Ok, strange title I know but is basically the direction of travel I have taken so far in my just over 1 week of Mex style adventure. From Pachuca to Mexico City to Cuernavaca to Guadalajara and now I am 17 hours south of Guad in Oaxaca (Pron. Wah-ha-ca). But more importantly see the wiggerly line in the above picture that is the strengthening Australian dollar against the Mexican peso, not so important to most but it was at its highest level for a long time on Thursday.
In continuing, Mexico city an absolutely massive city with a population similar to the population of Australia (23 billion) but in a space a hell of a lot smaller;
- City 1,485 km² (573.36 sq mi)
- Metro 7,854 km² (3,032.4 sq mi)
But an efficient and functional metro system (that Melbourne could certainly learn something from) helps to ferry you around quite easily to pretty much anyplace in the city that your heart could desire. If not take on of the ever present taxis or autobus's. The other major feature of Chilangolandia is the Zocolo, blogged about previously, but this time when I was there, the worlds largest ice rink happened to be there too. And the first night I arrived I spotted a line up next to the rink, thinking that skating on the worlds biggest rink could be a bit of fun, I lined up too. But it turns out I was wrong, when I finally got in, I discovered much to my surprise that I was to watch The Nutcracker on Ice, performed by a Russian ballet troupe accompanied by the Mexico City Orchestra. An interesting night to say the least. Other sights visited by your worldly author include Frida Kahlo house, The Anthropology Museum and the UNESCO listed national university UNAM home to a student body of 100,000.
Also performed a day trip of sorts to the Chilango paradise of Cuernavaca, where DF residents escape the smog for the weekend and gringos infest the shops. I was in the town for only a couple of hours then I made my escape to; Xochicalco a fantastic example of a early Classic period religious and trading centre and the ball courts were pretty sweet to boot.
The next resting place of my well used backpack was the slightly northern city of Guadalajara birthplace of the legendary Mariachi, where 4 days were spent getting to know the very people friendly city. Also there I met some pretty cool other backpackers, such as Lina a Korean girl I had met in DF and Meg a fellow Melbournite, both of whom where making a solo trip all the way down to South America. Various sights seen like the ridiculously large market, that two friends got lost in, and I got slightly disorientated for 2 hour and food poisoning from. But a new pair of sunglasses was purchased there as the black pair of Cervantino had finally died a couple of weeks before after being superglued back together 5 times. I felt yellow to be an appropriate colour.
Day tripped from here to the town of Tequila home to the mexican recognised drink, nerded it up on a factory tour, asking all sorted of steam, water treatment and pressure related questions. Had had our 10 free shots at the end of the tour, a good 7 more than any other members of the tour group. Also got to quite naughtily taste the 65+% pure tequila before it was cut down to sell-able quantity, good times.
And now I am in Oaxaca, for a couple of days to sample the local food and no doubt have my way with some of the vast quantities gringa.
Musical sample this week is from of course mariachi (well, kind of),
Pasarela - Dalmarta
