Tepotzotlán

So, I said that the next blog would be about Pachuca but I lied. I completely forgot about my trip with Ariana to Tepotzotlán and how could I? There is an amazing museum here and church. I am really starting to get behind on my blogging. Bad, bad, bad...I will try to play catch up this week. So much has been going on and it isn't about to stop. I love it when I have things to do and planned and venturing out. This, in itself, causes me to lag behind on this blog. I will try not to get so behind from now on.

Tepotzotlán, a lovely town north west of D.F. The Museo Nacional del Virreinato is located here which houses the most complete collection of colonial art and artifacts. The museum is housed in what was once a Jesuit college built in the 17th and 18th centuries. There is also a Baroque church, Iglesia de San Francisco Javier, in the same complex that has absolutely amazing gold altars. It was $49 pesos and definitely worth every cent.

Ariana and I arrived in Tepotzotlán via bus from the Terminal del Norte. It was only $32 pesos, each. Once we got there, we took a camión for about $11 pesos to get to the museum. We went on a Saturday and the square was bustling with people and vendors. There is a church, Iglesia de San Pedro which is located beside the museum still used by the people. There happen to be a wedding going on that day.

Iglesia de San Pedro with the bride and groom.



Inside of Iglesia de San Pedro.

We headed to the museum part next door. There were many rooms with art and artifacts. I tend to not take many photos of these things.

This is the room right before entering the Iglesia de San Francisco Javier.

This was, by far, the best part of the entire place. It was built in the late 1600s.

The exuberant main gold altar in the background.

One of the altars to the side.

Needless to say, I took lots of photos. Only posting a few though. There was no flash allowed, of course. They were very strict about this and eyeing people like hawks. I personally don't like flash anyway.

Here's a close up of the main altar.

There is a wing off to the side with an ornately decorated chamber called Camarín de la Virgen.

Going back to the rest of the museum, more rooms with artifacts, statues and art. Here's a couple of statues I shot.

There was this lovely chapel called the Capilla Domestica. It was used to inspire religious awe for students during services.

We headed upstairs. There were many paintings of nuns dressed elaborately. We walked out to a patio area and there was a nice view of part of the museum.

Back downstairs, there was the kitchen area and courtyards. One photo of part of the large kitchen.

This place was pretty large. We didn't go through all of the rooms. We were starting to get hungry so we decided to check out some of the garden area and then leave. There was a nice little chapel but no flowers.

Back out to the square, we sat and ate some of our lunch we brought. I took this photo of the Iglesia de San Francisco Javier.

We walked around checking out the different booths.

This was a candy stand. They had many wonderful looking treats to buy.

This man was making Gorditas. Sadly, when I think of gordita's I think of the Taco Bell version. I didn't realize they were a sweet bread. They're very good.

More photos of Iglesia de San Francisco Javier. The façade is an excellant example of the Churrigueresque style.

Walked around the square more and we ended up buying elote.

Ariana loves her corn. I like it too. It's pretty dang good.

We decided it was time to go. On our way of finding a camión, I saw this little girl selling stuff.

Overall, this was a nice day trip and pretty inexpensive. We ended up taking the train back. It's kind of like the metro but way cleaner and nicer. A little more expensive but not too bad.

Next blog: Pachuca...for real this time