in every international trip. I'm not sure why, and it's not some deep, emotional thing -- it's usually a very tangible item. For example, in Brazil, I set aside some really nice hand-painted souvenirs that I bought for people, and then forgot to re-pack them! So everyone got airport keychains as souvenirs from that trip, lol!

In this instance...I lost something on Day 1! I was in the airport where I was supposed to meet my group, and I went to an airport ATM. When I travel, I use a separate travel account at a different financial institution. This is something that I do in case of 'skimmers' at the ATM, so that if my account is compromised, then it doesn't cause any problems with my primary financial institution.

In this case at the ATM, I asked for MX$4500, which is about US$250. I got my money, and then my receipt and walked away. What did I lose? The card itself! The machine was one of the old style machines that gives you the card last, so I forgot about it!

There were 2 additional transactions at the ATM for about MX$1000 -- about US$57, so I imagine someone walked up behind me (perhaps watching me all along?), and conducted 2 transactions. And perhaps the ATM requires a password after 3 transactions? Who knows why there were only 2 additionals.

As the group was gathering, I suddenly realized I no longer had the ATM card, and I realized what I had done. So from the airport on day 1, I called that bank and got the card cancelled! The bank eventually credited the 2 fraudulent transactions so no harm no foul from my perspective.

But what a way to start the adventure!