(Map of the day.)
We hopped on an early bus to the town of Tula, about 75 minutes away. From the small bus station, we took a cab to the pyramid site just outside of town, and arranged for the driver to come back in a few hours to pick us up (we didn't want to be caught in this remote location without a means to return to town -- although this did happen many times later on...).
The site was pretty empty, although the vendors were setting up their booths along the pathways; our travel guide indicated that this site is generally overlooked, as more tourists go to Teotihuacan. The main attraction of this site is found on the top of the restored main pyramid: 20-foot tall carved stone figures. These statues are remarkably detailed for their age, and slightly spooky:
A large contrast between this site and Teotihuacan is that Tula's pyramids are mostly un-restored; before we saw these, we didn't realize how much restoration had been done at Teotihuacan.
We're on top of the un-restored pyramid, with the statue-pyramid in the background:
Also, Tula has a ball court:
Most of the ball game is speculative, but what they suppose is that a hard ball is passed between team members, using their hips and shoulders to hit it. The idea is to somehow pass the ball through a carved stone ring in order to score. Apparently the outcome of a game would predict rain/good crops/etc. Not much else is known for sure. Each site that had a ball court claimed that the other sites would sacrifice the winning (or losing) team; no site ever admitted that human sacrifice occurred on their grounds. My thoughts: all these temple-dwellers seemed to be pretty bloodthirsty...
Tula also had some very detailed carved stone. It's remarkable to realize that these carvings have weathered over a thousand years.
We left Tula in haste, as we wanted to get to our next destination before it closed for the day: the Leon Trotsky Museum. Of course, when you're in a hurry, nothing works out; the return bus trip took over two hours because of nausea-inducing traffic, and the subways to get the museum were crowded. We pretty much ran from the subway station to the museum.
On the way, we had the delight of trotting alongside a fenced park; a stream ran parallel to the sidewalk. The stream was brimming and choked with garbage. The stench of sewage was overwhelming. The discoloured water with all of its detritus and waste looked like something out of a National Geographic war story. Sorry to disappoint, but we didn't snap any pictures of this.
We arrived at the Leon Trotsky museum, which is housed in his former residence, in which he was assassinated. The reason why Trotsky had come to Mexico City (aside from being exiled from the USSR) was because during the 1930's Mexico flirted with the idea of communism and welcomed the man. In short time Trotsky became close friends with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In fact, he lived with the famed artists for a time before differences caused him to move out into his final home. Everything in the house remains as it was on the night of the assassination -- books, papers, even toiletries are in place. The closet still contains clothes and shoes. Walking through his study and office, it was bizarre to think that Trotsky, a man so involved with seminal events in the 20th century, had lived and breathed in these rooms.
Apparently he was an avid gardener:
The kitchen of a communist:
There had been an earlier attempt on his life; note the bullet hole above the bed:
The study in which he was fatally stabbed; if I recall, he was sitting in the chair with the beige woven back:
The final resting place of Trotsky's ashes:
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