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Published: November 23rd 2012
Day of the Dead
Masks adorned the city and stayed up until after our first weekend in MCMexico Journey: 9
thNovember –
Arriving at the airport in Perth at 4.30 am Friday to discover that we needed Transit visas to transit Dallas airport (2 hours) seemed to us ludicrous to stop us dead, but there it was. The flight could not take place until we logged in and paid our transit visas ( $14 each), but we had to do this ourselves. We tried to set up our computer, to find that the signal was too weak ( 15 minutes of persevering), then recommendation was to run up to Virgin terminal to try the free internet computers there - 5 minutes of wasted running, because the machines were down (me), then asking a Qantas sales person – “sorry I don’t have internet here”. A passing passenger offered to use her mobile which had good coverage – 5 more minutes of wasted time with only 15 minutes left to close of booking…… The Qantas supervisor came over and suggested that her staff person could help as we were getting nowhere fast (only terminal with internet access).
So with 15 minutes left, we(Q person, Rodney and I) logged in and paid for the bloody visas and ran over to
Zocalo Shaman
Mexicans are very spiritual and undergo ritualistic cleansing by shamans in the city squares - by smoke! the booking counter and booked in – 1 minute left to close…. Through xrays and to Gate, called almost immediately…. Not a lot of time to panic (much!). Apparently the Flight Centres have done this before but not to me again!!
After that, flights were uneventful except that there was a delay at Sydney ( only one hour), but we compensated with free whiskey ( very nice whiskeys according to Roman who had several)and Mumm champagne. And at Dallas we were delayed about 2 hours and had to change terminals, gates, planes… but we arrived at last in Mexico City late at night (Friday)and taxi to the hotel Ambassador had only half hour wait…. But the nearly 11 hour sleep was fabulous!!
Saturday 10th
It felt funny to wake up on Saturday morning considering we spent more than 30 hours in transit and only one day later! Usual crappy hotel but in terrific location, even though it was a 4 star job!!
The rest of Saturday was spent in general wander towards the historical section of the city – we were so close we walked there easily.. and then home again stopping for a very late
Zocalo Dance
Near our hotel, the locals were dancing all day and night lunch at 3 pm at a lovely restaurant where we ate what was definitely different Mexican food to that in Oz. The streets were crowded with people and there was quite a festive air. We stopped by a small park across the road from our hotel where there was a market, and there were 3 areas where music was being played and people were actually dancing – salsa or whatever took their fancy – lovely to see!! They danced on into the night – as we went to dinner later they were still dancing with gusto.
Sunday 11
th Most of the museums etc are closed on Mondays so we took off to see the best archeological museum ever at the Chipoltepec Gardens overlooking the city. A huge museum built on a rectangle with a large fountain in the central courtyard, we were overwhelmed by the extent of the exhibits – even into the gardens on the outside of the building were large artefacts from various areas of Mexico. Well worth a visit. We took the Metro home. In Mexico City, the metro is marvellous, and so cheap – we paid 30 pesos (1AUD=13 pesos) for any
Indian Dance
Every afternoon at 5, the indians would show off their stuff! single journey which might include various track changes and however long. We went to the Zocalo (the main square) late in the afternoon for the flag ceremony – the flag is the biggest we have ever seen and took about 10 men to hold it up as it was lowered to ground level. Several groups of soldiers came marching out playing music and strutting around the second largest square in the world, Tiananmen being the largest. It was great fun – the Mexicans put on a good show.
Monday 12th
Xochimilco is an area on the edge of MC that goes back to Aztec times – the area is cut by channels and the Aztecs used the islands to grow their produce. Nowadays, there are many nurseries on the islands, and you tour the area with a brightly coloured boat pulled along by your very own boatman who uses a long pole to push and pull you through the myriad channels. We teamed up with a Costa Rican couple, Ronald and Marina ( from Moscow originally) and bargained our tour cost down to a reasonable 400pesos(
That evening after meeting our tour leader and the rest of
the group we went to dinner at a fabulous 17
th century building – it was covered in tiles – Telavera tiles which are blue and white patterned. These Telavera tiles are made in Puebla where we went next, and there is a large industry around the clay and the making of pottery from this clay.
Tuesday 13th
Paid a visit with the tour to Teotihuacan the temple pyramids of the sun and the moon from the Aztec times, around 1
st Century BC.. It was quite a grey day, and the pyramids have lost all their stucco coating which originally was white and painted with red and other colours in smaller doses, anyway the overall effect was grey – the bricks and original stone work is grey… The sun temple is very tall and it was a hard climb up as the steps were very steep and narrow, while the moon temple’s steps were steep but very high, so different workouts at both!! Great views from both.
Our return to the hotel was just a short rest before a walking tour of the historical section of the city before another night out trying more food.
Wednesday 14
th A free day which we used to go to Coyoacan area which have the most colourful houses built early in the colonial times – 16 and 17
th C. We visited the Frida Kahlo museum and Roman remarked – an arty farty place.. Had beautiful icecreams and gorgeous pastries to die for! Finally, we returned to Zocalo to the Palace of National government ( or something) – a large building filled with the most amazing artwork by Diego Riviera and others – as well as a beautiful garden courtyard and of course the obligatory fountain… a satisfying end to MC touring! Except – we woke at about 3 am, to what I thought was energetic gymnastics from next door, seemed to last for a while –mmm then knock at door – evacuate we had an earthquake – so we stood outside with whatever we threw on to wait for about one hour in the cold – then – ok back to bed!!
Thursday 15th
Caught public buses to Puebla – only 1 ½ hours from MC, but very pretty, with the main historical area declared world heritage because most of the buildings date from the 17
th C and
there are more Aztec and French colonial ruins near the town. We went to a Telavera pottery factory to see how the tiles/pottery was made and had to buy something as a souvenir, had a walking tour and of course great food cooked in traditional Mexican way. The evening we went to a restaurant located on the side of the village square, and there was a HUGE concert for the poor, so we had balcony seats upstairs in the restaurant – the music was LOUD and we even had the Mexican TV announcer in our room doing a live broadcast for the news.. Unfortunately the music was so loud we could barely think, let alone speak, so we left the younger members to enjoy the rest of the concert and went home to bed.
Friday 16
th.
Another road trip – this time to Oaxaca in the mountains. Lovely scenery on the way including volcanoes, arrived late afternoon.
Saturday 17
th We were taken close by to the city to Monte Alban, a Zapotec city built on the flattened mountain top – an amazing place, and quite beautiful.. Late that evening we boarded the overnight bus to
Roman at market stall
undercover markets abound with heaped trays of local delicacies including the grasshoppers San Cristobal. Arrived early in the morning and left our luggage at the hotel whilst we continued with our sightseeing.
Sunday 18
th / Monday 19
We visited a community of indigenous people in their village who keep to their own traditions, and they have taken the catholic church and woven their own traditions into the mix resulting in the expulsion of the priest, and a weird mix of saint worship which included the killing of a chook and then cooking it and sharing the food. The elders wear shaggy white wool vests whilst the rest of the men wear shaggy black vests and the women wear black woollen shaggy skirts. After this we were taken for a boat ride through the canyons of the mountains. Even saw some crocs!! Lovely scenery.
Tuesday 20th
A long drive in a minibus, we drove from San Cristobal to Palenque stopping at a small village where there was a large protest going on – so we hopped out of the bus and looked around for a while – apparently these things happen often as the mountain people are very political… this lasted for a good hour before we got going
Teot...
The Sun Temple again. The roads are switchbacks and are very slow. We reached Agua Azul, beautiful blue waterfalls in the mountains. around 1 pm and took lots of photos – gorgeous place and then about 3 pm lunch stop at a gorgeous waterfall called Misol Hal, before finally getting to Palenque in time to unpack and go to dinner at a small restaurant near the Archaeological Mayan site a few kms out of town. Usually bands play and this was no exception – we got the Beatles treatment… quite fun before the main show of south American musicians.
Tuesday 21
An early rise before going to the Mayan ruins near Palenque – stunning ruins that the Mayans built between the 2
nd and 6
th centuries AD, after which we went for a walk in the jungle to see the mayan city ruins within the jungle – still to be excavated. Amazing!
Wednesday 22
Caught bus to Merida in the Yucatan– long ride started 8am – arrived at 4 pm. After dinner, Gabriel our guide took us for an orientation tour of the main part of the city.All towns eem to built around the main square - zocalo - and
the streets are all east -west/north-south oriented - easy to find your way around but sometimes difficult when the streets are numbered - you forget which number is yours!!
Thursday 23 It's hard to keep up with the dates as our computer is still on WA time and our clocks are on Mexican time - wierd!!
A free day today and we are catching up on our internetting at last - the other places had intermittant internet and we could hardly get our emails let alone upload anything!
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Judy
non-member comment
Sounds like an adventure already
Well you have certainly had some excitement - transit visas and earthquakes! We've just come back from a trip to the markets. Rang Alex but they weren't interested as they are going away. So mango chutney and frozen mangoes here we come. They were so cheap we bought 3 boxes! Enjoy the rest of your holiday and looking forward to reading more blogs. Thinking of you