We landed at the Mexico City Airport at 9am on Friday. I (wrongly) thought that the Metro Subway came to the airport entrance. Since I didn’t do any research pre-arrival, I later found out that you turn left when you exit Terminal 1 and keep going. We jumped in a cab after the driver said it would cost about 200 pesos, but no more than 350 pesos. After 15 minutes in the cab I pulled up the GPS and saw that the total distance from the airport to Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral was 5km, and we were not even halfway there. Ten minutes later the fare showed 385 pesos so the driver let us out, pay the 350 peso cap, and walk the last half mile. We dropped our luggage off at the hostel, and had ten minutes to grab a bite before our 11am walking tour. The only thing we could see from Zócalo (aka Plaza de la Constituciòn), the historic center of Mexico City, was McDonald’s. So at 11:05am when we caught up with our group at Templo Mayor, Adriana the guide immediately pulled us into the group and chastised us for eating McDonald’s in Mexico.

So about the Tour… It was a fun 2 hour free tour we set up with Mexico a Pie. We learned about many places in Centro Historico, including Templo Mayor, Zócalo, Palacio Nacional, Catedral Metropolitana, Correo Mayor, Alameda Central, and finished at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. We learned about some history as well as received some good locals tips.

Afterwards we walked through Chinatown and then checked into our hostel. After a 20 minute power nap, we took off for the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. We struggled for a bit trying to figure out the Metro, but easily found our way back to the hostel after the Museum. The Metro is the way to travel. 5 pesos gets you anywhere the Metro goes. The anthropology museum was really impressive. Entry is 70 pesos per person. We spent 90 minutes strolling the various buildings of artifacts mostly from 250 to 1250 A.D.

Back in Centro Historico we ate dinner on the 3rd floor of Tacqueria overlooking Zócalo. We then had a beer at Terraza Bar on the 6th floor of our hostel. Great views again of Zócalo, but we were too cheap to pay for more than one 50 peso beer each. We walked down to the street to buy a few drinks for our room, but discovered most of the markets start closing at 9:30pm. Fortunately we got our drinks and had our own party in the room playing cards until we couldn’t party any more.

Saturday morning we were out of bed by 8:30am. We ran out the door to re-visit the sites around Zócalo. Some facts about those sites we checked out.

Templo Mayor: The site of the main Aztec temple of Tenochtitlan. Built in 1325, destroyed in 1521, and re-discovered in 1978. Much of the site was built over by the Cathedral.

Catedral Metropolitana: A beautiful church we were able to walk through. It covers much of the Aztec site. Construction started in the 16th Century, and is the largest church in the Americas.

Palacio Nacional: This is the executive seat of the President, but it is not his official residence. Our tour guide told us how much they dislike the President, and said he is never working there. He only makes an annual appearance on the center balcony on Independence Day, September 16th.

Plaza de la Constitucion: This is Zócalo, the name it’s most commonly referred to. The previous buildings all encompass Zócalo, the 3rd largest city square in the world (behind Beijing and Moscow).

After our own tour, we walked to the LatinAmerica Building. It was completed in 1956 and has an observation tower on the 42nd floor. Instead of paying 70 pesos each and waiting in line for the observation deck, we went to the 40th floor. On that floor is a restaurant that also has 360 degree views, and we paid 120 pesos for two fresh juices.

Hostel check-out was 11am, so at 10:50am I stood in front of the hostel trying to find a cab that would take us to Teotihuacán. I was able to talk to a super friendly driver that agreed to take us to the pyramids outside Mexico City and then on to the airport for our flight home. We grabbed our luggage, checked out, and were on our way at 11:05am. We arrived right at noon. Teotihuacán is thought to have been established around 100 B.C., with most of the buildings constructed in the 1st and 2nd centuries.

The two main pyramids are Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. We hiked up Pyramid of the Sun, with over 200 steep steps to climb before reaching the 216 foot peak. We only spent 90 minutes at the site, but 3 hours is probably how much time we needed to see everything. We had to pay 175 pesos total to enter the site, and we spent another 200 pesos on a lot of souvenirs. Good bang for your buck at Teotihuacán! It took us an hour to get back to the airport, and our driver was happy to accept our 1,100 pesos. But that price included two tolls of 77 pesos each. On the route there we saw cable cars above us at one point. I looked it up and in 2016 the Mexican government installed a cable car transportation system to help the commute of tens of thousands of Mexicans per day. Only costs 6 pesos and cuts the commute time from one hour to 17 minutes. Pretty cool!

I would consider our Mexico City visit a success. And I hope we get to visit again soon. There are more museums to visit. Xochimilco was our number two option if we couldn’t get to Teotihuacán. Our number three option was drink pulque and eat crickets. There are a lot of beautiful towns within an hour drive of Mexico City, like Puebla and Taxco. I’m sure we’ll be back, but I’m glad we’ve now been there!