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Showing posts with label Mexico City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico City. Show all posts

Friday, March 10, 2017

Mexico City (Mexico) - Mariachi menu

MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
10 March - 11 March 2017


Back in Mexico City after flying in from Cabo our Central American tour was slowly winding down. There were no new destinations scheduled, just Mexico City and the connecting flight out of Los Angeles before heading for home.


Mexico City - Mexico

Mexico City - Mexico


Inga & I stayed at Hostal Regina, a familiar place to me, I had stayed there with Jet on my first visit to Mexico City in 2011. Hands down, the best hostel in terms comfort, atmosphere and location out of any that I stayed in. Located in the Historic Centre of Mexico city, the surrounds are enjoyable from an architectural perspective and the proliferation of restaurants and bars, which seem to have grown quite rapidly in the 6 years from my last visit.


Mexico City - Mexico


Mexico City - Mexico


Mexico City - Mexico


Mexico City - Mexico


Most of the day we spent walking around the centre of the city, which again, on this occasion I found to be more lively and more dynamic than the last occasion here. Packaged into our cruisey meanderings was a stop to Torre Latinoamericana, located in the central, historic part of the city, the building is 182mtrs tall, and was for some time the tallest in the city. Offering commanding views of the entire expanse of this grand city, it's hard to believe by looking around that this capital that it was built on what was one Lake Texococo, until such time that it was drained under the instruction of Enrico Martinez, cosmographer to the King of Spain and also an hydraulic engineer.

Mexico City - Mexico



Mexico City - Mexico


Mexico City - Mexico


Los Angeles - USA


With a slow wind down we left Mexico City and headed north for our final stop in Los Angeles. Central America in many ways was not what we expected and to that extend offered more than we thought we'd receive. 


Thank you to each and every place that we visited, you were all wonderful, except for El Jardin de la Vida in Ometepe (you sucked!).

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Mexico City (Mexico) - Hardwired to self-destruct



MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
05 March - 07 March 2017

Planning our trip to Central America happened at around the same time that Christmas was starting to stick its head over the garden fence, meaning that it was close enough for us to feel its presence. Somehow in those weeks of planning and contemplation when I was trying to conjure up a present for Inga, I came across the understanding that Metallica were travelling around the same parts of the world that we were going to be in as they took to their Hardwired to Self-Destruct World Tour. And hey, didn’t I just have the greatest piece of luck, Metallica were going to be performing at Foro Sol, Mexico City on 05 March! All it took for me to lock in these tickets as a Christmas present was a small tweaking of our entry and exit into Havana, and there it was, Metallica in Mexico.


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Years earlier Inga & I had written out a bucket list of bands that we wanted to see together. Looking back now, we’ve seen nearly all of them since the writing of our list but back then, Metallica was an early tick on the ‘completed list’.

Getting into Mexico City worked perfectly, a flight out of Havana to Cancun and then the connecting flight to Mexico City.  This was the key element to getting to the concert on time, and with budget flights you can just never be so sure, delays & cancellations are just part of the game when you’re flying on the cheap. So I breathed a *sigh* of relief when our flight from Cancun took off on ti,e.


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico



In Mexico City we stayed at the Hotel Sport Aristos CDMX, which I have to say was just a stroke of genius. It literally is the closest accommodation that you can get to Foro Sol stadium and it came as a God send both for getting back home after the show but also prior to the event. What I didn’t know when I was picking up tickets  before the concert was their requirement to see my passport as it was the ‘only form of viable ID’ that a foreigner could offer as acceptable identification. So, had we not been located within striking distance of the stadium then the hassles of having to get back into the city and then out the stadium once again would have been completely horrendous.


Mexico City does it right

Concerts in Mexico City. Wow. CDMX, you guys know how to do it right!

Admittedly, the crowd at Foro Sol was not as raucous as an Argentinian crowd but the passion and emotion was still there. But even before the main event, the merchandising available was just on another level. Now both of us have been to many concerts, in many parts of the world, but here at Foro Sol the choice was remarkable. I’m not sure of all of it was entirely legitimate but considering we were actually in the grounds of the stadium then there had to be some associated with legitimacy, right?

Another thing they got right. Queues, or rather, the lack there of. Now there was 65,000 people on the night we were there but we could walk straight up to a bar and order drinks, we could walk straight into a bathroom without having to wait in ridiculous lines. How is it that a venue like this can manage so much better than any Australian event we’d been too…here’s a hint….more staff, more facilities. You can cater for the masses if you have all these elements in place.


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico


Metallica - World Wired Tour - Foro Sol - Mexico City - Mexico

The parade of Molten Black trying to make their way home


How were Metallica? 

They certainly beat all my expectations by an extremely large margin. Personally I was never a major fan of this band in my earlier years, there were occasional songs that I’d come across that I'd enjoy but the ‘black army’ never aligned to my sense of self and neither did their music….but, as the day to their concert approached I gradually got into them more and more so by concert time I was more excited about Inga’s present than she was Of course being such a major global band theirs a universal appeal that exists for a reason. There's a connection they've formed through their music that obviously speaks to a couple of generations of teenagers and angry 20 somethings. From their music, to the show, the spectacle and the crowd, this was one fantastic night and I’m certainly glad that we had the opportunity to see them perform here, the atmosphere, to  throw in a line of absolute cliché, was electric.



Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


Plaza de la Constitucion - Zocolo - Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


Plaza de la Constitucion - Zocolo - Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


CPlaza de la Constitucion - Zocolo - Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


Teotihuacan

The day after the epic show at Foro Sol, I suggested that we head out to Teotihuacan, an ancient Mesoamerican city located very close to Mexico City itself, about 40kms north-east of the city, known as an architectural site of significance because of its fantastic pyramids and one time populous.

An extremely impressive location, I would say easily that this site is far more impactful visually than the more famed Chichen Itza in the Yucatan.


Teotihuacan - Mexico


Teotihuacan - Mexico


Teotihuacan - Mexico


Teotihuacan - Mexico


A fairly vast complex, it's estimated that at its zenith, approximately 1500 CE (Before Common Era), it was the 6th largest city on the planet with a population of 125,000+. From my own perspective its the scale of the complex and the nature of the structures that made this a true highlight, especially when comparing it to equivalent locations that we went to, only surpassed, I believe, by Tikal whose location in the jungles of Guatemala made it feel more mysterious and exotic to me.

Indeed the history of Teotihuacan far more mysterious than that of Tikal, as is the reason for its existence. The origins if its founders are uncertain and it existed as the largest centre of Mesoamerica almost 1000 years prior to the Aztec epoch. All these elements should make this location more popular than it seems to be. Certainly it is known well enough but it has none of the ‘parade’ and circus associated with Chichen Itza.





Teotihuacan - Mexico


Teotihuacan - Mexico


We spent a fantastic few hours walking around, climbing up the Pyramid of the Sun, which is the largest structure of its site in the Western Hemisphere, (standing at 66mtrs). It dominates the central –eastern space at Teotihuacan residing on the Avenue of the Dead and being the main draw card of the site. Certainly climbing to the top of the structure is as challenging as the awe it inspires, standing at 2300mtrs above sea level each step you take feel like three on a stepper in the gym.

A truly great experience and one that I’d be happy to do again when my son gets old enough to understand what he’s looking at.


Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


Ciudad de Mexico - Mexico


Mexico City
We didn’t allow ourselves a lot of time in Mexico City, so leaving any great observations to the last time I was here and the entry associated with it, what I did find on this occasion was an abundance of culinary options. It’s Mexico of course and the food they’ve given to the world is magnificent, but, perhaps it was the lack of my own  observations on my last visit here in 2011 but it seemed that food offerings were everywhere. Cheap, delicious and in plentiful, this has to be a culinary hot spot that is cruising under the radar at the moment!