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Published: September 13th 2019
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I woke in a cold sweat realising that I had lost my visitor card and dreamt about being confined to a Mexican jail. I was greatly relieved to discover that Becs has deliberately thrown hers out! Apparently you can't leave the country without them and you should keep them with you at all times. Victor at our hotel advised against going to the Immigration office due to the "I don't mean to be racist" queues of Africans we'd encounter. Haven't seen any African yet so presumably they are routinely unsuccessful or still in the queue.
Empanadas for breakfast and then we met our guide Santiago who was a massive disappointment for the girls who had specially booked the tour guide based on the photo on the website. Either Santiago had aged unkindly or the photo was not Santiago. Santiago was a great guide although when he strayed outside of Mexico some of his history went astray eg the bit when Napoleon invaded England.
We headed into the historic centre of Mexico City. The traffic in Mexico City makes you wonder why we bothered to build Westconnex. We passed the US Embassy. The Mexicans have built a wall around it,
well it’s actually more like a very tall fence to keep Mexicans out. We spent the day looking at a bunch of historical stuff including the Education offices where Diego Riviera had painted a large number of murals about the struggle between workers and capitalists. Fascinating! The overall height of the population makes artwork viewing easy so I look forward to viewing more artworks with short Mexicans. We checked out "The blue tiled building" which is now owned by Slim (I'll bet he's not) the richest guy in Mexico, the Cathedral etc.
We had lunch at the Gran Hotel (not a typo) which was a beautiful hotel with lousy guacamole overlooking Constitution Square where preparations are underway for the coming Independence celebrations. We watched a group of workers build a scaffold tower , presumably for speakers or something. After they’d completed it they realised it was in the wrong spot. Rather than dismantle it they got 50 of their mates to together to lift it. The beauty of low wages.
Dinner was at Pujol which was a Michelin star rated taco joint. Of course the couple beside us were Aussies, although suspiciously his
name was Carlos. It was a set menu with a compulsory matching drinks menu. I of course opted for the matching mezcal. Wilko formed a very tight bond with Carlos. Carlos was a Manly supporter so we didn't bond quite as well. Wilko has been receiving calls from Carlos with Cricket updates ever since we got home.
I have to go as Wilko has just got a call from Carlos with an update on the East/Souths game. Gee I wonder how that went?
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