Mexico City 21st - 24th March

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Good bye Southeast Asia, hello Mexico!

Well, it was a pretty hardcore journey from Bangkok to Mexico City. We left our hotel room at 4am on the 21st and caught a flight out of Bangkok at 6.40am. We had a 6 hour flight to Tokyo, where we stopped for a couple of hours. So far the journey had been pretty relaxing especially as there was very little customs and immigration hassle at Tokyo. Next we had an 8 hour flight to San Francisco, and with the time difference we arrived at about 8am on the 21st, so we’d seen two dawns in one day! (and they were beautiful!) This was where the fun began! We again had a couple of hours here and thought this was going to be plenty of time but alas, it wasn’t. Firstly we had to go through the rigor of customs and immigration and even though we weren’t even leaving the airport, we still had to get a visa which meant filling out forms and having a photo and finger prints taken. This process took even longer because Dani had picked the longest and slowest queue and was adamant that if we changed to another that it wouldn’t be any quicker! Next we headed to our gate, before which you have to go through security who make you take off shoes, belts and jewelry (Dani has a lot of bracelets!) and take all liquids out of your bag. There was a massive queue so it took forever, so, as you can imagine, we were pretty annoyed when we realized we had gone to the wrong gate! We rushed off to find the right gate and had to go through it all again but luckily made our flight with about 5 minutes to spare!! We were cutting it close! We are also unbelievably lucky that we still have our luggage. We were told at check-in in BK that it would go direct to MC, and we double checked this too. So when Dan noticed a bag very similar to ours on the carousel at San Fran while we were dashing past we almost left it, but thank goodness we didn’t as it was our bag!

The flight from San Fran to MC was about 3 hours long and we arrived about 4.30pm. Customs and immigration weren’t too bad and we didn’t need to get a visa.

We were a little concerned as to what MC would be like as we’d heard some pretty bad things about the place and the people. However, none of them were true. The city is lovely, very colonial, with some beautiful architecture. We’d booked into the Hostel Moneda, just off the main Zocalo (square), which was a perfect location. The hostel itself was great. We thought it was a little expensive at first (compared to Thailand, Mexico is expensive!) but we had a bathroom, hot water, a bath, towels and toilet roll, breakfast was included and the internet was free! The staff were very friendly, the breakfast was good (Dani enjoyed the coco pops a lot!) and they also organized some very good tours from the hostel (the walking tour around the local sights was even free!). We went on two of these tours during our stay.

We caught up on some much needed sleep before heading out for dinner. Unfortunately the sleep meant that we went out quite late, about 9pm, and surprisingly most restaurants were either closed or had stopped serving food, so we were a little stuck for choice, and ended up in a rather unadventurous Pizza Hut (yes it’s bad, we know!). But we did try some very good potato and jalapeno pepper ball things and the chili sauce!

The next day (the 22nd I think - time and dates have all gotten a bit confusing!), we headed out on a tour arranged by the hostel, to see the very impressive Teotihuacan.

The first stop of the day was Tlatelolco and the Plaza of the 3 Cultures about 5 minutes drive from the hostel.. Tlatelolco is an Aztec sight that incorporates a number of temples and other buildings built in the 14th century and was also used as a market place, the biggest in the area. There isn’t too much left of the place but you can see the remains of two temples in particular. One of these still has a number of well preserved pictures from the Aztec calendar on its walls, which were our first real look at what we consider as typically Aztec images. Adjacent to this site is the Plaza of the 3 Cultures, so named because it is surrounded by architecture from, pretty obviously, 3 different cultures. The first is the Aztec Tlatelolco. The second is the Spanish church, the oldest in Mexico City, the Templo de Santiago. There isn’t a whole lot left of this church as in later years it was looted for all its art and interesting bits, though there are still some pretty blue stain glass windows that have survived from its beginning. The third culture is our culture, and is represented by a number of modern buildings, including the Foreign Ministry. These buildings aren’t nearly as interesting or visually pleasing as the other cultures´. The Plaza itself has a pretty horrific history. This was where the Mexican government shot hundreds of students who were protesting in the square (against abortion) on October 2nd, 1968. Mexico City was holding the Olympic Games the following day and they didn’t want any trouble to be caused. The incident was kept quite by the media until after the Games had taken place, when it was then revealed to the world. An earthquake in 1985 also caused a lot of damage to this area, knocking down a number of the modern structures, killing hundreds of people; however, the church remained standing.

Our second stop of the day was the Basilica Guadalupe. This is a large plaza surrounded by three churches, with a fourth church set slightly back from the plaza and a fifth up on a hill overlooking the plaza. The first church to your right as you enter the plaza is a modern Catholic church, while the remaining 4 were built in the same places as the Virgin Mary was supposed to have appeared. The Virgin Mary (known to the Mexican people as the Lady of Guadalupe) appeared to the Christian Juan Diego 4 times requesting a church to be built at that sight in her honor. Nobody believed Diego until the Virgin Mary appeared for the fourth time and imprinted an image of herself on his poncho. This poncho is now on show in the modern church and supposedly tests have been carried out on the image which show that no organic colourings are present! We’re still slightly skeptical! We visited two of the other churches, which were both very beautifully decorated. The first, as you can see from the photo, (although it survived the earthquake of 1985 without a scratch) is sinking, as are a large number of the buildings in Mexico (Mexico City is situated on an area of land that used to be a lake, so the earth used to create the land is now sinking under the weight of the buildings, they assured us that it’s all perfectly safe though!). Unfortunately we didn’t get time to visit the church on top of the hill, we were too busy getting something to eat! This church was the original one that the Virgin Mary asked to be built for her. In the past, the hill had also been used as a sacred place by the Aztecs.

The next stop was lunch, preceded by a little talk and demonstration of a particular Mexican plant (not sure of the name!) that is used for practically everything. The leaves can be used for paper and fiber/string and the liquid it produces can be made into Pulque (a pre-Hispanic alcoholic drink), a drink similar in taste to Amaretto aswell Tequila. We were then given a shot of each of these drinks (Dan politely declined the Tequila), and the first two weren’t bad but the Tequila was as you’d expect! They then rushed us into there little shop and as Dani was feeling the effects of the Tequila, we ended up buying a throw! We also had lunch here, a very good kind of Mexican Samosa filled with beans (all vegetarian so Dani was happy) and also, we found out later, some cacti!

Teotihuacan was Mexico´s biggest ancient city and the capital of what was probably Mexico´s largest prehispanic Empire. It is also the site of the enormous Piramides del Sol y de la Luna (Pyramids of the Sun and Moon). The former is actually the worlds third largest pyramid. Construction of the city first began in the early part of the first century A.D. and continued through till A.D 600. It is thought that the city´s eventual collapse in the 8th century A.D. was due to a 'combination of social, environmental and economic factors´ (which basically means they don´t have a clue!). The city remained abandoned until the reign of the Aztecs (around A.D. 1400) who considered it to be a sacred site where all of the gods sacrificed themselves and so began the movement of the sun.

Only part of the city has been uncovered and restored so far, the two main temples for the Sun and the Moon, the temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the main road that connects the three, the Avenue of the Dead, and their surrounding buildings. No body would live in the vicinity of the temples (not tombs as the Aztecs believed) apart from the priests, so there are few house type buildings in the area. While restoration work has been carried out on some of the buildings (this is noticeable by the small stones that are used among the larger original ones) it hasn’t detracted from the place as we both thought it would. One thing we didn’t understand though is why they only partially restored some of the buildings and are not going to restore them fully as this would make it even more impressive, maybe lack of funds?

We spent several hours wandering amongst the ruins and taking in the amazing views from the top of the pyramids. This was certainly one of the best places we´ve visited on our trip and seems massively under-rated.

We got back to Mexico city just after 7pm and popped out for a bite to eat at one of the restaurants on the Zocalo.

The following morning we had a guided walking tour of the city, courtesy of our hostel. The guide was excellent and we visited the key sights around the centre of the city, including the Templo Mayor, Palacio Nacional, Catedral Metropolitana, Plaza Santo Domingo, Palacio Postal and finally the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

The Templo Mayor, located two minutes walk from the hostal, is thought to be the exact spot where the Aztecs saw their symbolic eagle, with a snake in it´s beak, pearching on a cactus - the symbol of Mexico today. The Aztecs interpreted this to be the centre of the universe and consequently built a vast array of temples here, including a 40m high pyramid. Unfortunately the Spanish destroyed all of this and all that is to be seen today is basically the foundations.

The Palacio Nacional, situated on one side of the Zocalo, is still used today by the president of Mexico. The building which surrounds a vast courtyard, once used for the first Mexican bullfights, houses the very impressive murals by Diego Rivera. These were painted in the early 20th century and were only half finished. There is a large mural above the stairs to the first floor, which shows the history of mexico from the fall of the Aztecs to the present day. The murals on the first floor depicted the different trbes of people who had inhabited Mexico before the Spanish arrirved. It took us about a hour to walk around these murals, as our guide explained them in great detail, but they were really interesting and well painted.

The Catedral Metropolitana, also situated on the Zocalo, is dedicated to the virgin Mary, and is very beautiful. It is made up of a range of different designs as, though begun in the 16th century, it took about 300 years to complete. The Altar de los Reyes (Altar of the Kings - so called because it depicts in statue form Christ, the king of men, and a number of European kings) is very impressive. It was created in the 18th century, is covered completely in gold leaf (though the gold leaf has since been replaced to pay for Mexico´s growth) and stands roughly about 60ft high. The detail is incredible and the whole piece is just extraordinary.

The Plaza Santo Domingo was a pretty modern plaza with fruit sellers, market stalls and a fountain at it´s centre. We stayed here for about 5 minutes just to buy some refreshments, then headed on again.

The Palacio Postal was another incredibly beautiful building. It looks nothing like any other post office either of us have been to! Its was built in the early 20th century in the Italian Renaissance style and is more like a fancy hotel than a post office!

The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is where we finished the tour. Unfortunately we didn´t have enough time to visit the inside of the building, but the outside alone was stunning. It is built wholly from Italian white marble and has some beautiful decoration. In front of the building are two statues of horses that had been made to stand on either corner of the building´s roof but, as with most of the city, this building too is sinking, so they didn´t dare add any extra weight to it.

We spent the nest few hours searching for a Mexican bird book, but failed miserably so headed over to the Mercado de Sonora, and indoor market that has a number of aisles dedicated to witchcraft. The stalls here were absolutly crammed with different ingredients, though we didn´t really have a clue what any of it was for and no one really spoke any English, however it was still really cool to look around. There were candles, incence, books on witchcraft, voodoo dolls (for both good and evil), herbs, statues of skeletons (particular for the Day of the Dead which is popular in Mexico) and even rabbit feet and dried bats!! We didn´t purchase anything for a fear of cursing ourselves, but it was still very interesting.

Late that afternoon we sat in a roof top restaurant over looking the Zocalo and had a drink while watching a large number of soldiers lower the flag and take it into the Palacio Nacional, which they do every night. Then we took a stroll around the Zocalo watching the ´Aztec´ dancers and people getting their spirits cleansed! We decided that our spirits were pretty clean so gave it a miss.

That evening we headed out to find a Mexican restaurant but ended up at a French one instead. This was a big mistake as the food was pretty rubbish and Dani ended up with a dish that had meat in it.....not great!

At 7am the following morning it was time to head to Oxaxca City.....

More photos to follow (having a few technical problems!).

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