Mexico City

Mexico City is home to 22 million people.

I've never been in a city with that population. It was a new experience to walk down a sidewalk wide enough for a dozen horses and have it jam-packed full of humans. And the crosswalks? Huge!

I love her face.

But I've found that my favourite part about any city is the architecture, and Mexico City was no different.

Especially its China Town, which is Chinese only in decor and that one Chinese restaurant.

Mexico City has an interesting history. The whole city is built on a lake, a rather unstable foundation. But not just a lake, it's also built ontop of the Aztec city that still exists underground. Mostly. Part of it is above ground.

As a result, the entire city sinks about one centimetre every year except for a few buildings built on stilts and fortified against this inevitable fate. It's rather comical to climb five or six stairs to the base of a building, look down on the streets around you, and think that once upon a time they used to be level.

There's also a plethora of museums and galleries, which tend to be free on Sundays. There were a number of pieces that I wish I was responsible for, but alas.

These are some of my favourites:

I SO wish I took this photo.

There are a few moments from that week that stand out to me. My favourite has to be the night in the rain.

My mom and I were hanging out in our room, chilling after a day of walking around and hiding from the afternoon rain. Neither of us was motivated to go out for dinner. The rain had let up and mom had a brilliant thought: "Let's go to the 7-Eleven next door for some chips and watch a movie." But gas station chips in Mexico are not much cheaper than gas station chips in Canada, so we aborted.

I turned to her and said, "Since we're out here already, there's some street food a block away; let's just get something there." And we got these delicious thing-a-ma-bobs. Different fillings like beef, chicken, potato, broccoli, deep fried into a patty and stuffed in a taco shell with beans and cabbage on top, and our choice of salsas.

You know what you have to have after a spicy, savoury, filling meal. "I think I saw someone selling churros on the next street corner."

It had started to rain again at this point. It was just a light sprinkle, but steadily getting heavier. And no sign of the churro guy.

"I remember a panaderia just a block from here," I said. So we kept walking.

The allurment of a Mexican Panaderia is unmatched. The fact that almost everything is unlabeled, unpriced, and looks DELICIOUS turns it into a game. What do you think is the cheapest? What do you think this tastes like? What is this called?

While mom examined the refrigerated cheesecake section, I grabbed a platter and a pair of tongs and walked out with six not-very-small pastries. I was set for a day and a half.

No regrets.

Another moment I liked was after I had dragged mom halfway across the city to a park, Jarden Botanico del Bosque de Chapultepec.

A real totem pole. From Canada.

We were walking back and had stopped at a bench to sit down. We watched this guy with his cotton candy machine at the side of the road, making and selling fluffy sugar bundles to kids. There must've been something wrong with his machine because every five minutes or so, he lost what must've been enough product for a sale, blowing across the road and getting stuck on bushes and passing trucks. No one said anything. It's like no one else noticed. But he must have because he was also catching half of it.

The third most memorable moment was when my mom left one Wednesday morning to catch a flight home.

I sat in my room, wondering, "What now?" It was a very similar feeling to moving out. You know you have to do something, but you don't know what, and you don't know where to start. I decided that crying was a good start. Gotta get those feels out. And then I put together a plan.

My water filter had "mysteriously" disappeared during our time in Oaxaca, and I wanted to get another one to avoid always buying water from the local Oxxo.

Mission accomplished. Okay, great.

Then, I met up with my friend Cameron at the bus terminal, where we rode to Queretaro to start the next chapter of adventures.

This wasn't going to be too bad.

P. S. I also saw these pigeons.

And these nicely dressed people in the park.