A little roundup and our trip away-Mexico City

My 365 challenge had to be put aside until I return from holidays. I needed to get some quilts ready for quilting and make a gift for our home stay in Paducah.

The reason for travelling to Mexico was to visit Frida Khalo's house, as I have just finished making and hand quilting a quilt with mainly Frida images.

The lead up to holidays were stressful as a very dear friend lost her father and this required a trip to Young NSW, amongst other challenges that I was up against.

This is the bed runner and quilt that I made for our Paducah home stay, I used aboriginal fabrics and for the cushion stitched in the ditch and finished off with piping around the cushion. Karen from Rigebell quilting, quilted Australian animals onto it for me.

I hope Elva is pleased with this gift.

Our flight was not without a hiccup, there was an engineering problem with our plane, we had a 3 1/2 hr delay, which had a snowball effect, missing our flight to Mexico City and not arriving into Mexico until late evening, after 36 hrs of travelling, finally arrived,exhausted and I feel the flu coming on!

Wednesday our first day was spent doing a city tour,  as we are staying in the historic district everything reasonably close. One of the many cathedrals in the square, that we visited on our city tour.

This main Cathederal in the main square is on a slant, slowly sinking.

What is interesting about Mexico City is that it was built on a lake so all the 16th century buildings are slowly sinking, so the Mexican government has put in a hydraulic system under the buildings to prop them up.

Some local Mayan Indians in traditional dress, near the Cathederal.

Some of the gorgeous wood work all painted with 24 carat gold, inside the Cathederal.

Interesting sculpture outside the Cathederal 

A visit to the museum, DH seated below the Aztec calendar 

Thursday we visited the pyramid Teotihuacan, boy was it hot and no shade, but another very interesting and full day, 

The largest of the two pyramids is the sun pyramid and the smallest is the moon pyramid.

The  moon pyramid 

Entry to the museum

A painting depicting the Mayan Indians life, this was where we ate lunch.

Another Cathederal named Guadalupe shrine, ( Mother Mary) this symbol is on some fabric that I own, It is nice knowing the significance of it, The mother of Christ appears to have a great deal of significance in Mexico. This Shrine and Cathederal has a real slope and is hard to walk into the cathedral without slipping.

Thursday was a very long day driving to Cuernavaca and Taxco. A resort town where the wealthy go for holidays, a nice little town. Taxco was interesting with it cobbled pathways and one of the oldest historic churches, St Nicholas built by a father in the 14th century for his son to become a priest, his wealth was made from silver and inside is absolutely amazing. What is interesting in this Cathederal is some paintings of Christ being circumcised and mother Mary pregnant, these are the only ones of their kind in the world

Ornate woodwork with 24ct gold paint.

A pure silver "Mother Lupe"

A view from where we had lunch, the view made up for the food!

DH could have settled in for the day, so relaxing.

Interesting sculptures on our walk to our lunch, I did manage to pick up some Frida items!

What is native to Taxco are the cobbled pathways and streets and the use of VW beetles, these are the taxis, used to transport tourists up and down the narrow roadways, reminds me of Toledo in Spain, minus the VW's

Still not feeling well, the flu has hit me hard, struggling to keep up with tours, but need to press on, after a nights rest, will revive for  Saturday, this our visit to Frida Kahlo blue house and Leon Trotsky's red house.

There was a little hick up with our tour, all sorted so off we go, the long awaited visit to the Blue house where Frida was born and died.

Caycocan where the blue house is located is a very popular spot and in the square is another Cathederal we explored, amazing paintings on the walls and ceilings.

We had a little wait, for about 30mins before we could enter Fridas house, as they only allow 145 people in at one time, entry was $12 and if you paid 20 pesos you could take as many photos as you liked.

The entry to the Blue house.

Frida's family that she painted.

A still life that the presidents wife at the time commissioned Frida to paint, but as Frida was obsessed with all things foetal and uterine, this painting depicted female genitalia, it was rejected by the presidents wife, and never paid for, even the frame is shaped like a uterus.

Fridas bedroom

Some of the casts that she wore due to her polio.

Costumes depicted in some of her paintings.

A reproduction chart in her study....of foetal life

An interesting painting in Trotsky's red house, featuring Diego, Fridas and Trotsky tangled lives.

We didn't get to see Diego Riverias murals as the palace was not opened whilst we were in Mexico City. This concludes our tour of Mexico City we are off to Oaxaca.