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Mexico City

Ok am cheating a little bit, I'm writing this after I got back from Mexico!! Once you get there you'll realise why I wanted to spend my time out and about rather than sitting on a computer...

Mexico City is simply vast and a great place to start your trip to Mexico. You could easily fill a week with things to do and still miss out! The city has obvious links to its Spainsh heritage which can be seen by all the colonial architecture but still retains a uniquely Mexican feel to it. It also has every kind of shop and amentity, so for those missing western comforts and food there are plently of international cuisine restaurants to help break yourself into mexican culture, oh i cant understand why they dont do this everywhere in the world but Dominoes Pizza have little stalls in nearly every underground station where you can buy snack size pizzas for $1.50!! What a good idea!! For the more adventurous of you there are plently of street tacos stalls dotted about where you can get food for 50 cents (and its REALLY good!).
For the smokers among you, there is a British style smoking ban now in Mexico City (don't worry it's only in Mexico city)

Transport

From the airport be wary, the are unlicensed taxis offering to take you into the city which you should not take. It is abit annoying to have to deal with this the second you get out the airport but what you need to do is go into the terminal and ask for the official taxi stall. Here you prepay at the stall and they give you a voucher. With the voucher you join the taxi que for the YELLOW taxis and they will take you to where you have paid for.

City taxis come in two different forms. There are the ones that you hail on the street and there are 'radio taxis'. The ones you hail from the street are the iconic little green VW beetle (often half falling apart) and the red and white ones. They are the cheapest in the whole of Mexico, just make sure that they put their meter on (we got stung once by that). However, according to travel bible Lonely Planet (you should take their advice for Mexico with a pinch of salt btw, we found the Rough Guide to be abit more accurate) both these types of taxis are dangerous and they quote the US state department's warnings against thefts, muggings, beatings and even murders on foreigners occuring in these taxis. However, we took these taxis all the time and not only did we not have a problem, the drivers even went out of their way to help us at times. If you're a single women traveller then ok, be on your guard, but a group of lads should (I said should) have no problem, well actually the only problem is trying to fit more than 3 people in the VW beetles!
Radio taxis can be called from hostels and mst restauarnts etc. but they cost more and we could never be bothered to wait for them.

The best way to travel in the city is the metro by far. It cost just 20 cents a ticket (compare that to the London underground of $8 a ticket) and covers most of the city. You may want to try and avoid rush hour but we actually found the ensuing chaos pretty fun. Anyway the trains come almost once a minute and they are large and clean. But, if you thinking of going to the airport on it though DON'T!! Despite being labelled Airport 'Terminal Aerea' its actually a kilometre from the nearest terminal and across a few motorways too.

For me the buses are more pot luck than anything, though the is a tram style Metrobus that runs north to south which is cheap and easy to use.
For long distance buses to other cities (there are pretty much no trains in Mexcio) then to find out about those, I would advise that you find a travel agency and book them there, or consult Lonely Planet (again their infomation is to be taken with a pinch of salt) to find out the names of the bus companies and look at their websites for times and info. The bus companes we used were ADO; OCR; ETN (which is ridiculous luxury); Primera Plus and Omnibus de Mexico. Or you can just go to the main bus terminals in the city and buy tickets there, the small problem is that you need to know which terminal to go to. This isn't a problem in other cities because there is usually only one terminal. The last option is that if you are going to Oaxaca, then the hostels mentioned below all have shuttle buses that go there daily.

Hostels

There are tonnes of hostels in this city but the 3 i know in the central zone should cater for all traveller's needs.

Hostel Amigo, Isabel la Catolica street
This is where we stayed when we first arrived to Mexico City and its also where our pact to avoid tequila (we weren't fans) was destroyed after 30 mins when the crazy Aztec barmen jumped on the bar and started pouring down our throats. That is pretty much the hostel summed up right there. The doors are basic but clean with lockers (bring your own padlocks to Mexico btw). You get free internet, thats if you can ever get near it, and free breakfast and dinner, which is pretty much the same thing every single day. Nevertheless, hostal amigo is definately the place to go if you're social and like to drink as its alot of fun. Be wary about breaking their rules though and they have CCTV cameras in the lounge area to make sure your your behaving. Dorms are about $12, beers are $2

Hostal Moneda, Moneda street
It didn't stay here but I visited some people I had met on a tour. This hotel is a slightly more relaxed where you can have abit more space to yourselves. Am assuming breakfast is free but I don't know about dinner. There is a roof terrace bar with a great view but doesn't have as good an atmosphere as Amigo. Prices are the same as Amigo

Hostel Catedral, Republica de Guatemala
Stay at this hostel and you'll be staying at the most professionally run hostel that I've ever been in. Everything is new, spotless and efficient (you even get those room access cards that you get in upmarket hostels) the one draw back being that it's quite characterless and they give you a wrist tag with your room number on, which made me feel abit like I part of a herd of cattle. You get vouchers for breakfast, dinner and a few free beers. The breakfast is really good but there dinner is infact...breakfast. If you stay there you'll understand. Their roof bar probably has the best view in the city and has a good vibe most nights. Dorms are $16 and beers are $2

If your looking fo something abit more upmarket then consult the internet, you'll have no problems there. The decisive factor for these hostels however, is the tours that they do. They all work together so that you can book any tour and if its with one of the other hostels, they'll come pick you up in the morning etc. However, you don't need to stay in these hostels to book their tours.

Sights and Activities

Zocalo
The Zocalo is the best place to start in the city. It is a huge plaza in the middle of the city with a gigantor flag of Mexico (which they ceramonously raise and lower every day). There is always events and things going on there, was in Mexico City 3 times and each time they had different celebrations/decorations up etc. The Zocalo is flanked by the impressive Catedral Metropolitana and the equally impressive Palacio Nacional. Along the side of the Catedral there are loadsa street stalls (selling tourist crap obviously) and some traditional Mayan dancers performing ancient spiritual rituals for a few $!!
From there we walked along Tabuca street passed the Museo Nacional de Arte to the north east corner of Alameda central which is a park. Here you can see the stunning Palacio de Bellas Artes. In the park there are more are more stalls selling more tourist stuff, from pirate DVDs to wrestling masks. From there if you look across the the road from the south east corner of the park, look up and you'll see a tall building with Latino Americano written on the side. You can actually go up to the top of the building, you go in the the reception and you'll see a ticket stall next to elevator at the far end. It costs $5 during the day and more during the night. The view, especially on a clear day, is awesome so I would definately recommend doing that.

Polanco
The main reason to visit this area is for the huge park there called Bosque de Chapultepec. To get there you take the metro to Auditorio. The obvious first port of call is the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. I'm not really a museum person (to say the least) but I did enjoy this place. The museum has different sections, each on the different ancient indigenous populations in Mexico, explaining their history and showcasing artifacts. If you are planning to visit ruins on your trip then it is best to visit this place first. I visited it the day before I left after seeing the main ruins in Mexico and spent the entire time muttering 'Oh, now i get it'. I spent 3 hours there and probably saw a quarter of the museum so depending on your interest, you may want to go there twice. Costs $4.50 to get in.
From there we walked into the park where you can rent boats on Lago de Chapultepac (we didn't bother) and there are signs to other museums, the botanical gardens and the Zoologico de Chapultepac which has the biggest collection of giant tarantulas i've ever seen, which wasn't good for my friend's arachnophobia.

Condensa
This is the the upmarket end of town, and there isn't much to see here apart from this little gem we discovered in Parque San Martin.
On the weekend all the local kids go out to the park and play the local sports together, including one where two teams of kids compete over a block of ice, the objective being to slide the block over their opponents line. The result is just a really brutal fight thats absolutely hilarious to watch! Probably more of a bloke thing...
Apart from that there are loadsa restaurants on Tamaulipas street which spill out on to the treelined boulevard where the atmosphere is just really relaxed and chilled (quite rare in Mexico City) so is a really good place to relax and eat. We went to a really good deli called 'el ocho' on Ozuluama street.

Xochimilco
(Pronounced So-chee-milco) in the south of the city, is where the canals are located. To get there take the metro line 2 south to Taxquena, from there change on to the 'Tren Ligero' south as far as it will go (there was track construction when we went there, so you might not be able to get to Xochimilco station) Not to worry, just follow the track and then carry on walking south until you get to one of the 'embarcaderos' or docks. You won't get lost, people will point you in the right direction without you needing to ask. Once you get there you need to rent a 'trajinera', which are really colourful barges. If you don't look like a local, don't except their first price. You should be able to get one for for about $20-$25 an hour (for the barge, not per person), anything more then you're overpaying. Also, if you want, ask them to supply some beer. Once your on the canals you'll see what a good atmosphere it is (if you can try and do it on the weekend when it is much more lively). There are trajineras everywhere, they have ones with mariachis (the traditional mexican bands), with people selling tacos, beer, drinks etc. Everyone's playing music and its just alot of fun drifting down the canals. This was definately our favourite day in Mexico City.
Also around this area is an Ecological Theme Park, which we tried to go to but the taxi driver took us the other direction to a park called Bosque de National where we found locals having barbecues and lying in hammocks. We also saw that we could rent horses for $3.50 per half an hour, which was great fun because they don't lead you along or even give you a helmet, they just let you do what you want!

Trotsky's House
This is worth a visit, if only to see how much him and his family was persicuted by Stalin, and you get to see the room where russians agent finally assasinated Trotsky on the umpteenth attempt. It is abit depressing so try not to do this and the bull fight in the same day. We made that mistake and were pretty depressed by the evening. To get there the nearest metro station is Coyoacan on line 3. However, its still abit of a walk so best to jump in a cab once you get there.

Sports
Football - The Azteca stadium hols 105,000 people and the Mexican's love their football (so god knows why they hired Eriksson?) but the atmsphere at this stadium is unmissible. Ticket prices range from about $5 upwards and games are on Sunday. If you want to buy a football shirt (an authentic one) they can cost up to $100!! (everyone seems to support Chivas btw). To get there follow the instructions to Xochimilco but get off at the stadium (you can't miss it)

Wrestling - You can do this on your own or the hostels mentioned above do tours to the wrestling. I didn't go on the tour but i think the price might be $20. The wrestling is on Tuesday and Friday (the main night), but Hostel Catedral do a tour on Sunday too. To get there the nearest metro station to the big stadium is 'Cuauhtemoc' on Line 1. Then walk south 1 block and east 2 blocks to the Mexico Arena.

Bullfighting - Be warned, if you like animals, i wouldn't recommend this. I watched 3 bulls get killed through my fingers with my hands were across my face. I'm not the biggest animal lover but I wasn't a fan of this. The locals however, were all having a great time and the stadium is very impressive. It takes them about 30 mins to kill each bull, unless the bull fights really well in which case they let him live, which is what we were hoping for every time. There were a few enjoyable moments, like when one bull took out a horse and another the matador! Tickets range from about $4 upwards. To get to the Monumental Plaza Mexico, take the metro to San Antonio, Line 7, and walk east for a few blocks under the overpass.

Nightlife
Mexico City has an abundance of bars and clubs. Quite a few are loacted around Zona Rosa, specifically Amsterdam street. The hostels mentioned above also do a nightclub tour most nights. For $20 they take you out around a few clubs, free entry, free tequial etc. When they are selling it to you it does sound like a great night. But, people i met who had done it had mixed reviews, including one Aussie who was just about to getin there with a very pretty local Mexican girl when the guide came and yanked him out saying 'Come on we're going to the next place!'
If you're up for doing something more Mexican, then head to Plaza Garibaldi, north west of the Zocalo. Here there are cantinas (Mexican pubs) and clubs surrounding the plaza. On the plaza there are loads of marachi bands roaming around for hire. So what we did was we nipped to an off-license next to the plaza and bought a bottle of tequila, and then rented a mariachi for a few hours. Ended up being a really fun night. There are a few weirdos about though, i got my shoes cleaned by an beggar when i wasn't looking, he just shot in there. I got hugged by a really old women who wouldn't let go unless i payed her, and harrased by a drunk guy who wanted me to take a picture of him! Maybe i went on a strange night but its best to go in a big group, and the mariachis will look after too (ie. chase the weirdos away)

Tours
The tours I would recommend are the 'Teotihuacan pyramid tour' from Hostal Moneda. They provide you with a guide and take you to Tlatelolco (Plaza de las tres Cultures), then the Basilica de Guadalupe, stopping off for tequila and lunch before ending up at the pyramids. It cost $20 + the entrance to the pyramids.
The other tour, I unfortuanately couldn't get on but i heard good things, is to the volcanoes outside Mexico city (Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl). Hostel Catedral do that tour on a friday.
While it is possible to visit all these places on your own, the tours are quite good value for money and it does give a chance to meet new people. I met a few people on tours like these that I ended up travelling with afterwards.

The is also another nationwide tour that caters for backpackers called Bamba Bus. Its a hop-on-hop-off tour that takes you from Mexico City to Cancun along the fairly beaten track of Oaxaca, the pacific coast, San Cristobal, Palenque, Merida etc. (also goes via Guatemala and Belize). The tour isn't that expensive and then all of your travel is prepaid, they also have some really good activities along the way (like Quad bike riding on top of a mountain). It is also a great way to meet new people, just like the tours above, I met some good friends on this tour.
It is abit gimicky saying your on this tour, and it does slightly restrictive your movements (so you can't be completely spontanious, you need to give them a day's warning). We also had a few communication problems to begin with but apart from that I would say that its worth doing. Hostel Moneda have a Bamaba Bus office thats open Mon-Sat 9am-5pm.

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