Hola Todas!

Where do I begin? So much has happened in the last 48 hours (48? I don´t know... I have lost track of when we left Australia with all of the time differences) that I am not exactly sure what to start typing about first.

Well... we´re here! Mexico City that is. We arrived on Monday night, after 20 something hours in the air. We managed to make it here without too many dramas, but what would an adventure be without its dramas. We started our journey with some confusion in Sydney airport, when we were informed that Nyall´s passport was having troubles scanning through their system, and something about him not being allowed in the USA. Anyway, they spent ages sorting it out, gave us our tickets, sent us on our way, and said it would be all fine when we arrived in the US. This didn´t comfort us at the time, but luckily it all worked out.

Our first stopover was in Aukland, followed by another connection in Los Angeles. Our first impression of the states was conceived at the customs desk, when a lady thoroughly questioned us about the trip. She could not get her head around what we were doing, and thought we were very suspicious when she learnt how long we were away from home for. She did not understand the concept of travel at all, but she eventually let us through customs. Due to the delay at American customs, and the late arrival of our flight from Aukland, we did a mad dash through Los Angeles airport. We had to run to our flight to Dallas, and arrived as they were doing the final boarding call. As it turns out we didn´t have to hurry quite so much, as the flight was significantly delayed due to the broken air-conditioning in the plane. It was a hot flight from Los Angeles to Dallas.

Me sleeping at Dallas airport.

From Dallas we finally flew to Mexico City, where we plan to spend the next week or so, followed by 2 months in Mexico State. It was on this flight from Dallas that the reality of what we were doing truely sunk in, I started freaking out, I was excited, but for the first time started feeling anxious and scared.

We arrived at Mexico City airport at 11:40pm on the 29th December, and as soon as we walked through customs and immigration we were bombarded with taxi drivers trying to get business. We had to just shake our heads, and find a booth for authorised taxis (There´s a lot of nasty stories floating around Mexico City about hailing unauthorised taxis and then being robbed and dropped 2 miles out of town. This didn´t appeal to us, so we played it safe, and spent a few more pesos for an authorised taxi). On jumping in the taxi, I freaked out because my seat didn´t have a seat belt. I soon realised that Nyall was the only person in the taxi wearing a seat belt anyway, and kind of just held onto the seat infront of me as we swerved towards oncoming taffic and through red lights. We had an interesting drive to our hostel, as we went through some pretty dodgy looking suberbs. Prostitutes lined the streets, and at one stage lit a fire in the gutter right next to the taxi (looked like to keep warm). We were suprised at how many little corner markets were still open at this time of night (about 1am).

On approaching the neighbourhood of our hostel, our taxi driver informed us in spanish that the streets were blockaded, and that we´d have to walk the last block. This freaked me out, but we were kind of comforted by the huge police presence in the area. Anyway, we arrived safely, to a welcoming hostel, a comfy bed, and some much needed sleep.

Tuesday morning we awoke nice and early to make the most of our free breakfast, then wandered down the street to do a small amount of shopping. We wandered down a street, that had lots of dirty old lanes running off it, street vendors, and stray dogs. We didn´t know at the time, but it seems that in Mexico similiar types of shops are all in the same district. Much to our dismay, it seems that this first day we had just wandered through the hardware section of Mexico City. We could hardly find what we wanted, but it was an interesting walk none the less. On our way back we managed to find what we were looking for. I also learnt how buy something from a shop in Mexico, which is quite different to what I was used to. It was very intimidating having someone repeat something over and over to me in Spanish without me having any idea what they were saying. But I think we have just about got the hang of it now. hoorah!

We ate our first street food too, which was oh so good! I´d tell you what it was if I could, but I think we ordered the wrong thing because we were after taco´s and got something else. It was still yum though, and only cost us AUD$2. Last night we hung out at the terrace bar that is on the top floor of our hostel, had our first Corona in Mexico, chatted with other travellers, and got some advice about where we should visit (and where we should avoid!). I should also mention that last night we found out that in Latin America you´re not supposed to flush toilet paper. I find this totally gross, and don´t want to go into details... but apparently the plumbing system here is not strong enough to handle it. (Once we are used to this, I wonder how we will go adjusting back into our usual habits of just flushing! Sorry in advance if you find a pile of used toilet paper next to your toilet after we´ve been!).

Last night we slept well, as we are still getting used to the time difference. This morning we awoke for another free breakfast, followed by a free walking tour of the historic centre of Mexico (the district in which we are staying). We saw some old aztec ruins which Mexico City is now built on top of, we visited the cathedral where we were shown how over the years one corner of the cathedral is sinking (I guess that´s what you get for building on top of a pre-existing city, that was initially built on top of a lake). My favorite part of the tour was inside the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), where Diego Rivera has painted murals on the walls depicting the history of Mexico. There are so much in these paintings, and I am looking forward to studying up on Rivera´s paintings a little more.

My favorite mural by Diego Rivera, depicting the struggle of classes in Mexico.

Our tour concluded outside the Palacio de Belles Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), which we plan to visit on another day (it closed early today due to it being New Years Eve). Instead, we took a ride up the second tallest tower in Mexico City (can´t remember it´s name) to get a glimpse of the view, and we were amazed at how large the city spreads. It goes for as far as the eye can see in every direction.

We enjoyed some taco´s in a street cafe for lunch (very cheap!), and have now come back to the hostel to relax for the afternoon before planning something to do to celebrate the New Year tonight.

So all in all, we love Mexico City. It is a beautiful city, with it´s colour, noise, and people. Unfortunately there is so much pollution in the air, our eyes are constantly stinging, and the smell of the city is sometimes hard to bare. The altitude sometimes affects us too (Mexico is 2000m above sea level), and we often find ourselves out of breath whilst not doing anything at all. There is so much life in this city, so many places to explore, and we are excited to get to know it more. Our spanish is vastly improving, Nyall does most of the talking with the locals, but he occasionally throws me in the deep end and refuses to help me! We´ve been stuck with the language a few times, but people are so friendly that they usually try as much as they can to help us out. It usually works out fine. Sometimes we just have to smile, say gracias, and continue on our way.

We send lots of love back home, I think you guys are aleady in 2009. We wish all of our friends and family a happy and safe new year.

Stay in touch ok,
love Maryanne.