Mexico City and Teotihuacán

Mom and I got in to Mexico City on Thursday.  Boy was that an experience.  When I said I was worried about security... I think I had reason. From the bus terminal we got in a taxi (careful that it was actually a legit taxi since Jennifer and Alyssa warned us that there are quite a few that aren't and will just end up taking all your money instead).  Lucky for us, our taxi driver was a really good person and everything seemed completely normal until out of the blue the taxi driver leaned over and locked all the doors and told us to roll up all the windows. Bad part of town, apparently.  I was terrified. Plus, traffic was absolutely awful. Worse traffic than I've ever seen.

Preview of Mexico City traffic: green light and complete gridlock

Of course the traffic then made it pretty much impossible to get through any of the streets that would lead to our hotel, and rather than leave us on the street (where our taxi driver assured us we'd be mugged), our driver took us to a different hotel that he knew.  It was a little sketch at first, especially when he pulled into the underground garage instead of dropping us off out front on the street and then we found him creepily standing in the hotel lobby behind us while we were checking in, but a quick Google search when we got up to the room assured us the hotel was at least somewhat legit.

Anyways, after the hour and a half we spent in the taxi, Mom and I were both pretty frazzled. I personally was ready to pack up and head home, but since we were both actually starving we decided to go out and find something to eat.  We ended up in this Middle Eastern cafe a couple blocks from our hotel. Funny enough, the guy that owned it was from Uruguay and there was not a single person who worked there from the middle east but falafels were just too tempting to pass up.  The food was actually surprisingly good and the owner was a complete sweetheart, offering us anything and everything he had.  After lunch, we decided to see what was around.  Our hotel is about a block away from Alameda park and El Palacio de Bellas Artes.  The park is nothing super special but Bellas Artes is absolutely gorgeous from the outside.

In front of Bellas Artes

Also, on the way back we passed a gay friendly sex shop, a sleezy gentlemen's club, and CHINA TOWN! Haha. Sometimes, I could swear we were back in LA.

To be on the safe side, we signed up for a guided day tour on Friday.  The tour was half Mexico City and half Teotihuacán.  We started out at the Plaza de Tres Culturas: the Aztec ruins of Tlatelolco (apparently a huge marketplace back in the day), a 17th century Spanish cathedral, and a modern Mexican university.

Plaza de Tres Culturas

What I thought was interesting was that when the Spaniards conquered the area, they broke down the structures of Tlatelolco and used the stones to build their cathedral. Then, with the cathedral, they attempted to convert the people living there to Catholicism. From there we went on to see the Basílica de Guadalupe.  There's no way I would have ever chosen to see this on my own but I'm really glad we had the opportunity to do it.  The basílica is actually made up of 3 different churches, all dedicated to the Virgen de Guadalupe.  The newest of the 3 was built in the 1970s.  Apparently we chose the right time to visit the basílica because it was packed with people, each group of people sporting a different color/outfit.  As our guide explained, every year in the two weeks before Christmas people travel from all over Mexico to light a torch with the fire from this church and then they carry that flame back to their hometowns.  Later while we were on the freeway, we actually saw some of these groups running/biking along the road, carrying the lit torch.

The last stop on the tour was Teotihuacán, the famous ancient Aztec ruins just outside the city.  The pyramids were really pretty amazing.  So much larger than the ones we saw in Monte Albán.  Mom and I definitely got our workout climbing to the top of the Pirámide del Sol.

Top of Pirámide del Sol

Also, after we saw the pyramids, our guide took us to the newer part of the site which included the city's temple and the walls that used to be the houses for the most important leaders of the town.  It was such an incredible feeling walking through the rooms people used to eat and sleep in. You could kind of imagine what the village used to look like.  After the ruins, we finished the day off with some yummy fajitas at a restaurant just outside of Teotihuacán.

FAJITAS!

I think that might actually be the first time I've eaten fajitas here in Mexico.

Today, Mom and I were feeling a little more adventurous and decided to do some exploring on our own.  This morning we took the metro to Frida Kahlo's old house.  It was the place she grew up and then lived with Diego until she died.  Recently, they've redone it into a museum to display some of her artwork, along with a bit of Diego's. The artwork was neat but I was even more impressed with the house which was absolutely huge and had a gorgeous garden out back.  I imagine it was the perfect place for two artists to live.

After that, we stopped in a cafe for coffee and a light lunch.  The guy working there must have thought my Spanish was hilarious cause every time I opened my mouth, he was so obviously fighting a smile.  Oh well. From there, following Dana's advice, we took the metro to Chapultepec, walked through the park past about a million and one street vendors until we eventually ended up at the Anthropology Museum.  The museum was one of the coolest I've ever seen.  It ranks right up there with Body Worlds, probably the only other museum I've ever really appreciated in my life.  There were all kinds of artifacts from all different indigenous tribes, all over Mexico.  And some of the artifacts were 2 or 3 times bigger than me!  (How they got them to the museum, I have no clue.)  My favorite rooms were Teotihuacán and Oaxaca, mostly because I could relate to them.

Museo Nacional de Antropologia

For dinner tonight, Mom and I went to a restaurant called Girasoles just behind Bellas Artes.  It was recommended to us by our tour guide yesterday so we thought we'd give it a shot.  I had some great arrachera with beans and guacamole, and Mom ordered a chicken with a creamy nut/chile sauce which was also excellent.  For dessert, we ordered flan drenched in cajeta (Mexican caramel) and blackberry sauce. YUM.  Sadly, when the bill came we didn't even have enough money to pay for it.  We've been so careful not to end up with a surplus of pesos at the end of our trip that we were actually short.  Thank goodness for Visa! ;)

Tomorrow is our very last day in Mexico.  I wish I could say I'm sad to leave but after 3 days of this ridiculously smoggy/borderline extremely unsafe city, I'm really looking forward to going home.  Plus, I kinda miss Cosmo (mi perro) and Frankie (mi pez). Oh yeah, and maybe mi hermano. But only a little. Hehe. USA in 24 hours!!!