Monstrously large metropolis Mexico City - Part 1

Trip Start Jan 04, 2008
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Trip End Dec 17, 2008


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Flag of Mexico  ,
Saturday, January 26, 2008

On the first full day in Mexico City on the Thursday , I wandered around on foot to many of the sights in the central area. Once again I managed to find a good hostel which was located right in the centre near the "Zocalo" (the big central square) and its metro station to get to other parts of the city. The Zocalo is really quite vast & flanked on different sides by historical buildings such as the cathedral and the Palacio National (which has the offices of the Mexican president and treasury). I heard its the third biggest square behind Red Square & Tiennamen but I need to check if thatīs true.I went to the Palacio de Bellas Artes (a very fine huge white marble building with some great murals inside) , a museum of the artist Diego Rivera who painted some of the murals (more about him later) , the large revolutionary monument at Plaza de la Republica (where the tombs of some of the key revolutionary figures are kept ) and also the Alameda which is a pretty nice park (at least compared to smog , traffic and built up nature of its surroundings in the centre of Mexico City) Mexico City 1
Mexico City 1
 . Generally had a good wander around to work out what was where and then spent the evening in the hostel bar which was great ... it had views over the cathedral and plenty of other travellers to have dinner & beer with. On Friday I went with a couple of guys from the hostel to Teotihuacan , which is about 50 km or so outside the city. This place is the remains of a huge ancient city & capital of the pre-hispanic Teotihuacan empire. The highlight amongst the remnants of the city is the two large pyramids , the Pyramid of the Sun and Moon , which you can climb. The Pyramid of the Sun is the 3rd biggest (hmmm ...thereīs a trend here) pyramid in the world behind one in Mexico & obviously Egypt... when you climb the steps to the top you get a great view not only of how big the ancient city site is but also the surrounding area in the Valley. On the Friday night I went on an organised trip by the hostel to the entertaining-bordering-on-farcical Mexican wrestling. Its in a big indoor arena with a very enthusiastic crowd who cheer muscle-bound masked and nicknamed characters participating in what could generally be described as choreographed mayhem. Its a free-for all format usually 3 vs 3 fighting each other & the action doesnt stay in the ring as they jump outside on the ramps and into the crowd and so on. The thing became particularly ridiculous when they introduced a midget wrestler dressed as some sort of miniature fluffy bird ... the crowd cheer vociferously as he "slams" a couple of the 18-stone monsters. Following the wrestling the party night spread to a bar & then beyond to a club in the city. Have to admit to finally giving up with my resistance to drinking Tequila (due to previous experience of the stuff not being too healthy to say the least) ... though having it poured from a great height from the bottle straight down the throat in dentists chair style definitely wasnt what I originally had in mind but seemed to be the tradition in the bar... resistance proved futile . Saturday morning er... somewhat hungover.
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