The food…
I love cheese and the cheese here has me eating with a smile.

I have fallen in love with tlacoyo. These are GREAT even if I still cannot pronounce it I will forever love them. Fried green like folded tortillas. Mine was filled with white sauce, cheeses and onions. I love them. For a dollar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TlacoyoI did a lot of eating on the street. I did not eat the meat that was hanging. I have not yet gotten that courageous. I am sure, knowing me like I do, that I will in time.

Here is a picture of me ordering my first meal alone. It was kinda cool. You can just go to the corner and they have all these covered stands to sit down and eat at. My friend here was very kind and helped me to order my first solo meal in Mexico. I had to do some crying to show I wanted onions but it was all good.

Here is a really good site I found for Mexican Street Food and some tips on eating it: http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2098-wrap-it-up-a-guide-to-mexican-street-tacos-part-i.

The markets were yet another adventure. There seems to be two kinds of markets here. One is sorta like Walmart stores in the USA. With food and all. The second kind is more of a free for all.

The second are the more interesting and seem to be more common. They are sorta inside a building but there is a lot of stuff happening on the side walks as well. Booth to booth is something different. Meat hanging from hooks, chickens being cleaned right there, vegetables on display, shoes for sale, cut flowers, pigs being slaughtered and cleaned, holiday wares, all types and sizes of chilies, plus lots of places to sit down and eat while your shopping, the list goes on and on. The shocker to me and I would venture to say most of us from the USA is the lack of care when the stray dog or two strolls by.

Of course food is not the only cultural experience to be had in Mexico City. There are more museums than one city should ever have. And all of them had people in them on the Sunday I went. Sundays are free and it seems a day where everyone gets out and about. There are 20 million people in Mexico City so it tends to be a lot of people enjoying their Sundays.

Here is a site about all the museums: http://www.solutionsabroad.com/en/cities/mexico-city/museums-in-mexico-city.html.

I recommend going to at least two and many more if you like museums. They are all very beautiful.

The Center Plaza is spectacular in and of itself. It is huge and runs diagonal through the city. Much like NYC it has a lot of street performers and beggars. It is its own event.

Here is a great site for all things about the Center: http://wikitravel.org/en/Mexico_City/Centro.

The last thing I will mention is the public transportation systems. They are amazing. The metro runs just like NYC. There is a train coming and going every few minutes all for $3 pesos. That is less than a quarter. The buses on the street come at the same intervals and will stop where ever someone flags them down. I have never had an easier let alone cheaper way to get around town in my life.

Mexico City Metro: http://mexicometro.org/

The final bit of advice I want to give is that the buses that travel from one part of Mexico to another are simple the best. The chairs go down so far you are all but horizontal. There is food served and bathrooms. The days of the chicken bus in Mexico are gone – I’ve been told they have been gone for 30 years – forever.

This is a site for all the Autobus stations with buses leaving Mexico City for other places in Mexico City: http://gomexico.about.com/od/mexicocity/qt/df_bus_stations.htm.

And the bus company I took to go south was ADO. They have several different classes of buses: First, Second, Premium and Platinum. I took the first class south. To Oaxaca just over 300 miles away I paid $31.00 and for Tapachula over 550 miles away I paid $28.50. The website for ADO: http://www.ado.com.mx/ado/index.jsp.

Funny thing is everyone here keeps telling me how cheap Guatemala is….