Cuernavaca

Last weekend Olivia and I took a trip to Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos. We had plans with two other girls from class, but they decided not to go at the last minute so it was just the two of us. After a miserable exam in class on Friday, Christian took us out for yummy tortas before going to the bus station. We got there just in time to catch the next available bus leaving for Cuernavaca. On the bus I ran into a girl I had seen on the bus last quarter who was going to Cuernavaca to visit her boyfriend again. It was funny running into a familiar face on the bus. Bus trip wasn’t too long, only a bit over 2 hours. In Cuernavaca we caught a cab and headed to our hostel. We had booked for four people so when we arrived we had to figure out new arrangements for just the two of us. The nicest old man offered us a private room with two beds and showed us around. The hostel is actually a Spanish language school as well, so there were lots of classrooms set up as well as rooms. It was an amazing building with lots of levels and spiral stairs. We were on the ground floor right next to the pool and the open-bar kitchen. The room was really nice too with a shared bathroom that we never actually had to share with anyone.
After looking around the hostel we decided to walk to the centro. On our way out one of the hostel staff warned us that there had been a narcotrafico (drug trafficking) threat for that night in Cuernavaca and that we should be careful. With that in mind we head out to check out Cuernavaca. We walked to the centro from our hostel, which took about 20 minutes. The zocalo of Cuernavaca is the only major city centro in all of Mexico that does not have a chapel, cathedral or church of some sort in the main square. Across from the centro is El Palacio de Hernán Cortés in which the conquistador de Mexico actually lived. It is now a museum of sorts with ancient artifacts from the indigenous people of the region and paraphernalia de Emilio Zapata and other revolutionary heroes. The top floor had an open arched patio with a huge mural by Diego Rivera depicting scenes of the effects of Spanish conquest on the indigenous people. It was a beautifully designed scene typical of Diego’s meticulous attention to details. We weren’t expecting it so it was even more amazing to see. After the Palacio we walked around the centro a bit more and visited the cathedral located in a little garden compound up the street from the zocalo. We had dinner at an outside café near the cathedral and then took a taxi back to the hostel. We decided to go to a bar that we had heard of that had a live salsa band, so around 10 pm we headed out. On our way out the hostel owner asked us where we were going and mentioned that another girl in the hostel had just called a cab to go to the same place. So we waited a few minutes and hopped in the cab with her. She was from Latvia and was had been studying at the Spanish language school for the past 4 months and this was her last night. We arrived at “Los Arcos” street instead of “Los Arcos” the bar/restaurant because the cab driver hadn’t understood where we wanted to go, but when we said we wanted to go to the centro he then told us that everything had shut down early. All bars and restaurants in the whole of Cuernavaca had shut down before 8 pm because of the drug violence threat. So deeply disappointed, we headed back to the hostel and paid 20 pesos each for our destination-less tour of Cuernavaca. I felt bad for the poor girl from Latvia who didn’t get to go out on her last night.
The next morning we were well rested and ready to explore some more. And as expected the threat of violence in Cuernavaca was only a threat, nothing actually happened. We went to breakfast at a cute little outside café near where we had eaten dinner the night before. Then we went to the Jardines Borda (Borda gardens), which is a huge garden complex with fountains, a large pond (with row boats for hire) and rooms full of modern art. Next we decided to check out the resident pyramids of Cuernavaca known as Teopanzoclo. After a lot of asking around we finally found a bus that passed near the pyramid site. The pyramids were not as exciting as others I have seen, but then again I’ve seen a lot of pyramids in the last couple months. They were noteworthy however because they were incomplete. The Aztecs had attempted to build a pyramid on top of an already established pyramid, but were interrupted by the arrival of Hernán Cortés. After the pyramids we headed back downtown. We bought some fabulous pan dulce (sweet bread) from street vendor, which cost less than 20 cents a piece. We spent some more time in the market looking for gifts and souvenirs before heading back to the hostel. For dinner we returned to the centro and had some traditional Mexican food. While eating 10 federal police pick-ups with armed police officers cruised around the main square. Although the threat from the night before had not been realized, it seems the police were still taking it pretty serious. After dinner we decided to splurge on desert in order to get into a fancy restaurant. We had read about the restaurant because it has a tiled pool designed by Diego Rivera on the lower patio. It was a very classy restaurant. We ordered cheesecake and crème brule and snapped guilty photos of the pool and the expensive ambiance of the restaurant. After dinner we headed back to the hostel for the night, as it was projected that nothing much would be open on Saturday either due to the threats.
Sunday morning we decided to do one last thing before going to the bus station to head back to Puebla. The famous Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros at one time had a workshop in Cuernavaca, which has since been opened as a museum with 4 unfinished murals. We took a taxi only to find that it was under renovations and not open to the public. Unfortunate adventure, but there was nothing else we could have done so we headed to the bus station to go back home. We were confronted with a few minor setbacks throughout the weekend, but overall it was a success.