Mexico City

Bosque de Chapultepec Park in Mexico City had some of the friendliest squirrels I have seen as well as a few other entertaining characters.

I was staying with my friend Anna and she took me out to experience some of Mexico'c nightlife at a Salsa club - where a few local guys got slightly frustrated trying to teach me salsa - looking at your feet and not letting the guy lead is apparently not part of the Salsa tradition!!

Next day when we went to the market there were several Salsa classes on covering the different types of salsa - all ages and backgrounds seem to enjoy a dance here.

Though a lot of Mexico City is modern buildings given most of it was destroyed in the 1985 earthquake there are still quite a few old colonial style houses around.

Like South America the Mexicans love the Volkswagen Beattle - I lost count of how many VW Taxi's I saw.

The Plaza De Las Tres Culturas - three cultures Plaza where the different Mexican historic cultures can be seen at once - the Aztec Pyramids of Tlatelolco, the 17th century Spanish Templo de Santiago and the modern tower block. The history in this spot ranges from an Aztec Battle to the Tlatelolco massacre that I mentioned above where the police/government massacred student protesters.

Lunch time deliveries made to the local offices.

I was quite lucky in Mexico for turning up at places and walking into festivals etc (either that or they have them on every corner!!) - this one outside the Bascilica De Gaudalupe was a local tribe making their thanks to the Gods for what they had been given.

The site of the Basilica De Guadalupe is the home of several different churches from the old 17th century temple to the new modern church. The legend here states that this was the site of an old Aztec shrine and that in the 15th century a christian convert saw a vision of a beautiful woman here - The Virgin Mary - and he later went onto perform numerous miracles developing a cult status around this site and the reason so many temples were built here.

I'm not sure what the second dance ritual was that I saw performed on this site when everyone was wearing face masks - and I couldn't quite get the link to Shrek but it was fun to watch.

This band were about to ask me to join them until they heard me sing!!!

As I was leaving the Basilica I passed another group heading towards it carrying this shrine.

Some street dancers do the Hockey Cockey!!

Interesting and bizarre art work scattered around Mexico City.

The views over Mexico City from Torre Latinoamericana which was the tallest building in Latin America when built in 1956 and has survived several big earthquakes.

Some more dancers though these guys looked like they were dressed for the Alps.

Mexico City's Metro system was really good you could pretty much get anywhere in the city on this and each journey regardless of how long cost 2 Peso's (less than 10p) including my 11/4 hour trip to the airport! The downside was that people would come on with portable CD/DVD players and blast very loudly the CD/DVD they were trying to sell but in fairness a lot of these people were blind or disabled but it was very uncomfortable when they stopped right next to you!!

Castillo De Chapultepec a link back to the aristotic past of Colonial Mexico - this castle was started in 1785 but went unfinished until after Mexico's Independence when it became a military school and later it became the home of Mexico's Presidents. It is now a museum and you can see how grand some of the rooms would have been along with some of the beautiful outfits worn at the time. There is also great views over the city from the castle.

Then of course there is the poor girl who has to clean the castle!!

Another thing that the Mexican's love is Lucha Libre (Wrestling) - as seen in the Jack Black movie Nacho Libre (hence all the gimp masks everywhere!!). These lads seemed to be getting a lesson in the park.

Anna's friend Najma had a fancy dress party for her birthday - so stealing a few clothes of people I tagged along and it was such a laugh. I'm the one in the long dark wig, Anna in the purple one, Najma in the house riding outfit and Anna's flatmate Mark in the Mexican with the saw (we were too scared to let Mark go to the local shop in case he offended the locals!!).

Amazingly every Sunday in Mexico City one of the main roads is closed to cars and opened up for bicycles, skateboarders. rollerbladers to do a circuit around the centre of the City. It was really good fun getting out and about on a bike in a place that is normally chaotic with cars. I particularly liked the guy taking his big Afghan hound for a run whilst on his bike and the policemen in their sombrero's.

Giant Monopoly pieces.

After our bike ride Anna took me to her local market to get some Blue Tortilla's - yummy :-)

These guys would run out into the middle of the road when the traffic stop and get into the right order to display the advert they were carrying like a big jigsaw.

There were hundreds of these little doves around Mexico City.

Coyoacan or Plaza of the Cayotes is an area about 10km out from the city centre - it has the feeling of a small village with the signs of the Cayotes everywhere from the park benches, fountains to the drain covers.

A street entertainer with his wind up music box.

Everyone uses the shoe cleaners from the small kids to the cops!

Sunset in the city.

At certain times of the day some of the carriages on the Metro are restricted to woman and small children only as they get very crowded during peak times so the platform is barricaded off and the police patrol to enforce this.

Palacio De Bellas Artes - an art gallery and concert venue - the building itself was more impressive than the art that was on show when I was there though.

Palacio Postal - still a functioning post office and another beautiful building.

The last few weeks in October Mexico gets ready to celebrate both Halloween and Day of the Dead and everywhere you go there are costumes and decorations of skeletons even the cakes in the bakery! Unfortunately I left before both of these celebrations which I think would have been interesting to see here.

Water delivery guy.

Diego Riveria was a Mexican painter and communist born in early 19th Century who painted massive Murals depicting Mexico's history in various places including important buildings like the Palacio Nacional (now a government building) and the Secretaria de Educacion Publica (a former monastry).

On the roof inside the old senate chambers of the Palacio Nacional displays this 'Eye of Providence' which is commonly linked to the Freemasons.

I climber up the Bell Tower of the Catedral Metroplitana but I didn't understand the significance of the table of ribboned padlocks inside the cathedral - any suggestions???

The streets around the old town market.

This band were singing a rap song about Che Guevara!!!

Mexico City at night.

Anna gets friendly with the big Rhino.

This little food stall sold the yummiest tortillas and you could tell as there was loads of people ordering from it and it was just on a random street corner.

I caught the overnight bus to Mexico City but it was a few hours late in getting in so I got the Metro over to my friend Anna's place and was struggling through the turnstile at the station with my rucksack I was a littled surprised when the policeman came up and asked if I was 'Jackie' then told me not to move as he went to phone Anna and tell her I had arrived - she had just about got a search party organised for me when I was so late!! Oops having a mobile phone would be handy on occassions!!

Mexico City was fun and it surprised me how much I enjoyed it there and even though it is big and busy it was on the most part pretty clean. Though a lot of the city itself is sinking into the ground and you can see all these lopsided buildings as you walk around the old part of the town. And of course it was great to catch up with Anna who I haven't seen in over 2 1/2 years.

Mexico itself I loved it was a fun country to travel in and plenty to do and see and a few things I will always remember about Mexico:-

• Mexican people are fun and lively.
• Lots of colourful parades, costumes, music, dancing and street entertainers.
• Good diving spots - and lots of star fish.
• Food - tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, hot hot chillies, gaucamole - hot spicy, unhealthy but very tasty food. But no Fahita's - seemingly not a traditional Mexican food!!
• Indegenous Tribes with colourful outfits and unusual customs (like drinking cola to burp out the bad spirits!!).
• Football and lucha Libre Wretling (I will always think of Gimp Masks when I think of Mexico)
• Beautiful beaches
• Ancient Ruins
• Hispanic Churches & Catholicism
• Sombrero's and Cowboy Hats
• Salsa dancing.

I'm sure there is more I should be adding but as I am still a country and a half behind in my blog I will leave it here for now and go start uploading my photo's from Canada - hopefully it will not take me another 6 weeks to finish uploading those!!

Bye for now

Jack xx