Woowol Knits

Hello everyone! Hope the past weekend went well….mine was great! I hopped on a bus to Cuernavaca with three of my friends, and while we only stayed one day, we managed to get a lot in.

Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos, the state bordering Puebla to the west. It’s called the “city of eternal spring”, since the weather stays at about 80 degrees all year long. It was actually pretty warm the day we went, though Cholula was rather chilly this weekend, so it felt good.

We walked from the bus station to the zócalo, or the center of town. They were already decorating for Mexico’s Independence Day, which is still three weeks off!

From there, we headed to the Palacio de Cortés, which is where Cortés lived after moving from Mexico City. Construction started in 1526, and besides Cortés’ residence, it was also used as a church, a prison, the Morelos state government, and finally, now, a museum.

That I apparently take really crooked pictures of. Moving on…

The museum is full of everything in the history of Morelos, from thousand year old stone statues to 20th century furniture.  I’ll show you my two favourite parts.

The first doesn’t look like much…but it is actually really interesting. This is the machinery from the first clock in the tower of Cuernavaca’s cathedral, installed in the sixteenth century.

Not impressed?  It’s so old, it’s believed to be the first public clock that existed on the entire American continent.

I thought that was really, really neat. Can you imagine looking up at this clock for the first time? Pretty cool.

My other favourite part of the museum is a mural by Diego Rivera, called Historia de Morelos, Conquista y Revolución. Its nine panels show the history of Morelos, and they are absolutely beautiful. I can’t post all the panels, but here’s the very beginning of the mural…the conquest of Tenochtitlan and Cuernavaca.

We did lots more in Cuernavaca - after the Palacio de Cortes, we visited the cathedral and the botanical gardens. I’ll tell you about them soon!

…and welcome to my blog! I’ve been travelling around a lot recently, so I’m going to start with where I visited last. Sound like a plan?

The school organizes many trips for the international students, so last Saturday we went to Tlaxcala, the state above Puebla. We visited Xochiticatl and Cacaxtla, sites that are both over 2,000 years old.

Xochiticatl was a ceremonial centre, containing three separate pyramids and the base of a building that has disappeared. The largest pyramid is the Pirámide de las Flores, which is associated with fertility.

The view from the top was spectacular - though the volcanoes are hidden by clouds, you can still see so much of the landscape.

The two other pyramids are not quite as large as the Pyramid of the Flowers, but are impressive nonetheless. The next pyramid is the Serpent Pyramid, which was likely used for water rituals.

The last pyramid is the Spiral Pyramid, which also has a great view. Climbing it is rather a challenge, however. There are no steps - it´s thought that to get to the top, one would actually walk all the way around the spiral path to the top. Now, you have the option of climbing stairs…but the spiral may have been easier!

The climb was certainly worth it, however. You can see the entire Tlaxcala-Puebla valley.

We were so happy to have made it to the top, we jumped for joy! And did not fall off the pyramid, though it looks like we´re close, from the picture.

So…even though Sunday my legs hurt from climbing so much, it was a really fun day.