Viva Mexico

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On Monday morning we had been looking forward to our second free* walking tour. We were to discover the historical centre of Mexico City, and gain a greater understanding of its' history and culture. Unfortunately the guide had a car accident on the way to work meaning that our tour was cancelled. The other guests who were booked on the trip decided to do the hop-on-hop-off bus tour for the day, but this really wasn't our cup of tea, so we decided that we would visit the pyramids just outside of the city, at Teotihuacan.

At the advice of the hostel receptionist we took the electric bus to the north bus station. This was by far the dodgiest place that we had been, as there were so many tramps and drunks hanging around that we literally ran from the bus into the station. We booked our bus and jumped straight on, excited to be taking this trip a day earlier than planned. It turned out we shouldn't have bothered getting excited as these ruins were nowhere near as impressive as the Mayan ruins we had seen in Palenque. They were ok as we were able to climb them, but in turn this had meant they had become worn and crumbly. It was so unbelievably hot at the site, as there was no breeze. There were so many steps up and down before we actually reached the sun and moon pyramids that we had come to see. We climbed one of the pyramids but it was so busy and steep it was a surprise we didn't witness any serious accidents. We later found that this was because it was a national bank holiday in Mexico.

We decided to replenish ourselves with an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet upon our return to the city. It was pretty good considering we were in Mexico, but there was nowhere near as much choice as at home. However, we were surprised that the Chinese had even made it to Mexico. After dinner we popped into the local toy shop as Luke wanted to have a look for a game that he wanted. We also had to buy some lip-repair cream as bizarrely the altitude mixed with the dry air meant that pretty much everyone in the hostel was suffering with severely dry skin, particularly on the lips. We spent the rest of the evening in the hostel drinking with some other travellers.

The following day we had planned to visit the pyramids, so we now had a free day. We decided to use it relaxing in the hostel in the morning, drinking some beers that had earlier been confiscated from us (you are only allowed to drink your own alcohol when the bar is not open). We treated ourselves to yet another McDonalds lunch before heading to the Latino Tower to view the city from its' highest building. The tower is mostly office space, but they reserve the top few floors for tourists to view the city. We paid around £3 each to catch the lift (which travelled extremely fast) to the 37th floor. Here we met a lovely Peruvian couple who we now have plans to meet up with when we are in Lima in December. We walked the final five or six floors where we were rewarded with an open-air view of the city.

After the Latino Tower we walked over to the Museum of Belles Artes to have a little browse, and then to the local park. Both of these places were extremely beautiful. We headed back to the hostel but stopped on the way back for a beer. We were really annoyed that we were unable to sit in the street having a drink without a million annoying people begging and playing their guitars for us, and juggling, and dressing as transvestites and touching our shoulders before we gave them money. We eventually called it quits and retreated into the restaurant where we were overcharged on a bill for two items. Amazing. They were coming at us from all angles so we decided to go back to the hostel for drinks and pool.

On our final day we were booked onto another free* walking trip; this time to the Anthropology Museum. We had to walk through Chapultepec park to get there, which has some amazing history that our guide told us about. In the park we witnessed a traditional Aztec ritual of men climbing a 35 metre pole and swinging around the top. They rolled themselves up in ropes then free-fell as a contraption at the top rotated. It was a bit scary to watch but they all made it down safely. We then took a 2 hour tour of the museum which although very interesting, became very boring as our stomachs rumbled. By 2.30pm the tour finally finished and we rushed to the train station to grab a pizza. We devoured a family size in around five minutes, but were disappointed that we had opted for the cheap version, which was £1 cheaper than Domino's.

We had made a promise to ourselves that we would see the light show as it was our final night in the city, and others that had seen it had raved about it. We were so pleased that we did make the effort as we had the most fantastic time; it was one of the best things that we have done during our trip. The lasers were phenominal, they were so precise that really intricate details could be projected onto buildings 100 metres away from the source of the light. It really was a perfect ending to our time in Mexico, it really is an amazing country.

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