Mexico City: Walking and Walking

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Day 39 – Friday 28th October 2005

The hostel I was staying in – Hostel Moneda – ran two free tours. One of those was a walking tour of the historical centre of the city. I decided to go on this as it would give me some insight into the history of the city, and its Aztec roots.

The tour began from the hostel which lay on Calle Moneda. This street is where the money of Mexico was first printed, and more importantly, the location of Mexico’s first cantina.

When the Spanish first arrived in Mexico City it was surrounded by water. The lake surrounding it was drained long ago and the city built upon its bed. This has created a problem, as the soil is compacting and the city is sinking. The photo of Calle Moneda shows the way the street is kind of wonky. Thats due to subsidence.

The tour moved along to the zocalo, otherwise known as the plaza de la Constitucion. This is a giant square bordered by the Palacio Nacional and the cathedral. As the Palacio Nacional houses the offices of the president, the zocalo is often beseiged by protesters venting their anger at one or other of the policies of government. None were present during my stay in Mexico City however.

We went into the Palacio Nacional, which apart from having the presidents office, is also home to some amazing murals by Diego Rivera. Now I am the first to admit I know nothing about art, but these murals impressed me nonetheless. I’m not sure if that is a good recommendation or not! Anyway they represent a history of Mexico from the arrival of the Aztecs right up to the revolution of 1910. I didn’t get any photos of them, but do a search on Google, they may come up.

Next stop was the cathedral, which is also suffering from the effects of subsidence. Engineers have had to pin it together or it will split apart down the middle. The whole zocalo is built on top of the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The remains of the temple at the heart of Tenochtitlan lay right beside the cathedral. The temple is supposed to have been built on the exact spot where the Aztecs saw their symbolic eagle, perched on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. This is the emblem on the Mexican flag today.

The tour continued on to the Plaza Santa Domingo, where those condemed to due during the Inquisition were recorded. It was then to the Post Office, and last stop Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts). This huge marble building is so heavy that it began to sink into the ground even before it was completed.

Once the tour was done, a group of us decided that we hadn’t done enough walking, so we hiked over to the Zona Rosa, a district about 2 miles west of where we started. This is the equivalent to London’s Leicester Square. After about 8 hours walking we returned to the hostel, and I was pretty much cream crackered for the night, so just lazed about not doing much!