Click on a photo to enlarge it.
We met up with Wolfgang and Ursula at 8-10am and walked to the bus station for a 1 hour ride into Mexico City. It
only cost $1-60 each but we certainly couldn't have driven in ourselves. It was a comfortable bus and at one point
the bus stopped and all the men got out. We soon realised that it was a police check. The fact that Wolfgang stayed
on the bus didn't seem to matter. (It took us a while to realise what was going on). The police were obviously more
concerned with the locals than the tourists!
As we got nearer to the city we could see the large smog cloud enveloping the whole area! Mexico is the third largest
city in the world with 25 million inhabitants and is about 8000ft above sea level. The traffic, however, wasn't as
bad as we had thought it would be. On the way, we also saw "houses" that looked more like large cardboard boxes,
built over the hills surrounding the city. The suburbs of Mexico are not really the place to live!
At the bus station in Mexico, we managed to get a map and then went into the underground. The first problem we had
was finding where to buy tickets. Luckily there was a young student who pointed us in the right direction.
To get to the main centre, we had to take three different metro routes. The first two weren't a problem even though
there was standing room only. The third was an absolute nightmare. People standing 4 rows deep jostling to get onto
each train, and the ones at the front were in danger of being pushed onto the tracks!! After 4 trains we knew we had
no chance of safely getting onto the train. People were pushing and shoving and squeezing into the trains - their
faces squashed against the inside of the windows!!
We gave up! We left the station and decided to walk the last part of the journey to the historical centre. We had a
look at a church on the way and Wolfgang and Ursula went up on top of one of the buildings to get an overview of the
City.
We saw some police on horseback who kindly let us take photos and walked passed numerous buildings, museums and
churches. No wonder that the centre of Mexico was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.
We made our way to the Zócalo (main square) which is basically just a massive concrete square surrounded by various
buildings. One is the cathedral, built in 1573 by the Spaniards who first destroyed the Aztec temple at the site.
Unfortunately the cathedral is actually sinking because it was built on top of a lake!
Another is the Palacio National where Frida Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, was commissioned to paint murals between
1929 and 1935 depicting Mexico's history up until the revolution in 1910. Frida Kahlo is famous in Mexico and her
life was recently filmed, starring Selma Hayek. Many of the scenes were shot at the Palacio.
By now we were all hungry and whilst hunting for a place to eat, we found a Pizza Hut!! Well, the number of
restaurants is bewildering and we needed something quick! (Our excuse!)
Afterwards, we went to the Templo Mayor, an archaeological site. It is believed to be the Aztecs "centre of the
universe". It was discovered by accident when workmen were doing repairs on the building that was built on top of the
site. This building was then pulled down and the archaeologists moved in.
At the market nearby, we were treated to dancers in Indian traditional dress performing various dances to drums
and rituals that involved doing something odd with incense and smoke!
We then decided to take the metro and walk about 1.5 miles to go and have a look at Frida Kahlo's museum. We found
out that it closes on one day of the week - the day we were there! So we walked back to the metro and managed to
make it back to the bus station in one piece!
We were all quite exhausted and finally got back to the campground at 6-15pm.
