Mexico City: The Zocalo

Dear Friends,

We kept on finding ourselves returning to the Zocalo or town square. It is the heart of the Central Historic District of Mexico City. Our first full day began with a free two hour walking tour led by Estacion Mexico. I learned so much in a short time.

The main thing was this: Mexico City is sinking - fast!

That’s because Mexico City is built directly over an Aztec city which was built over a natural lake. (It had something to do with the Aztecs building their city where the eagle was resting on a cactus with a serpent in his mouth. You had to have been there, I guess)

So these buildings are sitting on very, very wet ground. All over the place you see them tipping and sinking into and away from each other. Take a close look at this photo of the huge cathedral for example - the cacti are standing straight up, but the front of the cathedral is definitely tilting into the middle of the Zocalo.

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t this crazy???!!!!

Here is the cathedral from the back.

Its insides are dripping with gold.

Next to the cathedral is an excavation of the original Aztec city.

A bookstore in the area had the perfect Christmas tree.

Hurdy gurdies are ubiquitous. Some say they came with the Austrian Emperor Maxmillian in the mid 19th century to make him feel at home. Others say that they came with a large settlement of Germans towards the end of the 19th century. In any case, the first couple of them are kind of charming, but the next 40 or 50 of these honkers get to be annoying.