Tepotzotlan..... The viceroyalty route

Tepotzotlan

Hey guys, this time I want to show you the viceroyalty route, the beginning of the Royal road of the Interior land or the old way to Santa Fe, that was the old commercial route since the middle of the XVI century until the XIX century, the Spanish, had used this road to trade with silver and the mercury all the way to Albuquerque.

Located just forty minutes away from the city of Mexico, this town stores the art of the colonial era, inside the ancient jesuit college of saint Martin and saint Francisco Javier, now named National museum of the Viceroyalty.

But first we had time to wander around by another municipality owned by the state of Mexico, and I mean Tlalnepantla de Baz.

Hidden within the urban area, it seems that it has nothing to show, Tlalnepantla that means, "in between the land" in the old nahuatl language, is best known for being an industrial area, in addition to being marked by the tragedy of 1984, where thousand of people were killed by a gas explosion that was originated in the facilities of a governmental company.

Founded in the late of the XII century by the chichimecas and their leader, Xolotl, the city of Tenayuca (place surrounded by walls) was the main place of the political power, still we can see the remains of the pyramid, you may reach this place, driving down through the Mario Colin avenue, in 1914 a group of archaeologist discovered a square basement with twin temples, one for Quetzalcoatl, and the other one for Tlaloc, this pyramid is surrounded by snakeheads, petroglyphs and two xiuhcoatls (snakes of fire). These xiuhcoatls were the most powerful weapon of Huitzilopochtli, the warrior god associated with the sun, the legend says that he was conceived when his mother Coatlicue kept a ball of feathers that fell from the sky when she was sweeping the temples in the Sierra of Tollan, his four hundred brothers when they noticed that their mother was pregnant, they tried to hide the disgrace, murdering the newborn, instigated by their sister Coyolxauhqui, but at that moment, he was born, killing most of their brothers, Huitzilopochtli took the xiuhcoatls as an axe and destroyed her sister, she was dismembered when she fell through the hills.

Xiuhcoatl

Two kilometers ahead we found another pyramid, Acatitlan (reedbed), in the village of Saint Cecilia, also founded by the chichimecas who settled in the Sierra of Guadalupe, this pyramid was used as a ceremonial center. You may visit the center of Tlalnepantla and the Corpus Christi Cathedral, now we continue our way to Tepotzotlan.

We arrived to Tepotzotlan twenty minutes later, but by now, we will skip the center, and we continue down the road to visit the arches of Xalpa, a monumental aqueduct from the colonial era, early in the century XVIII, builded by the jesuit community to brought the water from the sierra to the ranch of Xalpa, has a lenght of 400 meters and a height of 62 meters, was conditioned as a ecotourism park, where you may find suspension bridges, grills and a zip line.

We return to the center of Tepotzotlan and the mandatory stop is the national museum of the viceroyalty, the visitor should take the time to see the facade of this temple, the architecture is completely baroque, from the period churrigueresque, but this is just the beginning, inside there's a chapel made of sheet coated with 23 carat gold, is awesome, but to me, I really don't know what to think, on one hand I will always admire the work of the mexican artisans, on the other, as the Spanish rock band Mägo de Oz said, gold that does not serve to feed the hungry mouths, there has always been poverty, and the churches have always been full of gold, but that's another issue. sometimes the INAH use this chapel for concerts, we continue walking through the halls of this museum, until we reach the gardens. We left the museum and we walked through the village.

Tepotzotlan means in between the hunchbacks, I guess is because of the shape of the hills that surrounds the town, on the main square is the olive garden, just outside the museum, on the street there's to many vendors that offers local garments, breads made of cheese and walnut, very tasteful, the main handcraft is the wrought iron.

Tepotzotlan it's also known by the traditional pastorelas, a musical performance that narrates the adventures of the virgin Mary and Saint Joseph on their way to Bethlehem, sometimes in October a medieval fest is held.

now it's time to come back, but not before dinner in the monastery hostelry

Thanks for your time

Los Cabos to San Carlos....... A road trip in Baja California Sur

Sixteen years later but I had to return to this place that gives meaning to the word paradise, at least for me, the land of California that receives that name in allusion to the misadventures of Cortes, equating his events with the stories of the book of The Adventures of Esplandian by Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo, in whose novel wrote about of a land named California where everything was made of gold, populated only by women as Amazons.

The first thing we did, was rent a car, in Baja California Sur the distances are considerables and the schedule of the buses is short, and it is even cheaper, we arrived late to San José del Cabo, so I had to drive for about forty minutes, to find a place to sleep, we reach the village of Buenavista and we decided to sleep in this place, the next day we woke up early, because we decide spend most of the day in Cabo Pulmo, a protected nature reserve, the idea was to do some snorkeling, Cabo Pulmo has a  beautiful coral reef but it was a windy day and the tide was high so we missed that chance to enjoy that, nevertheless spend the day in a quiet beach and enjoying it just for me, turned out nice.

At noon we return to the village of Buenavista and Los Barriles, just to give a quick view to the beaches, Los Barriles has a perfect beach to practice the Kite surfing.

A few miles ahead from the village of los Barriles we found a village abandoned with the name of El Triunfo, that in the 19th century was a mining town, these days it's inhabitated for a few dozens of people. The first thing to see when you reach the village, is "La Ramona", an old smokestack designed by Gustav Eiffel.

We continue driving down  to the N° 1 highway all the way to La Paz, to spend the night in the capital city of Baja California Sur, we will stay in this city for the next three days.

Once again we woke up early and after jogging five kilometers, we took a boat ride to visit the Espiritu Santo Island and to take a dive with the whale shark, for this tour you will need at least 4 hours, we sailed and in the middle of the way to the island we found a colony of sea lions, if you want, you can swim very close of them!,we continue our ride until we reach the island, to me are special these landscapes, the desert and the sea in the same place, this island it's protected by the UNESCO as biosphere, the island is uninhabited, During the 18th century, the island was harvested with pearls, but the farms were hit by the ordnance of the pirates, still we can see the remains.

We return to La Paz for the dinner, if you want to try the local cuisine, I recommend el Bismarck-cito, a small restaurant that offers many special dishes, lobster, crab hands, marlin and tuna tacos and grilled clams.

The next day we also started early, we had to drive through the desert for almost three hours, driving through these landscapes and listening the Eagles music, was a great combination, match perfectly!!!. Finally we arrived to the locality of San Carlos, and the reason that justifies the many hours of driving, is the chance to be so near of the gray whale, year after year these cetaceans return to the place where they were born, so as to reproduce and to give birth. Is the second time that I witness this spectacle, we arrived soon this year, there was nine or ten whales, when they gain confidence, they reach the boat, this time they were nervous, so we tried to stay away of them, we always have to remember that we have to respect them and give them their space!, but believe me, it's a wonderful experience, if you want to do this tour, ask for Crispin, a sailor with forty years of experience and a very kind person.

The Friday was our last day in the city of La Paz, so it was a day of complete relax, the previous day was tired, so we decided to spend the day in Balandra's beach, another lonely place during the week, but on the weekends it's so crowdy. There is a peculiar rock formation with the shape of a mushroom, it's a beautiful estuary, you may reach the other side of the beach practically walking through the sea, the place only has at most one meter deep.

In the evening we went to walk through the city, this city was known with the name of Airapi, the Guaycuras gave it that name, about it's history; the conqueror Fortun Jimenez arrived in 1534, after killing the captain Diego de Becerra, he and the rest of the crew plundered the wealth of the place and raped the women, this event caused the revolt of the native, that ended with the murder of Fortun Jimenez, Hernan Cortes arrived to the bay in 1535 and gave it the name of Bahia de la Santa Cruz, and as I said at the beginning, Cortes suffered in this place, once he took possesion of the bay he ordered to create a colony, he ordered to bring the soldiers and the food that he had in Sinaloa, but the weather didn't help, the ships were lost and the only one that arrived, it hasn't enough food, he decided to search supplies for himself, but he failed and he had to return to la Nueva España.

It is imperative to take a walk through the jetty of this city, there are a few sculptures, also you may visit the cathedral of Nuestra Señora del Pilar and the museum of the whale.

The next day we leave the city of La Paz and we´re heading to the village of Todos Santos, named Magical village in 2006, in this village there is place with an urban legend and I mean the Hotel California, this place was builded in the late of the sixties, too many people believe that this place was the inspiration for the song with the same name, the truth... only Don Henley knows, the main street Juarez, leads you to this place, on the corner you will find the mission of Nuestra señora del Pilar, established in 1742, Todos Santos it's a village that has suffered foreigner attacks, the first in 1822 and the second in 1846 during the Yankee invasion.

in Todos Santos there are two beaches for surfing, Punta Lobos and La Pocita, and another more quiet beach, Cerritos and it's in this very place where we finished our visit.

We're back on the road again, and we're heading to Cabo San Lucas, a place full of nightlife, once we have a place to stay, it's time for a few drinks, there's too many places to enjoy the night, Barometro, The Squid Roe, Giggling Marlin, but to me, as a Van Halen fan, there's no place like Cabo Wabo, so we went to the Sammy Hagar's cantina to listen the local band, and I was surprised to discover that the current singer was Chava Aguilar, the frontman of CODA, a Hard Rock mexican band, so it was a great evening.

Sunday was another day of total relax, we took a boat that gave us to a tour for the beaches of Cabo San Lucas and to the famous Arch, from one side you'll see the green water of the sea of Cortes, from the other the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean, the boat drop us in the beach of love, so we spent the rest of the day swimming and resting on the beach.

The last day in Baja we spend it in San José del Cabo, it used to be a fishermans village, these days is full on new resorts, most expensive than Cabo San Lucas, we visited the downtown, bought some souvenirs, in this region of the country, the local handcrafts are made of wood cactus, we finished our trip walking in La Playita beach

So that's it, we say goodbye to my favourite side of the country

Thanks