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North America » Mexico » Distrito Federal » Mexico City
November 11th 2010
Published: November 21st 2010
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Before leaving the UK, we had heard nothing but negative remarks about Mexico City; 'Oh don't go there, people get killed all the time- you will get mugged/ pick-pocketed, kidnapped/ stolen from the street and sold as slaves' etc.

Cautious as we are, our original plan had been to arrive in Mexico City the day before our flight and get the hell out of there as soon as possible. However, after our recent experiences we now laugh in the face of danger. Therefore we decided to make our way to Mexico City a whole week before our flight out, giving us seven full days to explore one of the largest cities in the world, and giving the vagrants of the city seven full days opportunity to take their chances on us. Actually nothing bad happened to us, and we had a very safe experience the whole time that we were there. It is such a shame how negative media can ruin the reputation of a brilliant place, and it also has shown us how small minded we can become from hearing the negative comments of others.

As we walked out of the bus station it quickly hit us as to how nice it was to return to somewhere civilized. The city seemed a lot more sophisticated and modern than anywhere else we had been in Mexico. For example, not once did we have to pay to use the bathroom whilst we were staying there! Also, there was a great array of national food take-aways such as McDonalds, KFC, Dominoes and Burger King. We were in heaven and couldn't decide which to have first! However, the city did remain very Mexican with beautiful colonial buildings amongst classic buildings such as the museum of Belles Artes.

From the beginning we were surprised by friendliness of the people in Mexico City. A young local couple saw us lost at the bus station, and speaking in fluent English helped us to find our hostel, even riding with us on the metro and getting off at our stop to direct us. They were so kind and keen to help; they even scanned us into the metro using their travel cards and would hear nothing of it when we insisted they took the money for the price of the tickets. They were really excited as they had just been to book bus tickets to go to Acapulco the following weekend. They told us how they would like to travel further outside of Mexico, but because their currency is weak it restricts them. It made us realise how fortunate we are to live in the UK.

As we stepped out of the metro station at the main zocalo the square was completely buzzing with people and stages and strobe lights. W later learned these were to be used for the light show that is being held every evening in November to celebrate 200 years of Mexican independence. We arrived at our hostel and were really happy to be back on the travellers' route, and spent the evening getting to know various other travellers. The hostel was really busy (unlike Acapulco!) and had a really cool communal bar area where we drank before heading out to a right dive of a club. In all we had a good night though, especially as we were able to pop outside for some pigs-in-blanket hotdogs from the hotdog man -before the night had ended obviously- it was just like being back at home. The most bizarre part of the night however was on the way to the club when the bar man from the hostel (who had arranged the night out) knocked on the door of a residential dwelling a few doors down from the hostel. A pensioner easily over the age of 70 came down in his undies and socks (bearing in mind it was far past midnight) and ushered us and some Aussie brothers into his personal (non-taxi) car. We were a little apprehensive to get into a car with a strange man, but he looked harmless and there were four of us and one of him- we did in the end mainly because the barman was quite insistent (and quite crazy). He grossly overcharged us for a half a mile trip, which we suspected he halved with the barman. This was the point at which we decided not to go on any more expensive hostel-organised trips, and we later found out we had made the right decision.

The following day we decided to take the free (*50 pesos per person involuntary donation required) walking tour around some of the largest markets in Latin America. Our guide was fantastic and really informative- we were surprised that the tour was conducted in English even though there were a variety of nationalities on the trip. The markets were huge and the diversity of the goods being sold was surprising. The Mexican people are quite spiritual and superstitious, and although many follow the traditional Catholic religion, some believe in spirits such as the Holy Death, and also pray to saints and important dead people. We saw a multitude of figurines representing these important people; however we noticed that they were surprisingly expensive considering that the majority were slap-dash painted plaster of paris stylee. There was also a massive section of witch-doctor counters at the market, where vendors were selling a variety of herbs alongside animal skins and other strange paraphenalia. We saw all sorts of potions and lotions used to promote good fortune in love, wealth, and happiness. There were bizarre little plastic bags which had a multitude of these things in them which combined together were meant to act as a lucky charm. One of the women on our trip was getting really into it and ended up buying loads of nik-naks and was habitually opening and closing the plastic bags and sniffing, pleased with her purchases. The biggest highlight of the market for us was the fact that Luke ate a dead cricket, completely gross.

We had decided to go to see the CMLL wrestling on the evening as it was Friday, and it is a big part of Mexican culture in the city. We went to the Mexican equivalent of HMV/WH Smith called Gandhi, where there was a Ticketmaster located. We managed to get really good seats in the first tier for just £3.50 each, which was really close enough considering that the wrestlers were falling in the audience most of the time. We headed out to the show after dinner at the hostel (which was included in the price- best hostel food yet as well) with a Swedish/Danish couple we had met the night before. Some of the guests at the hostel had booked onto a hostel run trip to the wrestling, and had paid 250 pesos for the same tickets that we had paid 70 for. Haha. The wrestling was really funny- it was more of a show than a fight, it was very choreographed. Throughout the evening we saw midgets and women fighting, which was quite different, obviously the beer on tap made the experience more enjoyable. One of the things that we did notice was that none of the 'women in underwear' who come out to announce the scores actually seemed to be Mexican. This is the same throughout the whole of Mexico; none of the models they use for advertisements seem to be Mexican.

The following day we decided to visit the far south of the city to the UNESCO national heritage site of Xochimilco. Here we could take a trip down the canals to see some floating islands. This is particularly important to the city's history because before Aztec times the whole of Mexico City was a giant lake. The people who lived there throughout the classic ages spent many many years draining the lake and eventually it became dry land. Now the floating islands at Xochimilco are all that the city has to remember this.

We arrived at the canal and realised immediately that the best part of this tour was to be experienced on the boat where you could eat, drink, and listen to a live Mariachi band. We were shown some of the places we would visit on the boat trip and were less than impressed. The boats were very colourful and pretty, and we still wanted to take the trip. However, when we were informed that the only option was a 'private tour' we were put-off. We thought it would be a fun sociable trip, and another couple were trying to get us on their boat but the men in charge were saying 'No, no private trip'. We decided against taking a boring boat trip together and took the hour and a half metro ride back to the hostel. In the evening we visited a Mexican Cantina which was really cool. A cantina is a restaurant/bar which offers live entertainment. The one we visited was completely jam-packed, so full that chairs were back to back. We only had a drink at the bar (which cost a fortune at £2 a bottle) we didn't eat there as there was no room. We were the only non-Mexicans there but were welcomed. The place had such an amazing atmosphere, unlike any place back at home. Everyone was joining in and singing songs and getting up and dancing. After the cantina we decided to go to bed early as we had plans to go the local football derby the following day.

On Sunday we headed out to the Azteca Stadium with a group of guys from our hostel to see Club America vs Pumas. We had decided to support the local team of Club America. We bought some tickets for £10 each which wasn't too bad considering our seats were in the middle tier. We had arrived really early so sat in the stadium watching it fill. The stadium has a capacity of 105,000 and is apparently the largest in Latin America; it was about 90% full and the atmosphere was amazing. There were flares going off, and so much dancing and passion. The final results were a disappointment as we lost 1-0, but the match was really fun. We seemed to be sitting in a family friendly area with a mixture of home and away fans. Luke wanted to move to the away fans' end for the second half, but everyone else was too scared. Throughout the game we were served beers and offered a multitude of foods from a variety of vendors. Our 'seats' were located on a concrete bench with numbers painted onto them- they were so steep that we were amazed the vendors didn't go rolling to the bottom every time they dodged between the fans.

On the evening we were planning to go to the light show, but after a huge McDonalds we headed there and the roads had been shut off due to the number of people already there. We decided to head back to the hostel and call it a night.


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22nd November 2010

ewwww
you took a picture of a LEG!!! haha!! looks like you had some interesting experiences in the city.... enjoyed seeing pics of the meat market and the mahoooosive stadium!! xxx

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