Comrade Trotsky, We Know Where You Live!

My day started out heading for Chapultepec Park. To give you a pretty good comparison, it's Central Park (NYC) size. I've been there on a couple of previous trips always with a specific agenda. The park is just too big, with too many attractions to just wonder about. So, travels today took me to El Fuente de Tlaloc. Two intereting sites can be found here: 1) a 3-D ceramic fountain sculpture, and 2) Rivera murals, recently restored, emphasizing the life power of water. First, the fountain! It's a magnificant ceramic masterpiece that Rivera constructed with the artist Juan O'Gorman around 1950.

Tlaloc - God of Water Rivera-style!

The murals inside the pavillion have just recently been restored. For over 20 years, they were closed to the public. They only reopened in 2010. Now, these masterpieces celebrating the life power of water can be enjoyed almost as they were intended (today, there is no longer any water covering the floor murals).






 Detail from inside the Waterworks.





 You're in good hands. Could be an Allstate commercial!

Time to move on so I headed over to Coyoacan. This is one of the most delightful neighborhoods in DF. This is where Diego and Frida lived. Since I had visited their house (La Casa Azul) on an earlier trip, today, my sights were set on the Trotsky House and Museum. Again, if you saw the movie Frida, she and Trotsky became special friends that ultimately lead to a most strained relationship between the Riveras and the Trotskys.

Trotsky's house. Gun tower added after the first assassination attempt.






Trotsky study where he was murdered!



Wouldn't you just die for a kitchen like this? Trotsky did.

Trotsky lived in this house just over a year. However, his grandson maintained it for many more years after his death in 1940. It's a wonderfully peaceful spot and one can only imagine what it was like in Coyoacan then as a rural area outside the city. Any history lover would enjoy a visit to Trotsky's exile home in Mexico.

The Coyoacan market is also a most pleasant spot for lunch. I've come to enjoy eating in markets where the food is wonderfully delicious and more of what you might find in a Mexican home. Today's chili rellano (yes, I often order the same thing at my lunch spots) was very tasty and a full meal including soup, rice, the rellano, and fruit water cost all of $35MEX or less than $3US.

Highspeed tortilla maker at Coyoacan Market.

I ended my day enjoying a little people watching at one of the many sidewalk cafes in Coyoacan. I now know where Nancy and Donna can enjoy a nice galss of wine when we return here in June.