Mexico City

With our plane leaving at 7am from Miami airport (and being an international flight) we had a very early wake up at 4am to make sure we were there on time. We arrived and thought everything was going pretty smoothly until the check-in staff informed us that our flight had been overbooked and as we were some of the last people to check in they would have to deny us boarding and send us on the next available flight, we were annoyed but there wasn't anything we could do about it. The down side to this was that next flight was 9 hours later, which meant hanging out in the airport for the day, the plus side however was that Aeromexico gave both Jacob and I two free return plane tickets to use anywhere we liked as compensation! This would come in handy later on in our trip.

After a funny day wandering around the airport we were relieved to finally arrive in Mexico City. We spent the next 3 days soaking up the wonderful culture of the city. We learnt about the many tribes and regions of Mexico's past and present at the wonderful Museum of Anthropology, and strolled around the botanic gardens in the heart of the city enjoying the colourful market stalls and food vendors all around us. 

We got up early on day two and made our way to the local bus station to try and find a bus to Teotihuacan to see the site of the ancient pyramids. We read that tours to the pyramids were really over priced, so we decided to find our own way there. It only took an hour and a half on a really comfortable bus, and set us back about 160 pesos for a return trip for the two of us (around 15 dollars) this was such a good option compared to the $200 plus we would have spent on a tour. We got to the pyramids early, so there were no crowds yet. We walked around the breathtaking site for a few hours, climbing both The Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. When it got too hot and the large tour groups starting rolling in we hopped on the next bus back to the city. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the amazing markets, La Cuidadela Mercado de Artesanias. I was able to truly test out my bartering and Spanish skills here in an attempt to not sound like too much of a gringa and not get ripped off. It was a fun experience and we bought so much cool stuff to take home with us. 

On our last full day in Mexico City we decided to brave the metro as we wanted to go see Frida Kahlo's home and this was the easiest way to get there. The metro ride was full, sweaty and we held our bags very close to us the whole time. We walked through a beautiful neighborhood to get to the Museo de Frida Kahlo. It was a fantastic experience seeing the original artwork of one of my favorite artists and walking around the buildings and gardens that she lived in. Her life story captivates me so it was great to be able to feel so close to someone so important to the history of art in Mexico and the world. 

The end of our Mexico City experience marked the one month point on our journey so far, and we were excited to continue further down Mexico towards the state of Oaxaca and the surf village Puerto Escondido, to spend a lovely month with the sun, sea and sand.