Actopan, inside

Right before we left we went to Actopan and got to go inside this time. Previously we had gone on a Monday when the ex-monastery was closed. It turned out to be extremely impressive!

This is where the monks ate. Notice the cool indented ceiling.


This was an incredible stairway. The whole thing was painted with pictures from the history of Augustinian monks, with the oldest at the top and the newest at the bottom.


Here is a picture to give you an idea of what the cool wall paintings looked like. While we were in the monastery a rather odd fellow approached us and started explaining what things were. Sometimes in Mexico there are freelance guides that expect a fee for their services. The problem is sometimes they come up and help and THEN ask for a fee. I thought this guy would do the same, which can be very annoying (turned out he didn't, I think he was hired by the city to try an raise awareness about this great but under appreciated site). But as a result of him being with us I didn't take as many pictures as normal. What I really should have got a picture of were the graffiti made 400 yrs ago by the monks in the bathroom. At first I thought it was just modern day vandalism, but he showed us how in the graffiti the Spanish in their funky clothes were caricatured. There were castles and haciendas drawn up there too. There turned out to be 400 yr old graffiti in a variety of places around the monastery.


The main chappel.


The grody Jebus.