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Published: July 22nd 2008
Mexico City is wonderful! I was expecting it to be crowded, dirty and dangerous but I´ve been pleasantly surprised. (Well, maybe it´s crowded, dirty etc. in other parts of the city but not where I´ve been!) I´ve been here for six days now and have managed to change my flight to Guatemala so I´m flying there tomorrow. Despite all my whining about how "expensive" things are in Mexico, I think I´ll miss this city!
I´ve been passing the time wandering through parks and visiting monuments and museums so I should be very cultured now. I´ve been to the Museo Nacional de Antropologia (supposed to be excellent but I don´t know how you work out which museums are better than others!), the cathedral, the Palacio de Gobierno, Pancho Villa´s tomb (by coincidence on the anniversary of his death), the Torre Latinoamerica (where you can view the centre of the city from the 44th floor) and a zoo. The zoo was free but you had to pay to see the spiders and insects - I didn´t bother because I can see them for free in the hostels. I´ve also been doing a lot of walking around the historical centre and the more
touristy parts of the city.
The Metro is my new favourite subway in the world, mainly because it only costs 10p per journey. It´s also clean, fast, and so far I haven´t seen it as crowded as the London Underground can be, therefore it wins.
My hostel is quite basic but really central - right next to the Zocalo (the main square). The Zocalo is huge and is surrounded by the cathedral, government palace and some other important buildings. There´s also a massive flag which is put up and taken down every day very ceremoniously with loads of soldiers and a marching band etc.
I´m still a complete loner and haven´t met anyone to hang around with but I´m not letting that bother me! On my first day here I was approached by a guy in the street called Bernardo who started chatting with me. He seemed quite nice so I agreed to meet him later and, for once, I actually turned up. He showed me around the centre a bit and then gave me his phone number but there was too much "practicing his English" going on and I can´t be dealing with that, and also
I forgot to mention my imaginary boyfriend so I didn´t call him. I was also asked out again today in a very strange encounter. I had somehow ended up in a deserted underground car park (I was actually trying to find a toilet, I don´t normally wander around car parks) and a guy came up to me and said something I didn´t understand. I told him I didn´t speak Spanish and started moving away because I felt really uncomfortable and then he started talking to me in English, asking me if we could go somewhere to eat and when I said no he asked if he could "accompany" me, which I also said no to. He then started pleading with me, at which point I started walking away quickly! I thought that was the end of it until five minutes later I noticed he was following me! I had to go into two shops and a bank before I could shake him off, it was very odd. I really need to try to blend in more!
Yesterday I went to visit Teotihuacan which was an old city the Aztecs used. That was excellent. The main attractions there are a
pyramid with big snake/jaguar head carvings, the 2km long Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon which you can climb (the Pyramid of the Sun is the third biggest pyramid in the world). I was really impressed with the ruins and can´t wait to see more of them later in my trip! I spent a few hours at Teotihuacan and didn´t notice how sunburnt I was until I left - it´s now quite sore!
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