Metropolitan Cathedral
Katie and I went back to the Zocolo today which is the heart of the historical centre of Mexico City. Otherwise known as Constitution Plaza, or Plaza de la Constitución, is built over the site of Tenochtitlan, the ceremonial centre of the Aztec Empire. It is the largest public square in the Western hemisphere, it is the third largest in the entire world, coming after Tiananmen Square in Beijing and Moscow’s Red Square.
We had only walked round it very briefly before and had gone inside the Metropolitan Cathedral, Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María, to take a few pictures. This time we spent most of the day there in searing heat, by the end of the day I was feeling so hot I felt like I was wading through mud, every step took effort.
Anyway, the Cathedral is the largest in Latin America, and if I wanted to tick off boxes I could say that I have now been to the largest church in the world, in the Middle East, and now I have been to the largest church in Latin America. You can read more about the Cathedral here.
After this we found a great little Mexican restaurant for lunch, I wish I could remember the name of the dish I ate, but it was like build your own taco, except it wasn’t a fajita, which in the west is what you have to build yourself.
After a brief sojourn we walked back to the Zocalo where a group of break dancers were just starting up. They were great fun, even though at first I groaned at the thought of yet more teenage boys spinning around in an overhyped way, but these guys, I;ve got to hand it to them, they were amazing.
After this we headed into the National Palace, or the Palacio Nacional, to look at Diegos famous murals. We ignored the touts outside, showed my ID and then we were in, once we had been made to use hand sanitiser and had our photos taken, and gone through metal detectors and had our bags scanned. There were free guides inside, we were given a cool young dude called Israel, who was vaguely Jewish on his great grandfathers side.
A figure of Jesus in the Metropolitan Cathedral
One of the altars
There are booths all over the city that rent out free bicycles
The courtyard in the National Palace
One of the Diego Riviera murals
The National Palace
Inner courtyard of the National Palace
Breakdancers and Acrobats
These guys really were fantastic!
