First Days In Mexico's Capital City!
Welcome to Mexico City. We are here on a very historic day. Today is the day that Mexico inaugurates its first ever female president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Most of the streets are closed off here and we are actually... the majority of the
people are going to be heading down towards the National Assembly Building for the swear-in ceremony, which is supposed to begin here before too long. And I imagine the rest of the day here today will be celebrations and partying and so on. So it's going to be quite a remarkable day to be here. This is now the second time in a couple weeks where I was in Guadalajara for the Independence Day celebrations and now here in Mexico City, the capital for the inauguration of the new president of Mexico. So we're just going to take a
walk down here, follow the crowd and see what's going on. Should be interesting to see if the rain holds off today as well. Pretty overcast day again. So, my plan for today was to go check out some museums and stuff, but I think that's going to have to wait. It's just
going to be too much other stuff going on down here today with the inauguration and all the celebrations. So anywhere I go is going to be bananas. Quite the scene.
I believe, and I may be mistaken on this, but I think that the president of Mexico is elected every six years. So, you know, this is a big step for the country of Mexico for the next, you know, next number of years and it will be really interesting to see what happens. I know that a lot of people here are very excited about their first female president in Mexico and yeah, it looks like a very celebratory scene down here today so far.
I won't pretend to understand the ins and outs of Mexican politics and what this means for the country and what it means for the next six years but I just hope that it means great things because I've been here in Mexico now for over two months and it's been an amazing country with amazing people and you know I just hope it continues. Good morning from another day here in Mexico City. It is definitely overcast, definitely another chance of rain but I thought we would go check out some of the city today. One of the things I'm going to head to first is what's known as the lungs of Mexico City. There's three or four places there that I want to go check out so let's head over and see if it really is some fresh air in this busy busy city. Making my way over to the subway here at Pino Suárez station and I guess it's all free today so. all the better.
There's a bunch of roads and stuff they're closed here in the city for take your pick... construction, protests, whatever. So subway is definitely the way to go. Welcome to Chapultepec Park here in Mexico City. Also known as the lungs of Mexico City. It
is essentially, if you want to think of it for a comparison sake, similar to Central Park in New York. It's a very large, expansive, green area within the city, but also it's filled with some museums, Chapultepec Castle is here, and some other sites. So I thought this would be a nice stroll through the park today to check out some of this stuff, and there's a special thing here in the park for us Canadians as well.
So let's go check it out and have a little wander. So a bit of background on this park because it goes back a little bit further than maybe you expect. So the modern-day Chapultepec Park has been inhabited and considered a landmark since pre-Columbian times. This is an area in which the Aztec leaders would come here for retreats. In the colonial
period, so we'd be looking at like, you know, 1500 to 1700, the castle was also built here as well, and that became the residence for the heads of state for New Spain, as it was called at the time. So this park receives about 15 million visitors per year and it actually went through a major renovation back in, I think starting in 2005 and continuing through until 2010. Even today, you can see here that areas are cordoned off for maintenance and updates and those types of things. Yeah, this place is huge. I don't know if
if it's even possible to see everything in here in a day. I wouldn't even try to, to be honest, it's just too expansive. But considering how trafficky and busy and noisy the city of Mexico City is, this place is very quiet and very peaceful in the heart of the city. Great place to escape. Come check out some of the sights and yeah, it's remarkable. This park is massive. So I decided to cross-country it here a little bit.
My first stop here in the park is straight ahead of me here so it's easier to come across this way. Our first stop here in the park is the most Canadian stop in this park. I give you the Canadian totem which was donated here to Chapultepec Park by Canada back in 1960. It was put here in celebration of the 150th anniversary of independence of the country of Mexico. And if I flip this around here, you can see that it's a pretty awesome spectacle here in the middle of the park.
Yeah, beautiful spot. And absolutely gorgeous all the way around it here with all kinds of different trees. Anyway, I figured this was a good stop to represent with my CBC hat, my Wetʼsuwetʼen Strong T-shirt, and a reminder of all the independence fights around the world that have happened. Both here in Mexico, back at home and other countries where things continue to be fought for every day. Let's move on to the next stop. We have many more to go.
Completely peaceful here in the middle of this park. You'd never know you're in the middle of a city of 20 million people. All kinds of wildlife here. I can even bribe friends here in Mexico City.
Just making my way over to the castle and stopped here at the lake real quick. There's actually, I believe, two lakes here. There's one here and then there's one over on the other side of that walking bridge off you can see in the distance. The birds here make the craziest noises that I've ever heard. Here's a
quick sample of one that I heard when I was just sitting over there on a bench a few minutes ago. Anyway, we're going to try and head up the hill here. It's about 10 to 15 minutes up to the top. Just making our way up to the top of the hill here for Castle Chapultepec.
And you can start to see the view as you work your way up. So we've made it up to the top here at Chapultepec Castle. So one of my big kind of pet peeves, I guess, so far through Mexico, and it's been the same everywhere, is that if you want to actually use a GoPro or DJI camera to record some footage and, you know, like normal person, gyou have to pay extra, which is fine. I think here it was 95 pesos to get in and then another 45 pesos for a video camera. Sure, whatever. But they made me... they made me
check the handle to my camera that attaches directly to the base of this. So... Camera was okay. Handle was not. They kept trying to say it was a selfie stick and all this stuff but it's really not. It's just a little GoPro handle that's, you know, six inches long. Just a minor annoyance. I don't understand it. I think it's silly.
Especially when you're here trying to promote things and, you know, show things off and then they're just giving you a hard time about the handle to my camera. So this was the house of the head of government here in Mexico until 1935 when it was moved to a different location. This castle was built during the colonial times when Spain was in control. So that would have been like 1700s or so.
It's up here at the top of this hill. So the hill we're on is a natural formation which was used pre-Columbian by the Aztecs as a meeting place here at the top of the hill. And then, you know, after the Spaniards came in, they, of course, built in the same spot to take it over and, you know, assert control of it, I guess, is the best way to put it. So let's go and take a walk inside and see what the rest of the place looks like. It's a beautiful painting here at the top of the stairs and on the ceiling here as well.
Chapultepec Castle also encloses the National Museum of History here for Mexico as well. So we're going to take a little walk around and see what we can find. Some of the original artifacts that were found here in the area. Leading back to 1200, 1325. this painting is what's known as the "Humiliation of Cortez" who was, you know, quite legendary in these parts of the world. Mostly known for
atrocities against indigenous tribes and had the nickname of Cortez the Killer. It's a painting of the Plaza Mayor here in Mexico City And this mural is with the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. It is quite an amazing painting.
So this painting was done in the 17th century and is a representation of the Spanish conquest of what is now Mexico back in the 1520s. It's an original map from 1755 showing the layout of Mexico and the distances between cities. It's a map of the plan for the city of Mexico in 1793 to be completed by 1807. This is an interior shot here in the castle. There's a set of playing cards from 1817 and a coin from 1804. This mural has to be probably 50 feet across, well more than that, 80 feet across. And
yeah looking through it, you can see the entire history of the city of Mexico, from colonial times through the revolution, right up into the constitution and the creation of the city and the country. It's one of the flags of the insurgents that was used during the war in 1812, and the final victory flag. We've seen this before, but this is the Acts of Independence document that was signed on the 20th of December, 1824. This... according to this,
says it's a facsimile, but it's a really good looking facsimile in that case. There's a section here on the secession of Texas as well in 1836, showing some of the Americans that were involved. There's a flag actually right here. First company of Texan volunteers from New Orleans. Mississippi flag as well.
Massive scale model of the Chapultepec ship. Some old money from the Bank of AguasCalientes, Banco de Jalisco and some others, different states. Take a walk over this way. This downstairs area here I think was off limits, maybe. This is back over the entrance again here. A few stained glass windows.
So here from the castle you can see the perspective of the city. And from the distance there to the left you can see the mountains. It's a pretty remarkable spot.
And even here on a Wednesday, pretty busy with people as well. But not crowded. So that will do it for Chapultepec Castle and the National Museum of History here in the park. I'm just going to make my way back down to the bottom now and yeah, see what see what else is going on.
2024-11-07 22:48
