Distrito Federal Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

i have planned this trip for quite some time and knew that there were a lot of sights that are closed on mondays.  but, i also know that the palacio nacional next to the zocalo is open on mondays.  thus, to maximize my time in mexico city, i decided that monday was going to be the zocalo, the catedral metropolitana, the templo mayor ruins and palacio nacional (where one of diego's mural resides). lo and behold, we got to the zocalo at around 9:45 am and there were cops and barricad...

Because we had stayed out so late the previous night, Mel and I both needed some extra sleep. I had to be out of my hotel around 1PM, which is when Mel picked me up. Sadly, I only had 2 hours before I needed to be at the airport. We quickly drove to Xochimilco, which is an area of the city that is known for its extended series of canals that are the remains of the ancient Lago Xochimilco. One of the entrances to the canals was closed, causing serious traffic. So, we were unable to take an a...

The following morning I was awoken by chickens. This was actually anticipated. What wasn't was that I suddenly felt like a pensioner climbing stairs. Now, it turns out that Mexico City is high up; 7,400 ft (2.2 km) to be precise and the chickens and I were higher up in the hills north of the city in Santa Fe!Priorities first, use the toilet and make tea. Ok, the toilet is a clever design - how can I say... it's silent. Which comes in handy when there are no doors in the apartment! Splashes an...

Our last day was so bittersweet for me. I definitely took my time getting up and exiting the hotel because I just didn't want to leave!Sybil and I discovered that the metro on weekdays is QUITE different from taking the metro on weekends when there are less people and things are much more relaxed. Today, we were caught in the torrent of people trying to get to work and were shoved, squeezed and crowded out of many a train. It was quite tough, even by international standards. I imagine the onl...

First impressions of landing in Mexico City - I had NO IDEA how many mountains surrounded this area!  WOW!  An amazing site, to be sure - and I was just pumped to get a view of this huge city that I had heard so very much about. Once off the plane, I said goodbye to my group of new friends and headed off into the main area to find out about my flight and burn a little time.  This is when 2 things became very clear to me very quickly - 1.  There is no such thing as a smo...

So our final day in Mexico City came and it started like most of our other days in there...with us not hearing the alarm and sleeping way past the hour we wanted.  Today we were supposed to head towards Coyoacan to meet a former professor of mine and of course to buy some handcrafts and souvenirs for our friends (because they always expect something). Within an hour and a half everything was in out bags and we had checked out of the hotel, but leaving our bags there, because they we...

So we are finally here in Mexico City!! The flight over was killer, 12 hours in Economy class and not in the fire exit seats we were promised! I managed to get some kip on the plane for about an hour and when I woke up Brendan was making a plan for our trip. Crazy that we started planning on the plane. Ill upload a photo of 'the plan' later, it is basically 4 lines of writing, haha. Landing in Mexico City is pretty daunting, it is massive, and it suddenly hit home than neither of us spoke Sp...

So, we´ve gotten back to Mexico City to celebrate its Day of Independence and partake in what the Mexicans call "El Grito".  And what a truly interesting and memorable experience.  What other way than to do so in the Zócalo, Mexico City´s main square.  We were amongst many ready to scream "VIVA MÉXICO" and show our pride in being mexicans . . . even Arnaud!!   

En algunos lugares se celebra el día de muertos a la vieja usanza, combinacion de costumbres indígenas y católicas y uno de los lugares famosos por respetar estas tradiciones mexicanas es Mixquic. Sin embargo yo no les recomiendo visitar este lugar porque ésta fama que comenzó a tener Mixquic degeneró en que la gente del lugar se dedica más a hacer negocio y lo que ahora se ve en Mixquic se puede ver en cualquier otra parte de la ciudad. Para llegar hice 3 horas desde e...

This year commemorates the 100th anniversary of Frida Kahlo's birth and Mexico City did a wonderful job in celebrating her life and work.  On my first day, I visited Casa Azul (Blue House) in Coyoacan, a charming suburb of Mexico City.  It was a very special visit for me because this was the house she was born in and also died in.  Casa Azul also exhibited never before seen paintings, drawings, books, clothing and documents that belonged to Frida, revealing her intelligenc...

Today we awoke to a beautiful sunny day but were so freakin sore from the mammoth foot mission yesterday it was a struggle just to get down the stairs for the free breakkie! After breakkie both the other lads went back to bed corey complaining of sore eyes from looking at some much art and dougos calves were having random spasm fits (it was actually quite humerous his hold muscle would contract so hard then release haha)! So I was on my own for an adventure to the floating villages,...

The term is often refered to as the nationality for a country, I'm using it to describe the experience of living in a big city, one of the biggest cities of the world in fact. Mexico city is located in central Mexico in North America, its population is more than 20 million people and it is the capital of my country. Being the capital, the city is the most important one in the country, and thus, there are hundreds of activities, places to visit and experiences to live in this city. I have alre...

Before we were to leave Tequisquiapan we stopped to say good-bye to my grandmother and other members of my family.  We ended up spending more time than we thought we would…so it was kinda late when we finally took the bus to Mexico City. The rest of our remaining time was going to be spent with my Aunt at her place located in Mexico City.  We got into Mexico City in the early evening and decided to go to the Zocolo using Mexico City’s public train system.  Our cousin, his w...

My last day in Mexico City.  I had originally planned to fly out Tuesday afternoon but when I was trying to buy the flight in Puerto Escondido, either the airline site kept crashing or the flight I selected came up as unavailable.  I was getting frustrated and anxious to get to Peru so when I saw a night flight on Monday that left at midnight and landed at 5:30 in the morning with no 4 hour layover in Bogota, Colombia, I jumped on it, even though it cost more than the other but $150...

according to a news report this morning. Locally Mexico is being hit by the tropical storm, and floods all through the Gulf of Mexico/Campeche area. There are local communities that cannot be contacted. Thousands of people have lost their homes. And, in addition, the high elevations are being hit by record cold temperatures. 0 degrees Centigrade, and below. I had planned to travel through there, but with the latest weather, I will not. Not even on my return trip. They will have enough...