Lockdown Diaries: Day 37 (Climbing the Popocatepetl in 1519)

Locked Down in London, Day 37: Agoraphobia

I dreamed I was on a bus that was getting more and more crowded, until we were all squashed against each other like sardines in a tin… and my neighbours leant towards me, breathing out pestilential air into my face.

It was only a dream. But if the government doesn’t stop the lockdown soon and the media doesn’t stop the constant scaremongering, I wonder how many people will emerge with newly acquired agoraphobia?

The Burning Mountain of Huexotzinco

The Conquest of New Spain, an eye-witness account of how Hernán Cortés conquered Mexico, is one of the most memorable non-fiction books I’ve ever read. And I don’t just mean that I vividly recall various episodes in the book; no, there’s more to it than that. Because of this book, I ended up reading others on the subject, and some of them, like Tlaloc Weeps For Mexico, a novel by László Passuth, were excellent. And because of this book, I practically haunt the Aztec rooms of the British Museum. (And I wish that I remembered more of the exhibits of the Museo de América in Madrid!)