Mexico at Christmas & New Year

The day begins with exploration of the remains of the Templo Mayor, the most important temple of the Mexican people in the heart of Tenochtitlan, their capital. Dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, gods of war and agriculture, it was destroyed in 1521 by the conquistadores who replaced it with a cathedral. We continue to the excellent museum of the Templo Mayor built to house the finds from the excavations that are still being carried out. In the afternoon we walk a short distance to the National Palace to see Diego Rivera’s magnificent murals.

Today will be spent at the National Museum of Anthropology the largest museum I Mexico which house a world class collection of pre-Columbian art including the Stone of the Sun and the Aztec Xochipilli statue. We lunch at the museum to allow an extended visit before returning to our hotel to enjoy some free time to relax ahead of dinner.

Our Christmas Day will be spent exploring the vast, archaeological site of Teotihuacan, one of the most significant pre-Columbian cities which peaked in the 6^th century AD when it was the 6^th largest city in the world. We explore some of the most significant temples of Mesoamerica, including the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. We will have lunch here and, in the afternoon, we visit the excellent site museum. On our way back we stop to view the convent of San Agustin in Acolman founded in the 16^th century and an excellent example of colonial architecture.

This morning, we explore remains of the Aztecs' chinampas, market gardens which supplied up to a third of the capital's food and probably most of its flowers. We can assess them by punting along tree-lined canals. In the neighbouring town of Xochimilco, the Spaniards' lay-out of streets and their great missionary church are at a telling contrast of scale to the capital's. In the afternoon, we cross the pass that leads down to the lush land of Morelos, a resort for Aztec kings and the Spanish Conqueror alike.

In the idyllic city of Cuernavaca, we visit the Franciscan Cathedral of the Assumption built by Cortes in the 16^th century notable for its frescoes depicting the martyrdom of Philip of Jesus, the first Mexican saint. We then visit the archaeological site of Xochicalco which thrived in the 8^th -10^th centuries AD where we see ball courts, step pyramids and wonderful Mayan influenced reliefs sculpted on the sides of buildings, notably, the Temple of the Feathered Spirit.

We start our day with a visit to the Palace of Cortés, with its interesting Pre-Columbian Collections and the extraordinary murals by Diego Rivera. We travel to Morelos to see the Aztec site of El Tepozteco where there is a significant temple to Tepoztēcatl, the god of the alcoholic drink pulque, in which an inscription to the 8^th Aztec Ruler Ahuitzotl dating to the beginning of the 16^th century was found. After lunch we make our way to Tepoztlan and enjoy some free time to explore the cobbled stone streets and attractive market.

Today, we explore Cacaxtla, which thrived in the 7-10^th centuries AD and known for its stunning wall paintings discovered only in the end of the 20^th century and still vibrant; particularly interesting is the paintings blend of Altiplano and Mayan cultures. We will then visit the excellent Museo de la Memoria in Tlaxcala, which explores folklore and indigenous culture of the region, as well as the Living Museum of Folk Arts in which local handicrafts are exhibited and promoted by local craftsmen.

Today’s first highlight is Cholula known for its Great Pyramid and Church of the Virgin of the Remedies built on top of it. The pyramid already out of use at the time of Cortes, was a place of pilgrimage, as the Catholic Church of the Virgin of the Remedies is today. We continue to the stunning ‘Folk Catholic” church at Tonantzintla before making the short journey into magnificent Colonial and late 19^th Century center of Puebla for a tour of the city.

We travel to Xalapa, originally a Totnac city which is today has a strong cultural and artistic strain as it is home to art galleries and the Universidad Veracruzana, as well as the Jalapeño peppers. Here we see the magnificent Museum of Anthropology which contains remains dating as early as 1300 BC, including a giant Olmec head from Texistepec and the statue of El Señor de Las Limas depicting a young man holding a were-jaguar. In the afternoon there is free time to explore the city, where you might visit its Cathedral or Jardin de Esculturas.

Returning to Mexico City, we stop en-route to the archaeological site of Zultepec, also known as Tecoaque, a city inhabited by the Acolhuas. The site, which is on the UNESCO Tentative List, includes a rectangular plaza and a shrine dedicated to Ehecatl. Recent excavations have discovered evidence of a convoy of conquistadores bound for Tenochtitlan being ambushed, sacrificed and eaten here.

We visit the archaeological site of Tlatelolco founded in the same period as Tenochtitlan and based in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. The Templo Mayor, which resembles the Templo in Tenochtitlan, is the most striking building, though there are a number of other temples dedicated to gods such as Quetzalcoatl, Ehecatl and Huitzilopochtli. We continue with a visit to the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, the oldest tertiary educational establishment in the America. In the afternoon we go to lunch to the beautiful San Angel Inn Restaurant in the south of Mexico City, before transferring to the airport for our return flights back to the UK.

After an overnight flight we arrive back in London.