Aztec City

Today, I ventured out a little further and visited Teotihuacan, an ancient, ruined Aztec City about an hour outside of Mexico City. A few people had already recommended it to me. Instead of taking a tour, I decided to do it alone. I took the metro to the North bus station, and hopped on a bus to "Los Piramides". About an hour later, I hopped off the bus at the Southwest entrance.

On the way to the metro, I took a chance on some street food; a tamal with chicken. I wasn't sure how street food would affect me, but I was doing fine so far.

Teotihuacan is a ruined city with two large pyramids: the Pyramid of the Sun, and the Pyramid of the Moon. The Pyramid of the Sun is the third largest pyramid in the world and sits to the side of the Street of the Dead which runs North-South down the center of the city. The Pyramid of the Moon is not quite as large, but sits at one end of the Street of the Dead. Also, at the southern end of the city is the much smaller Temple of Quetzlcoatl (a feathered serpent). Although small, the temple has some ornate carvings on it that make it worth climbing. The stairs are super-steep, so you might want to think twice about it if you're afraid of heights (like me). What seems fine going up is not so fine going down.

I spent the next hour so working my way to the Pyramid of the Sun (the entire site is over 4km from end to end so it's a ways to go). I took a bit of a back route and visited the museum there briefly. When you start to get close the the pyramid you begin to get a feeling for just how big it really is. It's a small mountain. I decided not to climb it because not only is it really big, but it's also really steep. Not very Greg-friendly.

Once you hit the Pyramid of the Sun, you are entering the Street of the Dead. The street is wide with walls running along both sides. The walls have stairs periodically so you can climb up and sit. Picture in your head what you think an Aztec City would like and that's pretty much what it's like. Very cool.

Once I got to the end of the street, I was finally in a courtyard at the base of the Pyramid of the Moon. I did climb this one. It's not quite as steep, and although it's not as high, it's built on higher ground, so the view is just as good. In fact, I think it's probably better since you're looking straight down the Street. After about 20 minutes up top, I climbed down, and worked my way back to the bus.

While waiting for the bus, I met a father-and-son-duo from Iowa. I chatted with them for a while on the bus.

On arriving back in the city, I took the metro to the main city square, the Zocalo, in the historical centre of the city. I saw the presidential palace (holy huge) and the cathedral (also holy huge), but didn't spend much time walking around. My legs were really starting to hurt (the climb down was murder) and I was getting hungry as it was about 3:30. I went to Cafe de las Sirenas just to the north of the cathedral for a little mole poblano. So far, I was two-for-two on the restaurant department.

After lunch, I walked a couple of kilometers down Avenida de 5 de Mayo, past the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the Alameda Central (a huge park). All of this to avoid having to change trains. The line running to the Zocalo was super-packed. I'm really surprised that nobody got pushed onto the track the platform was so full.

I took the metro back and then walked back to the hotel. I estimate that I walked about 17km all told. Ouch!

Gellin' in Mexico City

I left today for some work in Mexico City. I decided to go a couple of days early so that I could see the sights a little and settle in before I had to go to work. After all the hype about how Mexico can ravish your innards, I also thought I'd give myself some time to get over that.

My flight left Ottawa at 6:00am, so I had to get up at about 3:30. I hate that. When I have to get up that early, it's like I don't sleep at all. I keep waking up because I'm worried that I'm going to miss the alarm. Sucks.

The flights were pretty uneventful. Both were on time and the leg from Toronto to Mexico City was surprisingly short (only about five hours). Going through customs was also pretty uneventful as I had visited the Mexican embassy the day before to pick up a business card to work here for the week.

I took a cab to the hotel and after a couple hours of rest, decided I'd hit the street. I walked south of my hotel for a few kilometres until I got Coyoacan. Incidentally, this area of Mexico City was rated in the top five livable neighbourhoods in North America. There's a large park in the west end of Coyoacan called the Vivero. I walked along the edge of it and took a break in Plaza Santa Catalina. From there I walked down a fairly quiet, cobbled little street (Francisco Sosa) until I reached one Jardin Hidalgo. There are a couple of large plazas in Coyoacan that turn into markets on the weekend. I strolled around a bit and headed to Cantina de la Guadalupana for a bit of refreshment.

I'd heard that Chilangos (people from Mexico City) don't really eat until about 8:00pm, so I had a few beers to wait it out. By the time I thought it was acceptable to eat and asked for a menu, they told me they didn't have food at the time. I was getting pretty hungry since I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I pounded back my beer and went out looking for other options. I had walked past a little place on Francisco Sosa called Cafeteria Moheli and decided to have some dinner there. Once I found it again, I settled in for my first Mexican meal - enchiladas con pollo con salsa verde. One of my favourites and it didn't disappoint.

After dinner, I went back to Jardin Hidalgo. There was a Mexican Beatles cover band playing. They were the most spot-on cover band I have ever seen. In fact, when I first heard the music (She Loves You), I thought it was a recording. It was about three songs before I realized there was a band playing. They had the accents, the hairdos, and the clothes. If the Beatles were Mexican, this is what they would have looked like. I hung around a bit, grabbed a churro from a street vender and headed back to the hotel in a cab.

Tons of walking, and my feet didn't hurt. Thanks, Dr. Scholls!

NYC and why you shouldn't rub chilis in your eyes

The other day, I touched a piece of red Thai chili (cut up with seeds and all) and then proceeded to rub my eye. Holy crap did this ever hurt. You should never under any circumstances do this.

I'm in NYC this week and having a real cracking time of it. You can see some of my pictures from this trip here.

We had to cut our fishing trip short since I had to teach this course, and to be honest, I really wasn't looking forward to coming here. I just didn't feel like having to deal with the crowds and the bustle and all of that. However, once I got here, those misgivings melted away in about ten minutes. There's just so much to do and see (and eat) here that it's tough to hate it. True the crowds (especially on rush hour trains) can get to you, but it's not that bad once you get the hang of it.

There's all kind of things that I love about this city:

The city's pedestrian friendly and people walk everywhere (using their feet and everything! It's amazing). This is not something you see a lot of in the US.

The metro totally kicks bum. Anywhere, anytime, with very little waiting for trains. If you come, get a map of the metro and take it with you everywhere. Tourists and locals alike carry them. Mark up your map with your favourite restaurants and hot spots. Also mark the direction of major one-way streets (like Broadway) so that you know which way you're facing when you come out of the subway. I just did this for the first time this trip and it was a lifesaver.

Carry your camera with you at all times. Many times that you will walk around a corner and see a great view that you weren't at all expecting. Capture it!

I don't understand why the meal limit here is so high. You can have a great meal at a trendy restaurant without even coming close (provided you know where to go). Street vendors have good food at supercheap prices. It's not just hot dogs and pretzels either. You can get chicken on a pita (personal fave), shish kabobs, and all kinds of other stuff (the hot candied nuts are a favourite as well). When I get a chance, I will post an entry on my travelog with some of the good places that have been recommended to me. I wish I had a nickel for every time I've said that.

We're Podcasting!

I just finished posting the very first podcast of the Greg and Joe Roadshow. What's a podcast? It's like an audio blog. Joe and I meet a lot of people, so we figured that we would sit down for about 15 minutes a week and chat about some of our stories. I don't really know where we're going with it, but we have a few ideas for some other things we can add to mix things up. It's pretty bare bones for now, but we'll hopefully be jazzing it up a bit with some regular features and possibly even theme music.

To check out our podcast, click the "Greg and Joe Roadshow Podcast" link on the right under "My Other Blogs". There are instructions there for subscribing in iTunes.

I never did finish my travel entry on Toronto; it's in the works, but Lara showed up just after I started writing it.

I've been in Ottawa this week with tons of things to do, but of course none of them really got done. I threw my back out again, and I'm still not quite right. I've also been preparing for our big yearly fishing trip next week. Should be a blast, but more on that later...