So after our exciting encounter with Leo the deported Mexican we continued our mission to know the streets of Mexico City blindfold -- we explored the Aztec ruins in the city centre, spied on the mariachi bands in Garibaldi Plaza, and went for churros (long doughnuts covered in sugar, mm) and hot chocolate in the dead of night (safely mum, dont worry!) We were escorted by long-haired engineering students who wanted us to dance with them in the mariachi square but managed to shake them off and find the sugary goodies.
Yesterday we went to Teotihuacan, an ancient Aztec settlement. The bus ride there was a bit of an eye-opener, none of the beautiful Spanish architecture we're now used to but row upon row of ugly naked concrete housing, piled all the way up the hills surrounding the city. We were accompanied by thousands of Mexichan schoolkids on their Easter 'lets learn about our culture' trips, and they ran rings around us getting up the 248 steep steps to the top. Imagining the sacrifices was pretty scary, it would've been pretty intimidating to live there 2000 years ago! The Temple of the Sun was huuuuuge, we walked down the Avenue of the Dead and admired the smog from Mexico City in the distance.
Today we began with some standard religious observations and went to see the Virgin Guadalupe cloth in all its glory before setting off for the most exciting part of Mexico so far -- the Xochimilco floating gardens! Imagine a tropical Venice. We hired a boat and got punted around the canals for an hour, encountering floating mariachi bands, restaurants, and lost barge poles along the way. This was our favourite place so far, we wandered through the market looking at all of the alien chillies and decapitated chickens, then ate lunch in the heart of the market -- bullied into it would be more apt -- by a tiny mexican matriarch. We chose our food by wandering into the kitchen, and shared chillies stuffed with cheese, delicious rice soup and tortillas. Not knowing Spanish is actually quite fun, it gives you license to wander into kitchens, gesture wildly, and get away with pretending not to understand the men and their lewd catcalls!
We've booked our Spanish course and hostel in Oaxaca, so after our 6 hour bus journey tomorrow we should hopefully be able to give those men a piece of our minds!
