Back in the States

Well, we made it safely back to the United States this morning. We knew we were back when our taxi home from the airport was more than the cost of the taxis to AND from the airport in Mexico City AND all the subway fare that we paid during the course of three days there! Going to Mexico City was a completely spur-of-the-moment thing and so neither of us had any expectations or real knowledge of the city. Boy were we impressed. We went expecting third-world squalor, and while there is that, there were some amazing museums, buildings, shopping, and the highlight of the trip--the Aztec pyramids just outside the city. We were going non-stop from morning till night, coming home totally tired, but ready to see more. I wish more Americans would visit that amazing place. We went to the tourist information booth two times and both times, we were the only Americans listed on the log book. When people found out we were Americans, they were so excited to talk to us and try out their English. On one street, there was a school tour going by and some girls opened up their window and yelled in English, "What is your name?" I replied and they all burst into fits of giggling.

I'll probably talk more about the experiences we had there in the next few days--expecially since Margaret has the camera and so I can't upload the pictures we took to post them here until next week. Here are a few highlights that I'll start off with:

Arrival: when we took a cab to the hotel when we got into the city, we had no idea that traffic lights were just suggestions. We were so glad that we didn't rent a car--we'd've surely be dead right now. Pedestrians would go out into the intersection when the light said walk, then have to run the rest of the way because some taxi (they were the problem 9 times out of 10) was about to hit them. We got to the hotel in one piece... at 6:00 IN THE MORNING! We hoped that they would let us check in that early, because we had no idea what we would do if we had to schlep our baggage around until check-in. Fortunately we got checked in ok and took a little nap before heading out. Our hotel had a breakfast buffet that was amazing--the usual fresh fruits, cereals, and breads, but this one also had tamales, beans, enchiladas, moles, etc.--FOR BREAKFAST! Plus, the dining area was on the roof of the building overlooking the main city square. While we were eating breakfast and gawking at the square below us, we notice a crowd--and by crowd I mean easily several thousand people, clogging a street just off the square. We decided to go down there and check it out before hitting any of the more touristy things. When we got down there, we were completely amazed. We were expecting handicrafts and the like and it was more like Wal-Mart. Individual vendors just set up a tarp and put out their wares. And by wares, I mean things like tv antennas, clothes, tortillas, bootleg videos (in fact I saw a copy of X-Men III there--TWO DAYS AFTER IT WAS RELEASED IN THEATRES IN THE STATES!!!), etc. And the people shopping completely filled the street. Occassionally a taxi would zoom down those narrow streets and people would just move out of the way and then fill back in behind it. It was complete chaos. We bought a few things and paid full price--primarily because the prices they were charging for everything was so cheap we felt guilty trying to reduce the price. I mean, how much lower can you expect to bargain when a baby outfit cost $2.25? We were so entranced by the market that we spent the entire morning there, caring less about the museums than seeing a completely foreign economy in action--an economy that is so capitalistic that it makes the U.S. system look like Communism. It was incredible.

After we got our fill of the market, we decided to head south of the city to the area where Cortés built a villa for his Aztec mistress. We got there via subway and that was an eye-opener! There subway was totally high-tech, well-designed, and DIRT CHEAP. You just paid to get into the system and could go whereever you wanted. And the price was 2 pesos--which amounted to 18 cents! We took the subway down to the colonial area where our guidebook recommended a particular street to walk down. The street was lined with these elaborate mansions from the time of the Conquistadors and they were walled in with prison-like protection. The streets in that area were cobblestone and very narrow. We ate in that neighborhood (we figured that the food in that particular part of town should be really safe) and got the good fortune of being seated on the ledge of the third-floor balcony where we looked down into a church courtyard. It was like their tourism department was working overtime to impress us and boy did it work. Plus the food was really good and once again we almost felt guilty that it was so cheap. After lunch, we finished the walk along the colonial street and ran into another street filled with street vendors. We soon found out that this was common throughout the city. People just set up a booth or food stand where ever they can find an open spot. It just amazed us that they made any money, but they evidently do, or they wouldn't be doing it. A couple of times we wanted to just buy all the merchandise from some old lady who was sitting there knitting baby clothes or blankets and selling them for 3 or 4 dollars! After leaving that market, we called it a night because we were planning on visiting the Aztec pyramids the next day and wanted to get an early start. I'll continue that story tomorrow.