Mexico City

We left the canyon, cowboys and Creel the same way as we arrived, by train, and headed back to Los Mochis. From here after hours of book delving, internet searches and discussions, we took a cheap flight down to Mexico City. Now the book will have you believe that Mexico City isn’t for the faint hearted, in fact, it should only appeal to those with criminal tendancies (is that why there were so many Irish and Scousers here! Only jesting!) – 4 kidnappings, 70 car thefts and 55 muggings per day doesn’t make for good reading (or happy travelling) but the truth is with the sheer number of police on the streets carrying the biggest guns you’ve ever seen you kinda feel more worried about a renagade cop than a local scally! We arrived late at the airport so had to jump in a cab, which promptly dropped off us at the wrong end of the main plaza and scarpered. The centre was dead, noone other than the occupants of the rather large camp of protestors were to be seen in the plaza – this did however prove the best time to see it, if you dare hang around on the streets long enough! The plaza is massive and surrounded on all sides by stunning old buildings. Best of all is the cathedral at the southern end, it is as every bit as impressive as any cathedral I’ve ever seen. The following day we set out nice and early and went off exploring – churches everywhere, old buildings, museums, the most extravagent post office (how many cities are there where you are impressed by a post office?!) and so on – every turn revealed another stunning old building and generally another dozen police officers with guns! The historical centre is beautiful and you can just get lost wandering around the streets all day…which we pretty much did before the rainy season finally caught up with us, at mid-afternoon everyday in Mexico City it rained without fail, heavily. One morning we took a bus out to Teotihuacan a vast ancient city complex built on the mountains outside of the city, at first glance as you walk through the main area it just looked like some old walls and still in need of lots of excavation, not that impressive! But once you get out to the 2 main pyramids that changes. Piramide Del Sol is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world and was built around AD 100 and later believed to be dedicated to the sun by the Aztecs, hence the name. Its a huge mass of stone (and grass, it was being weeded!) and the climb to the top is a leg zapping one up some steep steps, now if the native Mexicans are decendents of whoever built it (the ethnic identity is unknown) then I have no idea how they climbed it with their little legs, actually I should be wondering how on earth they built it really, but they do have little legs!! From the top you can get a much better picture of the city layout and its size, it is thought that around 200,000 people lived there in its hey day, now it is home to around 500 hawkers trying to sell you all manner of tat, ancient marble face carving for a dollar anyone?!