Mexico City for Free (almost)

What a great day. I was out and about all day in the city today and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was really the type of day that I love!

To start, I slept in. Why that is so great, I am not sure, but it always makes me happy. Basically, one of the roommates came home at 4:45 last night, lets just say he wasn´t so sober, and made a lot of noise. I then slept until my alarm went off at 8:45. And finally got out of bed at about 9:15. What can I say, it made me happy. I went down to get my free breakfast, all that was left was some toast, and what I thought was coffee. All I could get was hot water to mix with INSTANT coffee. I have to say although breakfast was free, I would have been happy to pay for some good coffee in the morning. Basically i put two packets of the instant in to make it worth while. Kathy truly does spoil me with good coffee everyday.

First stop, The Templo Mayor. I was surprised I could walk in. the guard merely said it was free! I was pretty psyched! Not sure why I didn´t need to pay, but hey who cares. Anyway the cool thing about this temple complex is that it was only two minutes from the hostel! No, really the cool thing about this is that it was a mjor temple area from the original Mexicas (no typo there) and it was basically the cetner of their city, Tenochtitlan. Really cool. Basically a temple that was buried and redone to prove that each subsequent ruler was that much better then the one before him. There must be a joke in there about compensation for all these rulers! Anyway the colonial achteictrue just built on top of it destroying so much of this temple, etc. that all that is left is ruins. It was pretty cool to see the layers of temple built on top of each other. So much for preserving the old... The museum for this was very well done and very well done and very well organized. I was impressed.

I left this site to see what else was around. I had just see the cathedral yesterday so I decided to try the National Palace. Very very cool. I mean besides the GIANT Mexican flag, you walk into this major square and you are then able to check out some small, although nice, botanical gardens. Oh yeah, did I mention that Benito Jaurez is pretty huge here is Mexico? Certainly they seemed to like him at the National Palace. Overall, it was really nice, well kept, and beautiful, and of course FREE! I left there a little after noon and was trying to decide what to do so I continued on my walking tour to the Palacio de Bellas Artes. It was a pretty impressive building and inside was very art deco. Í wa´s excited about it becuase it had an exhibit of a famous Mexican director and seemed to be very popluar amongst the Mexicans. Anyway i wandered around the galleries and I was really excited about the gallery on artchitecture. It was really nice and cool to see what people have done. By the way the 70's remain a terrible time for architecture. Oh yeah, this museum was also free!

I hung out in the Alameda Central for a while. I bought some fresh fruit to eat...it made me happy. Basically just a straight forward city park. After I was done there I made my way to the Museo National de Anthropologia.

I have to say, that this museum ranks amongst one of the best of its kind I have ever been to. It was clearly organized, it had commentary in both Spanish and English, and it was really dedicated to the indigenous people of Mexico. What was cool was that it wasn´t just structures. It wasn´t just remains. It wasn´t just stuff. It also had sections on the culture of the people and all that they stood fro and in some cases still do represent. It was truly and Anthropological museum and I spent several hours there walking through the extensive galleries. A must see for anyone who is in Mexico City. Unfortunately, it wasn´t free. I paid my 50 pesos or about five bucks. Well worth it. There is also a show of the Totonic people who throw themselves off a pole (four at a time) and the spin around to the ground. They are all attached to a rope that spins around a spindle until they hit the ground ( they are hanging upside down). It was pretty cool to see. I had some snacks from venders (i do love street food), and then found a coffee shop and had a good cappucino. For the record, I have avoided not only McDonalds (which see to be on many corners) but also Starbucks, which I found today.

I have sampled several beers, Negra Modelo, Sol (both of which you can find in the States). I was pretty impressed with the large (one liter) bottle of Corona! Not to worry, I drank it all with dinner!

So like I was saying, a whole day of entertainment and food and I paid a total of about $20. Not bad, throw in housing the whole day only cost me $34!

Tomorrow I am off to Teotihaucan to check out the ruins.