Our daughter headed back to our room at Hotel Geneve, and David and I went to get rolls and fruit (pan y fruta) for breakfast. We bought some cookies for supper and enough rolls for breakfast, as well as a nice papaya and three oranges. We also got three bottles of 'drinkable' strawberry yogurt - our usual! We looked around trying to find a shop we had spotted earlier called 'Alita' or something like that so we could take a photo of it, but we weren't successful. I was tempted to buy one of the dolls being sold by the women sitting on the street. We saw little girls with shawls tied on their backs, with their dolls inside, just like Mom's! Also saw a couple of street artists doing 'space-themed' spray paint pictures. They used poster board - sprayed with two base colors just in the focus area (blue and green, or red and orange). Before the paint was dry, they put a paper on it and 'printed' it with a daubed design. Then they placed a paint can or two different sized cans on the area and sprayed more red and orange (or blue and green) around them, emphasizing the base and corners. White and yellow was sprayed in one corner to suggest sunlight. The whole thing was then sprayed with flat black, splattered with white (the artist sprayed the paint onto his palette knife and 'splattered' the wet paint onto the paper from the palette knife). Red (or blue) was then sprayed along the bottom, a piece of poster board was placed vertically on the lower area and pulled down, scraping and going from side to side to make a zig-zag effect. The artist then took the cans off, exposing the 'planets' beneath. They he scored the wet paint around the planet with their palette knives making 'rings' around the planets - sometimes leaving them plain also. Black was then sprayed lightly across the bottom and paper was made to create jagged rock shapes forming a 'crescent' frame on the bottom of the poster board. Then they used the palette knife to scrape away rectangles in a pyramid shape, with the bottom area large, getting smaller and smaller as it progressed upward. Antennae-like projections were then scratched into the 'roofs' of the pyramid-like structures, and the artist signed his name in the wet paint at the bottom. The surface was continually sprayed with clear mat paint to keep it from getting too dry to work with. Then he softened and shaded the edges of the planet shapes with black. When the artist was satisfied with the work, he sprayed a can of clear sealant into the air, setting it on fire, and dried the paint on the picture with the flame from the torch-like can. These sold for only $7.00 each, U.S. money. Subjects included in these paintings were unicorns, planets and stars with two white birds on a blue color scheme. Very interesting, and surely pleased the crowd!
We went back to our hotel and changed our clothes to go to the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. The tour to this performance cost us about $110.00, U.S., but we felt afterward that it was worth the money for all three of us. When we went down to the hotel lobby at the designated time, there was our tour guide, Moses. On the way to the theater where the ballet was being performed, Moses took us past Alameda Park which at one time was an Aztec marketplace. During the time of the conquistadores (mid-1500s), it was the place where heretics were burned during the Spanish Inquisition. Now it is a lovely park, and on the night we drove past it, it was thronged with people - so many people that in order to walk, they had to go out into the street in some places. The park was lit with a huge display of Christmas lights. All of the streets up and down the Paseo de la Reforma were strung with white lights, as well as lights strung across the streets, and the park itself had designs strung with so many lights as to seem solid colors. The attraction in the park itself were many stages which were situated every few yards, and were involved in performances, interactions with children in the audiences, and other attractions. One stage was built to look like Russian buildings or churches with onion-dome towers painted beautifully as I imagine the authentic Russian buildings to be. The people standing on these stages were dressed in costume, giving plays, holding small children from the crowd, etc. Some participants were dressed like the three kings, and there were one or two Santas we could see. Our guide told us that Santa has come to Mexico - but the people still wait for the visit of the three kings on 'twelfth night.' It was an amazing sight - and I was glad we were in the bus. It would have been hard to negotiate in the crowd, and not being familiar with the park in daylight, we would have been lost pretty quickly. And, Moses mentioned that it was a good opportunity for pick-pockets. I wonder if he mentioned that caution in order to keep tourists taking his bus to see the sights, but I guess there are incidents, and we were just lucky, or cautious enough to avoid becoming victims. Traffic was quite bad in that area, as well as in the Zona Rosa, with traffic policemen directing the flow of vehicles.
We were not able to see the ballet in the beautiful Bellas Artes Theater, as it was closed for a month for some repair work. The theater we went to is called the Teatro de la Cuidad (theater of the city) and is a turn-of-the-century auditorium just a block northeast of the Bellas Artes Theater. It was an interesting building, but as in much of Mexico City, the place seemed quite shabby and in need of refurbishment. I don't know how this country will be able to do such projects due to the pressing demands of the increasing population. But, the seats in the theater were good, and the performance was outstanding, so the building's interior soon became unimportant.
The theater was filled by 8 p.m., and what a show! A couple of dances were based on Zapotec and Maya cultures. There were lots of drums, rattles, and flutes - the dancers were very reminiscent of gods we have seen in carvings, as their costumes and Indian 'look' almost made you feel as it you were witnessing a rite which might have occurred on the steps or platforms of the pyramids. The last dance of this nature had the performers dressed in huge head dresses of orange, red and yellow feathers. There was a large sun-like prop hanging above the stage background, making it seem very convincing. Four male dancers then entered wearing peacock feather head dresses almost identical to the one we had seen at the Museum of Anthropology. Fantastic!
The first Indian dance illustrated with props included the image of an eagle eating a snake perched on a cactus. This was done in black, blue and gold, and was symbolic of the image supposedly predicted to the Aztecs as the place where they were to settle. Unfortunately, the people who were already settled there didn't appreciate their arrival, but eventually were overtaken by them. In one source, I read that the original name for the tribe later called the Aztecs was Mexica (May-she-ka). Some think this was the origin of 'Mexico,' but was simply mispronounced by the Spaniards. In any case, this dance was fascinating and primitive in its choreography.
Other special dances were the dance of the horse, the love dance, and the rope dance. The horse dance - men wearing horse figures around their middle as if they were riding actual horses was reminiscent of little kids playing horse with cardboard boxes held around their torsos. This dance represented the assassination of Poncho Villa. In the rope dance, a man twirled a lasso the entire time - I don't know how he could keep it going so long, and in such a large circle - sometimes jumping through the rope loop, sometimes encircling himself and a girl with the lasso. There was also a dance with papier mache giants - a black boy, a brown-skinned girl, a clown, an Indian woman, the devil, a weeping person, an angel, and a figure they called The Moor - a bird. It was both fun and beautiful. I was wishing I knew more about the significance of the characters. The deer dance was also very special, done by one man dressed as a deer with antlers, and pursued by hunters, eventually to be killed.
After an intermission, there were rattle dances, the dance of the Michoacan, the Concheros with feathered head-dresses. The final dance was fun because at the finale, the dancers threw thin, colored paper streamers out into the audience. The streamers looked florescent as they unfurled over the crowd and as people tried to catch them.
It was a great evening, but quite long, and we were tired from our train trip. Also, our daughter was getting a stuffy nose and cough, so we went back to the hotel and to bed.
The next day was New Year's Eve Day, and we ate breakfast in our room, having our usual rolls, yogurt, oranges and tangerines. David went shopping for an onyx cup or mug for his collection while my daughter and I shopped in the Insurgentes Mercado again. I bought a black obsidian egg for my egg collection, and a nice 'square' sterling silver ring. Our daughter bought two mini-serapes, a marionette, and a silver box with an inlaid shell lid. She then went back to the hotel room to rest, and David and I continued looking for a mug for him. He finally settled on a black onyx cup with an insized design of a figure with a hunting bow. We then returned to the hotel where our daughter was watching HBO. There were some good movies on for us to watch as we rested - 'My Left Foot,' 'Steel Magnolias,' 'Nobody's Perfect,' 'Weekend at Bernie's,' and 'The Naked Maja' (dubbed in Spanish). Our daughter said she missed our dog Lady, the grandmas, Tabitha, 'being home,' Katie, everybody she knows, Bunny, the computer, etc. She really didn't feel so well at that time, so I guess anything that represented home would have been better to her than being in a foreign country. While she continued to rest, David returned to the Zocalo, and I went to shop for stuff for breakfast. As I returned from shopping, I relented and bought a doll from one of the ladies on the street. I asked her how much she wanted for the doll and she told me $10,000 pesos - about $3.00. I gave her the requested amount without any bargaining. I figured she had been sitting there for so long (every day that we were there), and that she could use the money. The shoeshine man standing nearby decided that I was an easy target, and followed me half-way back to the hotel, actually shining one of my black leather high-tops with a black polish as we walked along. I had a hard time turning him down, but you just can't help them all.
When David came back, we went for a stroll and ate a dessert meal at Salon de Te. We had eaten such a big meal at Passi's at lunchtime that we again didn't need much for supper. While David had been gone, I had washed the dirty clothes in the bathtub, and we both hung them up in the bathroom with our handy nylon wash line. This time it wasn't quite so crowded since the bathroom was quite a bit larger. I called Linda's friends again and told them we were leaving the next day for Puerto Vallarta, and that we appreciated having their phone number available in case we needed assistance. They were a bit concerned about us because I had forgotten to tell them that we planned to switch hotels, and they had tried to contact us at the Century, but found that we were no longer there. But, we really didn't have much time for socializing, although it would have been nice to meet them.
We all went to bed about 10 p.m., to the sound of many people on the streets, celebrating New Year's by attending many of the discos in the area, and by generally being up late to socialize. Our room was nice and quiet, so we slept pretty well - I had a couple of nightmares about earthquakes, but other than that, I rested well.
On New Year's Day, we awoke about 6 a.m. Our daughter took a bath, and then I had my turn. We ate breakfast and packed while watching 'Steel Magnolias' on HBO. About 9:30 a.m. we stored our luggage, checked out of our room at the Geneve, and took the metro to the Zocalo. Since it was New Year's Day, the same holiday atmosphere permeated the city - quiet metro, relatively quiet streets, with few vendors. But, as we entered the Zocalo (a huge paved square surrounded by buildings including the National Palace, and a couple of cathedrals - it is the largest paved square in the Northern Hemisphere), there were a few people beginning to set up their stands of food and souvenir items.
First we visited the Metropolitan Cathedral which is sinking into the spongy subsoil of Lake Texcoco which Mexico City is built upon. This is most evident when viewing the facade from across the square. (According to one piece I read about this cathedral, the church has sunk 12 feet into the subsoil.) Construction began in 1573 on 'the most famous cathedral in the New World' (according to information in the Fodor's travel guide), and continued intermittently over the next three centuries, although one figure I found said it was completed in 1667. The style of the cathedral is Baroque and Neoclassical. There are four identical domes inside, supported by rows of columns. The supportive columns are Churrigueresque style, an extremely decorative form of Spanish baroque from the mid-17th century. The cathedral has five altars, and 14 chapels, and shelters the tomb of Agustin Iturbide. According to Wikipedia, Agust Iturbide was known as Augustine of Mexico. He was a general whose troops took control of Mexico City on 27 September 1821, effectively gaining independence for Mexico. No wonder his grave is located in this famous cathedral.
As we arrived, there was a mass being said, so we had to wait awhile to get into the main part of the cathedral. We took this time to explore some of the chapels around the perimeter of the main portion. There was a lot of scaffolding in the church, so there still was work going on, either to continue construction, or to repair damage from its settling into the lake bed.
We explored the National Palace, which was initiated by Cortes on the site of Moctezuma's home and remodeled by the viceroys. It is the seat of government now, but Cortes staged Mexico's first bullfight in the inner courtyard in 1526, according to Fodor's. The striking images of Diego Rivera's beautiful fresco murals which cover the interior walls of the palace are captivating to visitors. As we wandered around, we were able to get into groups of visitors who were getting an English-language tour of the building, and it made the murals much more understandable in their symbolism. David suggested that we get a book about the murals, but somehow we neglected to do so. I'm now thinking maybe we can find one on Amazon.com or from a book store here in the states. My photos of the murals are nice, but the colors aren't really true, and it is hard to understand the meanings of the murals without some explanation. The subjects covered the history of the Mexican people, so parts are easy enough to figure out, but it would be nice to understand more...
The first Indian dance illustrated with props included the image of an eagle eating a snake perched on a cactus. This was done in black, blue and gold, and was symbolic of the image supposedly predicted to the Aztecs as the place where they were to settle. Unfortunately, the people who were already settled there didn't appreciate their arrival, but eventually were overtaken by them. In one source, I read that the original name for the tribe later called the Aztecs was Mexica (May-she-ka). Some think this was the origin of 'Mexico,' but was simply mispronounced by the Spaniards. In any case, this dance was fascinating and primitive in its choreography.
Other special dances were the dance of the horse, the love dance, and the rope dance. The horse dance - men wearing horse figures around their middle as if they were riding actual horses was reminiscent of little kids playing horse with cardboard boxes held around their torsos. This dance represented the assassination of Poncho Villa. In the rope dance, a man twirled a lasso the entire time - I don't know how he could keep it going so long, and in such a large circle - sometimes jumping through the rope loop, sometimes encircling himself and a girl with the lasso. There was also a dance with papier mache giants - a black boy, a brown-skinned girl, a clown, an Indian woman, the devil, a weeping person, an angel, and a figure they called The Moor - a bird. It was both fun and beautiful. I was wishing I knew more about the significance of the characters. The deer dance was also very special, done by one man dressed as a deer with antlers, and pursued by hunters, eventually to be killed.
After an intermission, there were rattle dances, the dance of the Michoacan, the Concheros with feathered head-dresses. The final dance was fun because at the finale, the dancers threw thin, colored paper streamers out into the audience. The streamers looked florescent as they unfurled over the crowd and as people tried to catch them.
It was a great evening, but quite long, and we were tired from our train trip. Also, our daughter was getting a stuffy nose and cough, so we went back to the hotel and to bed.
The next day was New Year's Eve Day, and we ate breakfast in our room, having our usual rolls, yogurt, oranges and tangerines. David went shopping for an onyx cup or mug for his collection while my daughter and I shopped in the Insurgentes Mercado again. I bought a black obsidian egg for my egg collection, and a nice 'square' sterling silver ring. Our daughter bought two mini-serapes, a marionette, and a silver box with an inlaid shell lid. She then went back to the hotel room to rest, and David and I continued looking for a mug for him. He finally settled on a black onyx cup with an insized design of a figure with a hunting bow. We then returned to the hotel where our daughter was watching HBO. There were some good movies on for us to watch as we rested - 'My Left Foot,' 'Steel Magnolias,' 'Nobody's Perfect,' 'Weekend at Bernie's,' and 'The Naked Maja' (dubbed in Spanish). Our daughter said she missed our dog Lady, the grandmas, Tabitha, 'being home,' Katie, everybody she knows, Bunny, the computer, etc. She really didn't feel so well at that time, so I guess anything that represented home would have been better to her than being in a foreign country. While she continued to rest, David returned to the Zocalo, and I went to shop for stuff for breakfast. As I returned from shopping, I relented and bought a doll from one of the ladies on the street. I asked her how much she wanted for the doll and she told me $10,000 pesos - about $3.00. I gave her the requested amount without any bargaining. I figured she had been sitting there for so long (every day that we were there), and that she could use the money. The shoeshine man standing nearby decided that I was an easy target, and followed me half-way back to the hotel, actually shining one of my black leather high-tops with a black polish as we walked along. I had a hard time turning him down, but you just can't help them all.
When David came back, we went for a stroll and ate a dessert meal at Salon de Te. We had eaten such a big meal at Passi's at lunchtime that we again didn't need much for supper. While David had been gone, I had washed the dirty clothes in the bathtub, and we both hung them up in the bathroom with our handy nylon wash line. This time it wasn't quite so crowded since the bathroom was quite a bit larger. I called Linda's friends again and told them we were leaving the next day for Puerto Vallarta, and that we appreciated having their phone number available in case we needed assistance. They were a bit concerned about us because I had forgotten to tell them that we planned to switch hotels, and they had tried to contact us at the Century, but found that we were no longer there. But, we really didn't have much time for socializing, although it would have been nice to meet them.
We all went to bed about 10 p.m., to the sound of many people on the streets, celebrating New Year's by attending many of the discos in the area, and by generally being up late to socialize. Our room was nice and quiet, so we slept pretty well - I had a couple of nightmares about earthquakes, but other than that, I rested well.
On New Year's Day, we awoke about 6 a.m. Our daughter took a bath, and then I had my turn. We ate breakfast and packed while watching 'Steel Magnolias' on HBO. About 9:30 a.m. we stored our luggage, checked out of our room at the Geneve, and took the metro to the Zocalo. Since it was New Year's Day, the same holiday atmosphere permeated the city - quiet metro, relatively quiet streets, with few vendors. But, as we entered the Zocalo (a huge paved square surrounded by buildings including the National Palace, and a couple of cathedrals - it is the largest paved square in the Northern Hemisphere), there were a few people beginning to set up their stands of food and souvenir items.
First we visited the Metropolitan Cathedral which is sinking into the spongy subsoil of Lake Texcoco which Mexico City is built upon. This is most evident when viewing the facade from across the square. (According to one piece I read about this cathedral, the church has sunk 12 feet into the subsoil.) Construction began in 1573 on 'the most famous cathedral in the New World' (according to information in the Fodor's travel guide), and continued intermittently over the next three centuries, although one figure I found said it was completed in 1667. The style of the cathedral is Baroque and Neoclassical. There are four identical domes inside, supported by rows of columns. The supportive columns are Churrigueresque style, an extremely decorative form of Spanish baroque from the mid-17th century. The cathedral has five altars, and 14 chapels, and shelters the tomb of Agustin Iturbide. According to Wikipedia, Agust Iturbide was known as Augustine of Mexico. He was a general whose troops took control of Mexico City on 27 September 1821, effectively gaining independence for Mexico. No wonder his grave is located in this famous cathedral.
As we arrived, there was a mass being said, so we had to wait awhile to get into the main part of the cathedral. We took this time to explore some of the chapels around the perimeter of the main portion. There was a lot of scaffolding in the church, so there still was work going on, either to continue construction, or to repair damage from its settling into the lake bed.
Catedral Metropolitana - Main Plaza in Mexico City. The towers of this church are so heavy that it is sinking into the spongy soil of former Lake Texcoco which lies under Mexico City.
El Sagrario Chapel, next to Metropolitan Cathedral
Detail of El Sagrario Chapel facade
I am going to post the best of my photos of these amazing fresco paintings, but will not attempt to tell about them, since my explanations might not be quite right. In any case, you will be able to see the masterful way that Rivera incorporated the figures, settings, and ideas he was intending to represent.
Notice the amazing masks represented in this mural. It appears that there is some kind of artistic craft work happening. Notice also the carved panels below the murals.
About this time, our daughter began to feel quite tired, so we looked at the Cathedral a bit more, then headed over to take a look at the Templo Mayor. This pyramid was discovered beneath this part of the city in 1978 by an electric company repairman. It has since been turned into a small archelogical site and museum (which unfortunately was closed because of the holiday).
Templo Mayor - This ancient ruins was discovered not far from the Zocalo, and contains the Pyramid of Huitzilopochtli. It was the center of Aztec religious life. Spanish missionaries accompanying Cortes pulled down the ancient temple and constructed a smaller edifice of the Metropolitan Cathedral over it. That smaller cathedral was torn down in 1573 to allow construction of the present cathedral. The Aztec culture thrived in this area before Cortes arrived in 1519.
Museo del Templo Mayor (behind the ruins of the actual temple) in the Zocalo of Mexico City.
Portions of the unearthed Templo Mayor.
More parts of the unearthed Templo Mayor. It is rather amazing to think that all of this building was covered over to try and reshape the religious beliefs of the indigenous people.
As I walked around the pyramid site, there were some men sitting in a spot along the sidewalk selling something that looked suspicious to me. I had read in 'Mornings in Mexico' by D.H. Lawrence that Mexicans at one time sold small pots of human excrement to be used as a tanning agent in making items of leather. In fact, it said that the Mexicans laughed at the American tourists who sniffed the huaraches to see if they smelled bad before they would buy them. I also read in a book about the capture of Mexico by Cortes written by one of his soldiers, Bernal Diaz, that the Aztecs actually had places hidden by shrubbery where they would go to eliminate, and the excrement was then taken to be used for this purpose. So, when I saw the little pots of brown, oily-looking 'logs,' I just walked on by. I had no desire to sniff the material to see if I was correct! I also saw a line of clothes in a parking lot, and a family selling the souvenir dolls just outside this fenced-in area. I wondered if that was what they called 'home.'
Anyway, our daughter was feeling pretty miserable, so we returned to the hotel on the metro, ate a huge breakfast (too early for the lunch menu at the Geneve - 11:30 a.m.) Our daughter and David had scrambled eggs with jalapenos, tomatoes and beef jerky - I had an omelette with oysters and baby shrimp folded into it. We also had chocolate abuelito - 'Chocolate Grandma' - hot chocolate with cinnamon. Our daughter felt better after eating, but my nose was beginning to get stuffy, so I decided I would probably be the next on the not-so-well list. She and I had been taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C, and a prescription of medicine suggested by our doctor as a preventative, and I think it kept us from getting really sick. We both recovered in about three days. David didn't take the medicine or the vitamins and he didn't get sick in Mexico, but he got sick after we got home, and was sick with it for about 10 days - and pretty miserable. I don't know if the stuff helped or not, but I like to think it did.
Here is another interesting building we saw as we headed back to the metro station. Not sure just what it was...maybe another church...
We walked around the Zona Rosa to kill some time - our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 6:35 p.m., so we spent most of the afternoon in the lobby of the hotel, reading, resting, etc. Nothing was open in the Zona Rosa due to the holiday. I did see our guide, Moses, and asked him to write his name down for me so I could remember how to say it. He even had some trouble remembering how to write all of it; no wonder he uses the name Moses! He told us that he was learning English from a Japanese person, and he apologized for not being able to speak as well as he would have liked. We shook hands with him and he wished us a 'Happy New Year.' After telling us that he had worked in parts of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, we imagined that he did migrant labor when he was younger. He was a nice person...
At about 3:45 p.m. we hailed a cab (not hard to do when they are practically pulling you into their vehicles every time you leave the hotel anyway!) and left to go to the airport. After we were about five blocks from the hotel, I asked our daughter where her jeans jacket was - yes! it was still at the hotel... So, we offered the drive 10 mil. ($10,000 pesos) to turn around and go back to get it. By then my Spanish was getting useful - at least I could make him understand what we needed. The jacket was still in the hotel lobby, so we left a second time for the airport. I had read that we would need $12 each to leave Mexico, but was not aware that there was also a tax on flights within Mexico. So, after we arrived at the airport, I went searching for a change booth (cambio), and found one. But, it was closed! For the holiday, of course! Then, I went to the place where you purchase the tax stickers. He said, 'No,' but that there was a bank part way down the aisle that was open. So, I hurried down to the bank, cashed a traveler's check, and rushed back to the tax booth. The guy gave me three stickers and change. I returned to the baggage station, gave the man there the stickers, and he placed them on our boarding passes. Then we all went up to our gate, through customs inspection, etc. When we arrived at our gate, I checked in, only to find out that the tax guy had charged me for international departure, not for domestic (which is about 2/3 cheaper!). So - back I went to the baggage check area to retrieve the other half of the stickers from our luggage, and then back to the tax booth to point out his error. Of course, there was only one man working at the booth by then, and not the one who had made the mistake, so I had to explain it to this new guy what had happened - all in my insufficient Spanish, and his insufficient English. He had me wait while he helped some other people (thank goodness we had arrived with plenty of time to spare!) Finally, I had the proper tax stickers ($4.83, rather than $12.00 each) and I returned to the baggage counter, left the necessary stickers there, and went back through customs and to the gate waiting area. Whew!
Finally I could relax until our flight was ready to board. We boarded at 6:05 p.m. and took off about 6:35. The first leg of the flight was to Ixtapa/Huatulco, and we all had very sore ears from the congestion from our colds. (By now, we all had slight colds.) The next leg of our trip was to Guadalajara (second largest city in Mexico). Then we took off for Puerto Vallarta, with not very many people left on the plane. We arrived in Puerto Vallarta about 10 p.m., got a combi-van (cab vehicle) and went to the Hotel Molino de Agua. As tired and uncomfortable as we were with our plugged ears, I was still very impressed by this hotel. The entrance was a huge wrought iron gate with lots of plants on either side. You walked down a few steps to a courtyard, and off to the right was the registration desk right out in the open. There was a beautiful fountain in the center of the courtyard, and parrots and monkeys in cages in the area as well. The sidewalks were paths of cobblestone and cement winding among large palm trees, rubber trees, willows, and what I decided were papaya trees. The buildings were mostly white-washed cottages scattered here and there along the walkways. They had red-tiled roofs. A man led us to our room after we checked in. We were given a room in a four-plex building. We were on the upper floor, and the building was set back from the ocean a bit, but it had a porch with two wicker rockers and a wicker table on it. The porch railing was made from rounded red tiles stacked upon each other and with a white-washed railing on top. It was very pretty. As the bellboy opened our door, a couple of the little lizards scurried up the wall in the corner of the porch. There was a note in the room to please not disturb the little creatures as they help keep down the population of mosquitos and other insects. The lizards seemed to like to hang around the porch light, hoping for a meal. But, so far, even though Puerto Vallarta was very tropical and humid, we didn't have any problems with mosquitos. Our room had an air-conditioner, and the room was very warm since it had been closed up all day, and since it faced the sunset. So, the bellboy turned on the air-conditioner. We set it so just the fan would run before we went to bed, as the room had cooled sufficiently by then.
The floors of the room were tan tiles, and there were very interesting wood furnishings with inlaid designs. the coffee table even had an inlaid checker board on the top. The bathroom was large with red tile counter top, and white 1" tiles on the floors and the wall of the shower. It was all very nice and very clean. We all took showers and felt relaxed for bed. The room had two double beds with flowers painted above the beds rather than a headboard. There were also flowers painted on the wall above the dresser. The room had a small couch and a couple of woven rugs, a bedside table, and luggage racks at the foot of the beds. There was plenty of storage along the hallway by the bathroom. The windows were large, had screens, and the one off the porch was covered with a wrought iron grill. The closet had louvered sliding doors. We went to sleep with the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing onto the sand outside, and we slept very well.
The dresser and wall art above it, and the coffee table in front of the couch in our room at Molino de Agua in Puerto Vallarta.
Our daughter relaxed on her bed as she waited her turn to take a shower before we went to bed. The flowers look nice instead of a head board above the beds. We had a good night after our long day...
Come on back. More sights in Puerto Vallarta, a nice resort town on the Pacific Ocean (not so busy as Acapulco, but just as nice...) I am so very glad that Hurrican Patricia did not do a lot of damage or cause loss of lives as it slammed into the Pacific coast of Mexico this past week!
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