Advertisement
On Sunday the 4th of May we woke up in our hotel in Mexico City and went down to the lobby to email Manolito. Two seconds later the receptionist called out our names telling us we had a phone call. Of course it was him and we decided to meet up. We took the underground which was pretty different from the London tube that we are used to. So much happening, so much activity. People selling food, music and all sorts of things.
We spent most of our time in Mexico City with Manolito. He took us around to loads of different places which we would never have gotten to see had we been on our own. Plus we had lots of fun!!
Unfortunately we missed out on the many museums the city has to offer as on the Sunday we were busy at the floating gardens, and on the Monday it was the 5th of May, a bank holiday in Mexico.
We liked Mexico City a lot and luckily by now Monia was used to the city life so she was able to appreciate the beauty of it.
So many monuments everywhere, beautiful architecture and at the same time the
rough reality of life for many people was very evident. Manolito told us about the frustration and anger felt by the people towards the government that has let them down and we could really feel this tension in the air.
Manolito told us about Mexican bars called Cantinas, which are apparently just for men, originally for military men. No women allowed other than prostitutes. Outraged we felt we should go to one. Manolito compromised and took us to one that is more modern where women also go. Here he showed us how to drink Tequila the Mexican way with Sangrita (tomato juice with lots of spices) and beer. We also got to try cactus which was delicious.
The tequila was pretty strong but Manolito advised “don't be intimidated by the tipsiness of the tequila”. It turned out to be a late night.
During the drive home we went on the “second floor” which is an elevated road above the regular ring road giving us a great view of the city by night and we really got a feel of how big Mexico City really is as we could see all the city lights stretching on for miles and miles. 22
million inhabitants in the second most densely populated city in the world...
The next morning we had to get up at 3:30 and therefore only got a couple of hours' sleep. This time it was not only Monia who was cursing about having to get up. So tired, so tired at the airport we sat outside a cafe waiting for it to open so that we could have some juice. Here we created rule number one: Never go out the night before traveling.
Special thanks and big hugs to Manolito, the best guide in the world!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.232s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 54; dbt: 0.1347s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
