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Hello
I know this is much much lazier than sending postcards but somehow I don't think I'll get round to that so feel free to read or ignore, as you wish
Graham and I are on a 5 week trip to Mexico and Guatemala - and so far are one week in. We arrived in Mexico City not really knowing what to expect, after all the PR for the city is not great but it proved to be a real and pleasant surprise. Our hotel was beautiful and central (good deals seem to be on offer courtesy of swine flu) so we extended our stay to a whole week. The open top tourist bus was a good start to orient ourselves though the trip was cut short by the whole centre of the city closing down for a political demonstration. We did pre-Hispanic Mexico comprehensively with the ruined city of Teotihuacan which is about 40k north of the city. We managed to beat the school trips up the 248 steps of the pyramids of the sun and the moon. This city is preAztec and has influenced all subsequent cultures. I was glad to have been to the Moctezuma exhibition
in London and have some understanding of the Aztec history though of course nothing compares with seeing the real thing which we did at the Templo Mayor and in the fantastic Museum of Anthropology.
We got a view of the whole city, which feels smaller than its 20 million inhabitants make you think, from the top of the Torre Latinoamerica. Built in the 50s and looking sadly like it, it was once the tallest building on the continent but the views are amazing. We were most surprised to feel much safer than we had anticpated and the city was much cleaner, in fact I have seen many more beggars in European cities than we saw there.
We walked all over the place, visiting markets, museums and even an exhibition of Anthony Gormley. An evening spent listening to the mariachi bands was great fun and we managed not to have to be serenaded ourselves but just listen in to others. We took a day trip out to the city of Taxco, famous for its silver and I managed to leave my credit card in the hotel so it proved to be a cheap day out after all.
A 7 hour bus trip including time out for puncture repair has taken us to Oaxaca where we plan to stay for a few days. Weather is much warmer here, Mexico city varied from warm sun to cold wind and rain, so we are enjoying wandering around this beautiful old colonial city. More of which later.........
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