One night stopover in Mexico City

The trek was nearing to a close now. Vegas was just around the corner... only one night in Mexico City was left... so I decided to make the most of it!

I had taken the express bus from Puerto Escondido... a 12 hour ride as a opposed to the standard 18-22 hours journey. I arrived early in the morning at the bus terminal and cabbed it to Amigos hostel in the city centre. After settling in I was surprised to meet some friends from Tulum who were staying there too. The hostel is quite large and includes bed, breakfast AND dinner in its $17 price... not a bad deal. The place however was eerily quiet as Mexico City had become a tourist repellent due to it being Swine Flu Ground Zero. I had a feeling there were more staff there than guests!

Despite the short time of my stay I still wanted to see the city a bit. We walked out to the main square along the wide avenues. I had heard only negative remarks about the city such as it being noisy, polluted and crowded but I found it quite the opposite with relatively quiet streets and bustling yet unclaustrophobic walkways. My initial impressions was of a similarity to Buenos Aires but there were many more impressive colonial buildings here. We stopped at a small local eatery where we met the very friendly owner who asked us to write on the wall of his restaurant (I think this was on Avenida 5 de Mayo near the main square). I had delicious tacos!

There were some very large impressive buildings on the main square

A fairly typical tower with the setting sun in the background

After our short tour we moved back to the hostel and met up with John who I had hung out with in Isla Mujeres and Cancun. Alice (Eng), Katie (Eng), John and myself got in a taxi and drove to a nearby bar where we shared large bottles of Sol beer and some tequilas. Even though it was very quiet around, we had fun listening to the Mexican music and chatting to some of the locals.

Large bottles of Sol beer and tequilas were the order of the night. Here I am with John, Katie and Alice

I love those shades!

Katie and John doing Lime-faces

An early night was called for a I had a plane to catch at 6:30am the next morning. Despite all the bad things I had heard about Mexico City, I quite enjoyed my brief stay there and would definitely be interesting in going again to take in more of the sights.

VEGAS was one day away.