Stop 58 - Mexico City

Ciudad de Mexico...
as it's known here. We have un poquito de espanol after the last few days with our primos mexicanos, so hopefully we can put it to some use here in the capital. Will be a big change from the quiet towns found in the north, and to say we were excited about seeing somewhere a bit more lively would be an understatement:

First up, we got the bus to our hostel - Suites DF Hostel - which was a pretty nice place, but unfortunately was located on an extremely busy road...cars were whizzing past late at night, or street food vendors were opening up early for the morning, but either way sleep was hard to come by. And given you pay for somewhere to sleep when you book a hostel, it wasn't really fulfilling the most basic requirement. Next, something muy importante - Stu had needed a haircut for quite a while, obviously unwilling to pay in either Australia or Hawaii:

Look at those sideburns:

And the demolition job was over - time to celebrate in Blom Cafe - a vegan cafe where Stu opted for a coffee,

While Dani went all out, getting a mushroom pibil that was quite a bit better than the food we'd had up north. First impressions indicated we'd eat quite well here:

And that proved correct, as after an evening of chilling out we were up and out the next day - scoping out some carnitas tacos Stu had wanted to get his hands on in Los Tacos Azules:

A pretty basic set up, but genuinely one of the best lunches Stu has ever had, and all for the princely sum of less than €1.50 for two large tacos. Definitely worth stopping by.

And given we had a few days here, we still wanted to get to grips with our general area - which seemed to be just outside La Condesa and Roma - the two best areas in the city as far as our eyes could tell.

And as we were walking down one of the main avenues and the rain started to fall, we took shelter in Pulqueria los Insurgentes, a rooftop bar which specialises in pulque, a very sweet fermented alcoholic drink made from agave ( -> tequila/mezcal) plants, apparently making a comeback after spending years in decline. Dani went for the margarita - we think the better option. That was enough for one more night, but having spent enough time getting to grips with the place, day three would be our first of ticking off some real tourist hot spots:

First though, lunch ^. We opted for una torta de pollo at a shop we picked at random after our morning trip on the subway, and we were then able to confirm what we had started to think after our first couple of days here: the food is class, in general. It's pretty difficult to go wrong when you can pick something at random and for it to be better than nearly anything you'd get at home (and for 1/3 the price, minimum).

Once we were sated, we ventured further on to our main objective for the day:

Make our way through Bosque de Chapultepec, and arrive at Castillo de Chapultepec - housing the National Museum of History.

Which gave a pretty comprehensive run through of Mexican/Native American history from pre-hispanic/European times, to the modern day. Pretty interesting, as the map above indicates. The history of Mexico is pretty....colourful. Definitely worth a Wikipedia binge. One museum of history was enough for us though, as we decided henceforth we'd make ourselves acquainted with some of the more modern aspects of the city (fuelled by tacos, and cakes, throughout):

We'd plenty planned for the next few afternoons/evenings - first to tick off the list was to go to a nearby cinema:

It was a Wednesday, so tickets were only ~€1.40 each to see Guasón (Joker) - en inglés and everything. We got what we paid for in this instance, as it was possibly the smallest screen we'd ever seen, but the film was decent enough.

Los locales seemed to appreciate it anyway ^. Next on our list was to revisit La Condesa - probably the area we were most enamoured with. Plenty of greenery, loads of cafes and beautiful places to chill out.

And having a solid craft beer bar Drunkendog didn't do anything to hurt our impressions of the place.

Very easy to spend an evening, or couple of days, killing a few hours at a number of the bars/restaurants/cafes here. We didn't have the time for that though, as we'd more cultural experiences to undertake: next up, Luche Libre

Organised by our hostel, with masks and mezcal supplied:

We made our way to the stadium, which is not what we expected. Stu had a vague idea of it being this low-key, small, traditional act - but it turned out to be full scale WWE-style entertainment. And first up, was a battle royale between the little people on the roster. What had we signed ourselves up for.

Bit of craic anyway, we guess? The entire thing was questionable. Not quite sure what we'd partaken in, but we put it down to a cultural experience, and moved on. Our time was running out anyway, with just one more day before we'd to undertake another pretty big journey to the south of the country. Given how massive of a city it is, we'd forgive ourselves if we missed out on a part of it - namely the historic centre, and we almost did given nobody else turned up for the free walking tour on our last morning. Thankfully (or not) our guide decided to go ahead with the tour, and we got a glimpse of a couple of things we hadn't seen yet, some more delicious tacos al pastor, but ultimately nothing better than in La Condesa or Roma.

However afterwards we decided to stop by Mercado de San Juan, a large marketplace we'd been told about on our first day but put off going to up until our very last. We decided we'd regret not checking it out - and we made the right call, as we instantly saw what all the fuss was about - the place was hopping. The most enthusiastic barista known to man greeted us for a coffee at Triana - and by the end of the night gave us two more shots of espresso on the house, on top of the coffees we bought - which most definitely didn't help us get any semblance of sleep in our already loud hostel.

Now re-energised by all the caffeine, we wandered around to see what else was offered here - with vendors shouting about the lion and crocodile meat they had for sale. Insects too, where a German couple offered to buy us anything we wanted, as long as they got to watch us attempt to eat it:

We didn't take them up on the offer, instead walking back to the more conventional parts of the market, and opting for the tapas+wine restaurant for our evening meal.

And we were felt vindicated in our choice as it turned out to be an incredible way to spend our last evening. A little up and down in parts, but overall an amazing city to get to see - particularly La Condesa, where either of us would happily spend quite a bit of time given the chance. Given how massive it is, we probably missed out on quite a few things, but we were happy with what we did get to see. And we were also looking forward to hopefully getting a good nights sleep soon - though most likely not possible given we were getting a night bus next. They're most definitely one thing we won't miss about this year. Feeling generally uplifted though from what Mexico City showed us, we were looking forward to seeing what our next Mexican city has to offer.

Big love,

Dani & Stu.

Currently listening to:

Country 12 & Stop 57 - El Chepe, Mexico

Latin America awaits...
as we stroll past the border after a very easy journey from San Diego, and make our way into Mexico. Was always going to be a bit of a shock to the system after spending the past couple of months in Oz and the US, but Español should hopefully be a little easier to get used to, in comparison to the Asian languages we were up against at the start of our trip.

Pretty simple to get through the border, though we've heard the way back can be a painful experience, as the cars queuing up here show:

And our experience of Tijuana didn't get much better after that - the place is a bit of a kip in all honesty. The beach area might be a bit nicer, but we weren't impressed. Thankfully we just needed to make our way to our hotel near the airport, as we were on to greener pastures the next morning: Chihuahua.

We stayed at a little Airbnb-type place, and were recommended a nearby restaurant where a live Mariachi band serenade you for the evening - Mexican tourism at its finest. Well sort of, we were a bit too tired to really appreciate it.

That rang true for a lot of Chihuahua really. We had three days here, but given we had gone Maui -> San Diego -> Tijuana -> Chihuahua in only 4 days, we were absolutely wrecked beyond belief. It was a pretty nice place, and we enjoyed a few strolls through the city, but didn't feel up to doing too much. Dani was also finding the food not quite up to scratch so far, which was disappointing, as we were both looking forward to decent Mexican food...

...but thankfully our last night we found a decent food truck serving up some quality fish tacos. Hopefully the first of many. It's so cheap too. Could get used to this. A nice way to close out our very fatigued start to the country - and a stop we had picked mainly as our gateway to doing the El Chepe train - apparently one of the most picturesque train journeys in the world, and came highly recommended (cheers Sadhbh!). We didn't quite match our timetable with the train to start, so took a bus from Chihuahua to where we'd first be catching the train - Creel. It's a pretty sleepy town where we spent a couple of nights too many, but does make for a nice stop. There's a strong indigenous community, and plenty of tours to nearby waterfalls we didn't get around to doing. Instead our highlight was found at our hotel, Hotel Ecologico Temazcal, run by a family with a few kids running around at all times. One, Gabi, took a shine to Dani, and so they spent the day doing some yoga, painting nails, and speaking in some sort of Spanglish.

We were ready to hit the road, so on we went to station in the middle of town to start our journey through the Copper Canyon:

We got the economy class - and can't understand why you'd pay for any other class. It was perfect, plenty of free seats, windows for the views, and half the price (or more) than the tourist tickets available. Given our last "tourist train" experience, going from Kandy -> Ella in Sri Lanka, this was approximately one million times more comfortable - so we were happy. Our first stop was a town called El Divisadero - probably the main stop along the rail route, as you get to see the Copper Canyon in all its glory from here:

Not too shabby. We stayed in a cabana ran by a lad called Roy - not to be found on Hostelworld/Booking or the likes, more so found by word of mouth (again, cheers Sadhbh!)

El Divisadero is a very sleepy town, with only one shop, one restaurant, and one place to buy the few beers necessary to numb the time you spend there. Safe to say we didn't get ID'd by this lad:

That's a bit harsh, as the main draw of El Divisadero isn't the town itself, but rather what we had planned for the next morning. Still, at our place we got by with:

Dogs.

Strolls.

Learning some Spanish.

Which allowed us to meet the other couple staying with us at Roy's - Paulina y Mario. They were happy to help us out given our limited knowledge, and we ended up having a few drinks with them, with them whipping up some quesadillas for us all for dinner, and us supplying some guacamole + tostadas. They said we didn't do too bad of a job - result. The four of us were on the same path, with them wanting to explore the Copper Canyon the next day, and then moving on - so on we all went to do what we really came for: a tour through the canyon, with hiking, rope bridge walking, and a scary amount of ziplining. Not for those afraid of heights.

It was absolutely incredible. Beyond words. And we both survived - which didn't feel too likely halfway through the 1.1km zipline - one of seven - that we did making our way across the canyon. With a sigh of relief, we made our way out of the canyon, but not before grabbing some lunch, which Paulina and Mario helped us with - absolutely delicious, having a couple more familiar with the food to help us was a boon. Much better than what we were having further north!

We rounded off the day with a little tour to some of the cliffs - no health & safety in sight. Terrifying.

An absolute highlight of the entire trip. If you ever find yourself in northern Mexico, for some odd reason, do it. Onwards we went, and after discussing our plans with Paulina + Mario, who kindly invited us to join them on their journey, we tagged along for the rest of the rail travel. First up, some more gorditas, we'd an ~8 hour journey ahead of us.

And a little memento too, some peso coins flattened by the only passenger train left running in the entirety of Mexico:

This turned out to be the most beautiful part of the trip too, some of it absolutely jaw dropping. We made it all the way to Los Mochis, the last stop, as we tagged along with Paulina & Mario.

And we very wearily made it off the train. About 11p.m. at this stage, but our journey wasn't quite done, as we were off to Culiacán, a city a couple of hours away by bus - where Paulina's sister lived. We had by now decided we were all primos (cousins), and we were off to meet our extended familia mexicana.

By the time we made it to our hotel we were beyond wrecked - but the next day was a big one. We were due to meet Paulina's sister - Pamela, and her wife, Isa. It also happened to be Dani's birthday, which we had briefly mentioned to Paulina + Mario the day prior.

There was no way we could've expected what happened next. We were picked up the next morning at approx midday by all of our newfound crew - beers in tow:

And brought for a lunch at a local cevicheria - raw fish with heaps of lime + salt. It works, trust us.

And once we'd eaten our weight in seafood, out came the birthday cake, photo op, and a serenade of feliz cumpleaños to boot.

And following this, a visit to the local baseball stadium to catch a game - we still don't really understand it, but a few beers were had, and it was some craic.

And that was that - we had an absolutely incredible time to start off our Mexican journey. A little slow at first, but given how tired we were, that was understandable - but it really took off after we finally got on the train. One of the best things we've ever done, and we can't thank Paulina y Mario enough. They were absolutely amazing, and our initial impressions of how friendly Mexican people are couldn't be higher. We were blown away. If they're ever in Europe we'll hopefully be able to make as much of a welcoming effort to them as they did for us! If our next part of the journey can be half as good, we'll be in luck.

Big love,

Dani & Stu.

Currently listening to: