Mexico City & The Knitted Wrestlers!

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Buenas dias amigos!

Life has been pretty hectic of late and Mexico City is proving to be an amazing playground: it's huge, packed with roughly 20 million people and full of activities. It's time to go and make yourselves a nice cuppa, forget about all that snow outside and bond with The Knitted Characters. Ready?

What better event is there to kick-start out adventures in the capital than a trip out to the dodgy side of town in order to watch midgets dressed as superheros and parrots wrestling? Mexican wrestling has retained its popularity since the 1950's and continues to be a huge sport here despite the fact that you must suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy it fully. From fat, sweaty old men sitting on people's faces to incredible acrobatic jumps off the ring, this night was completely memorable and hilarious. Annoyingly cameras were not permitted into the stadium so we've attempted to recreate some of the action using The Knitted Characters! In true Mexican Wrestling style they had to fight in masks to conceal their identities... so don't tell anybody its them.

Now then amigos, be prepared for some controversy: we went to a bullfight. Much to our suprise, bullfights continue to be a huge part of Mexican culture and our decision to attend followed much debate. Surrounded by 40,000 people we were suprised to find that this was quite a family affair; more suprising still was the discovery that bullfights transcend class barriers by attracting Mr Average to the elite, high-class, rich-list Mexicans. The seats closest to the ringside cost £40, a significant amount of money here, and £3 up in the rafters. It lasted 5 hours with 3 matadors fighting/killing 6 bulls. If done cleanly, the matadors were applauded and adored by the crowd who threw numerous gifts into the arena during their lap of honour; if the fight wasn't clean, the crowd were quick to show their anger. As expected, it wasn't comfortable viewing. The final bullfight was horrific: the matadors and his toreros were unable to execute the bull and the crowd erupted throwing things into ring, shouting and storming out. We joined them. Although unpleasant and something we'll never do again, it did exhibit a real sense of traditional Mexico.

You'll be pleased to know that Gail the Albatross reared her ugly head again. This time it was a return of her wisdom teeth! Four days of tears, painkillers (50 tablets for the price of 10!!) and a quick visit to the dentist later, peace was restored with the Extraction vs Shut Up & Cope decision.

Bored with being the only two people in our 14 bed dorm and fed up of listening to two girls discuss how many g-strings they had brought travelling, we decided to move over to the Zona Rosa area of the city renouned for its love of all things gay. Our new hostel was full of lovely people and the days have been flying by doing various sight-seeing and drinking acitivities. We decided on a big night out which was amazing: the Mexican people were so welcoming and keen to meet us; Lady Gaga is universal; podiums remain popular; multiple whisky with ameretto shots with locals will get you wasted!

November 20th brought The Day of the Revolution and an enormous light-show was erected in the world's third biggest zocolo as part of the celebration. Bearing in mind that Mexico still has a great economic divide amongst its people, the amount of money which went into this celebration was disturbing. We attempted to guess the ratio of police to civilians at 3:1. Kitted out in full-riot gear it felt as though the whole army and police had joined forces to ensure we felt as intimidated, scared and anxious as possible. The police presence here is pretty unbelievable; just yesterday 11 police officers were 'guarding' our undergound platform. Anyway, as the night drew on we were herded into the zocolo with about 250,000 people! It was crazy: arms and bruised ribs were everywhere with very little oxygen. Before one of us collapsed, we battled our way out of the crowd and left the boring, indulgent ceremony behind.

We've had a few hostel outings out with our new friends Steph, Hannah, Claire and Alejandro (don't call his name, he's not your babe!). Gail also discovered Hannah was a fellow Albatross so is feeling much better about herself. We spent a day travelling to the Teotihuacan ruins and climbing up the world's third biggest pyramid only to find some sort of spiritual cult all dressed in white performing strange ceremonies whilst we stood staring and panting at them. We've also ventured to see a local Ska band play and jass/funk band, sampled the alcoholic flavoured pulp of a cactus at a traditional pulqueries and had our first salsa lesson! It's fair to say that it isn't as easy as it looks as you can see by Alejandro's worried face.

We've ticked off the touristy boxes with trips to the beautiful National Palacio to see Diego Riviera's murals, one of the world's greatest Antropologia Museums, Frida Khalo's house, Leon Trotsky's house, giant pandas at the zoo, the largest cathedral in Latin America and San Angel craft market. We also had an enlightening education in the Medical Museum gawping at diseased genitals and a holy half hour in a shopping centre devoted solely to the selling of religious figurines and artifacts! We've been walking miles and miles most days- the city is big with so much to see. Infact, Nikki has worn holes in her fake Converse! There is such variety of things to see within this city: one day we walked a street lined with 100's of prostitutes, the next we were looking at some of the poshest houses we have ever seen. All of this is done in trying to avoid the now disgusting smell of maize tacos from the sreet stalls... yuk.

With less than three weeks until our return, there is still so much to do. We're escaping to the beach at Puerto Escondido for some final topping up of Nikki's tan - note it's singular - as a great end to our Mexican adventure. Mexico is such a vibrant, facinating country. We're having a great time here with no regrets about our decision to skip New Zealand. You'll be pleased to know our Spanish is improving daily and we've already got itchy feet to travel to South America next year (again, we'll need donations for this).

Leaving you with a few more nuggets of information:
- they put sugar and salt into their beer
- the Beatles, Simply Red and 1990's seem to be playing everywhere
- the pharmacies are like clubs pumping out music with the staff dancing to entice you in!
- intimate public displays of affection are everywhere; we've seen far too many spit-strings
- Corona £1, coffee £1.50, taco 50p, underground 15p to anywhere!
- sinks don't have taps but a piece of metal sticking out the spout which you wash your hands around
- people set up shops on cars

Phew, that actually turned out to be a little longer than intended but seeing as we only have maybe one blog left there's no problem with rambling.

Two and a half weeks left folks...!

For now, adios.
Parrot Gail & Superhero Nikki xxx

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Photos

Dread Good
Us wearing Stef's hair!

Mexican Army - literally
Thousands of them out to monitor the Revolution Day celbrations

Pulquaria Drinking!
Strawberry, nutmeg, coffee, guava 4 per cent bought by the litre at 2quid each!

Street Performers
Dressed as Day of the Dead

Templor Mayor Museum
These are all Mayan sculptures found under the main zocolo from the 70's onwards

Cactus & the ass
Nikki wants an all-over tan; Gail's just mooning

289 steps!
The world's third biggest pyramid proving to be a bit of an effort.

Templor Mayor Museum
The Wall of Skulls

Night Out
Stefan, Hannah Albatross, Alejandro, Nikki

Comments

[Auntie Brenda]

Homeward bound
Hi Gail Well the last leg of your journey must feel weird. Keep the knitted characters safe and stay safe too. See you soon Jeannie is sooooooooooooooooo excited (you can imagine) lost of love and look forward to loads of hugs, Bren & Roberto xxxxxx