The former College of San Francisco Javier is the centerpiece of the Pueblo Magico of the city of Tepotzotlán located an hour north of Mexico City.
Today, the old college and accompanying churches and chapels are home to the Museo Nacional del Virreinato (in English, the National Museum of the Viceroyalty of New Spain).
It is a far more impressive museum than I initially thought, spanning 15 acres of grounds previously occupied by the Aztecs prior to the 16th century. The complex is easy to get lost inside, and makes for a fun morning of exploration.
But we’ll get to the museum in a moment. First, here’s what’s been going on with us in Tepotzotlán the last few days….
More sunrise yoga. If you can get up early enough and brave the “cold” it’s well worth it…according to Lori, at least.
The front office and restaurant of the old hotel.
If you live in a pueblo in Mexico, you’re lucky to have a Mi Bodega Aurrera, sort of Walmart’s diminutive Mexican cousin.
The one in Tepotzotlán, however, is the biggest we’ve seen—comparable to a medium-sized super market in the States offering the usual products you’d expect to find at Mexican supermarkets like Ley and Soriana, but at lower prices.
We’re always on the look out for weird and wonderful items. Noe spotted this display which almost blew his mind.
He’s been trying (so far unsuccessfully) to get into gardening. And this seemed like it might give him the edge he needs—assorted herbs, small starter pots, and a small bag of quality soil. Everything you need for a small mobile herb garden.
We’ll give it a try and report back.
Skype time with the grandparents. Riley showing off his Pokemon cards, of course.
The most stocked we’ve seen our fridge in a very long time—mostly thanks to Bodega Aurrera.
Not a new look. But the writing on these Knorr rice bags is unnecessarily tiny (and not the highest quality print). When the boys can’t even make it out, you know it’s bad. Half the time I just wing it.
A rare morning at a coffee shop in Tepotzotlán. The town is largely devoid of the basic breakfast offerings you’d find on the coast, but does offer a handful of decent coffee shops—for a price.
What’s Noe so intently staring at, you ask? The Olympics on TV, of course. Noe’s been obsessed with them this year. Riley’s more interested in the food. To his credit, they were some pretty tasty crepes.
The plaza is filled with these market stalls selling also sorts of Mexican snacks and “treats”.
Which brings us back to the Old College of San Francisco Javier.
Our visit here looks like it might coincide with the Festival Virreinal Mexicano de Tepotzotlán later on in the month. It’s the largest festival the town hosts and they’re already gearing up for it.
We always seem to end up in these towns during the biggest festival of the year. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s not. We’ll see which this ends up being.
The Museo Nacional del Virreinato was a very nice surprise. It’s definitely one of the most interesting museums we’ve visited in Mexico, thanks in large part to the grounds, itself.
The historic former College of San Francisco Javier is HUGE, spread out over many acres and three levels for visitors to explore.
What hasn’t been well preserved has been meticulously restored.
And the bilingual placards offer a lot of helpful insight into the various rooms and artifacts.
Dating to the 16th century, the complex was originally a Jesuit seminary until it was abandoned in 1914. In 1933, it became a national monument and eventually converted into a museum.
There are a few different chapels throughout the complex, but the centerpiece is the intricately-gilded church of San Francisco Javier, which is actually an expansion of an older church that still exists today as one of the side chapels.
There are also a number of different courtyards to explore, as well as an old olive orchard.
It took some doing to find the entrance to the orchard, but it was well worth the effort.
This huge hunk of stone is the original Salta de Agua fountain, which was once placed at the end of the old Chapultepec aqueduct outside town. Getting it to this location must have been a monumental feat.
An hour or so into our visit, alarms sounded throughout the complex and everybody was ushered out.
At first, the museum authorities told us there had been a 7.0 earthquake reported in the Mexico City area. This seemed strange given that we are only about 15 miles from central CDMX as the crow flies and we most certainly would have felt a 7.0 earthquake.
In the end, it was a false alarm (no surprise) but a sobering reminder that we are indeed in terremoto country.
After a full morning of sightseeing and exploring, we were hungry. Thankfully, Lori had just the place in mind. We’ve been waiting for an opportunity to try out local specialities at the Mercado Municipal, and that’s exactly where we ended up.
A lunch of Tlacoyos, Gorditas and Huaraches hit the spot.
A quick stop at the photo shop to get some passport pictures printed for Noe’s passport renewal.
It pours nearly every afternoon, but with mornings like this we really can’t complain. We could do much worse in rainy season in Mexico (and have).
Feeding the Lion.
Trading Pokemon cards (but Noe has other priorities).
A little morning PE with daddy. Calestenicos y Fútbol.
In a few days, we’re heading into Mexico City (CDMX) to do a little sightseeing and apply for Noe’s passport renewal. We’ve actually got a few big housekeeping items coming up and are trying to take advantage of our time in and around CDMX to get it all done.
Of course, nothing is ever straightforward in Mexico, and the timing of it all is a seemingly impossible puzzle.
Making things a bit more complicated is that we might only be about 15 miles away from the Mexico capital, but it takes 1-2 hours each way to get in and out. And there are no RV parks (or anywhere we’d want to try to park our Class C) any closer to the city than we are now.
Fortunately, Pepe’s RV Park here in Tepo is an easy and low-stress jumping-off point for making it all happen. They’re even going to let us pay the storage fee rather than the regular nightly fee and keep our rig plugged in for two nights so we don’t have to clean out the fridge.
What we’re thinking is that we’ll head into the city for three days to submit Noe’s passport application (it has to be done in person for applicants under 16 and it’s up for renewal later in the year).
When it’s ready to be picked up at the embassy, we’ll head back into the city for another week to try to tackle our Temporary Residency renewal and see more of the city.
