Pyramids & Pancakes, Mexico City

Hola, me amigos! Alive & kickin in Mexico City! Thought I should let ya'll good people know that I got here safely. In summery...what an enormous, exciting and frantic place!!!

After two long and wearisome days of air travel, passing through Melbourne, Auckland and Los Angeles I finally arrived at my destination. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it soon hit me how underprepared I was...It was close to 12 o'clock midnight by the time I got through customs, I had no place booked to crash, couldn't speak anywhere near as much useful spanish as I thought, and had only a vauge recolection of where I was or what to do. I was planning on sleeping in the airport food court before I got talking to these two random kiwi girls and somehow conned them into letting me tag along with them for the night. We decided to grab some food before we caught a cab, not realising I'd only eaten a blueberry muffin all day, and found about the only place still open on the terminal ground floor; a 24 hour 'Wings' resteraunt. I'd become google eyed by this point and couldn't read anything on the menu...so I deciphered some pictures and settled for a big pile of pancakes...not exactly the most authentic beggining to my Mexican fine dinning experience...

Anyhow, we were soon on our way into the city in one of the authourised taxis, zipping down highways and empty streets, with only the odd lone shifty wanderer or two lingering on certain corners, before eventually making it into the central historical area. Then the driver got lost...tanggled between a network of late night road works, blocking all logical paths to our hotel, it was lucky a policeman was kind enough to let us through one of the blockades, and we could finally get some sleep! The next day I said goodbye to the girls and took off into the lively streets of the city, a much different place to the one from our late night taxi ride. I checked into a hostel directly behind the Cathedral at the northern end of the Zolaco, the huge main plaza of the historical area, grabbed some taco's from a street vendor and jumped on the city loop bus to take in a little of the cities main attractions. It was a great chance to meet and talk to some holidaying Mexicans, I even got to practice a little Spanish. Back at the hostel later in the evening I slumped down and crashed after a few quiet corona's with some other tourists.

Zocalo

The next day I woke and dove straight into the free buffet breakfast included in the hostel price! I'd been starving all night, and should really have been eating a lot more than what I had been. I was planning to take a trip out to the Pyramids at Teotihuancan, supposedly one of the most remarkable archeological sites in the world. I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. Catching the Metro train to the outskirts of the city and jumping on a public bus passing through hills covered in shanty towns proved an experience in itself, but nothing compared to the actual site of Teotihuacan. I've never seen structures of this grand scale before. The 'Avenue of the Dead' as it's called, stretches for at least 3 kilometres, walled in the entire way by small ruins until it terminates at the huge 'Pyramid of the Moon'. Here I found was the best view at the site, providing panoramic views across the whole area, in particular across to the even larger and more impressive 'Pyramid of the Sun'. My two companions and I spent close to 4 hours or so, slowly wandering around the highlights of the area before taking the bus back to the train terminal (pulled over and patted down by the police for drugs en route) and hopping back onto the metro to the Zocalo.

'Pyramid of the Sun' - Teotihuacan

I think I may stay here another day or two, but no longer. I'm completly blown out by the size of everything and there's only so long I could stay in a place like this no matter how much there is to do. I'm looking forward to heading south to the cities of Oaxaca & San Cristobal de las Casas, hopefully slowing things down a bit and maybe even meeting up with Big Dawg!

Bye for now!! Talk soon.