Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 17

We woke up at a more Latino time of 10am. We had to quickly race downstairs for our free breakfast at the Hotel (which we didn't know we had!) and got there at 10:50am (breakfast closed at 11am). It felt good having breakfast at the hotel - where you could finally get toast and cereal (albeit sugary cereal with 170 calories a pop). Although the coffee was of the "americano-instante" variety.

I think we finally made it out of the hotel by about midday, stopped at a nearby 7-11 for a Pepsi Light (5 pesos aka 50cents Australia) and we headed down the "Paseo de la Reforma" (I'll just call it "Reforma Ave" instead) where it felt like it was a little reminiscent of BA in Argentina with the big broad avenues (4 or 6 lanes in each way, and the sidewalks fairly leafy). There were huge big fu##-off roundabouts (more so than the ones in Canberra) with big monuments (or moumentos) which were pretty kewl. The architecture here was fairly eclectic in New Mexico but a lot of it was fairly Art-Deco including the "Loteria Nacional" (which I'm guessing translates into "National Lottery" in spanglish) which was like a tall "Superman building"/Daily Planet office with little glass offices beside it (which looked like mini Bonaventures). There was also a funky yellow sculpture thingy (according to Don't Know - it was called the "El Caballito" or "Little Horse").

We were generally heading in the direction of the "Historic Centre" of Mexico City and we passed through a park with a cool little market.... where we basically came to the conclusion that we were about 2 feet taller than all Mexicans (who looked just as short as the Peruvian people). We dub this "Land of the munchkins" and Ant and I represent the Lollypop guild... word.

We wandered past a stand-up comedian/clown who started to scream "Hallllo! Halllo!" to both Ant and I where we attempted to ignore him (who was somewhat a ghoulish looking clown - think a Mexican version of Stephen King's It). He then burst out in laughter (as did his crowd). I think we had experienced our first Mexican gringo payout.

We got lost a little bit (we were armed with both Don't Know and LP - so we are not sure who to blame - maybe both??!) but we managed to track down the "Museo Mural Diego Rivera". Mexican artists are really big on murals - and Diego Rivera is one of the most famous muralists (probably just behind Frida in terms of famousisity). At the museum (which was free because it was Sunday! Yay!) - there was the giant "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central" mural which depicted many famous people in Mexico's history - all standing around Sgt Pepper style. There was Frida and Diego Rivera and a "Jew on Fire" (where the museum had a temporary exhibit on) and was pretty cool. Although everything was in Spanish - so we had to use DK and LP to make complete sense of things.

We walked out of the park - and went past the "Palacio de Bella Artes" which was a big impressive art-deco esque building with a mini-latin america piazza in front of it. On the other side of the mini-piazza was the "Latino Americano" building - the highest skyscrapper in Latino Americano - which looked a little worse for wear. Maybe something to do with the fact that Mexico City has heaps of earthquakes (or sisimos) or something.

We headed down a cobble-stoned street (which was paved with tourists) to the main plaza in the Historic Centre (the Plaza de la Constitucion) which was, believe it or not, decked out with ice-skating rinks, snow-tube rides and igloos (which sort of looked like they were made out of styrofoam). The weather here was mild (eg: t-shirt and jeans, sometime jumper weather) - so I'm not sure how they managed to build a ice-skating rink and snow ramp thingy - but they did. The plaza was stacked full of people (maybe something to do with Mexico City being one of the most populous cities on the planet - with more people than the population of Australia).

We first checked out the "Palacio Nacional" (aka National Palace) which was on one of the sides of the plaza. It is the home of the "presidente's offices" and had a couple of impressive Diego Rivera murals (which sometimes look a little communistic). We had to get "metal detected" going into the Palacio as well as showing the guard our passports (a tourist first!). Although the metal detection seemed a little half-arsed as everyone kept setting off the machine and the guards didn't even seem to flinch or care.

We then checked out the huge Catholic cathedral in the plaza (aka Catedral Metropolitana) - which is the biggest catholic church in Latin America (mind you - this diocese is supposed to be the largest catholic diocese on the planet). It was huge, massive, impressive but you couldn't help but get a sinking feeling about this place. Probably due to the fact that this plaza and Cathedral have been built on a bed of soft clay which is sinking. It sort of made it a little disorientating walking around the cathedral (almost a drunk sensation without the grog). There was also a pendulum hanging from the roof of the cathedral which showed just how "off-centre" the ground of the church was (maybe by a 15 degree angle or so).

We also visited the "Templo Mayor" (which gave me flashbacks to the Roman ruins in the middle of Rome). This is the ruins of an Aztec temple which according to Don't Know - was almost completely destroyed by the Spaniards after conquering the Aztec capital (by golly they are nice people the spaniards). It was quite interesting - as to the museum which housed heaps of pre-hispanic relics and stuff (all in hispanic languageoes). Even better was the free entrance (Sunday is the day where which most museums in Mexico City have free admission).

We wandered back in the direction of the Latino Americano Tower to find some lunchoes. We settled on a Sambons (which I kept pronouncing as "Sombreros" - which is sort of like a Mexican version of "Myer" with a big Mexican cafe adjoined to it (except the cafes are sort of like the McDonalds of Mexico). All of the waitresses are decked out in traditional mexican outfits including a traditional "Coke Zero Now Available" badge. We got given spanish menus - so it made it even more fun-er to order. I ordered a "Negro Mole Enchiladas" (or Black Mole Enchiladas) and Ant had some Pollo Tacos (aka Chicken Tacos). If you think Old El Paso is mexican food, or that hard shell tacos are mexican food or that enchiladas are mexican food, or burritos... then you are horribly mistaken because all of that is actually "Tex-Mex" food. (Note hard shell tacos, enchiladas and burritos were all "invented" in the States!). My Black Mole Enchiladas were some Turkey wrapped up in some tortillas and drowned in a thick black mole sauce (which tasted a little sweet yet spicy) with a little bit of refried beans on the side (ooohh I love my refried beans...!). Ant's tacos were more "burrito" esque with the shells slighty crisp and covered with a sauce. This feels a million miles away from the Mexican food that we have back at home. Even more so than Australian Chinese food vs real Chinese food. We both had a Corona - which tasted a bit different than the stuff we get at home - but it was way cheaper (try about $2AUD each). We then attempted to ESP the wait staff to bring us our bill. After waiting for about 10 minutes - we gave up and decided to walk up to the counter to pay - where we almost made a international Aus-Mex incident. We did a bit of spanglish hostage negotiations and soon payed for our meal - then we were on our way.... Until next time...