I am just back from a two week break in Mexico where Roma and I stayed in Cancún and Mexico City. It was nice to get away from all the wet weather here, though it is raining heavily in Dublin as I write this!
At Torre Caballito.
We first stayed in central Cancún and immediately enjoyed walking around the Downtown area in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals, after the wet winter in Ireland. Cancún is a much bigger city than I expected, The central area is marked by a small park with a statue of former Mexican president Benito Juarez, and a large Cancún sign for tourists to take obligatory selfies at. Sadly, later in our holiday we noticed that the sign was gone and that the white building in the background of photo below, plus the statue of Juarez (see top right corner of "N" in sign) were covered in protest graffiti.
Cancún Centro.
We had just two full days in Cancún city before heading off to Mexico City. While Cancún city was very good value for accommodation, food, and beverages, there is not that much to do there - so we were happy to move on.
Mexico City was a wonderful experience. We stayed in a hotel close to the Monumento a la Revolución which was a great location to explore the heart of this vibrant city. Wow - they have a lot of traffic here, but we got a travel pass to use the buses and metro to get around. A metro trip anywhere in the city costs just 5 pesos (€0.25), while bus fares were slightly more expensive at 6 pesos (€0.30). This makes Dublin's €2 fare look like a rip-off!
One of Mexico city's top attractions is the Anthropology Museum - it is a fantastic place to see and learn lots about Mexico's before the Spaniards arrived to mess things up in 1521. Be warned, it is a very busy place with long queues. There are so many exhibits, most without English labels. that take a long time to go through. We also did a walking tour of the city's cultural centre, and a food tour with Mezcal tasting. While I enjoyed the mostly taco-based food tour, I was paranoid about avoiding hot spices and kept telling food stalls "no picante".
Enjoying street tacos on food tour.
Mezcal tasting.
Another attraction in Mexico City is the Xochimilco Canal complex. This is a long way from the city centre, we took a train and an Uber to get there. This was one of the most uncomfortable days I've ever had. While on the road to Xochimilco in our Uber car, the driver was approached by a scooter rider who stayed beside us. He was clearly intimidating our driver and was forcing him to follow and bring us to a different place to where we were going. Our driver told us that where we were going was "closed" and the his "friend" was a "guide" who would show us a "better" place to go. We also noticed other scooter riders doing the same at other cars. We checked online and found that this is a common tactic to get tourists to go to a different unofficial and more expensive location. We demanded our driver to keep going to where we wanted to go, but he was clearly being intimidated by the scooter rider. We got out of the car and walked the rest of the way to the Xochimilco canal area by ourselves - relieved to be out of the car. Despite this, when we got to the canal area we were quickly marked by another "guide" and more than likely paid more for our one-hour canal trip. Once on the canal, it was a very enjoyable experience. But being targeted as a meal ticket by local chancers made for an uncomfortable day.
At the Xochimilco Canal.
The highlight of our Mexico City visit was undoubtedly a free concert by Shakira in the Zócalo square. There were several big screens showing the concert in nearby streets, one of which was right beside our hotel. While I only recognised two of her songs we stayed for the full concert and are now Shakira fans! It was later reported that this concert was a record 400,000 people attending - the biggest gig ever in the Zócalo square, nice to be part of a record!
Shakira, Shakira!
After four days in Mexico City is was back to Cancún and beach time. Near the city there is a long strip called the Hotel Zone. Here we enjoyed sea swims and some relaxation. The area was much more expensive than Cancún city, which was only about 10kms from the city centre. Our only effort at tasting culture here was a short visit to the Mayan Museum, where we got to see a real Mayan pyramid.
Viva Mexico!
