Cuernavaca Pictures and Stories

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	From the Palacio de Cortez in Cuernavaca, one of the many palaces of Cortez throughout Mexico, you can see much of the city. The tower in the background is the cathedral (see the pictures and stories about churches or my trip report section on churches for more information on it).
The current palace was built on the same site as a previous Meso-American structure. Many colonial buildings were built on top of other buildings. The older buildings often served as convenient stone quarries for the builders of grand colonial churches and and state buildings.
	This building is the home of a very famous mural by Diego Rivera, depicting in two different levels (see the top colored band one and the lower black and white band) the previous civilization of Mexico and then the time between the beginning of the colonial period and the Mexican Revolution. In this frame, Zapata (left), beside his white horse, leads the people in revolution.
This is a typical street in Cuernavaca. Cuernavaca was once a resort community, mostly inhabited by people who worked in Mexico City and needed a place to get away. However, after the earthquake in Mexico City in September of 1985, the homes of large numbers of people in Mexico City collapsed. Many of those who owned vacation homes in Cuernavaca moved to live there permanently. Soon after, others followed, leading to sprawl. Most buildings along the streets outside of el centro (the city center) are one-story and look very similar. The other result is that Cuernavaca is now a big city, with the associated problems.
	Near the Palace of Cortez is a craft market where people sell things that they or others have made by hand. Here, Eleanor is standing by a booth that sells traditional clothes (ropa tipica).
The other market is huge. Parts of it are open air and parts are indoors. It rains a lot in Cuernavaca so everything is at least covered. Unlike most places in the States, each vendor sells a specific item. The variety and quality of fruits and vegetables was incredible, but things are only available during the appropriate season. Here's one of the fruit booths. There are similar booths for vegetables, spices, beans, and meat.
	The meat area is indoors, but not refrigerated. If you look carefully at this picture, you will notice various kinds of meat hanging on hooks in the open air. This made me nervous, but that's how it's done in Mexico. The smell of tripe (far right of the picture) was overpowering, but it reminded Eleanor of her Mom making menudo (tripe soup) when she was young.
The market was a massive complex of tunnels and buildings. The hallway pictured here goes over a river and between two different districts of town. Eleanor and I had no idea how far we had walked when we reached the end of the market. It reminds me of stories of the sewers of Paris where one can go from any place to any other by means of the right passages.
	But life's not all history and shopping. People in Cuernavaca enjoy themselves too. This is a picture of the downtown plaza. Those without a lot of money spend time here. Especially on the weekends there is lots of entertainment. For more details, see my trip report's section on money.
This is the zocalo. On the right you can barely see the top of the bandstand. On the weekends and on some evenings, various bands play here. We heard a band of senior citizens, a youth band, and another band playing traditional music and classical music. We even heard a set of J. P. Sousa marches! ,(I tried to get you a recording of one of them, but the band playing that day was really rotten so just imagine that you heard a good one.)
	These vendors are selling corn on the cob. Corn on the cob and snow cones are the treats of choice at the zocalo.
Still, technology is inescapable. In a place where most people only drink purified water and the power fails every few days, there are still computers. This is the freshly painted Internet Cafe where Eleanor and I send a great deal of e-mail back to friends and family. It's really the only cheap, reliable way to communicate. The phone service is unbelievably expensive and the mail takes weeks upon weeks.
	Since there are many computers, there is a need for people to operate and program them. We drove past this technical school every day on the bus. It offers classes to teach people to be Linux system administrators, Microsoft Visual Basic programmers and also flight attendants.
I don't have a picture of these, but there were many wonderful restaurants in Cuernavaca. We ate great international food at Las Mañanitas, excellent mole poblano at La India Bonita, and fine tacos, ice cream, enchiladas, and other foods as well. At a cooking class with the school, we learned how to make a dish with Huitlacoche, known in the States as corn blight. The only place where we had really bad food was McDonald's, which was also really expensive, though we appreciated the green chili sauce they had to put on burgers and fries..

Last updated on 12/23/00 .