Day 297 – Historic Centre of Mexico City
Today we moved from Hotel Villa de Mar to a more central Capital O Frida Costazul Hotel. There was a bit of distance between the two hotels so we caught an Uber to drop off our bags in the morning. The hotel receptionist at Capital O Frida locked our bags in storage and then gave us a map of the area with some travel advice.
We bought some meat pastries from Pastes Y Empanadas Cacherelo and a coffee from the convenience store across the road. We walked to the main street and bought train tickets. Then we decided to eat the pastries on the side of the road. After a few bites we realised the insides were all mouldy!!! We rinsed our mouths with the coffees. I wouldn’t recommend eating at that shop.
After we recovered, we caught the subway from San Lazaro to Isabel la Catolica. Google maps shines in Mexico City, even showing the prices. Once at Isabel la Catolica, we walked to the bus station to book an intercity bus. There were several companies, but the cheapest appeared to be ADO for our trip to Oaxaca in a few days.
Mexican Markets
We then walked around 3km towards the Zocalo or central square/plaza in the Historic Centre of Mexico City. This took us down a road called Corredidora, which is a really long market street. The start of the market, is a little more dodgy with bootleg DVDs and such, but as you move further in, it becomes more dense with heaps of clothing stores.
We reached the historic centre and the small alley ways disappeared into European styled, massive stone buildings and wide maintained roads. We didn’t feel adventurous after our breakfast incident, so we had lunch at Burger King.
Museo del Templo Mayor
Then we entered the Aztec site of Museo del Templo Mayor. The site is free for locals on Sundays but full price for tourists every day. The entrance ticket is 75 MXN / $5.69 AUD per person. For an unknown reason, you can’t take water into the site. You can leave your water bottle at the “lockers”, which is a building near the exit of the site that has a shelf where you leave your water bottles unattended. Also you must check in your umbrellas with security. It’s very odd for a site that doesn’t have much shelter.
The great temple was expanded 7 times as shown by this model
The site itself is small with only a few buildings remaining of the ancient City of Tenochtitlan. Not much is left due to the Spanish occupation destroying most of the area. The information is in both Spanish and English throughout the site. The biggest structure is the Great Temple (Huey Teocalli) that used to stand at 45m tall. Some of the highlights include the House of the Eagles and the Tzompantli Altar.
Waste Water Drainage The house of the Eagles Tzompantli Altar
Then we entered the museum. This is the true highlight of the site. The multilevel museum is very detailed and took more than an hour to go through. The massive stone block is the centrepiece of the museum. The face knives were my favourite artefact.
Face Knife Crocodile Offerings
Once we exited the site, we collected our umbrella and water bottles before heading towards the nearby National Palace.
National Palace
The National Palace is free to enter, but they require one passport to be held as a deposit. There is a very nice garden here, which leads to the central patio. Around here are massive arches and after climbing up a level, we saw massive murals by the artist Diego Rivera. They were very detailed, showing the Spanish occupation of the country.
As we were about to leave the site, we noticed there are several museums to the side. We only had time to see one of them as the site was closing. It would have been nice to see the other museums too.
Churches
We then walked back towards the Zocalo and went to the massive Sagrario Metropolitano church.
After this we entered the even more massive Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral. There are actually Aztec temples buried below the cathedral. While we were there, a mass was in service, so we didn’t check out the main altar. The photos below are of the smaller altar at the back of the church.
Museo del Templo Mayor Free Walkway
We then accidently discovered a free walkway that overlooks the Museo del Templo Mayor site. It gives a nice view of the buildings if you are feeling cheap, but I think it’s still worth going into the site to check out that museum. Next to the walkway, there are models of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan (modern day Mexico City).
Dancers near the street
Zocalo Flag Ceremony
Just before 6pm, we were walking back towards our hotel, and we noticed military personal standing in formation around the Flag. There was a growing crowd of people, so we joined in. The massive flag in the zocalo was lowered and folded away during the ceremony. Apparently the flag is raised at 6am in the morning.
We walked back to our hotel and after refreshing ourselves, we walked to a restaurant called Toks for dinner. The restaurant was nice but a little pricey for Mexico.