Mother of God!

It's been a little quieter around here so we took the opportunity to join Sasha's Spanish classmates on a little field trip to the Museum of Anthropology. We had been meaning to go because it's reported to be one of the best in the world, and is only a pleasant walk through the park away from our house, but had not yet found the chance what with so many seedy markets and taquerias to visit. Above is the famous Aztec Solar Calendar, with the year divided neatly into categories of animals, vegetables, and elements. If you guessed today is the 5th jaguar of the cactus month in the year of the screaming wind-eagle, well then congratulations because I don't know what the hell you're talking about.

She also goes by "Snaky Skirt"

The hideous visage above is that of Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess of the Earth, life and death, and the mother of several other gods. So I guess she was pretty important. We preferred the name Sasha's teacher gave her: "The Goddess of the Gods." That sculpture is about 9 feet tall, so you can really see the details of the human hands that form her necklace. Those Aztecs were kooky!

The museum itself is also another one of the many interesting architectural sites in Mexico City, designed by the same guy who did the Estadio Azteca. It has neat vantage points like these:












That column on the right is actually a reverse fountain but we didn't get to see it in action, I assume because it was much too early for whoever's job it is to turn it on. Things like that happen here.

Other scary faces...













































This past weekend was pretty quiet. Sergio went to lucha libre again, this time with a big group from work. He was sorry to report that "El Texano Jr." was a major disappointment in the ring, despite the use of his highly-illegal bull whip (shaming his father's memory).

Also with some work friends we went to a great Cuban restaurant to celebrate a colleague's birthday. It was a cool little place in Roma, featuring down-home cuisine, fantastic mojitos, and the most entertaining live entertainment we have seen yet in a restaurant here:

Sergio covets their shirts.

After dinner we were invited to add out names to the many on the wall, starting with the birthday girl.







Finally, Sunday was a lazy one around here. The weather was once again perfect so we took a stroll around the 'hood, found an excellent juice stand we had heard about, stopped in the amazingly-overpriced American Apparel outlet, and ran across this pair:
Yes, apparently Spuds McKenzie has retired to the Polanco area of Mexico City, together with his life partner. So I guess that means he's Jewish, as well as Scottish-Canadian? Fascinating.

Next week: we go back to Texas, on our anniversary weekend! No one has ever eaten as much brisket in a 3-day period as we plan to. Stay tuned...