Today's Happenings

I went to Chapultepec Park today, what a fun place for an outdoor gathering!  And let me tell you, thousands of people were gathering!

I took the subway there with the twin goals of seeing the National Museum of Anthropology as well as Chapultepec Castle, the home of Mexican presidents until the early 20th century and a key target of the Battle of Chapultepec during the Mexican-American War.  Sadly, even though my guide book and the web site both said Chapultepec Castle would be open today, by early afternoon it was most surely closed.

Fortunately I had already been to the National Museum of Anthropology and got to see one of the greatest of Aztec artifacts, the Stone of the Sun:

I got snapped at by a guard for taking this selfie--not because selfies are forbidden, but because I removed my mask to take it:

So for my next selfie with my Olmec buddy, I kept my mask on:

The closest I got to Chapultepec Castle was this picture:

I had a interesting experience later in the evening.  I found a hole-in-the-wall in which to have some dinner, and given the prices I assumed the portion size couldn't be huge.  So I ordered two "tortas", which turned out to be sandwiches akin to paninis, and a glass of "platano con leche"--a full liter+ of milk with a banana whipped into it.  Well, I was quite impressed when the tortas were delivered, there was no way I needed to eat both!  So I ate one and packed up the other to take with me.

If you've ever been to Mexico, you know about the begging.  There's a lot of it, and the people doing it often look like they genuinely need to.  On those rare occasions when I give to individual beggars, I try to do so subtly, but given the sheer number of them here, I usually just ignore or go around them.

I was carrying this torta back to my hotel room, and a small, old, thin man approached me with his hands out.  I said "no" and started to go around him when he pointed to the bag and asked, "comida (food)?"  Again I started to go around him, but I didn't need this torta and he clearly did.

I hope he enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the first one.  I still feel sort of guilty for not giving it to him immediately.

 

Update:  I went back to Chapultepec earlier in the day on Wednesday the 23rd and toured the castle.  It was muy coolissimo.