After a couple of stressful days, we chose to take it easy, see the sights in our own neighbourhood, Roma, and visit the National Museum of Anthropology. I must admit, I am a little hesitant to return to the metro – the scenes of our crimes – and it’s a another beautiful day, so we have walked 20,000+ steps today!

Our first stop was Parque Mexico a lush, cool, shady park noted as a place that people bring their dogs – and do they ever! People make a living taking 10-20 dogs to the park, for the day, while their owners work. This guy had a dozen beautifully groomed purebred dogs, all lying peacefully in a row, untethered (except for one little guy).

I think this guy was walking 10 dogs!

The Museum of Anthropology was very impressive, with enough explanation in English that we could follow Mexican history from early primates to the arrival of the Spanish. Along with the usual assortment of pots, goddesses and skeletons, they has some intricate dioramas, a few videos with English voiceover or subtitles, and some amazing structures both inside and outside the massive museum.

Huge embroidery art like the one we have in our hall

The rules for a rather “cutthroat” handball type game

Example of a Mayan ruin, in the garden

We have spent pretty much the whole day trying to get some cash.

Delores and Galen spend the morning of their last day in Merida wiring us money in Mexico City through Western Union. With the help of Google translate they were able to explain to their WU what we needed, but what with computer and scanner problems, in the end the money came from the bank employee – not the bank!! Thank you Jair Mendoza!!

When we heard that the money had been sent, we walked a half hour to Banca Azteca to pick it up. Our bank guy said that there was a problem with the “system” and he couldn’t release the funds until the “shipping” charge was paid – this also all through Google translate.

We left, had a cheap lunch (we are down to less than $30 to last us until we leave MC Thursday morning) and return to Banca Azteca. Still no luck…

In the meantime, Adele was able to put her Visa number on our Uber account, so that we could get to the airport on Thursday, if we still had no cash. She also let us put her Visa on my Apple Pay. On our third trip to Banca Azteca, we stopped at Matt’s Fish and Chips where we knew the owner speaks English, ordered 2 beers, paid with Apple pay BEFORE he opened them and when that worked, enjoyed a couple of cervesas, courtesy of Adele.

Third times a charm!! We got our money, and then walked part way home in the pouring rain – stopped for 2 for 1 pizza – and are now home, safe and solvent!

Thanks to everyone who offered to send money, loan money, start a go fund me page – everything. We wondered how this would have all played out without texting, wire transfer, google translate, and online banking…. and good friends!

This was going to be a blog about our magical trip to the ancient pyramid at Teotihuacan – but the day went downhill fast.

***** SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the day – we are fine!!

While boarding the metro, Owen was roughly pushed from behind and immediately realized that his wallet was gone! Everyone around us looked very innocent – maybe the thief got back off the train before the doors closed – it was very crowded.

We got off at the next stop and while we were figuring out how to communicate with the policeman on the platform ( there’s at least one at every stop!) a young man with excellent English offered to explain to the police. We then spent 45 minutes going back and forth between the “crime” platform and the “reporting” platform – gathering 4 more police officers along the way. Long story short – the cop took down Owen’s name, my cell number and our young friend’s name and that will be the last we hear of that. Many hugs and thanks to Daniel our translator – he refused to let us at least pay him for his time – and we continued on to Teotihuacan.

This is how we looked after we climbed 248 steps (It’s 213 feet high – some of them are giant steps) to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun

This is me putting my thumb in a hole at the top of the pyramid – for good luck

It didn’t work!!

Sometime between climbing back down the pyramid, checking out the museum and bussing back to Mexico City I lost my wallet!!! Perhaps it fell out of my purse, or more likely – lighting struck twice!!

We have spent the afternoon cancelling our Visa cards and trying to figure out how we can acquire a bit more cash to last us until we get to La Penita – where we’re pretty sure our friends Bob and Linda will float us a loan. We do still have our passports and about fifty bucks, so we are not stranded!

We pride ourselves on being fairly savvy travelers but obviously we were not sufficiently vigilant today.

Trying not to let this put a damper on the holiday…

Oh… and it’s raining!

…. Later …

We are so lucky for the people in our lives. Our girls have brainstormed how to get money to us… Our friends Dolores and Galen (Charlotte and Lucy’s third grandparents!!) are going to send us money by Western Union tomorrow, our Mexico City AirB&B landlord came over when he finished work, to offer to lend us money, and Bob and Linda Gibbs – our friends and hosts at our next destination in La Penita also offered to send us money and find us a bed if we needed to come a few days early.

Hopefully the Western Union transfer will go as planned tomorrow morning and we will be back on track for the rest of Mexico City.

We spent a warm, sunny Sunday at Chapultepec Park – with, seriously, the equivalent of the population of Edmonton – EVERYONE in Mexico goes to the parks on Sundays. Chapultepec has a castle, several museums, an amusement park, a zoo, a lake FULL of paddleboats and rowboats, miles and miles of stalls selling leashes for children, henna tattoos, elaborate face painting for kids, plus the usual food, clothing, toys and trinkets. We didn’t see a fraction of it.

Because it is Sunday, Mexican citizens and old people from any country get into the museums and the castle for free – Marc and Barb will be pleased to hear that finally we both qualify.

How about if we just show you a bunch of pictures from the day….

Sculpture in Museum of Modern Art – we kinda dashed through this one – after using their free bathrooms!

After a breakfast of pastries and Nescafe (we have a kettle and a Bodum, but can’t find a place to buy ground coffee beans) we headed out for a day of culture in Centro Historico. We took the metro to the Zocalo, the public square and had a cool, early morning stroll through the market where plenty of locals were eating breakfast, while other stall owners set up. We made note of the couple hand-cranking ice cream in giant tubs of ice – for later consumption.

We strolled down the pedestrian street, Madero, which is lined by colonial palaces, most of whose main floors now house American clothing chains and fast food outlets.

We spent a few minutes in the free Museo del Estanquill (Museum of the Little Shop), which houses a display of old movie posters and Spanish language comedy films.

On to the Casino España, a 20th century palace, whose second floor gives an interesting view of the roofs of the surrounding area.

A brief stop in a church, where this offertory box baffled us

There seemed no way to put more toys in, but we put some pesos in the collection box beside it. The altar was pretty much all gold!

Then on to the Palacio de Bellas Artas which hosts live performances and cultural exhibits. We spent most of our time looking at the murals on the second floor, including Siquiero’s Nueva Democracia

And Diego Rivera’s massive El Hombre Contralor del Universo (Man at the Crossroads) which you could spend hours looking at and not see all the detail. (Look it up – this photo does not do it justice!)

On our way out of the palace, we were stopped by two high school girls who wanted to film us for what we think was a school project. One girl asked us 5 or 6 questions in her best English, about our experiences as tourists in Mexico City (had we experienced any violence? What was our favourite site? Do we think our countries like each other? Have we been assaulted while here?) while the other one filmed us on her phone. It’s sure to go viral!

More walking about, including a detour into the post office

And lunch in a hole in the wall restaurant – soup and carne asada and cokes for $10CDN.

Our last stop for the day was at the Templo Mayor, a temple/pyramid built by the Mexica around 1325 and excavated in the 70s after being buried for more than four centuries. This place has some descriptions in English – a first for us here – but once we got outside to walk the catwalks around the excavation – in plus 28 heat – we started to lose interest. The museum was all in Spanish and not too interesting – maybe they haven’t had time to learn much…

After some rest time on our lovely patio at home – we went out to try pulque – “a fizzy, lightly alcoholic, highly nutritious drink” made from cactus sap. It has a slightly slimey texture when it hits the palate and a bit of a citrus taste – sadly for you it only lasts 3-5 days so cannot be exported.

We ate at a vegetarian restaurant close by – tacos: mushroom, cauliflower (with coconut cottage cheese), avocado and pecan, and curried potatoes, washed down with aqua de Jamaica – hibiscus water infused with cinnamon, ginger and agave syrup – much tastier than pulque!!

We think we’ll check out the Chapultepec park tomorrow.

A very uneventful trip – Oscar got us to EIA by 4AM (THANK YOU, Oscar), security was a breeze, our flight to Puerto Vallarta left 10 minutes early and arrive 45 minutes ahead of schedule! PVR Customs made us throw away half a sandwich before they’d let us into the country!

Our worries about not being able to check into our connector to Mexico City (Interjet has the WORST website and app EVER) were unfounded.

The taxi/Uber stand outside Mexico City airport is a zoo! We missed our first Uber although we were curbside in plenty of time, scanning every Volkswagen that paused briefly before taking off back into 4 lanes of insane traffic. That cost us $2.50! We connected with our next Uber and a 45 minute ride to our B&B cost $10CDN.

The cleaning lady was waiting for us at the B&B – gave us a very thorough tour of our tiny apartment all in Spanish, but we think we will be able to work the shower and make our coffee.

We dropped our bags and went out to explore the neighbourhood – Roma – from the movie of the same name.

We split a “big” beer in a tiny bar, then moved to a sidewalk cafe next door for some tacos (and beans that never showed up). More wandering after supper to look for a grocery store, then to OE’s favourite bit of Mexico – a “silver diner” street side taco stand where he ordered 2 more tacos – with more condiments for half the price of the cafe.

We are home now and catching up on emails before an early bed. Tomorrow we will tackle the Central District.

We are outta this frozen northland for a week of Cultural Immersion in Mexico City and a week of Corona Immersion in La Peñita!

Join us!