Mexico City

---

Arriving in Mexico City, I was immediately struck by the sheer number of people here. They are an exuberant lot and have been very friendly in their interactions with me. I began my stay by heading out to the Teotihuacán ruins (pronounced teh-oh-tee-wah-carn), which are impressive in their scale and organisation - the main avenue alone is 2km long and looks to be wide enough to fit an entire continental army! Added to this, it is lined by mini-stepped pyramids, further enhancing its stately appearance. This was once the greatest city of Mesoamerica and was a site of pilgrimage for many later civilisations, including the Aztecs. The most impressive aspects of the city are the two massive pyramids, the largest one, Pirámide del Sol, being roughly 2,000 years old. This pyramid is the third highest pyramid in the world, larger than all of the pyramids in Egypt with the exception of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Whilst I got to walk inside a pyramid at Giza, at Teotihuacán you are still allowed to climb the pyramids, which I did with great enthusiasm. It was a clear day, which afforded me stupendous views of the surrounding hills and urban area. The stonework and artifacts of this city are also impressive and it was a terrific destination to get my Mexican jaunt off to a great start.

For my evening meal I headed to the main square of Mexico City, known as the Zócalo. This is a large square surrounded by impressive colonial buildings, dominated on one side by the largest cathedral in the western hemisphere. Along one side of the square there are rooftop restaurants, which I headed to with a fellow traveller to take in the stunning view of the city by night. The following day, we headed back to the Zócalo to go for a self-guided walking tour of the Centro Histórico, which was fascinating. We began by booking a tour of the Cathedral, which allowed us to ascend the bell towers and even traverse the roof! The tour was all in Spanish, but luckily my travel buddy spent a year on exchange in Barcelona and he was able to translate the important bits of information for me. Mexico City itself is sinking, dramatically. In the last 100 years, the city has sunk 10m in the historic centre. However, you don't need a guidebook to tell you this, as your eyes can clearly define all of the warped and wonky structures around the place. One building even has an underground entrance, which used to be at street level! The Cathedral has not been immune to this sinking feeling, with one of the bell towers significantly lower than the other. Considering this cathedral took around 240 years to complete, you can imagine that the Mexican government is doing all it can to prevent it from collapsing. They are even removing subsoil from some sections beneath it, so that these sections sink in line with the rest of the cathedral. Therefore, you can imagine that I was a little nervous as I walked across the roof, noticing all of the support wires doing their darndest to hold the bell tower in place.

From the cathedral, we headed off to explore the thriving streets of this historical district. I must say, the streetscape of Mexico City is nothing like I imagined, with superbly maintained colonial buildings at every turn. The crowds are as I expected though, filling the streets with colour, noise and energy. From a distance, some of these streets seem impenetrable; however, once you enter them, you seem to meander along quite easily. How it all works is a mystery - but it's great fun. The locals also seem to view catching a metro train as sport, with much hustling and bustling required in order to either embark or alight at a station. I have seen many people bundled out of the way and left rubbing bruised parts of their body. When people emerge from the carriage, they often seem to smile at their friends, laughing at the absurdity of it all.

During this walk around the old part of the city, I was captivated by many fascinating murals which were painted during the mid-20th century, most notably by Diego Rivera. Many of these murals have political undertones, expressing the rights and demands of the worker. I was so captivated, that the following day I headed to the magnificent art deco Palacio de Bellas Artes (which I think translates to The Palace of Fine Arts) to look at some of the more famous murals by Rivera and others. The marble building is in itself worth the visit alone, but the murals were truly fascinating and thought provoking. I am hopeful of finding some reproductions of a couple of them to have at home, when I eventually return to Australian shores.

To finish my time in Mexico City, I decided to do something which is becoming quite taboo in the eyes of the west: attend a bullfight! Having never been to a bullfight before and knowing that they are being fazed out in some parts of the world, I thought I would go along in order to form my own opinion on the matter from first hand experience. As I neared the stadium I realised that bullfighting is still quite a big deal in this part of the world, with all of the streets surrounding the stadium being cordoned off by the police. Once I entered this vicinity I discovered there were a plethora of bars to choose from, all with people spilling out onto the sidewalk. I chose the one that had the best smelling tacos and for the first time ate a taco in Mexico. It was magnificent. I have discovered that all Mexican food in Australia is an absolute sham; however, this probably shouldn't come as any great surprise. As I ate my succulent tacos and slaked my thirst with a Corona, I noticed that those attending the bullfight adhered to a certain standard of dress, which appeared to be strictly smart casual, with many of the men wearing hats. The reason for these hats became apparent later, for when a matador was succussful in killing a bull with a single sword thrust, he walks a lap of the bullring to the adoration of the fans, many of whom throw their hats to him for him to throw back. Those without hats threw an assortment of jackets, shirts and whatever item of clothing they could hurriedly remove. If a matador was unsuccussful on this first attempt, there was much booing, whistling and jeering. The moment when it is made clear that the matador is going to attempt this killer blow, the crowd falls into a hushed silence of expectation and if anyone makes a sound, they are shushed by thousands of onlookers. As bullfighting is essentially a sport of protracted killing, I expected the majority of the crowd to be men; however, it was at least an even split of men and women, mostly consisting of couples from all age brackets. The event itself began with much fanfare, with a full brass band blaring out songs from behind me. Another group of musicians seemed to conduct the event, for on their notes certain acts always seemed to take place, whether it was the emergence of the horses, the arrival of a bull, and so on. The pageantry really is something to behold, complete with matadors in sparkling outfits who strut in such a manner that even John Travolta would blush. After three hours and the death of seven bulls, I took my leave as I was getting quite cold and the whole process was becoming a little repetitive. The locals were keen to stay though, as apparantly there are different techniques employed by each matador which endear them to certain fans. In fact, some sections of the crowd would chant at other sections who tended to support another matador, which would trigger a chant in response, all of which was thoroughly entertaining. There is no doubt that a bullfight certainly is a spectacle; however, I can understand why people have objections to the cruelty of the event. One thing that I particularly liked though was that at the end of every second row of seats was a bin filled with beer and ice. To get an ice cold beverage, you simply had to raise your hand and it was delivered to you! Understandably, the longer the event progressed, the more vocal the crowd became thanks to their well lubricated vocal chords.

So, my time in Mexico City came to an end, yet there were many more places and events I would have liked to have had the opportunity to visit, such is the variety of things on offer. And to think that I had originally thought I had given myself too much time in this hectic city! From here I will head south and then along the Yucatan Peninsula, in search of ancient ruins and exposure to quintessential Mexican life.

---