We booked a two week stay at a language school called Encuentros. This is a family run school that has a nice atmosphere and gives fantastic value for the money. We stay with a host family that takes care of all our meals and gives us lots of Spanish practice.Each week at the school there is a field trip based on a theme. This week we visited the home that Cortes built for himself that now stands in the middle of Cuernavaca- the town that grew up around his plantation and house.The palace is now a small museum tracing the history of the state of Morelos from pre-hispanic times through the conquest and colonization. There is a small collection of artifacts very nicely displayed but the main claim to fame for this museum is a huge mural painted by Diego Rivera that depicts the same pre-hispanic to colonization story. This mural covers the walls of a second story balcony so the lighting is natural. In order to protect the mural, the area between the colonnades has been glassed in.The palace was constructed on the site of a much earlier pyramid and in the main floor courtyard the archeologists have unearthed some of the foundations and left them on display. Also the palace itself has had several renovations after it was built in the early 1500’s. You can still see some fragments of older wall murals and different types of wall construction. Av Atlacomulco 98 Acapantzingo 62440 Cuernavaca, Morelos Partly cloudy 26
