Mexico City Connection - Tequila, Luche Libre and The Sun

Asia
February 15th 2012

Published: March 5th 2012

I know I have said it before and no doubt I will continue to say it throughout my trip, travelling really is the best teacher and I am still learning, well at least I hope I am learning. What´s the one thing you need to get to your hostel in a new city? A name is fantastic yes, but an address is even better. So what does Zosia do? I arrive to an non English speaking country with no address of where to go. Oh how I flashed back to Rome 2005 as a young 21 year old standing in the middle of the city in tears because I had no idea where I was supposed to be going. This time I was not going to cry, I was going to work it out like an adult.

I thought it would be easy enough to find an internet cafe at the airport and get the address, oh how I was wrong. Not only did no-one speak English (I understand I am in Mexico but I figured at the airport someone would be able to) there was no internet cafe only wi-fi. Yes, the decision of not brining a laptop with me was starting to hurt. Definitely not a decision I would make again. Oh dear I thought, 10pm in the worlds 3rd largest city, no address of where to go, limited Spanish and borderline zombie status after yet another massive long haul flight, my heart sank and I sat down shaking my head. This is exactly where a travel partner would come in handy. We would probably be laughing over a beer right now organising "PLAN B" but when you are on your own nothing like this seems funny.

My only choice was to put my life in the hands of a taxi driver, I found a driver who said he knew where Hostel Amigo was although to be honest he wasn´t that convincing. I got into the cab thinking nothing but positive thoughts, hoping, wishing, praying this would work out. As we drove out of the airport I was immediately captivated by my surroundings. The streets of Mexico City were very similar to Bangkok, 1000´s of cars and what seemed like no order at all. The buildings standing side by side would change from extravagent to dilapitated and back again, old VW bugs were used as taxis and at the red lights young men were selling water, chips, chewing gum and anything you could ever need on the road. When my cab pulled up outside what looked like a 5 star hotel I thought "if only but no". The bell boy came and opened my door and I frantically tried to explain my situation and asked him to tell the taxi driver this wasn´t my hotel. They spoke a few words in Spanish and my taxi driver got back into the car and kept driving. This time he drove down back streets past police cars, steet food stalls and lots of people hanging around on the street. I sat in the back silently just thinking those positive thoughts and then I mentally starting going through my bag trying to think of anything sharp that might help me if I needed it and then we stopped. I looked up and thank you positive God I had made it to Hostel Amigo. My lesson here, pack your bags sober, write down the address of your new home in your new country and get more than half an hour sleep before leaving for the airport. (Luckily for me when I fell asleep at Heathrow airport I was already through my gate so they woke me up to get on the plane).

Mexico City is amazing! I felt an instant connection and could wander the streets for hours, which over the next few days is exactly what I did. I wandered through the centro historica admiring the old detailed buildings, the street artists on every corner, the cantinas overflowing with old me in cowboy hats, the tacos y tostada stalls heaving with locals, the markets selling everything from headbands to live chickens, the kids running around at 2am, people watching in the Zocalo and the many, many, many couples showing their affection for eachother everywhere. I really have seen nothing like it. Mexico seemed to be this massive city of 20+ million people with double the amount of cars running at a small town pace. Everything here works on Mexican time. Which is hard to get used to but you do. You have to remind yourself, you are on holidays and have all the time in the world.

The markets by Bella DÁrtes were a sight to see. As I said earlier, stalls selling everything from headbands to live chickens, 5 peso tacos, ceramic art, fake ray bans and the best purchase I think I have made, JENGA! I paid 30 pesos, so around $3 for a travel Jenga game which has brought hours of fun, especially when there is tequila involved. Here in Mexico there slogan when they are trying to sell you something is, "guappa, amiga, bonita, almost free!" For the first few times, almost free had me giggling away but then like anything else gets pretty old pretty quickly.

I met Meg an Aussie from Exmouth on my first morning at breakfast and the two of us rolled for the 4 days in Mexico City which was great. We drank enough tequila over these 4 days to sink a battleship. When in Rome right? The bartender at our hostel, "G" was a funny guy, very abrupt but friendly at the same time. We went on a nightclub tour with him which was an epic fail but the next night he redeemed himself and took us to a locals club which was much more my style. I think some of the hostel crew got a little annoyed at me because I was off making new friends with all the locals and dancing salsa with all the oldies and just doing what Zoshy does, which led to my jacket being taken while I was having fun on the dance floor. Ooopsie. This was definitely my favourite night but another one to remember was the night we went to Luche Libre! Mexican Wrestling!

The whole thing is pretty much a choreographed dance with the winner already decided before they come out onto the stage. It was highly amusing watching everyone in the arena get so involved in the fight and the costumes on the wrestlers were pretty out there. Think tighty whiteys but bright pink! They even had a midget fight. We drank beer out of plastic cups and got pretty merry screaming and carrying on. That night back at the hostel "G" was doing his usual free pours of tequila straight into our mouths and we all ended up dancing on the bar having a grand old time.

Apart from loads of fun at night I also managed to do some touristy things and spent the day at Teotihuacan pyramids which was a pretty special day. Teotihuacan got it´s name from the Aztecs and it means "city of the gods" or "where men become gods". There are two main pyramids here, the Pryamid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. It was a totally overcast day and my friend Steve and I got to the bottom of the Sun pyramid and said, if we are special people the sun will shine on us while we climb the pyramid. I said to Steve, clearly we are special but okay let´s see if it does shine down. When we reached the first tier the sun shone straight through the clouds right onto the two of us. We were both pretty moved by it even if it was a conicidence, it made us happy and feel very special.

Getting to the pyramids was an adventure in it´s self. My first Mexican metro experience. Woweeeeee. I am getting used to people staring at me and men practically falling over themselves (I know, I´m gorgeous, ha!) but the metro was 100 times worse that what it was on the street. Slightly scared the whole time and getting seperated from my friend because the doors will close even if you are still trying to get onto the train we made it to our destination. With confidence on the way back I smashed the metro but was on my own so I was the over paranoid tourist with my camera memory card in one shoe and 500 pesos in the other. Ha! So funny because my trip was totally safe and I even had people trying to help me the whole way pointing me in the right direction. Better to be safe than sorry I guess.

My next metro experience was an interesting one, me and my two backpacks trying to get onto a packed beyond London packed carriage. People grunting at me, looking at me in disbelief. I had no choice but to push on through and just smile, hoping people would smile back. It worked, people started smiling back at me and were moving for me and even helping with my bags. Ah, thanks Mum and Dad for spending so much on my smile, it really has a great effect sometimes. I made it to the bus station with plenty of time to space using my Spanglish like a pro, well, Done Esta Auto Bus estacion.

By the way Mr. Premier of Victoria, how about you look at Mexico City´s public transport system, no fuss, 20+ million people, 3 pesos (40 cents) per trip from anywhere to anywhere, trains every 2 to 3 mins and in peak times carriages dedicated to women and children. Clearly it´s not that hard.

Mexico City I love you and look forward to coming back but it´s time to move. Oaxaca, here I come!

Lessons learnt:

* Write down address for every hostel I book

* Luche Libre is not real

* Cheap tequila in Mexico tastes just as bad cheap tequila anywhere else in the world

New item to add to the lost/stolen list:

* Green jacket - stolen

Sending lots of Zoshy love to you xxxx

**PHOTOS TO FOLLOW**

Mexico City Connection - Tequila, Luche Libre and The Sun

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