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Mexico City Day 1
The Mexican adventure started with a 3am wake up in the picturesque village of Middlewich. Always nice!! After flying from Manchester to Paris and then a 12 hour flight onto Mexico City on Aero Mexico we were shattered. Simone had been very nervous - as always she had only bothered the reading the "dangers and annoyances" section of the Lonely Planet as well as the section describing all the deadly diseases that we may pick up. Needless to say the city's reputation didn't help much so she had spent the entire flight and preceeding days fearing what was to come.
Typically our bags were the very last off the plane prompting the paranoia of lost luggage (all too familiar after my Saudi trip). Then within minutes of stepping into the terminal the authorised taxi stand tried to short change me. However after jumping in the taxi I started to get the familiar buzz of being in a new city so spent the 30 or so minute journey with a big grin on my face staring out at the rather unattractive outskirts of the city whilst Simone remained stern faced should the taxi driver dare for a second to think she was susceptible to being robbed! She soon cheered up after discovering a supermarket next door to the hotel. We had an early night - about 9pm local time but 3am UK time a full 24 hours after waking.
Mexico City Day 2
The next day we hit the town after briefly introducing ourselves to Trevor the GAP Adventures tour leader. He assured us the city was safe so off we went. We heading towards the Zocolo taking in the sites on the way. We went inside the Cathedral and the National Palace and up to a cafe overlooking the square. We then took a bus in the other direction to the Bosque de Chapultetec, a large public garden. We queued for the Museo Nacional de Antropología but gave up after 30 mins when the queue stopped moving. We headed into the park and stopped for some lunch at a stall and before visiting the zoo to see the only Pandas bread outside of China. We were getting tired by this point and Simone is not a fan of seeing caged animals so we took the 3 pesos local bus back up Reforma and walked back to the Hotel (Mallorca).
At 7pm we met the rest of the group - 3 other brits, 5 germans, 3 americans, an italian and an Aussie. We had a briefing and then went out as a group for some food. To prove a point at just how safe and relaxing we had found the city we all walked to the Zocolo after the meal - probably about 11:30 that night and 5 of us walked the 30 mins all the way back to the hotel at midnight. A very enjoyable day in a great city.
Mexico City Day 3
For our second full day in Mexico City we opted against going to the pyramids of Teotuhuacan because we figured we would be seeing more impressive ones later in the trip. Instead we headed back to the Anthropological Museum. It was free for locals on sunday but having left my Mexico disguise of poncho, sombrero and moustache back in the room I had to pay! It did mean we could skip the huge queue though. The museum was excellent.
After a couple of hours we walked back towards the hotel looking for food. I grabbed a taco with chorizo and cheese (which was gorgeous) from a stand in a square near the hotel but the two vegies and Simone didn't fancy one so we wandered around some more. As it was Sunday alot of places were shut so Simone opted for a McDonalds whilst the others bravely ventured on.
I had fancied watching some Lucha Libre and an English couple whom we walked home with the previous night were up for it so the three of us ventured of to the Arena Coliseo for some of Mexico's finest wrestling. The walk was around 45 minutes heading into unchartered territory despite only being five or six blocks north of the Zocolo. Once again though we still felt safe. We paid for our tickets hoping to end up ringside - Lonely Planet made out the most expensive ticket was around $4 but our disapointment at ending up in the heavens of the stadium in the cheap seats behind a net for $40 pesos was short lived after the wrestling began. It was great. We had a scare before going in as they refused to let us in with our cameras - after a lot of reassurance and some blind faith on our behalf we parted company with our camera and went in. The stadium wasn´t full - probably because it started at 5pm - but the show was wicked. We were gutted when we had to leave half way through as we had to get back for our first tour briefing at the hotel at 7pm. We returned back to the hotel to a power cut and complete darkness. The briefing took place on the street and we all wandered into Zona Rosa for some more Tacos. We got back to the hotel for 9pm ish and packed before getting an early night before a morning trip to Puebla.
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