I have just been back from a business trip to Mexico city – in 3 words I would describe the city as ‘warm people’, ‘beautiful city outskirts’ but ‘polluted city centre’. The pollution in the heart of Mexico City really bothered me for the initial few days – red eyes and struggling nose. Air pollution is generally such a predicament, nothing is visible (as in you do not see a layer of black smoke or anything similar around) but the sensitive eyes and nose find it difficult to cope with change of atmospheric cleanliness.
Mexico carries with it a beautiful history, a history of the Aztec warriors who were invaded and conquered by the Spaniards. Over the weekend, on Saturday, I went for a trip to the beautiful pyramids of Teotihuacan. It was a spell-binding experience.
It is a day trip from Mexico city and I took a guided tour from the hotel. Given taxi drivers do not know any English and only speak Spanish (very strange for a city with such a proximity to the US), as a lone female traveller I could only trust my hotel booked tours. The day was well spent in the company of some other tourists mainly from South America and a knowledgable guide who portrayed the city’s history as somebody who has lived there since ages and seen it all himself. The fluctuations in his voice added that extra thrill in every story he told about his great country.
I also drank the water from a Cactus plant called agabe, which after fermentation results in the famous Mexican drink Tequilla.
On Sunday I went to a small town of Cuernavaca to see a very ancient and famous cathedral followed by a trip to the Silver City Taxco. Taxco is a sweet little town with lots of silver jewellery on sale. With Mexico claiming to be largest producer of silver, you would expect the prices of silver in this silver city to be lower than anywhere else in the world, but actually that is not the case. On asked why so, ‘we have to buy silver from the Government and this way they stabilise the prices and maintain its market price globally’, a Silver jewellery manufacturer informed me. The city is on a hill, but the superior quality of mountain roads impressed me a lot.
Overall it was a good experience to visit Mexico. Next time I visit the place again, I will not forget to carry a pollution mask and with me a small vocabulary of Spanish words to communicate with the taxi drivers. Do share with me if you have been to Mexico and shared any similar experiences as mine or anything else that you may want to share! Gracias!