Mexico City, part of the first week

It has been a good week. As I mentioned in the last post, I didn't have any school performances until Thursday. On Wednesday, I went with Alberto (our intrepid tour manager) and Inno to the school where Inno was performing. Here's a picture from her show:
It's a little blurry because she was teaching the kids a complex rhythm--and she was moving!

From that school, we went to meet Dina, who will help Alberto out as second tour manager. She'll be with me later this next week.

On Thursday, I had my first day of performances at Bilbao School, set in the hills above Mexico City, out of the pollution and noise. We considered doing one of the performances in the forest, but decided some of the fifth grade boys might be too rambunctious there. Still, we walked the 100 or so steps down to look at the possible site. Bilbao is a lovely school and the children enjoyed the stories, even when they didn't completely understand. Here's a bit of the school:

Alberto and I went to the Museum of Anthropology after that. It's enormous, so we only saw a portion (oh, and had a treat in the cafe--my flan was muy delicioso), including exhibits of Aztec and Incan civilizations. Outside, we saw the Voladores de Papantla, men in traditional costume who climb up a pole, spin it around, then jump off upside down but attached to ropes and still spinning. They play flutes and drums as they go lower and lower, until they touch the ground. This was once a ceremony for crop fertilization. Here they are climbing the pole:

And here they are at the top of the pole, beginning to spin it around:

Here they are spinning down:

And almost at the bottom:

I've never seen anything like this. It was fascinating!

This post is already much longer than I meant it to be. I'll write about Friday later.

In Mexico, not yet working

The way this tour worked out, I will begin telling stories in schools on Thursday of this week, so I have time to sightsee a bit. Last night, Inno and Alberto and I walked down to the House of Tiles (Casa de los Azulejos). This incredibly impressive building, once the home of a count and countess, houses Sanborns, a chain of restaurants and stores which began in 1903. Here's the view from the balcony looking down.

On the stairway is a huge mural by José Clemente Orozco, painted in 1925:

We had a light meal in the piano bar. Very elegant.

This morning I went to the Museo Nacional de Arte and then the Palacio de Bellas Artes--the latter is the premier opera house in Mexico. Both are impressive buildings, inside and out. Here's the Palacio de Bellas Artes:

If that weren't impressive enough, inside is amazing, with murals by Diego Rivera, Orozco, Rufino Tamayo and David Siqueiros on the walls of the second and third floors. There was also a temporary exhibit of El Greco going on. Fabulous!

I walked a lot at these museums, so I went back to the hotel for a rest. Then in the late afternoon Alberto and I took the metro to the Bosque de Chapultepec, an immense park with a castle at the top of the hill. We strolled around for quite a while. We wondered how they enforced the closing of the park at 6 p.m. (we went out the gate at 5:45). Do people get locked in, or choose to stay the night on purpose?

Then we went to Zona Rosa, a lively area for nightlife, for supper before coming back to the hotel. Tomorrow I may go to hear Inno tell stories, or I may do more sightseeing. Or both.

Here I am in Mexico!

That's the lobby of the hotel where I'm staying in Mexico City. I arrived last night, flying in through Dallas. I'll be telling stories to students who are learning English as a second language, as I did in Brazil last year (see late September and October 2008 on this blog). My work here doesn't begin until later in the week, so I'll have time to adjust and also to go sightseeing. The hotel is near the Zocalo, the huge square in the historic center. Today there was an international book fair in the square.
On Sundays, lots of people ride bicycles in the city.

Near the cathedral on one side of the square, which was built on the site of a Mexica temple, we saw native dancers in clouds of incense (pinon?). I didn't get pictures of the dancers, but here's the cathedral, with an advertisement for the book fair in the foreground: On several of the side streets we saw living statues, magicians and organ grinders. No pictures of those either.

Who's "we"? Storyteller Inno Sorsy, our tour manager Alberto Alexander and me.

More tomorrow or the next day. I'm about to fall into bed.

Caveat emptor!

Dang. I got so excited about ebay having three Trixies that I didn't read the description well enough. Good thing I didn't buy all three. The imposter just arrived:

She's smaller than the real Trixie, has a wart and a snaggle tooth, and her hands aren't gloves. She's definitely a witch. Trixie is clear about not being a witch. She's just an old lady. "If you get to be 111, you might look this good," she says. The black dress? Very slenderizing.

Ah, well. I know Folkmanis means well, but still.

Anybody looking for a witch stage puppet? Let me know!