Golden Sunday...

(Text in ENG)

  I don`t know if it is only in Hungary, but we count the last 3 weekends (actually Sundays) back from Christmas: Bronze, Silver and Golden Sunday. That`s when the Christmas sales start and that`s when people start to panic what to buy for presents... usually if you haven`t bought your presents by the Bronze Sunday, you`d had to face mass, hustle, tread on your foot and total exhaustion by the end of the day. And of course, Golden Sunday is the worst: the malls and shopping centers are full with desperate people eager to buy something - anything that might go for a present.

  

 Today is Golden Sunday... I went to the mall nearby to find some presents (as my husband isn`t home, I was hoping I could buy him some surprise), and I had to admit, the last-minute present search is not a unique thing. The mall was stuffed with people looking around for perfumes, clothes, electronics, or already going home with huge boxes and bags.

  So, this is the Christmas feeling in Mexico. The crowd and the enormous (plastic) Christmas trees in or in front of the malls. Maybe it`s only in the capital (and even here there might some places where it is not), but there is no Christmas feeling in 20 degrees celsius... at least, for me.

  Anyway, there are no Christmas songs on the stores and the streets, no light-ups in the city...

  Even in Japan it was better mood (although Japan is not a Christian country)... In Japan the stores start the Christmas songs already a month before Christmas in order to urge people to shop, to buy, to spend money... then the light-ups in the cities which (especially in Tokyo) is a whole attraction and the best date spot in the year. And it`s cold (not minuses but cold enough to feel like winter) and even snows some places.

  I have the feeling (especially now, getting close to end this year) that living in a country of eternal spring, where the seasons hardly change, makes time go by fast. Every day is the same, so you don`t recognize that it`s already December! There is no need to change the clothes in your closet, to rush buying boots for the winter or a new swimming suit for the summer - the time just flows away. We`ve been talking about it with my husband and discussed that it might be a reason for the difference in the way of work and life. People in the temperate zones, where the four seasons can be distinguished clearly, have an urge to finish things by a certain time; there is a circle in the year with deadlines - the wheat has to be heaved at spring, has to be harvested in the autumn etc. But there is no such need to rush in Mexico.

  Anyway, going back to Christmas... it is just weird for me, spending the first Christmas in my life in a warm place, with not much Christmas mood in the air. Even though, I feel like Christmas - that 20 (ok, 30) something year I spent waiting for little Jesus (it`s not Santa bringing the presents in Hungary!), watching the big snow flakes falling from the sky, building snowmen and having snowball battles... all these experience seem to come out automatically this time of the year. I caught myself to croon Christmas songs, keep thinking what to cook for dinner for the 24th, and of course rack my brains what my beloved would be glad for a present...

  A word to one hundred, it seems, it doesn`t matter what part of the world you are, Christmas is not around you, it is within you.

  Merry Christmas to All!

Cacaxtla & Cholula

  (Text in ENG, JPN)

At the entrance of Cacaxtla

  Last weekend we went to Puebla (again) and explored the surroundings on the way back. There are many things to see around Puebla: the Africam Safari (see my previous letter) and there are the ruins of Cacaxtla and Cholula as well. They are both on the way from Mexico City, about 20-30kms from Puebla. Although the GPS didn`t show Cacaxtla on the map, it was written on the highway, so we went there first.
  Cacaxtla`s sightseeing spot is an ancient ruin from the 7th century. It is about 10 minutes from the highway, and it is quite easy to reach. (The road is terrible, but there are signs on the way.) After parking, it is a nice, about 15minute stroll until the ruin. As Cacaxtla is on the hill, the view is beautiful on the way to the valley and the two monstrous mountains on the way - Popocatepelt and Iztaccihuatl (both over 5000ms). Popocatepetl looks like Mt. Fuji and has still vulcanic activity (smoke comes out of the top constantly) therefore despite its height, there was no snow on it. On the contrary, Iztaccihuatl was covered with snow. The top ot Iztaccihuatl looks like a lying person, and with the snow it looked like it has a white blanket on her.
  So, you can enjoy the view of these mountains on the way to the ruins. The ruins by the way is covered with a huge roof that can even be seem from the highway. We went on Sunday and luckily the entrance was free (but anyway, it is 49pesos - not a big amount). Although the ruin is renovated, there is a small pyramid in front of it which is not - it was interesting to see one in its original condition.
  There was a sign at the entrance explaining the origins of Cacaxtla. It said, this ruin was built by the olmeca-xicalanca people who ruled the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley which was an important route between the coast and the central highlands. Its golden age was between the 7-9th century, after the decline of Teotihuacan.

The "Jaguar man"

However, its most important part are the wall paintings in the building. There are several paintings in the building that reserved its vivid colors throughout over 1000 years! The biggest painting is 22 meters long - it shows a (possibly) ritual of human sacrifice or a battle scene. The painting shows 48 persons very dynamically - the sacrificed person`s intestines are coming out... it might sound grotesque, but I think it`s rather interesting - it shows that even over 1000 years ago, people knew about the human body. There is another wall picture on two sides of a door, a "bird-man" and a "jaguar-man" - both in front of a very vivid red background.
  By the way, the replicas of all these pictures can be found in the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. We went to the museum on the first week I arrived, but it is so huge, that one`s brain just can`t suck in all the information. So, it was good to put these pictures in place this time.

  After Cacaxtla we went to see Cholula. It is said that the city itself is beautiful as well, although due to lack of time we only went to see the church and the prehispanic ruins. The Nuestra Senora de los Remedios church is on a hilltop after a long and steep line of stairs, but it is worth the climb, since both the church and the scenery is beautiful. But the interesting thing is that the church was actually built on the top of a pyramid. The 65meter high hill was originally a pyramid! (It was the same size as of the Pyramid of Sun in Teotihuacan.) However, during the Spanish colonization Cortes has destroyed the city and with it the pyramid and built the current church on the top by its stones. Today 8kms of the tunnels inside the pyramid are discovered and a part of it can be visited. (Unfortunately we couldn`t find the entrance so just went around on the surface.) The most astonishing was to see how small the church looks on the top of the hill compared to the hill - which was the pyramid originally.

click here for other pictures - Cholula & Cacaxtra

Can you see the shape of the pyramid?

  先週末（また）プエブラへ行ってきましたので、帰りに周辺を探検してきました。プエブラ周辺に（先日の手紙で書いた）サファリやカカストラとチョルーラの遺跡もあり、見所いっぱいです。チョルーラもカカストラもメキシコシティからプエブラへ行く途中にあって、プエブラから20～30キロぐらい離れているところにあります。ナビではカカストラを見つけられませんでしたが、高速から看板が出ていたので、先にそちらへ行きました。高速からの道路はデコボコだらけですが、看板がかなり頻繁にあって、割りと簡単に行けます。

カカストラには7世紀から残された遺跡が見れます。駐車場から遺跡までさらに10分ぐらい歩かないといけませんが、途中の景色は時間を忘れるほど奇麗です。遺跡が丘の上にあるので、下は谷が広がっています。その向こう側に5000ｍを超えるポポカテペトル山とイスタッキワトル山が聳え立っています。ポポカテペトルは優雅な富士山のような形をしており、まだ火山活動をしている山なので、火山口から常に煙が出ています。火山活動が活発な山なので、その高さにも関わらず頂上に雪が残りません。その一方、イスタッキワトル山の頂上には雪が確認できます。この山の頂上は横たわっている人に見えるので、雪が降っている姿は、寝ている人に白い毛布が掛けてあるように見えました。

Iztaccihuatl can be seen vaguely in the background

遺跡へ行く途中の景色はこのようなものでした。遺跡はちょっと離れた高速から確認できる程、巨大な屋根で覆われています。私たちは日曜日に行ったので、入場は無料でしたが、日曜以外の入場料は49ペソだそうで、さほど高くはないです。遺跡の前には修復が施されていないピラミッドがあり、旧来の状態で遺跡を見られたのは大変興味深いと思いました。

玄関にあったカカストラを物語る看板によると、カカストラの遺跡はプエブラ周辺を支配していたオルメカ＝スィカァンカ人によって建てられたそうです。カカストラの黄金時代は7～9世紀にあり、当時この周辺はメキシコ中央地域と海岸沿いを結ぶ道として重要な役割を果たしたそうです。

A part of the 22m long painting

現在この遺跡の一番の見どころは壁画です。1000年以上前に描かれた壁画ですが、描かれた人物や動物の形は今日でもはっきりと見え、色が鮮やかに残っています。一番大きな壁画は22ｍの長さで、48人の登場人物が戦い、もしくはいけにえを捧げる場面を表しています。他の所でドアの両側に「鳥人間」と「ジャガー人間」の壁画がありました。これらの背景は鮮やかな赤色で、描かれてから1000年も経っているとは信じられません。
ところで、これらの壁画のレプリカはメキシコシティの人類学博物館でも展示されています。メキシコに到着してすぐに人類学博物館へ行きました。人類学博物館には、見たり聞いたり読んだりする情報が溢れています。今回それらの壁画はカカストラのものだったと整理できたのが一番の収穫です。

The church in Cholula

カカストラの後、チョルーラを見に行きました。町自体も素敵で見るべきだそうですが、時間がなかったので、チョルーラの遺跡と教会だけ見に行きました。教会には長くて険しい階段を登ってからたどり着きますが、教会も上からの景色も美しくて、登る価値があります。しかし、びっくりすることに、登った65ｍの高さの丘は実は丘ではなく、巨大なピラミッドの跡でした！もともと、テオティワカンの太陽のピラミッドと同じサイズのピラミッドがチョルーラにも建っていたそうですが、スペイン征服の際、コルテスは町と共にピラミッドをも破壊し、その跡の上に現在の教会を建てたそうです。現在ピラミッドの内部にあるトンネルの数百メートルは一般公開されています。残念ながら私たちは入口を見つけることが出来ず、外にある遺跡だけを見ました。唖然とさせられる光景は麓から見る丘（ピラミッド）とその天辺にある教会です。従来のピラミッドに比べて今建っている教会はいかに小さいか？先住民の技術にびっくりします。

他の写真はこちらからどうぞ→Cholula & Cacaxtra