Llama la Llama: Day 1 with Dana

My best pal Dana came to visit us here in Mexico City. She flew in with all the confidence of an international traveler and then quickly lost confidence when she experienced the ordeal that is traffic in Mexico on the drive to our house (and she wasn't even driving). To give her time to adjust to the elevation, the weekend was spent calmly with visiting and good food.

But Dana and I never just sit and visit. We go on groovy adventures which was a lot easier when the Fernandez family lived in the UK where they speak English and follow the rules of the road in an orderly and often polite manner. So I felt an obligation to keep up with that tradition, despite the fact that I don't speak Spanish and I am a nervous wreck when I have to drive around here. Of course, that meant that for the first day of adventuring, I planned the cross-city destination of the pyramids of Teotihuacan, followed by a stop at the Basilica of Guadalupe, the latter a place I had never even been.

The weatherman promised a clear day, but at the bus stop with the girls that morning, I could see storm clouds rolling through. We needed petrol anyway, so I suggested that we pack for the pyramids and then decide if we were going once the car was fat and happy with fuel. Dana thought this was a stupid idea, that there was not really going to be much difference in the weather in 20 minutes, but she went along with it, and as we pulled out of the Pemex station, things were already significantly better. Off we went.

We made great time and arrived at a very foggy archeological site where I taught Dana the Rosita Method of Speaking Spanish -- if someone asks you something in Spanish and you don't know what they are talking about, say "No." Nine times out of ten, you've just saved yourself from buying something. If "No" is the wrong answer, the conversation will continue, and you're on your own to figure out what he's saying.

We walked around while the fog lifted and it became necessary to teach the Rosita Method for Dealing with Pushy Vendors -- always say "No, no gracias" and then when they talk to you in English, never ever let on that you yourself speak English. Let them believe that you are French or German or Scottish.

At the entrance to the Teotihuacan museum -- #2: No arrows or bows (of the artisan type). So, a composite longbow is okay?

Next was the Basilica which is on the way home. I had punched in the address for Nora the GPS unit, and we had to trust her to get us there. She did a fine job, but alas, she couldn't direct us to parking. So we drove around, thinking maybe we'd only be able to get passing car shots of this most holy place in all of Mexico. I then taught Dana some of the most valuable words in all of Spanishdom -- Estacionamiento Publico -- Public parking. When things were looking bleak, heaven smiled upon us and we actually were able to park under the Basilica plaza and emerge right where we wanted to be.

This is the place where Juan Diego was visit by the Virgin and told to inform the local bishop to build a cathedral to her (read about it at the link). The old basilica was too small to service all of the pilgrims who come here every year (12 million people on 12 December last year), so they built the new basilica which is much more pilgrim-friendly. We had heard that to accomodate the pilgrims (who often approach on their knees) and keep traffic moving that the basilica has moving sidewalks at the icon. Dana and I were on a pilgrimage of our own to ride the moving sidewalk past Our Lady of Guadalupe. We visited every little garden, chapel, and church that they would let us into, and finally ended our tour at the new basilica where they were having mass. We couldn't find the moving sidewalk. We searched and searched, finding new little chapels and even saw Obi Wan Kenobi as a priest (the Alec Guiness one), and we were about to give up when we finally found our holy grail down one level near the velador (altar candle seller). We rode it a few times, took a few more dark, blurry pix and then headed home. (They do not light churches for the benefit of freehand photography.)

Old basilica on the left, new on the right. The icon is directly below the highest point of the new basilica.

You could get your picture taken with Mary, a donkey, and Pope John Paul II (who made Juan Diego a saint in 2002). If I had children, I would have paid the 40 pesos for that shot.