Our flight to Mexico was another small plane, so we had the pleasure of just 2 seats to a row again. In contrast to Oaxaca airport Mexico City’s is massive, which is no surprise given it is the busiest airport in Latin America. We’ve never walked so far to reach the baggage belt. But even then we still had to wait ages for bags from our flight to start to appear.
As the metro is cheap we decided to use it to get from the airport to our accommodation in the historic center. We had to change terminals to get to the station and you have to pay for the inter-terminal bus. The info we found online said it was cheap, but prices have risen and it was NZ$2.50 each!
On route the bus made a stop and a number of people got off, we realised there was a metro station right there so also jumped off. Buying the metro card and putting money on it was very easy, there was no queue for the kiosk and the woman was super helpful telling us not to bother buying 2 cards as you can just swipe the same card twice each time we used it.
The first train was quiet and easy, and we sussed out how the places to stand for the women only carriages worked, but then it turned out the interchange was a long walk and we had a heap of steps up to an over-bridge, one of those where you look up and go ‘ah f*ck!’ It was hot and hard work with our bags. As we approached we could also see the queues on the platform were at least 4 deep across its entire length.
The women only carriages turned out to be no less fierce than others, the doors to the trains only open for a set brief time so it was a crush to get on, the trains also slam their brakes on hard coming into stations and at any other random point when they need to slow down, but despite us being quite a lot taller than the average person in the carriage, once wedged into a spot it wasn’t necessary to hold on so, and after one more change we arrived at our station wondering how we had made it.
Our accommodation let us check in hours early which we were super grateful for. It was a perfect location and with a very basic rooftop terrace (with high walls so there was no view) we cooled down with a coke from the 7eleven around the corner before heading out again. The main square was just a block away and although dotted with huge marquee tents for an event you could see its impressive size surrounded by history and decaying architecture.
We visited the Cathedral first and it is just as you would imagine, huge and like most things in Mexico City on a tilt. It was a pleasant 26 degrees with a slight breeze. As we walked around it felt disorienting with the floor sloping one way and another. A plomb in the middle of the Cathedral shows a 70cm movement of the floor since around 1900.
Mexico City is sinking and pretty fast, mainly because the Spanish colonizers built it on top of a lake and draining it is leading to subsidence. The more you walk around the more you see the gaps between buildings and that so many of the historic buildings are leaning including huge bell towers. We decided it really would not be a good place to be in an earthquake.
The weather was basically the same as Oaxaca so it was hot but pleasant. We sat by the Cathedral and watched people queue for some ‘healing’ by guys dressed up as witch doctors, which involved a lot of incense and being whacked all over with a handful of greenery, all amongst the souvenir stalls set out on blankets and wandering ice pop sellers.
We wandered our way around nearby blocks to get our bearings, it didn’t take long to lose the tourists and we found streets bustling with street sellers, shops selling mainly clothes and toys and endless textiles.
There were a bunch of street food stalls 100m down the road from our hotel on our so it was a cheap, easy qnd delicious quesedilla for dinner eating streetside and skipping the daily downpour before heading back to the terrace for the evening. While the city is a hustling place we were surprised to find that by 6pm most places were closing. Not long after we got back there was a good thunderstorm and the temperature dropped with the rain, making it briefly slightly chilly.
When Emma did the coffee run the next morning it turns out most shops and cafes don’t open until 0930, which again surprised us as we’d assumed places close early because they open early.
We spent the day skipping around places we’d marked on a map that we wanted to see. Mainly using the metro which didn’t seem to have a quieter time as it was packed all day. We soon got used to pushing our way on, pushing to get position for the door when ours was the next stop (we still had a plan for if one of us made it off and one of us didn’t) and pushing to get ourselves off.
Amongst other things we visited Museo Soumaya – incredible art in Mexico’s most famous contemporary architecture, the building is really quite incredible.
Emma’s estimation of walking distances from the metro stations to various sights had us walking a lot and taking the occasional Uber, but coffee was easy to find. A slight breeze picked up when we joined all the locals walking their dogs on a tree lined walking path alongside a railway track back to the metro station. Mexico City is full of dog lovers, dog toys, beds, leads and other accessories sold everywhere. In this particular area it looked like many were maids that have dog walking duties and we even saw pack walkers. The dogs are mainly small chihuahua variations but there are some big doggies around too.
We saw some cool sights and some rubbish ones (more rubbish ruins that were quite a trek to get to and turned out to have a hefty entrance fee when you could see them from the road). Our last major sight was Les Belle Artes – made of marble, it’s sunk 4m since it was built, it’s sinking made worse because of the weight of the marble.
On coming back to the historic center we took in a few more of the grand buildings that after a while you take for granted. The history of the place is incredible, even our hostal had a dome and stone seats at reception which were obviously carved into the wall and part of some older building. On our way back the sky went black and it started raining. Big heavy spots it came on quickly, we got our umbrellas out and dodged our way back to the hotel, stopping for a yummy quesedilla for dinner perched on their plastic stools on the street, under the umbrellas that serve as both cover for sun and for rain and watched people dart around us to get to where they were going.
Marie & Emma's Travel Journal 