Mexico City

Many descriptions of Mexico City don’t exactly advertise it as the most appealing place to visit… one of the most crime-ridden cities in the world, permanent smog of pollution, 4 kidnappings a day, dangerous layers of ground-level ozone… erm, very tasty! So when we realised our plane from Lima was arriving relatively late in the evening we wondered how difficult it was going to be to make it to our hotel at all, let alone in one piece. As it turned out we didn’t have too many problems, especially as we found the vast majority of the residents of Mexico City remarkably friendly and helpful.

I think the key to moving around Mexico City is the avoidance of taxis. Most kidnappings are intended for theft only – short term ‘express-kidnappings’ aimed only at emptying the victim’s bank accounts before release. And the majority of these happen to wealthy people using taxis. Hail a fake cab by mistake on the street and your driver will take you to the destination of his choice rather than yours, where his friends await. Nasty, but fortunately very easy to avoid – don’t use taxis! Actually large cab companies such as the airport taxis are meant to be safe, but even these aren’t essential as the underground system actually reaches the airport (or at least it’s only a 10 minute walk away). Fortunately the metro is extensive, cheap, relatively modern, and safe… i.e. lots of armed guards everywhere! The guards were actually very helpful when we arrived, and even let us onto the system for free so that we didn’t have to lug our bags 200m or so to the other end of the station to get to the ticket booths!

After successfully negotiating our way to the centre of town with all limbs and luggage intact, we found that Mexico City is actually a very pleasant place to explore. The streets reminded us a lot of Santiago, not particularly surprising as both were originally Spanish Colonial Capitals. Mexico City however is much larger, and has a more impressive array of central Plazas, Cathedrals and (as it appears to be much wealthier) shopping malls! Nice for wandering around in the afternoon before having an enchilada or taco for tea. We haven’t seen any margaritas on offer here yet though - shame.

One disconcerting thing about Mexico City is the presence of very large numbers of guards and police. They are everywhere, and remarkably well armed. OK, the police only tend to have a revolver and a menacing truncheon apiece, but the security guards frequently wield long shot-guns or even automatic weapons! It’s a bit disconcerting walking into a department store past a bloke with an Uzi… it really made us wonder how often these things are fired. We saw no crime during our stay but we were perturbed nonetheless.

Anyway, after a day exploring the centre of town we decided to head out to the suburbs by bus to explore some ancient Mexican ruins at Teotihuacán. These impressive (and totally unpronounceable) twin pyramids are only 50km from Mexico City, and easily reached by public bus from the Northern Bus Terminal. They were apparently constructed by the Teotihuacán’s, who were the dominant force in this part of Mexico before the Aztecs arrived. The complex is huge, several square kilometres of stone avenues, plazas, temples and pyramids of all shapes and sizes, but the star attractions are the massive temples of the Sun and Moon. The Pyramid Del Sol is actually the third largest pyramid on Earth, second only to the largest pyramid in Egypt and another Mexican effort. Unlike the Egyptian pyramids at Giza (see www.catch-up-with-the-sun-africa.blogspot.com for photos), the Mexican pyramids at Teotihuacán aren’t perfectly pyramidal but have ‘steps’ or levels at intervals up their sides. This looks a little odd when you see the structures from an angle in the distance, but as you draw closer and look at them perfectly end-on the impression is spectacular.

We spent hours wandering around the complex, climbing up and down hundreds of stone steps as we moved from court to court, and then right up to the top of the Pyramid Del Sol. It is a fantastic site to explore – the only drawback is that you get pestered every few steps by souvenir-selling locals. Just like the Pyramids in Cairo! Some of the Mexican touts had selling pitches we hadn’t heard before though – ‘Senorita, a silver bracelet? Almost free!’. Almost… My favourite was ‘buy for your Mother-in-law’ – the guy who said that was a bit taken aback when we doubled up in laughter and ran away! I wonder what pitches the salesmen around the Maya ruins will try on us over the next few weeks.

Anyway, our stay in Mexico City had to be very brief as we now have just under a month to travel across the country by bus – and there is a lot we plan to see and do on the way. Our first stop is the completely unpronounceable colonial town of Oaxaca, which is apparently one of the best places to sample Mexican Cuisine. After our months of variable South American fare this should be great!