Camino Real Santa Fe, Mexico City

... my visit coincided with that of about 400 Mexican schoolkids, who seemed to find the only gringo in the building alot more interesting than any of the displays. No jokes about me being an old artefact please.<br><br>When I had escaped the clutches of the hawkers and made it back into Mexico city, I went to an indoor market which is apparently the biggest in Latin America. I can well believe it since I was lost in there for bloody ages. It was full of the weirdest stuff like chocolate ...

... two of us getting more and more anxious as the seconds wore on. He dropped us a Coyoacan and we made the long walk back to the house, tired, cold (me) and hungry, we barely spoke two words to one another. <br><br>Toasted sambos and early to bed, we couldn´t face the Condessa. <br><br>Sunday 23 Aug 2009<br><br>Not hungover this morning, unlike our hosts, so we were up early. Sneaking around the house making breakfast and trying not to make ...

... to a nearby coffee shop to figure out what´s going on. The server told me that it had been the past day when the government declared closings of all public places of gathering including municipal buildings, schools and museums and suspended public events until further notice. My mood sank, what bad timing to be a tourist in the city. <br><br>The Internet had been down in our Hostel and we weren´t getting any new information about the situation. While it ...

... in 1978 during some digging for foundations. It turns out the entire historic area of Mexico City is built right on top of an even more historic area, the Aztec city of Tenochitlan, which flourished for 1000 years before the Spanish arrived in 1521. The foundations of the old pyramid are still well intact which was quite amazing. The locals, and there were a lot of them, were really friendly and when they heard us attempting Spanish, sometimes miserably, they ...

... the last of the ruins on the agenda. We all but ignored Christmas and on Christmas Day drove to our final destination, the wonderful colonial city of Antigua where we spent 3 nights exploring the many buildings and churches and generally chilling out to gather the energy needed for the 31 hour journey home. That brings me up to 84 countries seen, even more to go! Next up Antarctica, bring it on!!!! Summary of ruins visited: Teocali Teotihucan Monte Alban Mitla Palenque Uxmal Chichen Itza Tulum Tikal Copan

... our hostel which could have come down at any moment. otherwise, all good. I had a quick wander around a busy square with some weird sculptures around, then back to the hostel for a 2nd brekky of Frutas y Cafe then off to start my journey through the Yucatan Peninsula on my Bamba bus trip..

... machine, from which we took out 1000 pesos, having established that this would be about £50. We managed to change one of the notes for some smaller notes at a bureau de change and then found a phone and contacted Alvaro, our host, for directions. It turned out that the journey to his place would involve three metro lines and a small bus. He would then meet us at the bus stop. OK then, where's the metro? Eventually, after asking numerous people and ultimately ...

... hubby does not eat Mexican food... . The place mats are in Spanish and Dr T tries to read what is on top. The first word is 'porque' which means 'because' and he thinks it means pork. What says: because we make everything fresh, it does take a while becomes a sentence full of pigs: this is promising! Walking home in the dark, we see a window cleaning basket hanging of one of the facades of a building. BUT: - It is complete dark and they ...

... off of Reforma. The apartment was located on the third floor of an apartment building and took up two apartments really, however it was still quite small. His grandfather and his grandfather's new wife greeted us at the door. Huitzilopotchli`s mother is the only girl of 29 children and his grandfather's new wife was not all that much other than Huitzilopotchli`s mother. Huitzilopotchli`s grandfather had had many wives, some of them simultaneously and the children were spread out ...

... of electrical tape in an attempt to fix the hole. We were then treated to a 20-mile per hour limp through the desert for the next few hours. There aren't many towns in the desert. We finally got to a sizeable town and switched busses, and in the end we made it to the D.F. only about 3 or 4 hours later than we had hoped. On Mexico City: we had, of course, been terrified of the city, being that all the guides and all the news is DANGER DANGER DANGER. We had decided ...