Mexico City, travel diary

 

With a flight of about four hours we went from North to Central America and more specifically from San Francisco to Mexico City. We arrived at their destination at around 17:30 local time, with a slight advance on the flight plan. Even so we stroll over to the airport for a few minutes and we were able to appreciate the immensity of the Mexican capital. Holds a series of record more or less edifying: it is one of the highest in the world, is the largest urban agglomeration in the world and also the most polluted ... force had to visit!
At our arrival we were greeted by an Italian friend, Claudio Fogale, which for nearly a year working in Mexico City. Had previously contacted him to ask him a favor ... after more than six months of travel, we had planned for us by sending a parcel containing the T-shirts, sweatshirts, medicines and other basic provisions, Claudio was our delivery where to get this package!
Our good friend had really thought of everything and beyond to come to take us, we had also reserved a hostel excellent location of our house. Got into the car we were directed towards the center, a wild chaos of machinery involved to exchange insults with each other. In fact, Mexico City, you can earn a full record of the most congested city in the world. While shelled between the machines, Claudio told us that our package from Italy had encountered some problems at customs and that there had been withheld. Claudio but seemed optimistic and reassured us that from there a few days we could take possession of our goods, it would be just enough to issue a new invoice from our sponsor, where we point out some specific goods contained. With this consolation in saccoccia direct all'ostello we reached the dorm and we were granted a super shower and also a nice nap. Wake up in the late evening we were directed to consume our first Mexican meal, together with a Brazilian boy (Rodrigo) who shared with us the dormitory. The menu included encillada in mole sauce, with the inevitable cream blacks beans ... a classic! After dinner, though tired from the trip, we have resisted doing a few steps to visit the neighborhood in which we were finished: It was the Zona Rosa, the most touristic and lively and even more secure for the poor tourists like us. We are not, however, resisted for a long time and shortly after we slapped a bed.

The next day we get up very early and after having eaten a good breakfast offered dall'ostello, we reached the taxi office Claudio, to try to get the practices inherent in our package. In fact, the good Fogale had preceded us and was already taking another way to be able to take possession of the goods: he had declared that it was material to give to charity to people in need ... it was not a lie so big! Unfortunately, this Mexican customs having just seemed to us that even this stratagem had yielded the desired effects.
There we went by with pive in the bag, without any certainty, but aware that the thing would not have ended soon. The rest of the afternoon we spent visiting the Zocalo, the historic center of the city located in Constitution Square, where lies the National Palace and the Old Cathedral and fascinating. The night fell in a flash and it's time for dinner ... we decided, for obvious reasons of Budget, to try to avoid restaurants and eat for baracchette that were on the road. In reality, these kitchens seem improvised issue, in many cases, a odorino and inviting, but not accompanied by a similar inviting hygienic condition. The fact is that we did not have much choice if we wanted to get to the end of our trip and it was so that we proceed directly to a sheet next to our hostel that promised the rich burritos. In effect, all promises have been fulfilled in full and there we went to bed with a good dinner in the stomach.

For the next day we had planned an expedition Italo-Brazilian (in fact we would have gone with Rodrigo, a Brazilian who shared the dormitory with us) until the city of Teotihuacan, to see two of the most important Mayan pyramids in the Mexican territory. Such is the importance attributed by the fact that this is the first Mesoamerican city, the result of careful planning and with the specific characteristics of urban planning. The sun was at peak on our heads, as if you would cook and we were also forgotten his hat. The pyramids were two, that of the sun and the moon, as a result-oriented and both have huge, steep stairs ... but if these Mayans were so low as they say, who brought him to build the steps of those dimensions?
Bah ... mysteries of history that we can not know! It took the beauty of four interminable hours to visit the site, luckily the sun was well thought of taking a break and this has enabled us to survive. Returning to the center, exhausted and thirsty, we are directed by the man of Carlito burritos repeated for the greediness of the day before ... rich! Four hours if there were pyramids seemed an eternity, yet we did not know what was waiting for the next day. We made the visit in view of the much-vaunted anthropological museum that some 'all we were advised to watch. The history of man from its very beginning until the development of Mexican civilization. No doubt it contained sections of interesting, useful to understand the history of a nation as rich as that of Mexico, in the same way was interminable and repetitive in other respects. Suffice it to say that we spent in that building to the beauty of six hours, in which there have been stolen, room after room, all our vital energies. We are leaving spoiled, almost unable to recognize each other, with a desperate need for liquids, food and sleep.
We had already spent four days in the capital and yet nothing had been released for what concerns our paco, was threatening to become a trap from which we could not free.

The next day, with this concern in mind, we re-directed to the "Zocalo" to visit the interior of the Presidential Palace and the Cathedral. We also take advantage to the colorful and lively market that develops in the streets adjacent to the main square ... a beauty! Meanwhile it was evening and we were done already by way of the taste yet another burrito but returned in hostel we realized that Carlito burrito man, had thought well to celebrate. The panic has fallen suddenly in our minds, we were completely off ... one of our greatest certainties had failed. How to remedy that situation? How to obtain the new food? The ideas were zero but then suddenly a little more of the baracchetta of Carlitos burrito man stood a new sheet stated that a new promise: Tacos 5 X 10 pesos. Did the job and after some initial hesitation, we plunged into the new world of tacos.

The next day we did not know what to visit more ... Time passed and the situation did not improve, how can you fear the idea of abandoning the package and go on our way. But the next day proved to be unexpectedly positive. Svegliateci in the late morning we were directed to the Azteca Stadium, the largest in the world another tick to add to our collection of primates. This is the stadium where he fought the legendary match Italy Germany 4-3, the stadium where Diego Armando Marathon was that 'incredible goal to hand the most well-known with the nickname "la mano de Dios"!
Returning to the hostel we realized that the man Carlitos burritos we had betrayed for the umpteenth time, but not all the evils come to harm ... The accommodation owner kindly invited us to dine in his restaurant. And 'we just knew that the girl Gina has been our ace in the sleeve unravel our customs. Gina was a girl of Korean origin who was responsible for import and export of works of art and for this reason that he had close relations with the Mexican customs authorities. This fact, was only a phone call to those of skill and a "tangentina" a hundred dollars to have our longed-pack.

The next morning Claudio has called us to tell us that the package had been delivered magically by his office. We were free and retrieved the package, we proceed directly to the bus station to head towards our next destination: Oaxaca