Ciudad de Mexico

I arrived in Mexico City half an hour earlier than the scheduled time, it was five-thirty in the morning an pitch black. I had imagined arriving in the morning and having my first sight of the city in daylight, instead I arrived to see a gigantic yellow full moon in the sky. It was a beautiful sight and I was very happy to have arrived.

I paid ahead for a local taxi to take me to my hostel which is located near the Zocalo in el Centro Historico. As we drove by the cab driver explained to me the bad neighborhoods an places I should not be alone at night. He pointed out the prostitutes in the streets and we drove by a small street filled with cops looking into and opening parked cars. Already I was seeing many different sidea of the city, that may be scary sights at first, but get blurred and forgotten after being in the city and seeing what it is really like.

As we drove to the hostel we passed el Zocalo, which is the plaza de la contitucion, located in the middle of the city surrounded by the Palacio Nacional, government offices, shops and on the north side the beautiful Catedral Metropolitana. After getting to the hostel I quietly slipped into the dorm room and slept for a few hours before going out for a city tour. I know comparisons aren´t very good, but I think as human beings sometimes we need comparisons to explain something we see or feel. Mexico City to me is beautiful and lively, so many people in the streets, lots of things happening. It reminds me a little of cities like Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Sao Paulo. Very busy with big avenues and statues spread throughout the city. The number of outside cafes and bars is incredible and you get this amzing sense of being alive as you walk through the city.



My first two days I spent walking around the city through different neighborhoods, visiting parks, markets and museums. The city has so many museums, from Frida Kahlo´s house to a castle on top a mountain, to the Bellas Artes, Diego Rivera´s murals and so far my favorite the Anthropology museum. This museum is all about the indigeous groups in different parts of mexico and their development. I absolutely loved it! Seeing stautes of chac mol reminded of AP Spanish Lit in high school and all of the history I had learned but forgotten. At night I met with my friend Isabel´s cousin Antonio and his friend Pepe and they took me out to eat and visit different parts of the city like Coyocan and Condesa where I had delicious sea food! They´ve been awesome in taking me around, teaching me about the city and giving me a real taste of Mexico so I don´t feel too much like a tourist. With them I´ve also been praticing a lot of my spanish and trying to pick up on the local lingo. It really has been great!

I went to visit the piramids in Teotihuacan and had an amazing day, met a really sweet German girl who is traveling alone for 12 months and who I plan on running into later in my trip as well as french girls whom I got to us a little bit of my rusted french with. The pyramids are an incredible sight, there are flutes being played and the warm wind at the top of the pyramid was really powerful and an amazing feeling. It really is crazy looking at how developed these societies were such a long time ago.

One of the coolest things I´ve seen so far is the Agave plant and everything they use it for.
They wrap nopales in it for cooking for flavor, they got their first paper out of the plant, they used the tip of its heart as arrows and sweing needles ( which have the fiber of the plant as thread and can be died using flowers!!), and finally they make tequila and agave licquor out of it. I really was amazing to see all of these things and how ingenious nature is. After the pyramids I went out with an Argentinian girl and some guys from Colombia. It has been really great meeting people and learning so much about Mexico. I plan on staying in Mexico City for a few more days to really get a feeling for the city but then I am running away to the beach! My body really is thirsty for the salty water and big cities as cool as they may be remind me of how much I want to be laying out in a small island sipping on coconut water...