Chronicles of Mexico 1962April 4

Chronicles of Mexico 1962

Excerpts from a teenager’s diary/scrapbook

(The full names of locations have been added to the Transcript of the scrapbook for clarification.)

Wednesday, April 4, 1962

We arrived in Oaxaca around lunch time, so, we had lunch at the Hotel Victoria, then, went for a swim.

The pool had two platforms for diving.  I did a jack-knife off the top one with  an audience watching from the hotel balcony, but, Bob, for the second year in a row, wouldn’t go off the bottom one, so, we chanted: Pollo! Pollo! Pollo!

After that swim, Barb swears a big bug bit her.

We went to the Castillo de Chapultepec (Museo Nacional de Historia) via a very colorful flower market, the Chapultepec fountain, and had lunch in the Chapultepec Restaurant. Chapultepec means Grasshopper Hill.

The Chapultepec Castle used to be the home of the Emperor Maximillian. One half is now a National Museum. The other half shows some of the rooms the Emperor and Empress used.

The next to the last activity was to visit the ruins of Monte Albán, Oaxaca. In this picture, is shown the game area.  Into this pit were put many of the young able men who were to fight to the death. The dead or injured were a sacrifice to the Gods. They not only relieved the burden of choice  from the Emperor, but, it seemed as if the Gods chose their own sacrifices.

We went into this little crack in the side of the construction, twisted around, narrow, hairpin turns  and came out on the top of it.

Out of all of us who went into this secret passage, only one got stuck: me.

These two fellows  in the picture are the best, friendliest, and nicest  fellows , who taught me a lot. To the left is Roberto, my guide, and to the right is Bob K., that nasty man with that nasty movie camera.

That evening at our hotel, they put on a feather dance for us that was rather interesting. John W. picked this (dark purple feather) off one of the headdresses for me.