Eating on the hoof in Mexico City!
Chicago was our last stop before we hit non-English speaking countries again as we were headed for Mexico, the originally named capital Mexico City to be exact. We boarded the plane, got out our next guidebook and began reading about our next destination. It was only then that we discovered what an enormous city we were heading towards. 17.8 million people live there, that´s almost the same as the entire population of Australia all in one city!
Not for the first time we turned up in a country with no where to sleep and it was at this point that Ad wished he´d taken more notice in his school Spanish lessons. However, after lots of miming and reading out of phrase books we found ourselves at a little hotel in the old part of town and headed out for our first taste of Mexico. And what a taste it was, Ad´s mouth is still burning, but at least he learnt a valuable lesson, if it´s red, it´s HOT! 
We spent the next day exploring the city and trying not to get ourselves run over by the crazy drivers who occupy the roads (and sometimes the pavements too!). After a few hours wandering around the little bustling markets and gazing in awe at the beautiful buldings and churches we stumbled into the main square which has in it possibly the biggest flag in the world (pictured above). It´s simply enormous. We had to wait for an almost galeforce wind to blow to get this picture!
We also ventured over to the nearby ruins of the ancient capital of Mexico where we saw (and climbed) the third largest pyramid in the world. The ruins of the whole city are still there including some of the original frescos that date back to about 100 AD. Pretty amazing to see. However, even more interesting was learning of the huge number of traditional human sacrifices that used to take place here, supposedly 25000 in one ceremony that lasted for four days.
We spent the next day exploring the city and trying not to get ourselves run over by the crazy drivers who occupy the roads (and sometimes the pavements too!). After a few hours wandering around the little bustling markets and gazing in awe at the beautiful buldings and churches we stumbled into the main square which has in it possibly the biggest flag in the world (pictured above). It´s simply enormous. We had to wait for an almost galeforce wind to blow to get this picture!
We also ventured over to the nearby ruins of the ancient capital of Mexico where we saw (and climbed) the third largest pyramid in the world. The ruins of the whole city are still there including some of the original frescos that date back to about 100 AD. Pretty amazing to see. However, even more interesting was learning of the huge number of traditional human sacrifices that used to take place here, supposedly 25000 in one ceremony that lasted for four days.Then, after a day of cultural activity we decided to head over and enjoy a traditional Mexican pastime, Mexican wrestling. 
We couldn´t quite believe our eyes when we arrived at the stadium, there were people everywhere and most of them were wearing skin tight masks over their entire heads emulating their favourite wrestlers. The surprising thing was that these people weren´t children, they were grown men! The atmosphere inside the stadium was crazy as lycra clad, mask and cape wearing wrestlers (similar to those around in the very early 80s) were escorted to the ring by bikini clad beauties. They then proceeded to throw themselves at each other in some kind of mock fighting, elaborate gymnastic routine. If things looked as though they were going the wrong way for the hero's a couple more wrestlers would join in to even things out again (at one point there was even a midget donned in a blue monkey suit jumping up and down on a black cape wearing villain wrestler, weird!).
At the time we thought that this would probably be our most bizarre experience in Mexico City but it fades into insignificance when compared with the next evenings antics. We were just going out for a quiet dinner and a couple of drinks (it tends to always start that way though doesn´t it?!). Dinner passed as planned (although Ad did get a plate of black looking tar, no idea what it was, that´s the problem when the menu is in Spanish!) and then we headed to a traditional Cantina (bar). Sitting at the bar we ordered our beers and then looked in bemusement as the barman wittered on and on at us in Spanish.
Eventually he said, ¨I recommend¨ and scurried away. We were quite perplexed but when he returned with a plate of peanuts figured out he must have been offering us a bar snack. A few minutes later he returned with a plate of stuff that looked a bit like raw fish with what looked like a knuckle joint in it. On noticing the bemused looks on mine and Ad´s faces he smiled and did an impression of the tasty nibble he´d created for us. He put his hands on his head to resemble horns and mooed and then pointed to his foot!! BULLS HOOF! Ad and I looked at each other in shock! But were forced to tuck into the gristly, jelly like treat with the aid of some lime juice and Tabasco sauce, nice!
One positive to come out of the evening was that we met a random Mexican girl at the bar who decided that she would like to show us round the city the next day. Meeting her the next morning we discovered that her English wasn´t actually as good as we remembered and we spent most of the day talking in broken sentences like Borat (without the dodgy accent) and miming like fools.
We couldn´t quite believe our eyes when we arrived at the stadium, there were people everywhere and most of them were wearing skin tight masks over their entire heads emulating their favourite wrestlers. The surprising thing was that these people weren´t children, they were grown men! The atmosphere inside the stadium was crazy as lycra clad, mask and cape wearing wrestlers (similar to those around in the very early 80s) were escorted to the ring by bikini clad beauties. They then proceeded to throw themselves at each other in some kind of mock fighting, elaborate gymnastic routine. If things looked as though they were going the wrong way for the hero's a couple more wrestlers would join in to even things out again (at one point there was even a midget donned in a blue monkey suit jumping up and down on a black cape wearing villain wrestler, weird!).At the time we thought that this would probably be our most bizarre experience in Mexico City but it fades into insignificance when compared with the next evenings antics. We were just going out for a quiet dinner and a couple of drinks (it tends to always start that way though doesn´t it?!). Dinner passed as planned (although Ad did get a plate of black looking tar, no idea what it was, that´s the problem when the menu is in Spanish!) and then we headed to a traditional Cantina (bar). Sitting at the bar we ordered our beers and then looked in bemusement as the barman wittered on and on at us in Spanish.
Eventually he said, ¨I recommend¨ and scurried away. We were quite perplexed but when he returned with a plate of peanuts figured out he must have been offering us a bar snack. A few minutes later he returned with a plate of stuff that looked a bit like raw fish with what looked like a knuckle joint in it. On noticing the bemused looks on mine and Ad´s faces he smiled and did an impression of the tasty nibble he´d created for us. He put his hands on his head to resemble horns and mooed and then pointed to his foot!! BULLS HOOF! Ad and I looked at each other in shock! But were forced to tuck into the gristly, jelly like treat with the aid of some lime juice and Tabasco sauce, nice!One positive to come out of the evening was that we met a random Mexican girl at the bar who decided that she would like to show us round the city the next day. Meeting her the next morning we discovered that her English wasn´t actually as good as we remembered and we spent most of the day talking in broken sentences like Borat (without the dodgy accent) and miming like fools.
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11:17 AM
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