Day 10 - Taking it easy
This one's for you Lee-Anne
Our last day in Mexico City was spent recharging the batteries and reflecting on what has been a fantastic 10 days. To look back and think about all the amazing sights, sounds, smells (most good, some bad) and cultural differences that we have experienced will take some time however, we know for sure that we are extremely happy that we decided to visit this wonderful country.
Today we took a walk into one of the local suburbs to locate of all things a Gloria Jeans store. To our amazement it was absolutely identical to all the Melbourne stores with the same look, feel and drink options. The other thing was at last we were able to consume a real coffee (if you ignore the UHT milk of course) that actually tasted like coffee and not just semi flavoured milk. You will notice below that the prices are somewhat different however with 10 pesos = $1 AUD then it works out to he slightly cheaper.
The staff were very obliging and allowed us to take a couple of photo's however due to the high degree of organised crime, they are very wary as this is also an opportunity for someone to case the establishment to enable break ins at a later stage.
After Gloria Jeans we stopped at a local restaurant for some lunch when the kids spotted a local yoghurt store that charged $1.65 per 100gm of yoghurt. It was great to see them go off with confidence, select, order and pay for their yoghurt. A clear example of the out of school education that they are gaining as they had to ask and pay in Spanish. When they returned, they handed back the change which included a 20c coin. We could not believe how small it was so took some photo's of all the coinage and also compared the Mexican coins to some Australian coins. The photo's of which are below.
The other component of the Mexican culture which I touched on earlier in the travel diary was the traffic and road rules and regulations (well non-existence of). On the way to the pyramids the other day, we found ourselves following a truck on it's way to what could only be a construction site. To our dismay, when we looked in the back it was clear where the passengers had taken up residence. Again, there is a photo below as proof was required. Some of the other bizarre road, driving and traffic examples are:
The other photo's below are from the really cool set up at the apartment where the elevator doors open directly into the apartment. Jacqui loves this idea so we took some photos. Maybe when you visit us next you may need to take an elevator into our place - hmmm sounds very expensive
Today we took a walk into one of the local suburbs to locate of all things a Gloria Jeans store. To our amazement it was absolutely identical to all the Melbourne stores with the same look, feel and drink options. The other thing was at last we were able to consume a real coffee (if you ignore the UHT milk of course) that actually tasted like coffee and not just semi flavoured milk. You will notice below that the prices are somewhat different however with 10 pesos = $1 AUD then it works out to he slightly cheaper.
The staff were very obliging and allowed us to take a couple of photo's however due to the high degree of organised crime, they are very wary as this is also an opportunity for someone to case the establishment to enable break ins at a later stage.
After Gloria Jeans we stopped at a local restaurant for some lunch when the kids spotted a local yoghurt store that charged $1.65 per 100gm of yoghurt. It was great to see them go off with confidence, select, order and pay for their yoghurt. A clear example of the out of school education that they are gaining as they had to ask and pay in Spanish. When they returned, they handed back the change which included a 20c coin. We could not believe how small it was so took some photo's of all the coinage and also compared the Mexican coins to some Australian coins. The photo's of which are below.
The other component of the Mexican culture which I touched on earlier in the travel diary was the traffic and road rules and regulations (well non-existence of). On the way to the pyramids the other day, we found ourselves following a truck on it's way to what could only be a construction site. To our dismay, when we looked in the back it was clear where the passengers had taken up residence. Again, there is a photo below as proof was required. Some of the other bizarre road, driving and traffic examples are:
- We spotted a mini bus being towed by a tow truck. Not that unusual you would think except for the fact that the bus passengers were still on board.
- When catching a bus, minimum requirement is to be able to have 1 foot on the door entrance and a strong grip on the door handle. Bonus points if you can do this whilst the bus is still moving.
- As long as the traffic lights on the cross road have started to go red, then you can commence to proceed into the intersection even if your lights are yet to go green. Basically, you know they are about to go green so that is okay. Even better if you want to drag the car beside you.
- Helmets on motorbikes are optional.
- If you want to turn right or left then do so at any time regardless of the amount of traffic and where the other cars are. Just start to make your away across all lanes and the other motorists know that this is acceptable and let you through.
- If the quickest way to a car park is going the wrong way down a one way street, then proceed. Again, everyone else does it so why not you.
The other photo's below are from the really cool set up at the apartment where the elevator doors open directly into the apartment. Jacqui loves this idea so we took some photos. Maybe when you visit us next you may need to take an elevator into our place - hmmm sounds very expensive
