Plaza Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico

Bus Tour: Stop 2

It's always good to visit the most popular shrine to the Virgin where ever you go - it's usually one of the more interesting places to people-watch. This stop was very short because the bus was illegally parked or circling the block or something ridiculous like that. The plaza was quite spacious - the (numerous) churches in these pictures are quite large, but the expanse of the plaza keeps them distant and small somehow. I believe the little old church up above the rest is the original church while the really modern looking one is the most used of modern times. (It's also made of cool cactus building material, which I find much more interesting.)

This site also had the coolest solution to "Everyone wants to look at our painting" I've ever experienced. The Portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe was displayed such that the congregants in the church could see it but also so that if you (mere tourist) went down a ramp to a viewing chamber under the altar/stage... There were 3 people-movers in front of the painting so that tourists could stand and look at the painting, but they would be moved along in front of the painting. At the end of the people-mover, you turned around the end and got on the people-mover in front of the one you were just on, going in the opposite direction. Repeat ad nauseum. People-movers are cool.

Pictures by Carla C. Emmons unless otherwise attributed. Copyright Carla C. Emmons 1998-2002. Please Request Permission if you wish to use any pictures in this site.

last updated... 8 May 2002 by cce

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