Cuidad de Mexico

August 31, 2021

We didn't sleep well at all last night. It was after eleven by the time we got to bed which was six in the morning back in South Africa, so our body clock's were all out of kilter. We ended up waking up at about three in the morning and tossed and turned until about seven thirty. We both felt dreadful and decided the only way to get back on our feet was to pig out at the eye-wateringly expensive buffet breakfast in the hotel. We tried our best but still couldn't get our full M$400 worth. Maybe after a few weeks of cycling our appetites will have regained the ability to make the most of eat as much as you like (can) meal options.

The breakfast did the trick and by ten o'clock we were on the Metro into the city to visit the cathedral and to have a general look around. In contrast to the breakfast, the ticket prices were ridiculously cheap - M$5 either way. One of the great attractions of visiting a new country is the uncertainty of it all and working out how things and people work. A Metro trip involving a number of line changes is one way to dive into the deep end. The thing that jumped out today was how quick the locals were to come to our assistance when we hesitated for more than a few seconds while negociating the Metro.

The cathedral was built between 1575 and 1625 and is an impressive structure for the colonials to have built so soon after invading the Americas.

One of the attractive old buildings surrounding the cathedral. The succulent garden in front of it caught my eye.

Informal vendors in the hallways of the Metro.

Once back at the hotel it was time to unbox the bicycles and re-assemble them. While doing this the weather quickly focused our minds on what we can expect almost every day over the next few weeks with a thunder storm quickly developing and the heavens opening. We are certainly going to get very wet at some point while on the bicycles in the near future.

Bicycles are ready. Not sure that we are.

Then we strolled off through the neighbourhood north of the airport. It gave us an opportunity to gauge what we can expect to be able to eat and buy once we are away from the touristy areas. An early supper at a local street side eatery made us realise that spending more than M$50 on a meal will end up with us not being able to finish it.

Tomorrow we head north-eastwards towards Teotihuacan to spend some time at the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. It will be the first time in two months that we will be back on loaded bicycles. We're pretty unfit and we will have fifty kilometers to cover but the route seems quite flat so hopefully we won't take too much strain.

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