STILL in Mexico City

  Mexico City, Mexico
Saturday, October 14, 2006

The other day we decided to be a bit "Arty" and go to the Museo de Arte Moderno and the Rufino Tamayo Museum. We learned an awful lot.... stuff like.... that we ain't into Art!!!!
We went there to see paintings by Frida Kahlo, you know, the female artist with the one eyebrow, but we only got to see the one, this one
Las Dos Fridas

We were nearly funted out of the place too. We were admiring Fridas bowl of fruit painting and in our ignorance didn't realise that you were not supposed to go beyond the black sellotape!! eh...Ooops!!!! We had 3 or 4 staff telling us to "step away from the picture", we told them that we were leaving anyway... and that their Museum was crap!! only jokin!! To be honest we were hoping for a few better paintings. We got to see a few Picassos and there was one there by the Irish artist Francis Bacon (wierd picture though Francis, sort it out man).

We got the metro back to the hostel. The Mexico City metro is the 3rd largest in the world, behind Moscow and Tokyo. You pay only €0.14 and you can go ANYWHERE in the city on the one ticket, nice and cheap.

So, we then embarked on our 1st guided tour of the trip.
For 300 pesos, approx €22, the itinerary was as follows:
1. Pyramids of Teotihuacan
2. Tequila tasting
3. Visit the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadelupe

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THE PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN

11. Teotihuacan "Pyramids"

Click here to view the explanation of Teotihuacan as neither of us are history teachers.
These were massive, we climbed all of the 3 pyramids. the climbing was made that bit harder due to the high altitude, but the views from the top were worth it all.
The hawkers around the place were nice and polite, once you said no, then that was it.
We really enjoyed the whole history behind them.



TEQUILA TASTING
By God do we do it all wrong!!! The Mexicanos laugh at the way that us Gringos drink the tequila, you know, lick the salt from your hand, slam the tequila and then bite the lemon.
Well... The correct way is like this: Put salt on a piece of lime, then bite the slice of lime, hold the lime juice in your mouth and then drink the tequila.... it makes it so much easier!!! Also they have loads of different types of tequila... just like we have different types of beer.



VIRGIN OF GUADALUAPE

Guadalupe 2

Neither of us had any idea that this is the 3rd most visited Catholic shrine in the world after The Vatican and Lourdes. Click here to view the history of the Shrine
There were people sitting around the place, apparantly coming from thousands of miles away! Thereīs 12 masses a day, so there was no chance of missing one. It was amazing though! We got to within a couple of feet of the holy poncho.

The drive back to the hostel was an absolute nightmare... never again will i curse the traffic in Cork City. You are talking 5 lane roads... back to back for miles.

So thatīs that... next update.. soon enough i hope.