Saturday July 15th

There it is, after spending a whole night travelling by bus from Sayulita, I'm finally reaching the first major city of my trip in Mexico: LA Ciudad de México. 

It's big. Really big. Crowd is everywhere, traffic is just insane. The city centre is very likely to be as busy as what I've seen in London and New York, and maybe even more. 

It will take me one more hour to get from el Terminal del Norte to Omar's place where I'm gonna spend the next 4 nights.

Let's get straight to the point: the city is big for sure but travelling here is ridiculously cheap. Count 5 pesos (~0.25€) for a metro or bus ticket and a Uber ride can sometimes be cheaper than a tube ride in London... traffic on the roads can be extremely busy though and still, apparently it's the school holidays and it can get even worse during peak periods. 

Omar is one of the 2 Mexican friends I met when I was in La Paz and he very nicely proposed to be my host during my stay here!

So kicking off that first night going out in a traditional cabaret in company of Omar, Irwing and Brenda (Omar's girlfriend). Live music and large central area where couples can enjoy some proper dancing. 

Yeah this is Latina America. People dance here. I mean really dance. Nothing compares to what we have in occidental nightclubs where everyone gets smashed and move randomly their bodies.

Watching my friend Omar and his girlfriend on the dancefloor was just mind blowing. There are some serious skills and practice here. 

I'll give it a try later with Brenda (well actually it wasn't entirely my choice haha) and I was apparently hmm... not too bad. 

So yep traditional music and dancing: ✅

And when it comes to contemporary music, well there's plenty of good stuff too! Check out this song from Cafe Tacvba, Mexican Rock Band particularly famous here : https://open.spotify.com/track/70LC9mcVfFoITE6PAG5s87 

Those who've been playing Little Big Planet will notice that the song features in the game!

Visit del Centro Historico on Sunday

Cathedral, ancient ruins, painted walls streets and especially World Class Museums. 

Cactus garden inside the Palacio Nacional

Special note for the Palacio Nacional featuring an extremely rich exhibition about the country's constitution evolution and one about the life of Benito Juárez, leader of the second Mexican revolution against the Catholic Church. 

You can also feel that the indigenous culture is still present even though Spanish colonisation starting roughly 5 centuries ago (well actually that's the case in most of the country). 

Monday --> Teotihuacan day trip!

Global view of the site from the Pyramid of the Moon

Well seriously yeah... this is heavy stuff. 

Enter the site from the south and you can see in the distance the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. Meh ok a few minutes walk should be enough to reach the base of the first one. As you walk you quickly start to realise your mistake. Everything on site has absolutely gigantic proportions! The Pyramid of the Sun is the third widest one in the world, and at the opposite of the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, you can actually climb on the top which is really good fun. 

248 big steps to reach the Sun

Back in La Ciudad for a typical tasty dinner with my Mexican friends in the Roma Norte colonia: la pozoleria serves pozoles, some kind of pork stew seasoned at will with oregano, chilli and onions. Tostadas and amazing guacamole on the side. Absolutely delicious. The best thing I've tasted in Mexico so far. 

Last day here spent learning more about the Pre-Hispanic history of the country in the Museo Nacional de Antropología. Far too much content here. It would take weeks to see and read everything. Same kind of the British Museum but exclusively dedicated to the Mexican (and some Central America) ancient cultures. And believe me, that's a lot. 

Expansion of the Mayas in the Yucatán peninsula.

I sticked mostly to the Tenochtitlan, Teotihuacan and Maya's rooms on the first floor. 

Ending up with a tour of the supermassive UNAM campus (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) with Irwing and Omar. By far the largest campus I've ever seen. You definitely need a car to go from one edge to the other. Education completely FREE for more than 300000 students. Shame it was the holidays so I could only imagine the vibe it could have during the year. 

Main library of the campus, this face of the building shows among other things a representation of both Ptolemaic system (geocentric) and Copernican System (heliocentric). Science yeah!

Closing this amazing stay watching the new episode of Game of Thrones eating pizza and drinking beers. It really feels like home now! 

Massive thanks to Omar and Irwing for welcoming me here. I'm so glad I've met you guys. I really hope I'll have the opportunity to return the favour later in France!

¡Muchísimas gracias amigos!

¡Hasta pronto!