Day 1: Mexico City

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Booked through hostelworld.com, the Hostel Cathedral was an ideal choice for the opening nights of five weeks of travelling. We landed in the early hours of the morning and caught a cab to Zona Rosa. Regrettably, the taxi driver took us to the the Hotel Cathedral rather than h-o-s-t-e-l, but after being turned away from the hotel reception, the bell-boy was denied his bag handling tip and we were frog-marched out the door. Around the corner was our hostel; perfectly situated and overlooking the Presidential Palace behind the Cathedral and the Zocalo.

Pretty sombre in parts, the Zona Rosa is hailed as the busy tourists mecca of northern Mexico City. There appeared to be no real atmosphere away from the Zocalo (square) aside from the throbbing of car engines in the one way system circulating the square, punctured only by the gaggles of harmonium players lining the sidewalks. These harmonium 'artists' definitely wouldn't make it in Covent Garden; playing discordant ballads, offending the ears of passers-by who dodge the hat beggars trying to score some spare change for the 'artist'. These aren't buskers, certainly not in the traditionally poor but talented sense. No, they're far worse, as they aren't even able to understand musical basics. Yet they all wear the same attire as if the busking was officially endorsed and therefore important. Expecting something a little more upbeat, one might attribute the lull in Mexican festivities to the city being 2,100 metres above sea level and thus, chilly in rainy season despite the plumes of pollution hanging in a hazy smog above the city.

Mexico City has a population of approx. 20 million and spreads across 200 square miles of valley, the at times controversial juxtaposition of rich and poor, sees different parts of society shopping on entirely different streets but in the same area. The best example of this, was turn left out of the hostel and you come to the dilapidated markets selling cheap goods, whilst if you were to turn right out of the hostel, there are banks and up-market garment stalls and suit makers. Despite it's rapid growth, Mexico City is prospering. The shanty towns lining the city perimeters are beginning to get electricity and a water supply, but a sense of tension about the proximity of poverty to wealth is still apparent in the city.

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