Our second week in Mexico city commenced with a gloomy weekend that teetered between cloudy and rainy throughout. We wanted to visit around the city, but decided to put it off for when we get a day with better weather – benefit of staying for six weeks 🙂
What our weekend looked like when it wasn’t raining
Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long because Monday was a clearer day so to the historic center we went. We started at the Alameda Central park, which is a big, beautiful garden of lush greenery, paved paths, and numerous fountains and statues. The park was created in the 1500s and used to be an Aztec marketplace.
Alameda Central
One of the numerous fountains at Alameda Central
There’s even a monument for Beethoven!
From the park, we headed towards the National Art Museum. Along the way, we came across a large number of street vendors selling all sorts of things from books to jewelry to snacks. Mexico City is said to have over 100,000 street vendors that the government has struggled to control as a large number of them are illegal. From our experience; however, none were aggressive or pushy in any way. Personally, I favour hard-working vendors over able-bodied panhandlers.
Little market area with book vendors
Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL)
Vendors in front of the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL)
We did a lot of exploring on foot, stopping only for a quick lunch at KFC in the afternoon. Phil was looking for a couple of cables when we stumbled upon Avenida RepĂşblica de El Salvador – a street filled with music and electronic stores. Our favourite biker was like a minion in the middle of a field of bananas. We found the cables he was looking for and continued along our merry way.
One of the many brick-paved streets
The colours of Mexico
Lots of pedestrians and cyclists in the city
One of the many Starbucks locations
We just have to take pictures of everything with “Canada” written on it
Decorations left over from Independence Day
207 Years of Independence
Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de MĂ©xico
Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de MĂ©xico
Ciudad de MĂ©xico
Just being a tourist
Happy Biker (probably thinking about Starbucks)
Los Guardianes del Centro HistĂłrico
We also noticed that there was an exceptionally large police presence in the city. We later found out from our Uber driver that this was because a demonstration was supposed to be held. We didn’t see or hear anything while we were in the city so I’d count that as a good thing.
Too many cops for this dying vehicle
Biker Cops
And more cops…
On our way to Starbucks, we crossed Mexico City’s Chinatown that’s not really a town unless you can consider a town to be all of one block long. We went into one of the stores in the hope of finding some Chinese five-spice powder. Lo and behold, there was some stashed near the back of the store so I was able to make one of Phil’s favourite meals for dinner that evening!
Five-spice Chicken
In case you’re wondering, we did make a stop at Starbucks before heading back to our apartment 🙂
Belles photos de Mexico et de quelques monuments qui semblent en bonne condition de conservation. La ville me paraĂ®t plus accueillante que je ne l’imaginais.
Merci pour la carte de Guadalajara reçue hier !
Bises et bon voyage Ă vous deux.
Merci pour la visite Ă tous les deux! Mexico est effectivement une ville plutĂ´t sympathique, avec un style relativement similaire Ă Rio de Janeiro.