Dipping into the Centro & the Alameda & Plaza de la Republica

Did I mention that the Centro is huge? It's great to walk around and explore it's many offerings.


I went to pick up the business cards I'd ordered - probably around 10:30 - and I found that the shop was closed.

I was sitting down thinking about what to do for the afternoon to kill time until my evening class. A passerby began to chat me up, and no, not in English. We got to know each other in my broken but mostly understandable Spanish, then we grabbed some juice before heading over to the Palacio de Belles Artes.


My first Diego Rivera murals!

Later we headed to the Alameda for some fresh fruit with honey and granola. I love meeting people randomly. Even better when you don't have a common fluent language.

That was all on Thursday. On Friday I decided to have another, more thorough go at the Centro.

San Hipólito:




The Virgen del Metro. In 1997 metro riders "noticed that a water leak in Hidalgo station had formed a stain in the likeness of the Virgen Guadalupe." Thousands flocked, and the section was removed and given a special home. (It's too small to see in the photo.)


The Panteón de San Fernando. Benito Juarez and other "illustrious" Mexicans have tombs in this cemetary.



The Iglesia de San Fernando is next to the cemetary.


These shoe shining outfits are a dime a dozen in this corner of the world.


The Lotería Nacional, where you can watch the numbers being picked live on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday nights from 7:30.


Lonely Planet's descriptions of the next two churches were a little confusing. The Iglesia de la Santa Veracruz and the Plaza de Santa Veracruz respectively. Or, the reverse?



From the Museo Mural Diego Rivera. The best thing, of course, is the mural.


Here's Diego in the form of a child, and Frida as a skeleton:


This chart explains where and who everyone is in the mural. Almost everyone is a specific person from history, though there are a few random poor people thrown in too.


A portrait of the two artists:


Jardín de la Solidaridad is a frequent for chess players.


And back to the Centro again.



Plaza de Santo Domingo:


This is the Secretaría de Educacíon Pública. I went to see the 120 fresco panels by Diego Rivera which were painted in the 1920s. They represent "the very life of the people" as he said.

There was also a lot of mural work done by Rivera's students, and by David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco.


The thing that surprised me most was to actually see Diego Rivera working on a mural during my visit:




OK. Now, I can truly say that I've seen a lot of Diego Rivera's murals!

Onto the Zocalo.





The massive square is home to the Catedral Metropolitana.


Next up, the Palacio Nacional. Strict rules up in here! Don't even think about taking notes! And I couldn't take any pictures inside this creature of historical opulence.


I was able to take this picture though, one of Diego Rivera's massive and all-encompasing murals.


Another day in the Alameda a lot of teens were gathered for a dance-off. Intense.