Sunday, February 18, 2007

More of Mexico City

As I said yesterday, there were both good and bad things about Mexico City. Our worst experience was being conned by a taxi driver. We had only been in the city a day and had hailed a taxi on the street as we had been warned against. The driver seemed very friendly, but when we went to pay he somehow, switched the 200 peso bill I had given him for a 500 peso bill and said, "you gave me too much, I don't have change." He handed the bill back and I gave him another 200 peso bill. I was confused, thought I had given him the right bill, but at that moment assumed I had made a mistake. Later we learned the 500 peso bill was one of their old, now worthless, bills and we had been had. Here is my very expensive, and worthless souvenir.

Looks good, doesn't it? It pays to familiarize yourself with the new money before you go to Mexico. Here's a site where you can do just that.

On the flip side, there was so much to see in Mexico City that was simply incomparable. We walked to the National Palace from our hotel to see the Diego Rivera Murals. They depict the history of Mexico and are wonderful and beautiful and almost beyond explanation. Here is some of what we saw:

You can see a bit of how grand the building itself is, but the murals are the real showstopper. The second photo is a detail of the first and you can see where Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo is depicted in the crowd. She is the one with the red star around her neck. The woman in red with the pale blue eyes is her sister.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:23 AM

    Gorgeous murals. We visited Mexico City when I was a child, but of course, I don't remember much other than it struck me as being an aweful lot like Los Angeles where I grew up ;-) The family we stayed with had one of those homes that looks like nothing on the street side, but once you enter, it has a courtyard around which eveything happens. the kitchen was outside too. That stayed with me. I wish I remembered those murals though, because I know we must have seen them. Gorgeous.

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  2. Wonderful pictures! Thanks for taking us along on your visit!

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  3. Thank you for sharing the pictures, especially of the murals. They are spectacular.

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  4. We were lucky enough, when we visited Mexico City quite a few years ago, to hook up with a cabbie/tour guide who was not only honest but fluent in English, educated and soulful. My dad was born in Mexico City, and I was so curious about it. The sheer size and sprawl and the teeming humanity of it all is quite overwhelming, but it's a magnificent place, too, isn't it?

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