Update of Mexico City
Trip Start
Oct 09, 2006
1
5
62
Trip End
Jun 15, 2007
Mexico City,
Mexico
Thursday, October 12, 2006
So here's what we've been up to for the last couple of days.
First off... we have to say that Mexico City is 2200 Metres above sea level, to put that in perspective... Carrauntuohill (highest point in Ireland) is only 1042 Metres above sea level. So to begin with, we were strugglin with the altitude... odd bouts of dizziness and the likes.
Next... the population of Mexico City is roughly 30 million, yes that's MILLION people. Which, once again to put in to perspective is nearly 7 Irelands squished into one place. Maaad!
Now... on our first full day here we decided to go walkabout... and i mean walkabout!!!! We estimated that we covered about 20kms in our return trip to the hostel. That be a fair bit o walkin in the heat and altitude i hear ye all say!
The hostel we are staying in is near a place called the Zona Rosa, where all the bars and clubs are. However, this is a bit out from the main area. So us, being the maddie Irish that we are, decided to walk into the center area, the Zocalo. Took us about 1.5 hrs to get there, and we got a taste of Mexico City, the pollution, the traffic (the taxi's here are all VW bugs, how cool is that), and the sheer number of people.
So we walked past (see pics), the El Angel monument and a number of other monuments before arriving in the Zocalo. This is a massive square in the centre of Mexico City. The place was covered in tents, there was some kind of a cultural show going on. There was also a number of teachers from Oaxaca protesting over pay in front of the government buildings, nothing too violent.
1. El Angel and a taxi
So we wandered around the Zocalo, checked out the sinking Cathedral, which was awesome, and basically hung around until we walked back to the hostel.When we got back to the hostel (B&B Mexico), the owner, Angel, arranged for all the people staying in the hostel (9 of us) to go to his favourite Taco joint. The tacos were nice enough it has to be said, even tasted a cactus taco, but the company was utter crap. Apart from the 2 English lads we met on the first night, that was it. We went back to the hostel and fell into bed.
Some points we noted from our first full day.
1. The number of shoeshiners here is unreal. The Mexicans love to have their shoes all shiny, the shoeshiners wouldn't get any business in Cork I'd say... "i ain't leavin ya near me runners, sham!"
2. Even though there are traffic lights.... they may as well not exist.. tis a free for all.
3. There are lads here winding up music boxes and out comes a tune. They have another 2 guys then looking for money off the passers by. These guys are all dressed in uniforms and look totally respectable. We found out that this is a family occupation, whereby the music box thingy is actually passed down from family to family.
4. At some traffic lights there are nearly full percussion bands. They start playing when the lights go red and one of them goes around to the cars asking for a donation. Tis crazy.
5. The beggers and street vendors here, they ask you ONCE and ONCE only for money, if you don't give them anything they leave you alone, not like Asia, where they pester you and cling on to you!
6. The Mexicans are extremely friendly and generous. Whereby most of us in Ireland don't give money to beggars on the street, we saw many a person give money to the beggars, and even poor people giving money to even poorer people.
Here are some prices of a few things, just for comparison.
2 Litres Water - €0.73
1 Bottle of Corona Beer - €1.32
1 Taco (the cheapest) - €0.30
1 Bottle of Sprite - €0.73
1 Litre of Unleaded Petrol - €0.45
Can't think of anythings else
So that's that day down.
