We spent almost a month in Mexico City in total and there's no shortage of things to do and see. Aside from just wandering around and exploring different parts of the city, we did some of the major touristy things like visiting the Teotihuacan Pyramids just outside the city. It's an archaeological site thought to have been established around 100BC, and was one of the largest cities in the world at that time. It's a pretty impressive site, with a couple of massive pyramids you can climb up for a great view of the entire site and the surrounding landscape.
Chapultepec Castle was also recommended as a place to check out. It's located on the top of Chapultepec Hill in the middle of Chapultepec Park (at least there's consistency in the naming of things) and we spent an hour or two wandering through the multitude of rooms with the usual displays of art and artifacts. The Park it's located in was huge and is a nice place to walk around as well, with loads of stalls selling toys and brightly coloured food, museums, a zoo and a couple of lakes. It's a perfect place to escape the city for some peace and clean air.
We're not big museum people, but we made an exception for the Soumaya Museum as it's an awesome looking building, all shiny and silver. Owned by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, and named after his late wife, the museum was built to showcase his extensive art collection, including the world's largest private collection of sculptures by Rodin. With over $700 million worth of art, entry to the museum is free so everyone can enjoy it. And lucky for us, the man himself was there on the day we visited doing a press conference of some sort, so we got to see him with our own eyes. Not many people can say they've been in the same room as the richest man in the world.
It would be remiss of me not to mention food at this point. After a year of fairly bland South American food which typically consists of rice, beans and some sort of fried meat/fish, we were hanging out for the variety of flavours and spice of Mexican food. And we weren't disappointed. Finally, some decent (and ridiculously cheap) street food! Tacos (5 for just over $1) with all manner of meat fillings (including head, tail, tongue etc which Kurt rather enjoyed) and flavourful toppings like coriander, onion and spicy sauces; quesadillas filled with beans, meat and oozing oaxacan cheese; gorditas and sopas, tostadas and tortas...the delicious list goes on. Our taste buds were in heaven. One of our regular and filling favourites were tortas. We were confused at first as in South America torta means cake, but in Mexico it's a sandwich. A totally awesome sandwich filled with all kinds of meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, mayo and chipotle sauce, and lightly toasted. And for only $2.50. Fuck yeah.
The reason we had to get to Mexico City in December is because we were going to spend Christmas with Sara and Luke (friends from Sydney that Kurt worked with) and Sara's family. Of course we managed to get in a couple of nights of coronas and tequila and mariachi's before then, just to catch up first. Then a few days before Christmas we loaded up a taxi and made the drive to Actopan, a city about 4 hours from Mexico City. We stayed at Sara's aunt's house and over the next 5 days we met other aunts, uncles and cousins and were made to feel like part of the family - the retarded members who barely speak Spanish. As with any normal Christmas at home, we ate way too much, drank a bit and talked shit. But the added bonus of a Christmas in Mexico meant we got to set off fireworks and bash the shit out of piñatas. Who said they were just for kids? It was an awesome way to experience a real Mexican style Christmas - huge thanks to Sara and Luke and Sara's family for letting us spend it with them.
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