Mexico City: 10th - 15th June 2025
10th June 2025 – Saturday
I’ve had the most amazing six weeks visiting friends and family, especially mum & Mike, all in all, it made leaving the UK very difficult. I cried on the flight, in fact I sobbed my heart out twice and then fell asleep both times, but not for long. Having only had 2 hours sleep before leaving for the airport and being so nervous about this new adventure made me quite emotionally unstable – it’s a good job I couldn’t ask the pilot to turn the plane around – it did cross my mind on more than one occasion.
The flight to Paris was quick, as only to be expected, however I cannot say I like Charles de Gaulle airport, it is a vast concrete jungle and it took almost an hour and two shuttle buses to get from the terminal where I landed to the terminal for my Aeromexico flight. I did however have a delicious chicken baguette and a couple of beers, which helped the 5-hour transit pass reasonably quickly.
All my prior concerns over my weight allowance were in vain – I could have packed an elephant in my rucksack and they wouldn’t have batted an eyelid, all thanks to online check-in and not needing to go near a weighing counter – so now I wish I had bought more with me, but such is life – I can always purchase bits and bobs as I travel. The flight was long and as previously mentioned very emotional – I was also very nervous, unlike SE Asia I have never been to this part of the world before and nor do I have the safety net of any friends here – so thank you Tracy, Si, Elsie and Mable for all of the support, comfort and the amazing safety net you provided for me during my time in SE Asia – I am forever in your debt for allowing me into your family and home.
I won’t bore you with the flight details but I do want to tell you how lucky I was – I refused to pay the £36 for a seat and so waited to see what I was given – I got a window seat, which is my preferred seat and then to top it all off there was an unoccupied seat between me my neighbour. So, we both could spread out a little and there was no elbow fighting over the arm rest. He was a church man from Germany with fluent English and fluent Spanish, but we didn’t do much chatting, I think he quickly realised I wasn’t feeling sociable and left me to myself – wise man!
Mexico City Airport is small and very easy and quick to navigate – the arrival terminals are a short distance to the arrival hall and they have several gates for digital passports. Unfortunately, my digital passport wasn’t accepted and as I turned to look at the queue of people waiting to see an actual person I was ushered to another desk, with no queue, asked how long I wanted to stay, had my passport stamped and off I went – it literally took no more than 5 minutes. Being a small airport, I found the 7-Eleven store almost immediately, bought a SIM card and then, as informed by many travellers on Facebook, went to the external taxi booth, where I paid in advance for my taxi to my hostel. It was all so easy.
With lady luck on my side there was an American, from Texas, at the hostel and as soon as I dropped my bags in my room I went and befriended him. He filled me in on a few things, explaining about the food stalls, where the supermarket, bank and Woolworths (!) are. However, being exhausted and emotionally drained I didn’t stay up for long. I was so looking forward to a good night’s sleep but my bed couldn’t have been worse if it tried. Not only was it soft but it had a deep V shape moulded into the middle of it, which I immediately and unwillingly rolled into. The first time I woke I had pins and needles down my left arm and hand and the second time I had the same in my right arm and hand. As you can imagine, this did absolutely nothing for my emotional stability and I just wanted to cry some more. However, I made myself sleep a little bit more even though my body clock was telling me that it was 7 am in the morning and not 1 am, I eventually gave up the fight at 5 am. I found cups in the shared kitchen and boiled water for coffee in a sauce pan, later I noted that the other residents heated their water in the micro wave – tomorrow 😊
I found Keven sitting outside his dorm room and interrupted whatever it was that he was doing on the computer – he really didn’t mind and after a cold shower and more coffee he took me for my first stroll around the local neighbourhood, which is called Roma Sur. We had tacos for breakfast at a little food stall, they were delicious, each came with rice, and I had one with a potato cake, one with pork and another with some sloshy green stuff, all topped off with salsa rojo, they were absolutely delicious and so filling. After that we went to the bank where Kevin showed me how to use the ticket machine and how to ask the teller, in Spanish, to change my 500-peso notes into smaller, easier to use, notes. We then paid a visit to the local supermarket, where I bought local beer (I have a fridge in my room) and coffee – both of which are much cheaper than the UK but not as cheap as in Cambodia. On returning to the hostel, I informed the one English speaking receptionist about my V shaped mattress and she immediately moved me into another room with a firm flat mattress – as you can imagine that made me extremely happy and I put all thoughts of moving to a proper hotel out of my head. This hostel is not one of the best I’ve stayed in but everyone is so friendly and it’s on such a beautiful road, it is peaceful and calm, with an older clientele – I will be happy here and am looking forward to good night’s sleep tonight. After my room move Kevin took me to the local park, which is more a dog park than a people park, where we sat and chatted for a couple of hours, he told me all about his x-wife and then the history of religion. Uhm, boring you may be thinking, but in fact it was very interesting, especially as he was not preaching, just telling me the historical facts. Unfortunately, my belly began to play up and I needed the loo so we came back to the hostel and here I am now, just finishing telling you about the beginning of my Latin American Adventure.
I think for me the most important thing is that I now feel emotional stable and am smiling again. A huge thank you goes out to Kevin for taking me under his wing and helping me to settle in, he really has made a difference to my mood and how I am feeling about everything. I’d also like to say a huge thank you to my mum and dad who have supported me through all of my emotional turmoil, thank the Lord for WhatsApp. It has been absolutely awesome to have them there for me, giving me the support and encouragement that I so desperately needed.
I am now going to spend the rest of the day relaxing at the hostel, close to the toilet (!) and drinking local beer. Not sure what I will do for dinner tonight but I’ll cross that path when I get to it, and tell you all about it later.
The Angel was not as stunning as I was expecting, but it was still an awesome sight and it reminded me of Victory Monument in Bangkok, and to be honest Mexico City reminds me of Amsterdam with all the one-way streets, but a lack of canals! After not finding a place to have a beer, and walking through the redlight area, we took the quick route back, via Av. Insurgentes, to Roomies, which was not nice a nice walk, but at least 2 km shorter than the route we took going. I did offer to pay for a taxi but Kevin insisted he was good for walking. In total we did a good 7 km, so even my feet were aching by the time we got back. In the evening, we went to Kevins favourite restaurant, I am not sure what I had, but it was definitely some meat thing wrapped in a tortilla and Kevin had a meat Tortas, which is basically a soft bread roll filled with meat and cheese – very fattening but very tasty.
11th June – Wednesday
Today I decided to go for a walk to see El Angel de la Independencia, which meant a detour to an area of the city called La Condesa, which actually isn’t that far from the hostel. Well for me it wasn’t but for Kevin it was – lol. But first we had tacos at his favourite breakfast bar, which to be honest made me feel a little sick as, unlike yesterday, I found them very greasy, so I was glad to be walking after eating. Mexico City has many beautiful areas that break up the concrete jungle, you just need to head off down some of the side streets to find them, which is exactly what we did. To get to La Condesa we first walked through Parque Mexico, and had a rest in a quite garden where I got asked to be quiet – I think I was laughing too loudly – lol. And then we went past Parque Espana before stopping for coffee on a road called Amsterdam! I would have liked to explore Condesa a bit more than we did as I have read that it is a very scenic area with lots of treelined walkways and expensive coffee shops but Kevin was not up for it; due to his excessive weight and poor knee joints, he cannot walk for too long and is very slow, but it was nice to have company and to take our time and enjoy some of the scenery. A few roads before the Angel we passed several SE Asian restaurants, which Kevin found quite amusing, but being a large city, I was not really surprized.
12th June – Thursday
I spent Thursday at the hostel, I planned my route to Cancun which involves a few days in Taxco, where I want to visit the caves, and a few days in Oaxaca, which I have been told is worth a visit. I only managed to book my three hostels, Taxco, Oaxaca and Playa del Carmen and then got very frustrated when trying to book my flight from Oaxaca to Cancun, for some reason not one of my two cards were accepted by the websites I was trying to use. So, I went to bed still needing to book my buses between Mexico City and Taxco and Taxco and Oaxaca. One thing I did do was extend my stay at Roomies, I was due to leave on Saturday but have decided to stay until Monday as I have not done much and there is so much to do and see in this city – perhaps I will come back after my week in Playa del Carem, or perhaps I’ll find some other areas of Mexico to explore – who knows.
13th June – Friday
OMG – I just remembered I forgot to call my mum on her birthday, which was Wednesday – I was so wrapped up in myself and my first adventure in this city that I totally forgot her – so selfish of me ☹
Other than that realisation, today has been a culturally interesting exploration of a small part of the Historic Centre. I woke at 5 am, so the jet lag is almost over 😊 Kevin and I went to the food stall outside the supermarket, I think they were pleased to see us again, especially when I used Spanish to order my Chilaquiles and ask how much it cost, not that I understood her reply, but I did get a lot of smiles from her. Chilaquiles is a chicken dish with tortilla chips, sour cream and cheese and it came with a bread roll – it was a huge portion and very filling so I couldn’t finish it. I’m going to put on so much weight if I continue eating all this Mexican food. After breakfast we got the metro to Zocalo, which is the Historic Centre of the city. I had to purchase their equivalent of an Oyster card and all trips cost 5 pesos regardless of how far you travel. The metro was very easy to navigate, especially after being used to the London underground; not only do all stations have names but they also have symbols, so the one we got on at was a wasp, we changed at the peach and we got off at what looked like a head – lol. The trains, according to Kevin, are old French trains and they have big rubber wheels. It was quite funny as I had read that they have women only carriages, it didn’t take long for me to realise that we were in one and to confirm I asked a lady. Kevin was very embarrassed but the women didn’t seem to mind, in fact they found it quite funny, and we only had one stop left to go anyway. We alighted at Zocalo and the Plaza de la Constitution, which is where all the protests and demonstrations happen, there were some tents up, but not many, which I think were from the month-long protest held by teachers over their pay. We went straight for coffee and then returned to the square where several people (shaman) wearing huge feather head-dresses and day-of-dead make-up and costumes had set up, research informs me that they represent the Aztec deities associated with the sun (Tonatiuh), rain (Tlaloc) and fire (Huehueteotl/Xiutecuhtli); I paid for a blessing. It was quite a magical experience being rubbed down with herbs, having incense burned around me, lavender water splashed over me and a horn blown around me, not to mention the back and shoulder rubbing. I didn’t get a photo of the lady shaman that performed my blessing as she wanted money for the photos and I had already paid a fair bit for a photo of her shaman equipment and the blessing, but later during the day I did take a couple of sneaky photos of another Aztec shaman and another one performing a ritual on someone else.
After the blessing we went into the Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de Mexico, which was huge and quite stunning with its gold alters and gold areas for prayer, it even had a black Jesus hanging from a cross. Then we visited the Museo del Templo Mayor, which was very interesting, showcasing the archaeological finds and exhibits from the Aztec civilization, I really enjoyed the excavated areas and some of the displays were amazing. I also wanted to visit the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which was only a 15-minute walk away, but Kevin was lagging by then, he is not very fit and walking takes its toll on him, let alone all the stairs we had to go up and down. And to be honest, I was also quite exhausted by then, so we jumped back on the metro and came back to the hostel.
I finally manged to book my flight from Oaxaca to Cancun. It turned out that Starling had blocked my CVS code as Volaris airlines do not use 3D verification. I had to use live chat to get it unblocked and then pay for my flight via PayPal. It was all very frustrating and I still haven’t booked my bus to Taxco and from Taxco to Oaxaca, but tomorrow is another day 
My flight lands 15 minutes after she arrives, I told Appy that I will meet them at the luggage carousel, currently Justine thinks she is going to either Greece or Spain – lol.
15th June – Sunday
Today was very enjoyable, I went on a tour. I booked it last night from Get Your Guide, which I have used before and it was only £22, can’t really go wrong at that price, can you? Well, the answer is no you can’t, the tour was pretty good and the guide extremely passionate and highly informative, and overall, I had a very good day.
We met at a café half hours walk from the hostel, but I got a cab. I was quite surprized at the size of the coach we got on and the fact that, after the second pick up it was packed, I was quite disappointed as I had some random guy sitting next to me and I really wasn’t feeling sociable. There were two guides, one for us English speakers and one for the Spanish. Our guide was called Alexia and as mentioned, she was extremely passionate about her history and her country, but I suppose to be a good guide you need to be.
Our first stop was Tlatelolco. Here we learnt about the history of Mexico City and how Tlatelolco, built by the indigenous Aztec people, had been built on an island in a shallow river, over time they were invaded and destroyed, the river drained and New Mexico City was rebuilt. And the Spanish used some of the stones from Tlatelolco to build the church that stands opposite. She explained that due to being built on a shallow river, Mexico is now sinking. For more information on Tlatelolco you can visit https://historicalmx.org/items/show/97.
After that we went to Basilica of Guadalupe, which again was very interesting. The guild informed us that the original church came about due to an Indian who claimed to have seen the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531. The Virgin Mary told him to build a church on that site, so he went to the high priest and informed him of his vision, he was not believed. He went back to the Virgin Mary and told her he was not believed; she told him to keep tyring. Finally, the priest said he needed proof, so the Mary told him to go to the top of the hill, gather the roses and take them to the priest. He did this and when he dropped the roses in front of the priest, the priest dropped to his knees as Mary appeared on the Indian’s shirt. The church was built. There is now a more modern church next to the original one which can hold 10,000 compared to the 1,000 of the original, and the new one contains an image of the Virgin Mary that is the most famous religious icon in all of Mexico. In my opinion the new one is very ugly and ruins the site, however, it is an important structure as the original church is now sinking, whilst the new, due to modern day technology is not sinking. When we was there was a service taking place and it was so packed that people were standing at the back. Mexicans are very religious.
Before lunch we went to 3 workshops, which was not advertised by GYG, so it was a good little bonus. The first was all about the Maguey, which is an Ancient Wonder Plant and a major agricultural product in Mesoamerica. It was used for fencing, paper, rope and weaving. The second was all about a stone, unfortunately I cannot remember its name but it was very beautiful and very tough and you can use it to look at the sun, which we did. The last, and my favourite workshop was a tasting session, we tasted several different types of tequila and mezcal, most of which were very delicious and we also learnt a little bit about each one. For lunch we went to a restaurant where I got talking to two girls. One was from Wimbledon (!) and the other from Istanbul. I was hoping to do Teotihuacan with them but they quickly disappeared once we got off the coach and so I was on my own again, which is fine by me.
It was Teotihuacan that I really wanted to see and why I went on the tour. Don’t get me wrong the other two sites and the workshops were very interesting, and I am more than glad I got to see them. It was a shame that I couldn’t do the ballon ride over Teotihuacan but the weather has been so bad recently that all balloon rides had been cancelled. I have a reason to return!
Follow this link for a Brief history of Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan means “place where the gods were created” and was stunning. It is made up streets, palaces, temples, residential complexes, and the Causeway of the Dead, which you can walk down and links the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. It took me a while, as I was petrified of the climb down due to my new fear of falling down stairs, but I finally plucked up the courage to climb half way up the Pyramid of the Moon, the view down the Causeway of the Dead was awesome. The climb down was not awesome and, although there were a lot of
people behind me, I took my time and used my hands to keep me steady. I had just reached the ground when this guy, carry a baby in a front sling, stumbled and almost fell down the last few steps, wow did the crowd move to save him and the baby, thank god this did not happen nearer the top, it could have been fatal, not only for hm and the baby but also those around him. I hope next time he chooses to do a dangerous climb he leaves the baby on terra firmer and in safe hands.
I’m feeling a little sad to be leaving Mexico City, I’ve really enjoyed my stay here and have not done half the things I would have liked to. But I have a mission at hand and must make my way to Playa Del carmen but with two stops on route. Mexico City, I hope to see you again on day.
