D.F. (Mexico city)

Bong, bong, bong... the sound of the Catedral Metropolitana echoes around the Zocalo, Mexico city main square. I have just changed hostel as the previous one did not have water, no heating (and it is 6 degres today) and was extremely noisy... just what you need when you are jetlagged and at the altitude of 2000m.


Anyway, my new hostel has a roof terrasse above the Zocalo - the 3rd largest square in the world after Tienanmen sq. in Beijing and the Red sq. in Moscou. From the rooftop I can see the cathedral, the palacio national hosting some huge murals by Diego Rivera and some other government buildings.

The striking thing to note is that most of the heavy buildings around here are not straight. 500 years ago the land where Mexoico city now stands was a huge lake which was dried by the conquistadores. The ground below is therefore soft and heavy buildings are kind of sinking. This is a huge problem for the city apparently.

I haven't seen much of D.F. yet apart from the Zocalo, a bit of Coyoacan (a great little chilled out part of town) and Paseo de la Reforma, the largest avenue in town.

Oh, I have also seen a huge group of people demonstrating totally naked against the privatisation of their company (I think that was the reason). How divertido!! If people on strike in France where demonstrating naked, it would be the hippiest country ever...