We flew into Mexico City early afternoon after an early morning flight from Austin Texas.
Flying into Mexico City was an experience in itself with houses as far as the eye could see. Not only that we had the pleasure of flying past the local active volcano which was smoking away. The houses hear are all close together with a few stories to each house. Not only that, most are painted some sort of vibrant colour ranging anywhere from bright red to aqua blue. The fun part is that the city is built on a dry lake bed which means that everything is sinking. Mexico City has an energy which is a lot of fun although driving around seems to mean that you take your life into your own hands. As our local guide said, ´¨if you obey the road rules, you die´¨.
On the first night Dave and I grabbed a taco from a street vendor and watched the people go by before meeting up with our tour group. Our tour group is a lot of fun consisting of 8 Aussies and 2 New Zealanders. There is only one other guy on the tour and luckily he and Dave get on well. We headed out to dinner as a group at a restaurant after our guide warned us not to eat from vendors on the street for the first couple of days. Ooops! The next day we headed to the ruins of Teothatican just outside of Mexico City which have the Sun and Moon pyramids. The ruins were really cool with the sun pyramid being almost as big as the great pyramids in Egypt. We walked up the valley of the dead and learnt how the Aztecs sacrificed people. The acoustics by the pyramids were great with it all being designed to resonate so that people in the furtherest part of the crowd could hear what the priest was saying. We also managed to fit in a tour of the mexico catholic church which is the second most visited catholic place in the world. The mexicans worship the ´Lady of Gudalupe´who is an incarnation of the virgin mary.
The pyramids were orginally coloured red and yellow made from the cactus plants in the surrounding area. It must have been an imposing sight back in the day. We learnt how to walk up the pyramids diagonally so that we didn´t fall so we all looked like sand crabs walking up the side of the pyramids. After this we sample the drink from the local cactus plant which I thought tasted pretty awful although our guide took a bottle home. We also had some home made tequila which was pretty darn good. Dave writing Now. Next Day was free so we took the toursit bus which did a loop around the city. First stop anthropology museum which explained the sun and moon pyramids and those Aztec and Maya ruins that where to come. It also housed alot of relics and more of the treasured items. Outside the museum there was this weird tradition where these guys climbed a pole about 70m high and swung out from it all the way down whilst playing music upside down. Next stop trendy little suburb of Mexico City called La Contessa where we happened to walk into a italian restaurant did some people spotting. Mostly old Mexican Bussinesman with trophy wives. Made it home after a traffic jam or 10.
Went out with Janine and Jim some new friends from the group and headed to the Merachi Square. Where we met up with a local guide who had been organised earlier. Heard some famous mariaches say 7 all up in the band wiht harp, trumpet, guitar bass, guitar acoustic and violin, over a few tequilas and a meal we were set. We headed to a local show which consisted of about 5 different acts, a band all set in a very good atmosphere. So we got up and danced and all that and had a really good night. We were hassled on the way home luckily the local guide was there. We had a good idea that you need to watch for scams on the street. Didn´t realise that every transaction people would try and rip you off.
People here are small. More thumbnails ...
Where I stayed:
hotel sanfrancisco
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