day 2: mexico city - of zocalo, the art museum, and la zona rosa

9 Feb 2006 (Thursday)

Because we didn't rest at all at the hotel. We just went in to put down our stuff, took our baths, and then went right out again just as the sun was rising over the city.



The Mexico City street outside our hotel in the early morning.

Mexico City is AMAZING. This place doesn't sleep. It's just so vibrant and bustling with energy and culture from its buildings and cobblestoned roads, to its people, to even the cute green beetle taxi cabs on the road.



Like this one.

Anyway our first stop was Zocalo, which was the main square in Centro Historico.



This is the Square and the large Cathedral in the square.



And me and the huge Mexican flag in the centre of the square. It looks so regal when it flutters in the wind.

There was a demonstration outside Parliament building (see below) on the day we were there, so the riot police were actually standing on guard in case they were needed to quell the protesters.





Above: Riot police close up. And below: the whole damn squad as taken from across the street (I didn't want my camera to be confiscated. Just in case).



Because we were fucking hungry along the way, we embarked on this mission to find food. Food. Any kind of food. It was still really early so a lot of places weren't open... But we struck gold. This bakery/cafe tt was our first brush with DAMN cheap coffee and food.



This cappucino costs only 13 pesos. Which is equivalent to US $1.30.

And it is DAMN good.



Me with said cappucino (the first of many many more obsessive coffee photos to come later in this blog).



Ben with cappucino (no. The coffee photo phrase is not limited to me alone).

Ooh... And you haven't even see the sweets yet!



Rich thick fresh cream-filled chocolate bowl with fruits to dip. YUMMY.



Desserts (before breakfast???) and cappucino.



And Alvin and I and our breakfast.

After breakfast, it was onward to the National Museum of Art to look around. We'd got there early - before the museum opened, so we tried to waste some time by going to the post office to look around (it looks really grand!).

And take photos of course.



Ben and I at the post office. This apparently only serves the purpose of telling EVERYONE tt he is one head taller than me. BAH.

But we still ended up waiting outside the museum later anyway.

Poor Alvin was SO tired tt he just couldn't take all the waiting (the museum didn't open on time).



Zzz.

Interestingly, there was a demonstration against privatisation going on outside the museum. Tons of people from different provinces had set up tents and staged some kind of sit out to protest Mexico's move towards privatisation.



Which explains all the tents above. Heh. (Okay, this was taken at a later time, but I am just trying to highlight a point here.)

Anyway the museum was really lovely. Grand, with so many pictures and portraits and art pieces and exhibits.



Me at the main entrance.



A book with an illustration by de la Goya (there was a Goya exhibition going on at the museum during this period).



The stairs leading up to the 2nd floor.



A stained glass phoenix.



And how one wall of the gallery might look.

This museum also made Ben VERY happy, because unlike other museums anywhere else in the world, it actually had an "Area de Fumar" - an area where smoking was allowed.



Ben's "Area de Fumar".



And me engaging in vice as well.



After tt, it was back to Zocalo to the cathedral.



Where we walked inside to have a look at it. And YES.



It is very very grand. Of course.

But we were dead tired, I think from the travelling and the lack of sleep. I was literally falling asleep in the pews of the cathedral.

So we decided to go somewhere else. We took the Metro - tt's the subway and the Mexican equivalent of the MRT, except tt it is a lot cheaper. A one-way ticket ANYWHERE costs only 3 pesos. Oh and the Metro is a massive underground labyrinth. The different tracks cross all over the place, so taking the Metro involves a fair amount of changing trains and cross tracks.



Above is the Metro station. And below is people waiting for the train.



Interestingly, we found out tt Mexicans have a culture of selling things. They will sell you anything anywhere anytime. In the metro, we'd have people get on the train just to hawk everything from pirated CDs to nail clippers to cure-it-all medication to chewing gum. You name it, they'd probably sell it. And they'd announce what they were selling really loudly in Espanol and in the case of CDs, play what they were selling on these loud speakers built into bags tt they would carry with them.

We took the Metro to Avenida Insurgentes, where we were supposed to look for the Mercado (Market) Insurgentes. But it was SO fucking hot tt we ended up at this alfresco dining place for lunch instead.



Alvin and I with beer and watermelon juice respectively.

It was the life. Sitting there for at least 2 hours eating, drinking, and in Ben's case, smoking. And chatting about life and all things related.

We only decided to find the market past 4pm, but I'd gotten confused between Mercado Insurgentes and Plaza Insurgentes, and I led them to the wrong place instead. And it was a 10 block walk from the Metro station, too!

Ultimately, we ended up at La Zona Rosa engaging in our first foray into vice. La Zona Rosa means "The Pink Zone". It's supposed to be a touristy area with its restaurants, bars and sex shops, but it's ultimately geared towards the rainbow-coloured flag inclined.

And here I also have to say: Whatever happens in Mexico, remains in Mexico.

It was however, a highly entertaining and amusing night. And we ended early too. We were in bed by 10.30pm tt night. Zzz.