Day 3 Mexico City-Zocalo in Mexico City

Breakfast at Hotel Majestic Best Western at Zocalo, Mexico City: We had read about this restaurant in all the travel guides as must do, for the aerial view from here of the Zocalo.It’s on the top floor of the Best Western hotel. The food is a passe', but the view was really worth it. Buffet breakfast for two costs 250 pesos. We were there for an hour directly overlooking the Zocalo Square. There was big Mexican flag in the center, a giant Christmas tree being built and a huge ice rink under construction!!! We could also see the Cathedral from top and moving traffic in the busy City.

Catedral Metropolitana in Mexico City: We visited the Metropolitan Cathedral

, there was a service in progress. The Cathedral is beautiful with intricate carvings all over. It was built on the Aztec ruins by the Spanish conquerors, this massive building has been sinking unevenly due to that, resulting in cracks in the structure!

Presidential palace at Mexico City:The next stop was at Palacio Nacional in Mexico City. One needs an ID card (passport in case of Foreigners) to enter this building. Its guarded by the Military.The moment we entered we were approached by a guide for a tour lasting about an hour. We decided to go for the same and price quoted was 40pesos for 2 people. He was so good, we ended up giving 50 pesos!

He gave a brief history of Mexico right from BC to Spanish conquest to the Revolution! All these are depicted in the murals on the walls of the corridors. The famous Diego Rivera painted the murals in the presidential palace between 1929 and 1945. The last mural had a snap shot of the entire history of Mexico all the way to the Second Revolution. Karl Marx was displayed very prominently in the mural.

Three days at Mexico City! We enjoyed every moment of it , the crowd, the music,the food, the architecture all a wonderful experience for us to cherish.

Day 2 at Mexico City- Aztec Dancers at Zocalo

After the visit to the Pyramids we had lunch at Sanborne café, close to the Alameda park. Great food and ambiance . Though all the places we eat, Raji had a tough task of explaining the concept of vegetarian :-). All the restaurants have at least one item fully vegetarian and Mexico city has about 4-5 restaurants which are only vegetarian. So it wasn’t such a big issue.

Post lunch we headed to Zocalo, this is the main town square, about 5 blocks from Alameda park. We reached Zocalo at around 2pm on Sunday, it was so crowded and an impressive sight! Zocalo is a large square surrounded by the Cathedral Metropolitana, the Presidential Palace and Templo de Mayor and hordes of shops and people. When we reached the Zocalo there was a rock show in progress, and at the same place at night we saw a religious rally…very active town square indeed !

Next comes the best part …The Aztec Dancers !!! They dance to the drum beats in their traditional attire with huge head gears , one gets mesmerised by the rhythm and the beats of the drums. Their bodies are painted and we sighted both men and lady aztecs! They were about 20 dancers and we spotted them in between the Catedral and Templo de Mayor on Sunday afternoon. This is a must see in Mexico City.