Home is always hard to leave. It does not matter if I have been there for 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months, there is always more to do and more people to see and spend time with. I am very lucky to have such a great place to go home to every time I have a break between contracts, where I can have loving people all around me. I got to have amazing home cooked meals, have quality coffee time, do yard work (you miss it when you live in hotels), spend time at the cottage, bike around our local lake trail and ride through the country on my road bike. But eventually I had to go back to work, which meant pulling out the suitcases and scaring the cat.
I always get the "be safe and take care of yourself" talk from multiple people before heading out on a new tour, no matter where it is that I am headed, but certain places get people a bit more worried about me leaving. Mexico is one of those places. But after being here for 3 weeks, the only dangers that I have potentially faced are falling down the pyramids of Teotihuacan, crossing one of the many busy streets, or drinking the tap water.
The tap water is no joke. Before leaving home I was warned to only drink bottled water, upon exiting the airplane I was warned about the water, and when I got out of my hotel transfer van I was told to shower with my mouth closed. I had not been in the country long enough to get near tap water yet and I had been warned on 3 separate occasions! Later that same day while grocery shopping, I picked up 20L of bottled water and carried it 1.5km back to the hotel so that I could avoid this awful tap water.
I did not have very many days off while in Mexico City, but the days I did have I did as much as possible. The first couple of days were spent walking around the nice areas of the city, seeing the Soumaya Museum, the Monument to the Revolution, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Zocalo, Chapultepec Castle and the Angel of Independence. The next day off we made a group excursion to the floating markets, which was a great group activity full of music, food, drink, and the occasional merchant boat. The next day off consisted of a small group trip the the Teotihuacan pyramids. We had an archeologist guid us around the ancient site, teaching us as much of the history as is currently known.
I have been taking video clips here and there as we have traveled around and will be posting up a new video before we head to our next city. Stay tuned to get a glimpse into this city.