Easter with Friends
Apologies for my last post, it was rather a downer. I wish to share with you that this travel malarkey isn’t all high adrenaline fun fun fun as the photos seem to be of pure enjoyment.
After returning from my jaunt down to Guatemala and back, I started getting my ideas clear on what I wanted to do from Mexico onward. I calculated the amount of time needed to finish off my video series I’m working on, in a realistic time frame and tie up loose ends in Mexico City.
A few days after returning to Mexico, Kyl and Heidi got in touch to tell me they were in town; Kyl had been travelling for a year and was finishing up his trip in Mexico City, Heidi had basically come to Mexico to make sure he did leave 😀 All the same, I was happy to have some companionship.
San Angel, Coyocan and Xochimilco
From what I understood Heidi was desperate to buy something from the markets in Mexico City and she had researched and was informed that the Saturday market at San Angel would be the hot place to go. Admittedly, I’m not one to buy frivolous knick-knacks at markets (with say, exception to a cotton hammock in San Cristobal which remains to be hung), and thus, I hadn’t been to the Saturday market in San Angel.
So we set off, soon it became apparent that it wasn’t all that, and we itched to see something a bit more exciting, I figured being only a couple of neighbourhoods away I’d take them to the market of Coyocan.
An Uber taxi later, we were there checking out the slightly more rustic market of Coyocan, being that it was Easter, not a lot of people were trading and it did take away a little from the buzz that the place usually has. I figured with the day still young we could make the most of it and go to Xochimilco (pronounced: sÅ-chi-milk-Åh) , technically we weren’t going to be any closer to there at any other point from Coyocan.
Another taxi later, we were there in the absolute insanity that is Xochimilco, little had prepared us for this, it was pure madness. More so the rates they wanted to charge us to charge a Trajinera (the boats you see on the water), having been on one before with my mum, we were charged 200 pesos for an hour and we gladly took 2 hours. This time around being of a demographic that looks like you could extort, or maybe the time of year, they demanded 1300 pesos the first hour and 1700 for an hour and half. After realizing they weren’t going to budge we took a stroll and cooled off from the hostility we had been treated. On the return walk a semi decent chap who I had previously talked to agreed to settle a deal of 700 for 2 hours, we counted our losses and took it. Frankly, well worth it when you think about how crazy it was out there. If you think Mexican traffic is bad you should see what it’s like to try and navigate one of these boats.
Zocalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral
The following day I figured I’d take the Australians out to see the city centre, I had thought try and repeat what I had done with mum, but upon arrival we settled for taking a roof top tour of the cathedral.
Of the few sight-seeing tours I’ve done in the city, this has to be the most affordable, for 20 pesos a person and a tour almost every 20 minutes which lasts about an hour it was fun to walk around the roof of the cathedral, while the guide was all in Spanish and the topic seemed to be much about how many people were killed by bells falling than anything else, it still made for an interesting activity to do. 🙂
Rock Climbing
Since Chiapas, I’ve rekindled my love for rock climbing, and my endeavours to find local training places have returned fruitful. Works out Kyl also was big into climbing and Heidi was also keen so off we went to explore. First off we went to the local Qi Adventure centre nearby which for all the equipment and someone to belay you it was a reasonable deal at 230 pesos a person for the day.
The following day Heidi had a flight to return to Australia, and Kyl and I had a day to try the other climbing centre: Levitas, which is only bouldering and for 65 pesos plus 20 for boots was also a bargain. I think both Kyl and I found the Levitas place a lot more technical and challenging which damn near killed us both, most of all, our hands.
