After breakfast in the hotel we take the Metro to Coyoacan. Coyoacan is a mainly residential area in the south of the Mexico City. After a pleasant walk through a smart suburban area we reach the former house of Russian Revolutionary Leon Trotsky who lived there in the late 1930's for 4 years following his exile from the USSR.

The house has been converted into a small museum and is pretty much the same as when he was living there. One of the more interesting rooms in the house is the study where he was infamously murdered in 1940 using an ice-pick.

After wandering around the house and garden we strolled to the nearby Frida Kahlo Museum, which again is a house. It is the house she lived in for all of her life, La Casa Azul (The Blue House).

Frida Kahlo is one of the most famous Mexican artists and appears to have almost cult status amongst the Mexicans. She was married to the most famous Mexican artist, the muralist Diego Rivera, and most notably had an affair with Trotsky. The house was very big and had a huge garden, there were lots of her paintings on display and you could wander around her studio and even see the unfinished painting she was working on when she died, not surprisingly a portrait of Stalin.

After the museums we headed down to the centre of Coyoacan and Hidalgo Square. The whole area was busy with people eating ice cream, shopping, and generally having a good time among the market stalls, cafes and shops of this very pleasant area. After wandering around the craft market we stopped for lunch at a nice Mexican place with good music and excellent food.

After lunch we continued our walk and headed along Avenieda Francisco Sosa, perhaps the most impressive residential street in the whole city. There were some fine buildings along this smart, tree lined avenue and we stopped often to admire various churches, squares and houses. At the end of the avenue we headed towards the Gandhi bookshop where Katerina bought the Spanish version of the Rough Guide to Mexico (now there is no excuse not to learn Spanish).

We then headed back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Up early to take the Metro to the Autobus Del Norte (Northern Bus Station) which is in the north of the city. There we catch a bus which will take us to the ancient site of Teotihuacan, popularly known as the Pyramids, which is about 50km north east of Mexico City. It costs 25MXP and takes about an hour, on the way we pass the suburbs of the city which seem to stretch on forever and include some huge shanty type towns which are made of gray, unpainted concrete, they look very grim and are crowded together but surprisingly appear to have electricity and TVs.

Teotihuacan is the site of an ancient settlement that was founded around 100BC, and by 450AD it was one of the largest cities in the world. It is believed that a huge fire swept through the city around 600AD which resulted it in it being abandonded, although there are several theories surrounding it's eventual demise as a great city

We arrive at Teotihuacan and are dropped off at Gate 1 of the site where we buy our ticket and proceed towards the first temple. The entire site is huge, even though it only covers a fraction of the original city, and includes three main areas; the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.

Unfortunately the first temple, Quetzalcoatl, is closed for renovations and all we can do is climb a small pyramid to view the site. Next we walk along the very long Avenue of the Dead to reach the largest structure in the city, the Pyramid of the Sun. The Pyramid is huge, it has the same base area as the Great Pyramid of Egypt but is only about half the height. We climb to the top which is not too easy as the steps are steep and the sun is blaring down, also we are at an altitude of about 2200m. The view from the top is excellent, you can see the whole site and the surrounding mountains.

We then visit the Pyramid of the Moon, next to which is an area where there are some impressive stone carvings. We look around this area for a while before heading over to the Museum which is at the other side of the site. The Museum is very impressive, it is well presented and includes a large floor based plan and model of the entire site.

After some lunch we catch the bus back to the city, on the way a police lady got on the bus to frisk people for weapons or other such illegal objects, it was quite strange as she only frisked the Mexican men. We arrived back at the bus station and took the Metro back to the hotel.

After a rest at the hotel we head out for dinner and find an excellent place, Maderos Restaurant, not far from the hotel which served an excellent chicken/bacon/cheese type dish and a really good salad. After dinner we spent some time using the internet to send some emails.

Mexico City Page 3