Day 9 – Chihuahua

3/26/2006 – Day 9 – Chihuahua

Since I took a picture from the room last night, I decided to take a daylight picture before heading to breakfast.  This way you can see the city.  

We are touring the city of Chihuahua and are seeing the mix of architectural styles, both Spanish and European.  Some ornately carved tike this one.  The columns are very Romanesque. 

We visit the Government building.  We go up to the second floor so we can have a full view of the building.  The large courtyard in the center of the building has one single column in the center.

Located in the Chihuahua Plaza Angel is the Angel of Liberty statue, which commemorates freedom for all Mexicans. 

A short walk along a pedestrian street and located just across from the Plaza de Armas is the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross.  It is said to be the finest example of colonial architecture in northern Mexico and built between 1725 and 1792.

Here are a couple of the statues on the front face of the Cathedral.  Notice the fencing over the statues and spikes at their base.  These are to keep the birds off the statues to better preserve them. 

We make a quick trip inside since our time at this location is running out.  Check out the elaborate chandeliers.  The ornately carved wall behind the dais serves to impress even more.

In one of the alcoves was this graphic depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion.  Notice the amount of blood that shows on the statue.

As we are walking around the Cathedral, I see a number of pieces of cloth tied to the fence.  There is also this woman leaning on the fence apparently saying a prayer.

Walking along the pedestrian road, we have seen a few  policemen.  Then all of a sudden we notice these police all at one corner.  One even had a muzzled dog.  There was another group of four policemen these had m16 rifles.  

Finally some flowers.  I haven't seen very many flowers while in in Chihuahua, at least I can be near to take picture of.  This flowering tree was in one of the plazas during our walking portion of the tour.

The city was founded on October 12, 1709, by Blas Cano de los Rios and Antonio Deza y Ulloa, a Spanish explorer.  This is a statue of Antonio Deza y Ulloa.  The town’s name was San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua, which was shortened in 1823 to just Chihuahua.

Our next stop on the bus is a visit to the Pancho Villa museum.  On one of the walls is this mural with General Francisco (Pancho) Villa in the front.

On Friday, 20 July 1923, Villa was killed in his car while visiting the town of Parral.  He usually traveled with a large contingent of bodyguards, but on this day only had three and two ranch hands.  Seven riflemen attacked his car killing Pancho Villa and several others.  Notice the bullet holes in the back of the 1922 Dodge car.

Continuing around town we go by the Trinity Methodist Temple. 

This is the San Francisco Temple and is one of just a handful of monuments in Chihuahua still standing since colonial times.  Construction started in 1717 and completed in 1789.  The church was established by the Franciscan order and with its plain whitewashed walls it has the no-frills style associated with the Franciscans.

After our city tour is done, we head to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, wait they are all Mexican restaurants here.  Anyway, we are at our farewell dinner and again enjoy being entertained by a Mariachi band. 

We are almost at the end of our trip and there is nothing like a farewell meal, cigar, guitar, and tequila to end it all.  I wonder where I can get a sombrero like his?

Tomorrow we head back to El Paso in the U. S. where we started this trip.  We are leaving early, at 8:00am so we need to be up by 6 to have our bags ready by 7.