Mexico City - Chapultepec

In the middle of Mexico City, is a huge park known as the lung of Mexico City, Chapultepec.  Chapultepec is the home of many, many fantastic museums as well as the Castillo de Chapultepec.  You can also find a lake, a zoo, and an amusement park within Chapultepec.  Of the many choices of things to do and places to visit, we made it to two: The Anthropology Museum and the Castillo de Chapultepec.

Museo Nacional de Antropologia e Historia

  

The Museo Nacional de Antropologia e Historia is a fantastic history and anthropology museum that resides in a space of over 93,000 square feet of material.  The kids enjoyed a large number of dioramas that depicted the evolution of the hominids throughout the ages, along with the changes in their tools, and the progression of their lifestyle from hunger gatherers to early agricultural techniques.  After that baseline, we explored the ancient peoples and artifacts of the different populations in each region of Mexico.  We got to see replicas of the cave paintings found in Baja California.  We saw replicas of the cliff dwellings found in the desert regions of northern Mexico and the four corners area of the US (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado).  Particular fun was finding the famous Aztec calendar (which may not actually be a calendar), and the giant stone heads created by the ancient Olmec peoples.  We also got a preview of what is yet to come when we visit the Mayan ruins in Chiapas, later this trip, and a review of the Mayan artifacts we learned about on our last trip.  All in all, you could easily spend a week in this museum and still not take everything in.  Half a day was really enough to whet our appitites for a return visit sometime.

Castillo de Chapultepec

The Castillo de Chapultepec is a castle found in the Chapultepec park that was the home of Maximillian and Carlotta.  Maximillian was of the Hapsburg family in what we now know as Austria, and a cousin to Napoleon.  He was put in charge of the colony of New Spain (Mexico).  His wife, Carlotta, was the daughter of a Belgian king.  Located high on a hill, the Castle provides a view of how the designated governors of New Spain clung to their European roots.  The décor is very European, and the furnishings and instruments were directly imported from the home continent.  The gardens are very much like those you’d find in residence of nobility in the homeland.  It is all quite opulent and must have been quite a stark contrast to how the rest of the population lived.  It continues to provide a stark contrast to the other sights in Mexico City we had visited thus far.