Day 4 – Part II – My Trip to Mexico City and It’s Surrounding Areas Coyoacan / Museo Frida Kahlo / Museo Casa de Len Trotsky/ La Vienet / Hippie Market / Cathedral of Coyoacan

It’s best to read about my trip in order so you don’t miss part of the “story”. If you haven’t read the previous posts, go to the sidebar on the right and in the archive section, start at Day 1 in April of 2011.

Sorry about having to separate it, but four hours is my limit when I put a post together! This part of the day, I’m going to admit to one of my few flaws. Keep reading!

So we left San ngeland headed to the Coyoacan neighborhood to go to a couple of museums. But first, on our drive we saw this guy:

I’m not the perv! I think it was my mom who pointed him out. Not exactly sure what he’s doing.

This place is across the street from the museum we went to next:

We went to MuseoFrida Kahlo. This isthe museum of a very famous Mexican artist. Now, I’m not the kinda girl who really is interestedin museum’s unless I know my subject. I’m sorry to say, I knew nothing about Frida. I’ll admit there’s probably a lot about the U.S. thatI don’t know. I suck at history! It goes in one ear and out the other. My eyes glaze over. The information goes over my head. Just ask my family! For a VERY brief moment, I thought my dad had been in the Civil War!

Here are the only pictures I took at the museum:

Here is our tour guide/host explaining a little about Frida:

You first walk through an art exhibit of her work and some photograph’s that her photographer father had taken. The parts of the museum that interested me most were the movie that was in Spanish (which I couldn’t understand, but got the gist of) and walking through her home as it was when she was alive.

This was a very nice museum. They had facts posted in Spanish and in English. Here are two interesting links you can go to read more about Frida: http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1379-the-frida-kahlo-museumand http://gomexico.about.com/od/sights/p/casa_azul.htm.

Now, another thing you need to know about me if you don’t already – I throw myself into learning about things when I want to. I kind of get obsessed. When we got back home to the states, I rented the movie Fridaon Netflix and watched it. Now I’m ready to go back to the museum because I know more about her. When we hadgone to the UK in 2005, I had come home from that trip and watched everything I could find on my DVR box about the area and Henry the VIII. I watched that stuff for MONTHS.

When we left Frida’s Museum, we walked a few blocks to the Leon Trotsky Museum. Here’s a a few pictures from our walk:

This is a house that we saw onthe walk. It points the direction to the Frida museum:

A man driving his truck around selling fruits and vegetables. He uses a megaphone:

We get to MuseoCasa de Len Trotsky, I’m even more bored than I was at Frida’s – BUT THAT’S JUST ME! I know nothing of the man. He’s political (even worse in my book as far as history goes). There are a bunch of black and white pictures hanging on the walls. They’ve got Spanish and English translations next to them. When we get outside on the grounds, it’s pretty. My interest is a little more piqued. You can go through the rooms he and his family lived in – they’re decorated as they had been when he was hiding out from….? Read about it and let me know! 🙂 Anywho, it mentions Lenin and Stalin at the museum also. And not John Lennon as I had asked my brother. I guess there’s more than one! LOL

Here are some pictures I took in the courtyard:

But my mind tends to wander when history is involved…

My sister-in-law’s eyelashes.

Us with our host and hostess for the trip – correction – hostess is taking the picture:

Here are two links that talk about the Trotsky museum: http://www.trotskyana.net/Leon_Trotsky/The_Trotsky_Museum/thetrotskymuseum.htmland http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/720-the-leon-trotsky-museum-murder-and-marxism-in-mexico-city. Wetake a few more pictures and leave the museum for…dinner! Here are somepictures from our walk to the restaurante. And we’re told it’s just “two blocks”. We all know what that means by now!

This restaurantewas also a contender in the choice of places where my brother and sister-in-law would have their wedding reception. It’s a very nice place, but I’m glad they ended up where they did. This would have been a photographer’s nightmare. It’s very dark upstairs. The place is calledLa Vienet:

This is a cute little room up front. It’s got four tables in it:

This is something I saw painted on a wall of a building as we were driving by:

This whole afternoon we’ve stayed inCoyoacan. This is the downtown area:

They have parking areas like this to save space. My sister-in-law said she’shad hercar parked here before:

Know what this is?

A gum tree. My sister-in-law leaned against it for a picture, then mymom said to her, “Oh my God it’s gum!”:

We’re at a “hippie market” as our hostess calls it. I was trying to find souvenirs for the boys. Leather bracelet, t-shirt with dirty stuff on it, but in Spanish so no one knows what it says/means, etc. (all my ideas – I didn’t necessarily see a t-shirt like that – and I didn’t). These guys are making jewelry:

I asked this guy if something he was selling was a bong. He said yes, and would I like to buy it. I told him no, but would he pose with it in a picture for me:

I’m sorry I got my sister-in-law into a conversation withthis guy. I was just curious how much the moccasins cost. Then she couldn’t get out of a conversation:

We went to the Cathedral of Coyoacan next. It was right next door:

I saw these people below and asked them if I could take their picture. The guy in the middle said it would be fair if I gave them a coin. I gave them two. You can see their friends off to the right. After I took the picture, they ran over and jumped on their backs. You can already see them starting running:

Mind you, this is Part II of our Day 4! We’re not done yet. What a jam-packed day! We leave here and head to one of my sister-in-law’s other sister’s places. Her parents are still in town and they are leaving tomorrow, so we go for a visit. There’s about 12 of us there. Can I say this again? Nice, nice, nice people!

I have one more picture to share from this day. Look at it and figure out if you can see what I noticed:

Isn’t Cheerios a General Mills product? Or are they the same company? One of my cousin’s who works for GM just confirmed they’re owned by the same company. It’s GM for American brands, and Nestle for brand’s outside of the country.

Oh! I almost forgot! I mentioned how we had no cell service or internet service. Well, I jumped on the internet really quick when we got to her sister’s apartment. I sent my husband and son’s an email and then jumped on Facebookand sent the messages saying that I sent them an email. When I lookedat my husband’s Facebook page, there was a status update that said, “My wife went to Mexico with her family. Haven’t heard from her in a few days. Starting to worry.” More on that on Day 5.

Oh – and still missing two suitcases!

Day 5 may not bepublished tomorrow. I may actually go to a movie with my family! I’m forgetting what they look like. There’s only two days left of our visit and Day 6 is our travel day, so it won’t be very long. Hope you stick around to see the end! I should have it all done by Sunday night.j

UPDATE – 05/01/11 – I have gotten the documentary, “Trotsky”, from Netflix. Now I know a little bit more about him too!

Day 4 – Part II – My Trip to Mexico City and It’s Surrounding Areas Coyoacan / Museo Frida Kahlo / Museo Casa de Len Trotsky/ La Vienet / Hippie Market / Cathedral of Coyoacan

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