Two days I spent in Tepotzotlán, a small city and also one of the Pueblos Mágicos, about two hours to the north of Mexico City. Tepotzotlán offers two things it is famous for: El Museo Nacional del Virreinato (National Museum of the Viceroyalty of New Spain) and Arcos del Sitio = Acueducto de Xalpa (Aqueduct).
In Tepotzotlán I had the honour to stay with Aiko. It was the first time for Aiko to host someone via Couchsurfing and it was a great pleasure to spend time with her. Fortunately Aiko had given me a detailed description how to reach her place from Mexico City taking different trains and buses. As I still didn't decide to buy a local SIM card and consequently do not have internet access without Wi-Fi this was a great help as she lives in the countryside.
The first day I spent visiting the Museo Nacional del Virreinato. It is located in a complex that was built by the Jesuits in the 1580s and following decades. The buildings once served as schools, one to teach indigenous languages to Jesuit evangelists, a school for Indian boys and the College of San Francisco Javier, to train Jesuit priests. It also includes the Church of San Pedro Apostol and some beautiful chapels. The museum shows the history during the time when Mexico was conquered, occupied and restructured by the Spanish conquistadors. It tells about the missionary work, e.g. that the Jesuits arrived too late for the evangelization of the population of central Mexico because the Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians had already been there for some years. The museum furthermore houses important artworks of the colonial period of Mexico.
In the evening I was very warmly welcomed by Aiko and her mother who even bought some tamales for me that I could taste them. We had dinner together with some ingredients I bought at the market of Tepotzotlán. After that I got a tour through Aiko's room where she explained me about some medals she won in martial arts, some souvenirs from Egypt, some caps a friend of her designs and her collection of some wines and liquors. We tried one Mezcal with sal de gusano de maguey (a special kind of salt mixed with chili and the gusano-worm who lives in the maguey/agave plant.
The next morning we prepared agua de guayaba (guava). We pureed the guayas and added water, milk powder and some sugar. Actually quite simple, would
there be guavas to buy in Germany. We spent the day at the Arcos del Sitio, the highest aqueduct of Mexico with a height
of 61 metres above the riverbed. It has 43 arches divided into four levels. On weekends a little amusement park opens so that you can cross the valley by means of rope slides. As we spent a
Friday at this place, we were just walking around the historical site and enjoying the views and the perfect weather. On the way back we stopped at a little restaurant which has just been opened
and had comida corrida. Comida corrida is an inexpensive meal (approx. 2 Euro) of several courses eaten
usually between about 1 and 4 p.m. which is sold at many places.
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