Mexico D.F.

Hello and a happy belated Turkey Day to everyone! I haven't posted in a few days, so bear with me...this one may or may not be a doozey.

This past weekend,we had 4 days off! It was originally only no school on Monday, but at the last minute on Thursday afternoon, the government in Puebla decided that we work so hard that we deserve Friday off too! Holllllla! Brandon and I were planning on going to Mexico city after his last class at 7 on Friday, which would have meant we would get there at around 1 am. However, with these new developments, we were able to board a bus by noon, and we arrived in D.F. by 4:15. Score!

The first thing we had to do when we arrived was find a hotel. Although I would have preferred to book something in advance, Brandon assured me that we would have no problem finding a place, and that he had a few places in mind (this was his 10th-ishtime visiting the city) and after about an hour of looking (and 3 places being filled to capacity) we found a sweet hotel to stay in. The location was great. It was in the heart of a neighborhood called la Colonia Roma, which was full of cute wineries and cafes and restaurants and pedestrian streets. There was even a little ferria going on right on our block at which we sampled about 7 different cheeses and got free wine. It was awesome! We spent the evening roaming around Colonia Roma (no pun intended) and the Zona Rosa, which was another neighborhood right near us. It is a hot spot for the Mexican gays, so we saw a lot of man on man action which was certainly interesting. Being a straight couple in the Zona Rosa is the exception, not the norm!

After eating (the food did not leave me disappointed) we walked around a little bit more, saw a statue called the Angel de Independencia and soonafter, headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

On Saturday, we walked to the Chapultapec Park to visit the Anthropology Museum. On our way, we happened upon this really cool coffee cup art exhibit:

Mexico city is like that: it has art and fairs and street entertainment and stuff going on all the time. It was full of energy and I really loved it. Anyway, Chapultapec Park is absolutely massive and the museum was massive as well. I learned a lot about Mexican history and saw a gazillion artifacts and replications of artifacts. Take a look:

It was amazing, and we spent a solid 4 hours exploring it. After that amount of time, however, little Nicole was getting hungry and a little bit bored (hey, I'm human!) so we didn't make it to the upstairs, but instead opted to walk around the rest of the park and eat. The park is like Central Park...but wayyyy more Mexican. There were taco and torta vendors all over the place, and people trying to sell things everywhere you look. In the words of Laura Santare, everyone is tryna hustle. Most of the stuff being sold were dumb, touristy things, but we found this funny stand selling joke items. We bought some gum flavored "soap," "onion" and "garlic." Watch out fellow Heslingtons!!

On our way out of the park, we saw two extremely important monuments:

The monument for children killed in an American conquest.

An life-size alambre (meat on a stick.)

We also saw this native tradition of people swinging down from high in the sky on ropes. It seemed kind of dangerous, but they knew what they were doing. I think...

On Sunday, we decided to go to Teotihuacan, which are the pre-Aztec ruins. There are two pyramids, the Sun pyramid and the Moon pyramid, as well as the Avenue of the Dead and some other ruins of homes and temples. It was absolutely incredible.

It is hard to really get the gist of it from my tiny pictures, but rest assured, it was breathtaking. We had an awesome (and educational!!) time. However, there was one little glitch. When I went to go to the bathroom (in the middle of the mountain, obviously) I accidentally sat straight on a cactus. OUUUUCH!! (And that is the G-rated version of what I said.) I had to actually pull some prickles out of my tush. Yikes.

Teotihuacan took the entire day, and by the time we got back to our hotel, we were absolutely pooped. I thought my legs were going to fall off!! 

On Monday, after a delicious breakfast (sidenote: Brandon and I are totally in agreement about breakfast: gotta have it, it's gotta be good, and it's gotta happen immediately after leaving the hotel,) we walked to the Centro Historico. Every Mexican city has an "old" center, called the Zocalo, and Mexico City's zocalo was incredible. The Catedral was breathtaking:

 

Outside

Inside

We also checked out the Municipal palace and the Casa de Bellas Artes, which are both beautiful, huge and famous buildings in the city center.

Palacio Municipal

Casa de Bellas Artes

I feel compelled to tell you all that Mexico city, especially the Centro Historico, is extremely crowded. I was clutching my purse at almost all times and constantly did a wallet check. It's not that I didn't feel safe, but there were so many people around, and everyone is trying to make a buck. A ver:

The Centro Historico

When we went to the Merced, it was even crazier! Mexican markets are already enormous and sell everything from onions to cacti to remote controls to those little rubber things you put on your furniture to keep from scratching the floor to pornography to baby clothes....but this one outdid them all. It was awesome!! (Dad--you would love it, its like a Flea Market on serious steroids!)

After checking out the Merced, we walked to a little artisan market that sold really beautiful Mexican art, and indulged our shopping needs for a little while. Finally, despues de comiendo muchisimo tacos, we boarded the bus back to good old Tehuacan.

We are already planning our next trip back to D.F....can't wait!