Mexico City

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David here...

We got our 23:30 bus to Mexico City Poniente (West) with no problems at all. We got a snack of a ham and cheese roll on the bus as well as a drink. We managed to get some sleep on the journey despite people getting on the bus at other stops and talking as they got on even though everyone was trying to sleep. We arrived into the bus station at 08:30 and jumped straight onto the metro and to Zona Rosa where the hotel we had booked was located. As it was so early we went for a breakfast in a cafe nearby before checking into the hotel. There still was not a room available so we left our luggage and wandered round for a couple of hours, taking in the nearby bars, restaurants and cafes, not many at all as the area was made up of fast food chains mainly. We finally got into our room and were a little disappointed at first as it was quite small and had no view and we had deliberately paid a little bit more so that we didn't end up in a flea pit. This is the capital city though and actually the room was clean, the bed was comfy and the bathroom was big with a powerful, hot water shower, a luxury on this trip. Breakfast was also included and was actually really nice, especially the cheese and ham Quesadillas though we did avoid the insects!

Once settled into the room we headed out to the Museo Frida Kahlo in one of the suburbs via the excellent and cheap metro service, which we mentioned in a previous blog. We ended up using this and the Insurgentes bus service extensively during our stay, though the bus service was tricky to understand at first. You have to buy a card from the machine on the platform first (M$15) before charging it up. A journey cost M$5 so once you bought a card it worked out quite cheap, though the metro was still our preferred way to travel. The Museum was very interesting, showcasing Diego and Fridas work in the house where Frida was born and died. We then headed back into Zona Rosa and went to a recommended restaurant called El Hidalguense that slow cooks mutton in an underground pit and had a lovely meal. We walked back to the hotel to freshen up before heading North along Insurgentes for a final attempt to find Heavy Metal in Latin America - We failed again! The bar we were looking for, El Español, is only open on Saturdays for the El Chopo alternative market. We found this out from a helpful shop owner who gave us the information in Spanish. We decided to head back to the hotel and ended up sitting in the room with a beer and our trusty MP3 player. We were quite happy!

The next morning after breakfast we spent the day shopping, first off going to the El Chopo alternative market to buy some CDs. This market had the feeling of a festival market with lots of bootleg CD's, T-shirts and other Metal/Alternative items up for sale. We got the new Turisas CD which we were pleased about. We then went to the central Artesanas market before moving onto a Saturday market in the suburb of San Angel. We did end up buying a few items and managing to bargain pretty well (for us). As we made our way back to the bus stop from the San Angel market the heavens opened and we got soaked, so we popped into handy Starbucks to dry out before going to a restaurant next door called Montejo where Suzanne had Red Snapper and I had Pibil, which is marinated pork. A nice meal, but not amazing. We do tend to prefer our meals in the smaller more local places. That evening we headed back out to see if we could find the metal bar, however what we thought might be it was just closing as the crowds from the market had gone and after a fruitless search for a nice bar, we ended up back at our hotel with beer and our MP3 player. Why is it so hard to find a bar in Mexico City?

Our final day in Mexico City was spent at the contemporary art gallery. This consisted of 4 big rooms with many different styles of art and photos and a sculpture garden. We spent a few hours here before moving onto the Museo Tamayo Arte which was a little bit of a disappointment after the gallery beforehand. We did some more shopping before heading into the Centro Historico to look at the cathedral and the main plaza and palace, though we had forgotten our ID so couldn't go into the palace to see the famous murals. For our final meal in Mexico we decided to try the original branch of El Tizoncito, the place that claims to have invented al Pastor. We managed to get a table (it was very busy) and ordered guacamole, cactus leaves and each had a Gringa (al Pastor with cheese in a tortilla). As is usually the norm in Mexico, the meal came with various salsas and chips plus this place gave you free Frijoles as well. It is safe to say that this meal was one of the best we had had in Mexico, up there with Las Ranas in Puebla. Our final night was spent back at the hotel where we had to go to bed early as we had an early start to catch our flight the next morning.

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