Up late; I was not feeling too good, not sure if it is the altitude or jet-lag, anyway we decided to have an early lunch at a place near the hotel. We both had sandwiches and started planning the rest of the trip through Central America. We tentatively decided we would head south from Mexico City then across to Yucatan and onto Belize and Guatemala.

We then took the Metro to the National Art Museum (Museo Nacional de Arte) which is housed in a very impressive building. We looked around some of the sections, but got told off a couple of times for getting too near to the paintings and generally we found the whole place to be quite staid and boring.

We didn't stay there too long and afterwards we walked to the Palacio de Bellas Artes which is a magnificent building housing the opera house/theatre. We decided to have a look around the museum, there was a special Frida Kahlo exhibition on (everywhere we go seems to have some link with Frida Kahlo, or some of here paintings on display), also there were several interesting murals on some of the walls, including an excellent one by Diego Rivera called "Man, Controller of the Universe". Unfortunately we couldn't find the architecture museum which was supposedly housed here.

Afterwards we walked to Hidalgo and down the Reforma, one of the main streets in the city. We were heading for the Zona Rosa which is known for its shops, bars and restaurants. We wandered around the Zona Rosa area for a while, it was not that impressive and seemed quite seedy in places, at one point a guy offered me ladies for rent!

We stopped for a drink at a bar then found a restaurant for dinner. It was a typical Mexican restaurant and the food was very good yet again, Katerina said she had the best meat she has ever tasted, it was so tender. After dinner it was getting late so we walked back to the Zocalo, which is a long way and must have taken well over an hour, and tried to use the internet at the youth hostel. We then walked back to the hotel.

Breakfast in the hotel then we walked through the main square, the Zocalo, to the youth hostel to use the Internet. On the way we passed 2 men scuffling in the street, they were trying to punch each other and were shouting a lot, a lady who appeared to be the wife of one of the men was screaming at a group of nearby policemen pleading for them to intervene. The police just stood there watching for a while, eventually they broke the 2 men apart, and they both went their separate ways, one walking, the other on a bike. We guessed that they had bumped into each other and started fighting (for some unknown reason!).

We reached the square and found it to be closed to traffic due to Independence Day celebrations, there were lots of people wandering around with all manner of hats and horns and various other items inscribed with "Viva Mexico", there was also a guy with Indian head-dress blessing people with what appeared to be a bowl of incense. We surfed the Internet for a while, and then took the Metro to Chapultepec where we walked through the park and up the hill to the castle, which is now a museum of Mexican history.

The museum was very good, with clear and well-organized displays. Although all of the descriptions were in Spanish this did give me good practice in using the dictionary. Some of the internal walls were decorated with giant murals depicting events in Mexican history, and there was even a section describing the history and origins of the national anthem.

There were some good views of the city from the castle, you could see the city stretching all the way out to the surrounding mountains. After the museum we headed through the park, stopping at one of the food stalls on the way for 3 hot dogs for 10MXP which we had seen everywhere around the city, and reached the museum of Anthropology where Katerina changed the faulty book she had bought and I bought a book about the museum.

We then walked back to the Metro and headed back to the hotel, we just got back to the hotel in time before the downpour started. After some time in the hotel we decided to head for the main square to watch the Mexican Independence Day celebrations. After passing through the security cordon (we were searched a couple of times) we were allowed into the square where there were thousands of people milling around. As we wandered around a band played on the stage, they all wore large sombreros and were mainly playing violins.

The people in the square were in jubilant mood, many of them had their faces painted with the green, white and red of the Mexican flag and almost everybody was wearing some kind of bandana or sombrero with a flag, rattle or balloon (one of the most popular items was a long, sausage shaped balloon with Viva Mexico written along the side). After wandering around the square for a while we decided to get something to eat so headed to the food stalls just outside the square near the cathedral. There we bought tacos, hotdogs, drinks and even some freshly made biscuits from a lady making them on a very small cooker. We then headed back into the square and at 10pm there was announcement which we didn't quite follow but seemed to suggest that it was almost time for the President, Vicente Fox, to make his speech on the balcony of the palace. This caused everybody to head over the palace area and take up a position to view the balcony, we waited and waited.

All the time there was music playing that suggested that something was about to happen but nothing did and it appeared that some people were beginning to get impatient, i.e. some started whistling. Just before 11pm the President appeared to great applause and cheering from the crowd, he stood on the balcony with his wife and said a few words before the chant of Viva Mexico, which the crowd enthusiastically joined in with. We later found out that the President repeats Miguel Hidalgo's (the leader of Mexican Independence) call for Independence, "Grito de Dolores!"

This was the cue for the main celebrations to begin, lots of people had canisters of foam and they started spraying them around the crowd, others had confetti which they launched into the air, and the rest just made as much noise as possible with trumpets, horns and various other cheap, plastic toys. Next came the fireworks, these were some of the most spectacular I have ever seen, the effects enhanced by the setting as they were launched in front of the cathedral. There were some huge explosions of colour, again red, green and white dominated, and half way through the words Viva Mexico were lit up outside the cathedral with catherine wheels spinning around them.

The finale was some fireworks which exploded confetti over the crowd, the confetti was red, green and white strips of paper and the effect of the confetti floating around the sky was breathtaking, everywhere you looked there was confetti spinning around. After this people started to leave the square and we decided to leave also, it was quite a crush but eventually we made it out. Overall it was an excellent evening, the Mexicans certainly know how to throw a party!!

Turned the TV on in the hotel to see the start of the Independence Day procession through the Zocalo. We decided we wanted to see it ourselves so we headed along the street (there was no traffic on the roads) and reached a barrier where the procession was taking place. We stood there for a while and could mainly see various army vehicles pass including tanks, jeeps and diggers on articulated trucks.

There were lots of soldiers marching, including what appeared to be the army communications division with backpack phones holding the receiver to their ears and mouth, there were also trucks with army dogs and lots of people on horseback. The biggest cheers by far went out for the dogs and the horses!

After a while we headed over to the Zocalo and looked around there for a while before getting some lunch at one of the branches of Vips.

After lunch we popped into the youth hostel to use the internet before wandering through the main square and back to the hotel. After a break at the hotel we decided to try to find somewhere to eat and wandered around for a while without much success, most places were shut.

Eventually we stumbled upon a roast chicken place where we had half a roast chicken each with tortillas and crisps, it was surprisingly very good. Afterwards we wandered into the Zocalo for the last time and watched the last of the celebrations including some live music on the stage.

Puebla