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Before I arrived in Mexico City, the stories that I had heard and the films I had seen only filled me with somewhat angst and a little fear as to what I might find. Saying that I am not sure films such as "Amores Perros" and "Man on Fire" really helped in that matter. However what I have found is a place with really genuinely helpful and friendly people just slightly struggling with everyday life as most of the world.
The flight from LAX was really quick and soon we found ourselves in the middle of the largest city in the world (or so I am told) with a population of 21 million. Cripes! From the taxi the 1st impression was how is there so much traffic at 6am - I mean at points it was bottleneck. After checking in we had to wait for our room so in a deep slumber of having only 10mins sleep I tucked into the free breakfast of cereal, tortilla with cheese and the strongest coffee ever. Unfortunately even that wasn´t enough to keep me awake.
In the afternoon, we wandered aimlessly (bearing in mind we still hadn´t slept) around Zocalo, and some crazy street markets or more like sidewalk vendors. I mean they sell everything on the street from pens, tissues, food. And they all have a speciality, for example there was a pen seller, a sellotape man and even a hologram picture man. We ate at a place called "El Popular" thinking from the title of the place that it couldn´t be half bad. It was a bit of guess work on the menu and I ended up having two fried eggs on a tortilla with cheese and some kind of spicy sauce. Apparently it is a delicacy - ummmmm. To finish off the day (yes it was only 4pm and we were already considering turning in for the day/night) we went up to the top of Sears and had a drink while looking out on to the Palacio de las Bellas Artes. Very beautiful building and I am sure I would´ve taken more interest hadn´t I been exhausted.
Next day we got up really early; okay it was 7am. Having decided to take a tour to Teotihucan we found ourselves being ferried onto a bus with 2x Singaporians, 2x Koreans, 2x Aussies, a driver a guide and a partridge in a pear tree. 1st stop was Tlatelolco which is an excavated Aztec site with Pyramids around 700 years old. Now at this point I must mention the driver, Oscar and the tour guide Beatriz. Both were lovely, if not a bit zany. Oscar decided at one point that he didn´t much like the traffic we were currently sitting in so turned around on a one way avenue and proceeded to drive down and avoiding the oncoming traffic as if it were a computer game. Beatriz was really sweet and reminded me a bit of Mrs Copley (school spanish teacher). She was full of info but I couldn´t stop staring at a tiny bit of toothpaste she had left on the side of the mouth. Bless. Next stop was the sight of the Guadelupe Virgen; aka Virgen Mary. Apparently she has different names around the world and also appears to have darker skin. Well some say that Jesus was black. I cannot explain the shole story of Juan Diego and the Guadelupe Virgen. You can Google it instead. Well anyway, the face of the virgen was etched on a bit of cloth that they now hang in a new church which looks like a 70´s hippy catastrophe. People go on pilgrimages from around the country to see the cloth which is evident in the masses of people praying and crying within the church. I may sound a bit sceptical about this but that has what 5 years of Catholic Convent school has done to me.
Final stop was Teotihuacan, a site containing pyramidal structures from the Teotihuacan time (pre-Colombian I have been told by Wiki). The challenge was to climb not only the pyramid of the sun and the pyramid of the moon after a huge buffet lunch. Maybe I shouldn´t have had a second helping. It was really warm but the climb not too bad in the end. There were sellers everywhere selling what I call tack. And it seemed it was the Mexcian tourists buying this sh*t. That evening headed to Salon Corona and tried Taco de Atun and Taco de Nopales (cactus). This was quickly chased down by a pint of the cheapest and finest local beer (I think). Suddenly two Mexicans approached us and proceeded to sit down and started chatting. So spent the next couple of hours chatting to Pablo Samuel, an apprentice of some kind, young but a pretty boy. Germaine, you reminded me of a mexican Jack Black and Jordi who was a drunk old man who I unfortunately couldn´t understand.
Day three was another semi-early start when we joined the two Singaporians, Kelly and Yun on a trip to Xochimilco. The Venice of Mexico or so I have been told. This world heritage site is the only remaining "water" in Mexico which is pretty impressive seeing that Mexico used to be one giant lake. The journey there consisted of a tube ride, a light train ride and a walk through the streets, semi tripping over the cobble, to arrive at the boats or Trajineros. The trip was brilliant. Sitting in colourful boats watching Mexican families enjoy a little too much tequila and vendors making their way with selling anything from clothes to blankets and even dolls. Through the trip we managed to get two free tequilas each from passing boats (I´m thinking our Spanish one helped a lot). The 2nd free one was from a boat in front who were enjoying a Mariachi band (yes even the bands boat along the river asking for people to pay to hear them sing). The boat proceeded to ask us to dance with them so I quickly jumped on boat and danced away. The others were swift to follow thus earning our second drink. Mothers day is tomorrow (10th) so many families were out enjoying the sun to celebrate the day on the weekend.On the way back we passed la isla de las muñecas. A bit of land with dolls on it. Cannot remember why but Ill look it up in a bit.
In the afternoon we tried to head to Coyoacan but not having a map and Katie feeling more and more unwell we headed back to the hostel.
The next day I headed out sola to let Katie rest up a bit and went back to find Coyoacan. This time I took a map and asked from some directions. It was actually pretty easy. But before that I headed up the LatinoAmerican Tower thing. Tallest building in Mexico City and has views of the surrounding areas. Unfortunately it was a bit smoggy when I was there so the view wasn´t as good as it could´ve been. Anyway, after the walk from the tube to Coyoacan, I spent the morning and afternoon wandering around sampling the ice cream (cheese cake and some sort of berry - yum) and gawping at the endless cake and pastry shops. If I come back twice the size, you´ll know why. The area was really nice, an old colonial town, so spent some time just people watching in the park and reading my book (One Day in case you wanted to know). That pretty much brings me up to now. Going to head out now for some grub and head up the tower for some night shots and tomorrow we go to Oaxaca (pronounced Wahaca like the restarant).
Hasta pronto.
- comments
Mama You make these "Blogs" so much fun to read. What a brilliant time you are having. Glad you are feeling better. Great pictures.