Day Off, Mexico City

Friday was an off day. Since Thursday was a LONG day I slept in late and finally got up around 9:30 am. I spent about an hour convincing myself to get out of bed after which I ventured out into the unknown.

I like to explore so wandering a strange city is very appealing to me, however I'm not used to not being able to communicate with the locals that I meet. I've retained a little Spanish from my high school days, but communication is still difficult. Luckily, the locals seem to be very patient with my slow and choppy Spanish, even trying to help my language skills out with a friendly correction now and again.

Mexico city is nothing like the Mexico that I expected. I expected the American stereotype of Mexico. Dirty. Desert. Rusty El Caminos and Camaros lining the streets. Instead I discovered a gigantic metropolis that sprawls for what seems like forever in all directions. The streets are very clean and there are people going about the business of living in a big city everywhere. I wandered into a lovely park that had a rose garden that led me to a monument and statue of Ghandi. (I don't know what Ghandi had to do with Mexico, but he's there nonetheless)

The graffiti is much more artistic than the typical USA graffiti and just as illegible.

I should take this opportunity to tell my American friends that your favorite Mexican restaurant sucks in comparison to the food here. The only problem is the water. Drinking the water here will turn your colon inside out; this includes ice in the mixed drinks. I'm looking forward to coming home and having a glass of nice, chlorinated and fluorinated, government water.

My wandering lasted about 3 or 4 hours when I finally realized I was tired and lost in a foreign city. I tried to find a landmark, but there are no tall buildings here to use as a reference so I walked in what I thought was the right direction. Block after block I just soaked in how the Mexicans went about their lives and stumbled upon a bicycle rental kiosk. (these kiosk's are cool. You can rent a bike and return it to any of the many kiosk's around the city) The kiosk had a map of the city on the side of it and after asking the clerk where I was (in Spanish, thank you very much) I was happy to see that I was only 6 blocks away from the hotel. I wandered up the street, back to the hotel and straight back to my room for a nice siesta.

Not at all a bad day.