Mexico DF

About to leave Mexico City after a couple of excellent days here.

I arrived on Thursday night after a long series of flights to be met with a storm! Looking out the plane window the weather resembled something I´d have expected from Glasgow rather than Latin America. The taxi driver promised me they were experiencing freak conditions as a result of Hurricane Wilma and it wouldn´t last long. After dumping my bag at the hostel I was too knackered to check whether he was right and quickly passed out.

I woke, checked my watch (it said said 10am), jumped out of bed, showered and ran down the stairs to head out.The hostel was silent and I figured the other residents must all be on Mexican time already. It was only when I got to the exit and saw it was pitch black outside I realised I´d failed to reset my watch. Duh!

Several hours of sleep later I made it out and started exploring the city. My original intention was to take a 30min recce and then return to the centre and take a bus tour. Instead my short stroll metamorphosed into a 12km walk through the cenrto historico, zona rosa and the posh barrio with expensive shops whose name I can´t remember right now.

Mexico DF is a city of contrasts. Huge shiny new skyscrapers sit side by side with crumbling cement abandoned taped up buildings. The world-franchised fast food restaurants compete with cheaper tastier street vendors selling their wares metres outside - everything from fresh corn on the cobs cooked over coals to spiced grasshoppers. Abject poverty is a ten minute walk via Chapultapec park´s avenues from the lush embassies. Mexicans dressed as Barney the Dinosaur and Disney characters try to tempt families to buy from stalls as columns of army recruits jog past chanting Spanish songs. The new tourist police officer sitting astride his horse wearing a huge Mexican hat metres away from the Romanesque sculptures fronting the Palacio de Las Bellas Artes.

Walking where the mood took me with irregular reference to a map was definitely the way to appreciate a small sample of the city´s richness. By 8pm my feet were aching, my mind boggling and the city was getting dark.

Having heard all the stories about how dangerous the capital I had never felt the least bit unsafe during the day, but as the streets started to empty the dimly lit historic centre started to feel a bit more threatening and I decided to quit while I was ahead.

I´d booked a place on the tour to the Teotihaucan pyramids for Day 2. I´d originally planned to spend a second day exploring the city, but had been told the tour was a MUST by the girl I´d travelled round Argentina with and it was excellent advice. The mexbus tour was supposed to leave at 9.30am from the nearby Hostel Moneda but by 10am the bus had still not arrived to the clear discomfort of the tour guide. No problem as it gave the 9 of us who´d booked places to chat and have a few laughs.

The group included a French-Canadian, two Israelis on the last day of their tour, a very chilled out guy from San Francisco, an English guy, a Norwegian and English girl who were travelling together and a German. Quite a mix.

From our point of view it was a brilliant day - starting off with a visit to the church housing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe followed by a visit to a carvings factory with free shots of tequila and then the pyramids themselves. From the guide´s point of view it was a nightmare. The first bus never turned up, the replacement got moved on by the police when it was supposed to pick us up, members of the group kept going AWOL (incl an unscheduled visit to McDonalds) and we started asking probing questions about the veracity of the pyramids.

It seems the site has undergone major reconstruc- tion with the pyramids now higher than they were and possibly with steps that were never there in the first place. Whatever the accuracy the views were fantastic and it was a fascinating day out.

In the evening several of us met up again, grabbed a metro and went to grab some beers . Walking back on my own at about midnight I was suprised that it didn´t feel particularly dodgy. Certainly it didn´t feel more risky than a walk home in Glasgow or London would.

I stayed at Hostel de Los Amigos and would highly recommend it - very clean, 2 very relaxed areas to hang out in, its own bar, a single free internet terminal, hot showers and a very friendly owner. I stayed in a double room paying about 40 pounds/70 dollars for a double private room 3 nights including a pick up service from the airport. It´s based in the centre of the historic centre, right by the local ticketbus office (so I could easily book my onward travel), a bank and loads of shops and just 5mins from the main square.

Anyway after a short sleep in this morning I caught the bus to Oaxaca (I reccommend booking a window seat on the right hand side for the best views)and some stunning scenery later found myself in the smaller-town Mexico I´ve been looking forward to.

I´ll write more later but the town put a huge smile on my face as soon as I began to explore. There´s live music playing in the zocalo (main square) outside the internet cafe I´m in at the moment and I´m stil digesting a delicious meal of tacos and tortas.

Am now going to take a brief walk and head back to the appartment I´m staying in to have a quick look over my books in preparation for tomorrow´s Spanish school.

It´s only just started but this is shaping up to be a classic vacation.