Day 3 - Time to explore the old
One of the small churches
Today we explored the historical side of Mexico City and what an eye opening experience it was. The magnificence and opulence of the cathedral and smaller churches had to be seen to be believed.
We headed to the bottom end of town known as Zocala (or Plaza de la Constitution) which is the main residence to two extremely impressive buildings being the Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral) and the Palacio Nacional (National Palace).
The first thing you notice when walking around the Zocala is the effect that both earthquakes and the subsidence have had on the buildings. Basically, Mexico City is built on what was the bowl of a volcano that millions of years ago filled up with water. This lake over time became a water basin deep below the city. Over the years, this water basin has slowly started to shrink causing the ground above to subside. As you can see from the photo's below, the ground level of some buildings are now below street level and the bell towers and walls have started to lean in many varying directions.
Mexico has an extremely strong link to Catholicism and religion is extremely strong in the country. Therefore there are a multitude of places to go to worship all of which were built 300 - 400 years ago with clearly no expense spared. The photo's below are of the varying alters that exist within both the Cathedral and a smaller church that we visited.
In addition to visiting the Cathedral we also entered the Palacio Nacional which is still a functioning building for the national government including the president himself therefore to enter we had to show passports for ID and pass through security gates.
The main attraction in the building apart from the magnificence of the architecture is a mural painted by Diego Rivera (a famous Mexican artist) depicting the history of Mexico from the time of the Aztec's through to the current times. Due to refurbishment taking place we were only able to view the murals within the staircase however they extend all the way around the palace walkways.
2 other things clearly stand out when you visit the town centre: 1) the road rules (or lack there of) and 2) the false economy.
When driving in Mexico City road rules are purely optional. Blinkers are even more so. Basically, everyone just merges where they want to go and if that means cutting across 4 lanes from the left to turn right, then so be it. The rest of the traffic understands that this is your option and therefore gives way. Good idea not to get an international drivers licence as that way you are unable to drive (then again, it may not make a difference anyway...). For those who have seen the tour of France and watched the riders in the peloton split to go around a roundabout then this works the same in Mexico. If you are on the left then go on the left hand side, if on the right then go on the right hand side and merge again at the other side - takes a lot of getting used to.
As for the false economy, Mexico is fall of markets and stalls. Wherever you go, there is someone with a stall attempting to sell some form of clothing, jewellery or bric-a-brac to anyone who may show interest. Unfortunately the majority of these are run by the mobs so the actual stall owners make very little out of the sale and the competition is extremely high so making a living is extremely tough.
On this note, Talia made her first purchase today. A set of red leather hand made sandals. They are actually pretty cool - check out the photo below.
We have booked bus tickets to travel to a country town in the North West of Mexico called San Miguel. This is approximately 4 hours drive however the chance to see the countryside in a relaxing luxury coach will be cool. So far we have booked for 1 night however will most likely stay for 2 and return on Saturday for all of the weekend activities.
We headed to the bottom end of town known as Zocala (or Plaza de la Constitution) which is the main residence to two extremely impressive buildings being the Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral) and the Palacio Nacional (National Palace).
The first thing you notice when walking around the Zocala is the effect that both earthquakes and the subsidence have had on the buildings. Basically, Mexico City is built on what was the bowl of a volcano that millions of years ago filled up with water. This lake over time became a water basin deep below the city. Over the years, this water basin has slowly started to shrink causing the ground above to subside. As you can see from the photo's below, the ground level of some buildings are now below street level and the bell towers and walls have started to lean in many varying directions.
Mexico has an extremely strong link to Catholicism and religion is extremely strong in the country. Therefore there are a multitude of places to go to worship all of which were built 300 - 400 years ago with clearly no expense spared. The photo's below are of the varying alters that exist within both the Cathedral and a smaller church that we visited.
In addition to visiting the Cathedral we also entered the Palacio Nacional which is still a functioning building for the national government including the president himself therefore to enter we had to show passports for ID and pass through security gates.
The main attraction in the building apart from the magnificence of the architecture is a mural painted by Diego Rivera (a famous Mexican artist) depicting the history of Mexico from the time of the Aztec's through to the current times. Due to refurbishment taking place we were only able to view the murals within the staircase however they extend all the way around the palace walkways.
2 other things clearly stand out when you visit the town centre: 1) the road rules (or lack there of) and 2) the false economy.
When driving in Mexico City road rules are purely optional. Blinkers are even more so. Basically, everyone just merges where they want to go and if that means cutting across 4 lanes from the left to turn right, then so be it. The rest of the traffic understands that this is your option and therefore gives way. Good idea not to get an international drivers licence as that way you are unable to drive (then again, it may not make a difference anyway...). For those who have seen the tour of France and watched the riders in the peloton split to go around a roundabout then this works the same in Mexico. If you are on the left then go on the left hand side, if on the right then go on the right hand side and merge again at the other side - takes a lot of getting used to.
As for the false economy, Mexico is fall of markets and stalls. Wherever you go, there is someone with a stall attempting to sell some form of clothing, jewellery or bric-a-brac to anyone who may show interest. Unfortunately the majority of these are run by the mobs so the actual stall owners make very little out of the sale and the competition is extremely high so making a living is extremely tough.
On this note, Talia made her first purchase today. A set of red leather hand made sandals. They are actually pretty cool - check out the photo below.
We have booked bus tickets to travel to a country town in the North West of Mexico called San Miguel. This is approximately 4 hours drive however the chance to see the countryside in a relaxing luxury coach will be cool. So far we have booked for 1 night however will most likely stay for 2 and return on Saturday for all of the weekend activities.
