Venturing Out with Venus & Valentine

Venus and Valentine

The next day, I found I was sharing the house with a young woman named Venus, an Australian who is working on a PhD in Body Performance, which I gather is like dance-- she expresses her essential woman through movement. I think. And, Venus was traveling with her 20-month old clever daughter, Valentine. Very brave and ambitious to travel with a baby, but she was wonderful with the little girl and very focused on her needs and skilled at meeting them. We decided to go out together and it was in fact very helpful. She showed me the grocery, and we went to the Antiquities Market (where I bought some beads supposedly from Teotihuacan, including one made from a meteor, from an elderly gent who lives there, some old postcards for Bijou which still have not arrived, and found the filthiest toilet yet in my travels. I did not buy: toads, eviscerated and skinned; incomprehensible mechanical devices; various junky junk that you see in any big junk market... and inside there were all sorts of overwrought fabulous furniture, chandeliers, and so on. In  places, the market had that familiar sewage and wood smoke pong, accented with the fragrance of frying tortillas.

The Zocalo-- Constitution Square

We went to the Zocalo, which is a huge open square ringed by the Catedral Metropolitano, various government buildings, and the National Pawn (Monte Nacional) shop, about which more later. Because of the holiday, the center of the Zocalo had an ice-skating rink with long lines, and a huge foil Christmans tree compliments of Pepsi, and covered with Pepsi-logo decorations. The buildings surrounding the Zocalo had huge lighted decorations-- lights in the shapes of stars, nativity scenes, stars, pinatas (which with their waving streamers, looked like flagellated protozoa.). There is a countdown at 9:00 when they are turned on.  

      There are dancing Indios in dramatic costumes: they burn herbs and incense, and supposedly cure whatever ails by the laying on of hands, chanting, dancing, burning herbs. The sharp fragrance clears the air. Other people have tarps covered with all sorts of souvenirs and tchotchkes laid out-- including a wonderful beaded camaron keychain I failed to buy-- and there are many snacks including pancake stands that look like those popcorn carts we have.  Tacos, and variations of tacos, abounded. One night, cotton candy artists were spinning sugar and wisps of it lifted off into the breeze like pink and blue cloudlets, and kids vied to catch them on their toy spears.

We proceeded to the Alameda, a large park which at that time was occupied by a feria, and a huge market. These popup market made with pipe frames and tarp walls, sell mostly cheap clothes, jewelery, makeup; an an alarming number of stalls sell dog costumes. Our real destination was the Bellas Artes Museum, an amazing, huge palace—French baroquey on the outside but  Art Deco on the inside, a huge vast cathedral of Art Deco panels and columns. It has a few murals and seems mostly to be a performance venue. It had just what we all needed at the moment-- a very nice cafe, with formal waiters. Despite the huge crowds outside, the cafe was nearly empty and quiet. 

The nearby main Post Office, which is a rococo creation outside with endless metal railing and lace inside-- it is rented out after hours as a ballroom. But there was one window open and one person in evidence working there. There is more! but for another post.