I was really excited to meet my mum in Mexico City for Easter week. Ed and I got th bus down to Mexico and headed to the airport where we got a bit confused... I didn't know my mum's flight number, only the arrival time so I found that on the board (it was a bit delayed) and patiently waited there. I started to get a bit paranoid because noone was coming through the gates we were waiting outside. I looked at the screen again and somehow got the impresion that I was in fact at the wrong terminal. So we finally found out how to get to the other terminal (not easy) and when we got over there it was so quiet and her flight was not on the board. I started having a massive panic and went and asked at the information desk at the same time as ed was calling my mum to see if she'd landed yet.
So we were in the wrong terminal and had to go back to where we were before. It was a shock to see my mum cos she looked so different from the last time I'd seen her. We got a taxi to the hotel, who had no record of our booking. I showed them the confirmation email they'd sent me and they apologised and said they had no free rooms, so they sent us to a partner hotel which looked really shitty from the outside but was actually pretty nice when you got into the rooms (and was a lot lot cheaper) However it wasn't as close to the centre and it was abit noisy.
After we'd got settled in, we went out for a walk and to find some dinner. We ate at a restaurant on the Zocalo which had very nice food and was in a really beautiful hotel (way out of our league!) We walked around and saw some street entertainment and all the little stalls around the zocalo after dinner, but really it was just exciting to see my mum and chat to her in real life rather than on msn!
We knew we needed to get an early night, as we were heading out to the ruins at Tula the next day, so we went back to the hotel (its location wasn't great, a bit of a dark walk back from the centre)and tried to get some sleep.
We woke up early, took our bags back to the other hotel (they had rooms available for the rest of our stay) and got on the metro to the bus station (the metro was a bit scary for my mum, but it was all ok). At the bus station we bought the tickets and then bought a breakfast of tamales to eat on the bus - my mum's first mexican food treat. The bus ride was quite long and a bit cramped but we were excited about visiting the pyramid there. We knew it wouldn't be as impressive as Teotihuacan but knew that it would be a nice experience (especially for my mum) all the same.
It was a lot less commercial and touristy than Teotihuacan, but on the blazingly hot day that we went there were plenty of hats available as well as quite a lot of other stalls selling various souvenirs. The site itself was really nice. Two pyramids, two ball courts, Toltec warrior columns and various other bits to see. We loved the Toltec warriors and the pyramids were a nice manageable climb for my mum - not too exhausting. As with all archaeological sites we spent some time there admiring everything and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere that you tend to find at these places.
After we went into the town of Tula, helped along by a friendly woman who called her taxi driver husband to come and pick us up and take us there. In the town we went to look at the church but as it was Palm Sunday it was an bit too busy to go in and have a look around. We had a cup of rose petal ice-cream and then started to wander around the town. It was incredibly hot though, and so we sat down for a giant sope in a little market as a late lunch. We headed back to the bus station and Mexico City after this and had a little bit of time to relax in our new hotel room (with king size bed!!) before heading out for the first of many very nice dinners.
We went to Cafe de Tacuba where there were Mariachi playing and the atmosphere was great. The decor was fun and we'd heard that the food wasn't that great but we really enjoyed our generous portions of good Mexican food. I had delicious Chiles Rellenos which I couldn't finish (of course Ed helped out with that). We really enjoyed our meal and concluded that it had been an excellent day all round.
On Monday we got up a bit later, and took a long long metro ride to Xochimilco. At Xochimilco there are canals built in the past by indigenous people to grow plants in the fertile soil of the lake. Now it's a place for boat parties and tranquil cruises along the waterways. We weren't exactly sure how it worked and though we may have been ripped off a little bit price wise. We went on a 2 hour trip on a brightly painted gondola. It was great fun and we had drinks on board, various food selling boats stopped along side us and tried to sell us snacks, ed bargained for a rug that my mum didn't really want but as he'd worked so hard to get the price down she bought as a birthday present for my grandma in the end. There were mariachi boats that you could stop and get to play for you next to your boat as it drifted along and you could definitely see that it would be a great place to have a party!
We had a lot of fun and were sad when our 2 hours were up. We walked into Xochimilco town, but there wasn't a lot to see, and after a paleta got in a bicycle taxi back to the metro station. The taxi driver must've been strong to pull all 3 of us up the hill, and despite it being a slightly uncomfortable ride we had a lot of fun and giggles on the way!
The metro was very crowded and sweaty on the way back, and we were glad to finally get back to the zocalo and walk back to our hotel. We had a cocktail at the bar there and then took some time to relax and unwind before going out for dinner at Los Girasoles, which had some of the most delicious food available in Mexico City - it comes very highly recommended and we had a really wonderful dinner there. The food was interesting and innovative and the restaurant was beautifully decorated and a nice place to spend an evening.
It was a little chilly after our meal, but we had planned to take my mum up to Plaza Garibaldi (the mariachi plaza) and surprise her with a serenade. She twigged on to what we were doing and desperately pleaded with me not to, but Ed was already deep in negotiations (which took ages!) with a mariachi band. Eventually they sang for her and by some miracle it was a song she knew (i'm not sure if this was a good thing or not!) We had photos and my mum was embarrassed and on the way home we couldn't stop laughing. I think she enjoyed it more when it was over than when it was going on.
The next day was our last day in Mexico City and we haeded to Chapultepec Park where we took a little train ride and then went up to the Castle which was beautiful! We spent most of the moring walking round and admiring the place and wishing we could live there...
We went to the food area in the park to get lunch, but Ed got a bit annoyed with all the food sellers shouting at him and trying to sell him a seat in their patch. In the end we got an Ok lunch, nothing special but we didn't expect it to be at a stall in the park.
We went to the zoo after lunch, visited the butterfly house which we really enjoyed (i liked it better 2ns time round as this time i knew i wasn't going to have to face evil spiders afterwards!) We took loads of photo and a butterfly landed on my neck - it was all quite magical.
We wandered for a bit and eventually went to the snake house, where we saw loads of snakes venemous and non-venemous and an alarming number of them seemed to be native to mexico. Mum was a bit exhuasted after that so we headed out of the zoo which was closing fairly soon anyway, and got a bus back to the zocalo - rushed back to the hotel so we could get ready for our night of glamour at Miralto restaurant.
We got all dressed up and headed to the Latin American Tower where we shot up to the 43rd floor. It was really beautiful and I've never been to such an elegant restaurant before (at least not as a guest!) We had a table next to the window looking over the east of Mexico City towards the Zocalo, which was great. We arrived when it was still light and ordered a cocktail before our food.
The food was really delicious especially my roasted tomato soup. We saw the sun go down and had great views of the city at night. Even the toilets were special there. They had amazing views of the city and one of the cubicles had a glass wall on one side looking out over Mexico!
It was a really lovely night and a great way to finish our stay in Mexico City before we headed on to Guadalajara the next day.
