Travels with Hayley

So today I was up and out by 6.45 to walk around with the city as it awoke. I passed food stalls being set up, the scent of roasting meats hanging heavy in the air, the vendors laughing, joking and playing music (Latin music, hooray!) and generally just enjoyed the cool breeze and watching the sun coming up. It was so peaceful and everyone I encountered smiled and responded to my enthusiastic buenos dias-ing, including two ladies that I’m fairly sure were on the way home from the night before rather than on an early morning stroll!

This is such a pretty city with it’s rainbow of colours, the faded glamour of the colonial style buildings with their ornate filigree balconies and the trees bursting into flower everywhere.

On my way back to the hotel I passed a row of food stalls, one of which had 2 guys prepping the food while drinking beers (at 7.45am…but it’s the weekend so we’ll let them off). They called out to me, pointing at the food ‘photo, photo’ so I duly obliged. Then with Spanglish and sign language we decided I should take a photo of one of them posing with his beer, and then they decided ‘selfie!’ So now I have a selfie with 2 pork sellers with their beers, pre 8am. There’s never a dull moment 😂

Stopped at 7 eleven for my ‘breakfast’ – they do this little cakes everywhere, kind of like a cadburys mini roll but with jam. But in 7 eleven you can buy them normally on the shelf – or in the ice cream freezer! Well I obviously had to try that – turns out it’s absolutely delicious so a couple of those along with a Diet Coke was breakfast fit for for a queen in my opinion.

We set off at 9am on the walking tour and saw some of the major tourist sites which I had seen before but it was nice to get a bit more information on the history behind them. We passed the monument to the first native Mexican president, the central post office (known as the postal palace for obvious reasons below), the cathedral, the house of tiles which is a pretty, tiled (shocker…) building with an iconic, original retro restaurant inside, complete with a dapper gent tinkling the ivories in full dinner dress (apparently it’s a real treat for people to go there for Sunday breakfast or the like) and a wedding photo shoot going on in the street!

‘Fun’ fact about the cathedral – the main bell has only just started being rung again in the last few years, after being ‘grounded’ or silent for the last 70. Turns out, a bell ringer had been doing his bell ringing thing, had tripped, been hit by the bell and subsequently killed. The bell has basically been sitting on the naughty step ever since but apparently enough time has passed for it to learn its lesson and it’s ringing out proudly again now.

Our first food stop was to try tamales – a corn dough with meat or vegetable filling, steamed inside the corn husk. I’d tried them in Costa Rica and hadn’t been a fan (thinking back, we tried them at a service station, possibly not the best place to search for gastronomic perfection…) but these ones were actually really good. We weren’t told exactly what the 2 varieties we tried were, but our combined powers of deduction decided one was spicy vegetables and one was ham and cheese. Martin, you’ll be very happy to know I preferred the hammy one. When we arrived there I enthusiastically greeted the stall holder as always and asked how he was – he came straight over to give me a kiss and insisted I took his chair. I’m definetly zoning in on the more friendly folks now!

We carried on walking through the city, checking out all of the wonky walls. Mexico City is built on a drained lake – looks like the draining wasn’t done that efficiently as the city is sinking at a rate of 20 inches per year! Consequently there’s barely a straight line here- hanging wallpaper must be a bloody nightmare…

We went and appreciated a mural in a beautiful, cool courtyard and then headed to our next stop, an iconic tacos place that looked like a tiny, hole in the wall counter from the street but opened up to a big room in the back with high, stainless steel tables you could stand at to eat.

JJ brought a variety for us to try so we tore them into sample sized bits and got stuck in! On offer was potato, beans and 2 kinds of very slow cooked, shredded pork. In the middle of the room were huge trays of veggies, lettuce, guacamole and cucumber salad (which we were warned was ridiculously spicy!) I stuck to the guacamole and all of the tacos were just delicious, I honestly couldn’t chose between them.

On a totally unrelated note, just because it happened post tacos – loads and loads of shops here have WC signs out the front. For 5-7 pesos (25-30p) you can use their staff toilets out the back. How good is that, why don’t we do that at home! I’ve peed all over the city today 😂

Next on the agenda was a museum, not for anything cultural but because they have a fabulous cafe on the roof. We had a cool drink and enjoyed the view of the rooftops, only slightly marred by an example of a little power going to the head as the jobsworth there wouldn’t let us move the chairs around to all sit together so we had to split into smaller groups to keep him happy! People need to get a hobby, honestly…

The next stop was for tortas, the sandwich I had last night. Everyone was way too full at this point and we only had a single bite each of the two on offer – some kind of pulled pork and a turkey one. Turkey was a bit unexciting but the pork was great. Even better was the venue which was so old school, it had all the original furniture and Elvis was playing on the old black and white tv so I was humming along!

Really nicely, none of the food today at either place went to waste, JJ got it wrapped up to go and gave it to some homeless people on the street – of which there are a lot here, really sad.

We walked past the tequila and mezcal museum – that’s commitment to booze isn’t it, to dedicate a whole museum to it, and then most of the group headed back to the hotel.

I however had other plans. Multiple times this week I’d been in an Uber down a street selling amazing looking dresses for quinceañeras – this is a Latin tradition of a huge party thrown for girls when they are 15 to celebrate them becoming a woman. The girls wear absolutely enormous, incredibly elaborate dresses and it’s a really big deal for them, it’s almost like a wedding in scale and celebration.

I’m so glad I waited until today to go, not only was it fit to bursting with whole families browsing the shops (all the men were there too and getting involved), a load of street stalls had also sprung up selling every accoutrement a 15 year old (or 43 year old…) girl could ask for – tiaras by the thousand, diamante encrusted trainers, special underwear, pinatas, huge rosettes, religious icons which I think were maybe cake toppers or favours? It was spectacular. My Disney princess heart exploded in a rainbow of sequins and glitter! I couldn’t get great pictures as most of the dresses were behind glass and you weren’t allowed to take pictures (I guess so you can’t steal the design and get it made up elsewhere, same as wedding dresses in the UK) so I had to be discreet/sneaky!

Further up the street was the most enormous market selling clothes, bags, shoes, sports equipment, snacks and a whole plethora of other things. It felt like the entire of Mexico City was there and I just let myself enjoy the tunes playing – including once again the absolute classic YMCA – and get caught up in the flow of bodies – which included a very excitable bunch of ladyboys complete with some very impressive chestage! There was some kind of internal deliveroo going on too with food sellers delivering lunch to the knock off clothes sellers, it really was a whole world within itself. Then I ended up in another indoor market which turned out to be a bridal market – wedding dresses of every size and style, men’s suits, the very blingiest of jewellery – I smiled so much my face almost fell off!

I’d read about a flea market selling really cool vintage furniture and the like nearby so I tried to find it – I tried so hard! I found 2 different things online telling me where to go and I was definetly in the right place – I also used google translate to ask 3 different people but in the end I had to admit defeat – perhaps it’s closed post COVID? Who knows. It’s probably a good thing anyway, my luggage is pretty full already, I likely couldn’t fit a vintage sideboard in it…

By this point I was pretty hot and dusty so headed to the main square to sit in a cafe, write up some diaries and watch the world go by. Oh, and walk into a toilet cubicle to catch a man mid flow – lock the door guys! The only Mexican willies I need to see are on the statues thank you kindly…

Headed back to the hotel to meet up with a few of the others to go the Plaza Garibaldi, a famous square where mariachi bands hang out and play songs. Maybe we went a bit early because I was expecting a heaving explosion of colour and music and it – wasn’t so much! It was still light when we got there, perhaps the whole thing looks a bit less shabby in the dark and they ramp it up a bit. Anyway, not one to miss an opportunity we paid the £10 to rent a group who asked us what song we wanted – like the group of white people had a whole top ten list of mariachi tunes just ready to go…We told them, play whatever your favourite song is so that’s what we got. It’s hilarious but I can’t imagine doing it on a regular basis – JJ used to save up his money for the weekend to be able to buy one beer and one song – Spotify and Netflix must have made a killing here when they came in…

Next stop was to a very sketchy part of town according to JJ, but Lisa (roommate) and I Ubered directly to the venue so we managed to avoid all the raping and pillaging. I’d read about this iconic dance hall that’s been here since the 1920’s – it has live bands playing salsa and bachata and people get really dressed up and go and dance the night away. JJ couldn’t believe it when I told him where we were going, he’s never known another westerner even know about it before. In fairness, I had happened upon it by chance on the web and could barely find anything else about it so it was a bit of a shot in the dark.

Oh it was so amazing, it was like stepping into a time warp. Old school authentic faded glamour, with the dance floor packed totally full – even better it opens Sunday 5-10pm – that’s more like it for timings, London take note!

Every age and ability was there, we spotted half a dozen other tourists there but the rest were all locals, old and young, suited and booted to the nines or in dungarees and trainers, absolutely anything seemed to go. Some of the older dancers were in full traditional dress, it was so much fun. I got asked to dance half a dozen times by some of the old boys (works for me, their moves tend to be a bit slower so I can keep up!) and had the best time spinning around the dance floor. Waiters walked around with bowls of crisps and slices of cakes for sale (is this not the dream?!) and an old man sat at the front selling dance shoes. I so wanted to get a pair as a souvenir but everything he had in my size I either didn’t like or was really uncomfortable. At £45 a pair I just couldn’t justify it – I felt terrible though, I’d tried on at least a dozen pairs and was totally surrounded by discarded glittery footwear that he had to put away again.

There were two Cumbia bands on while we were there and they were both fabulous! The first had an incredibly flamboyant guy dancing on stage dressed entirely in red with ruffles – he just couldn’t stop moving, even when he was on a break he was gyrating almost without realising it.

The second band had a beautiful female singer that could also have doubled as a quick change artist – after each song she disappeared into the wings for 10 seconds and reappeared in a different outfit! When I wasn’t dancing with the old gents, I watched the spectacle or just got up on the floor and danced on my own which loads of other women were doing (never enough guys to go around at these things!). It was totally joyful.

We left about 20 minutes before the end to avoid the rush and headed towards Chinatown thinking we might have a change from Mexican food. Unfortunately, Mexico City on a Sunday seems to satisfy it’s appetites earlier on in the evening as all of the restaurants were shutting up shop for the night.

We eventually found a very modern looking Mexican restaurant open down the road and quickly ordered before they changed their mind! Very confusingly, the 3 main Mexican ‘meats on breads’ all start with a T – tacos, tostadas and tortas. I ordered a shrimp tostada, thought I’d ordered a torta and what I actually got was tacos! But never mind, they were delicious with huge jumbo shrimp and creamy guacamole.

Walked the 5 minutes back to the hotel via huge crowds of people watching street performers and still open markets (walking total for the day, 30,592 steps/12.2 miles) and collapsed into bed. Tomorrow’s departure is at 8am to our next destination, the town of Puebla.

More adventures to come! Lots of love always xxx