Gulliver's Travels 08/25/2025

DALE SIEVERT

Mexico and Costa Rica--January 2025
Part 1--Mexico City and Puebla

​In January 2025 I took a sort of "cleanup trip" to see places in Mexico and Costa Rica that I missed on several earlier trips.  First I visited Mexico City for four days, then took a day trip to the colonial city of Puebla, two hours southeast of Mexico City.  Finally, I flew to Costa Rica for a week's visit there.
   
What is now Mexico City began in 1325 A.D. when the Mexica people, also known as the Aztecs, settled on an island in Lake Texcoco.  It grew to a very large city by April 1519 when the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez conquered the Aztec capital.  The Aztecs would be stunned to learn that the modern Mexico City, at an altitude of 7350 feet above sea level, has 20 million people, living in sort of a bowl surrounded by mountains
      

Palacio de Belles Artes, an Art Deco and Neo-classical cultural center built in 1904

Casa de los Azualejos, the 18th Century Baroque palace of Court of the Valle de Orizabe

Metropolitan Cathedral in the center of Mexico City, begun in 1573

National Palace, begun in1522, which resides next to the Cathedral.

Model of Templo Mayor, the center of the Aztec capital

Ruins of Templo Mayor, done by the Spanish, who then built on top of the rubble, including the Cathedral seen in the background

Interior of a colonial Catholic church in the trendy Coyocan neighborhood

One of countless beautiful doors in Mexico City

The Gardens of Xochimilco, now a tourist site, comprise 100 square miles of that were built by the Aztecs on mats woven from reeds for purposes of growing various crops.

Popocateptl, an 17,808-feet high volcano between Mexico City and Puebla

The Cathedral of the city of Puebla was built in the 1600s.

   So many Americans told me they would never, ever, consider visiting Mexico because of the crime, poverty, filth, etc.  I found Mexico City and Puebla (and I went through many parts of both cities) to be clean, with traffic no worse than in the US, and with countless beautiful old colonial buildings as well as modern buildings.  Those fearful folks are missing a lot.  I'm sure glad I didn't.