We visited Mexico in October to get our US Visa Stamping done as it was hard to find appointments in India and we were always worried about not being able to go to India in case of any emergency. It was kind of a risky decision because there was a chance that our Visa might not be approved in Mexico, which would result in us having to return to India. We left our son in the US as he's in high school, and we didn't want his schooling to get interrupted if there's any delay for us.
We landed in Mexico City airport on a warm day (something we miss in Ohio in October timeframe), had to go through customs and security checks, got some US dollars exchanged to Mexico Currency - Pesos and left for our hotel - Marriot in Reforma Avenue. 1 USD converts to approximately 20 pesos, and they also use the $ symbol for peso. We need to have passports to exchange money. We dealt with an agency for our visa stamping needs and they helped us with cabs & drivers there. They are very good, and I can share the contact information if anyone needs it. We got our visa fingerprint and visa interview appointment done the next day and luckily our visa got approved but they said that it would take 5 business days to get our stamped passports back. So, we had to stay there for a while and decided to tour around Mexico City.
Much like India, Mexico has tightly connected stores, lots of traffic, lot of people walking on the roadside, homeless people on streets. Manual cars are used mostly, and the road travelers don't stick to lanes on the road and navigate very quickly. There is a lot of public transport available, roads are not so well managed, and the public areas are not so neatly maintained. They also use kilogram, kilometer, centigrade metrics to measure weights, distance and temperature like India
People in Mexico mostly speak Spanish and so it was a bit difficult for us to communicate at times and so we had to use Google Translator. There were a lot of statues of some famous personalities everywhere. We visited Mexico when it was around "Day of the Dead" festival, so the city's main areas were very well decorated with colorful skulls, marigold flowers etc. There was a "Day of the Dead" parade with huge crowds, a display of colorful arts & crafts, dances, huge craft animals on both side of roads, people dressed as Catrina (skeleton face) etc. There were jugglers, magicians on the roads showing their talents to the stopped cars when there was a red signal.
There were lots of fabric stores in downtown, very old huge buildings and beautiful cathedrals. We visited Zocalo which houses National Palace where president lives and the very old and famous Metropolitan Cathedral. There were lot of gold shops in that area, and Templo Mayor Museum is also over there. Basilica of Guadalupe (a very old beautiful church with great architecture) and Teotihuacan pyramids on our day 1. There are 3 pyramids close to each other and the biggest one is the Pyramid of the Sun. It's a lot of walk near the pyramids, so save up your energy and walk to the pyramid of the Sun first and check out others if you still have energy left.
We tried several Mexican food items while we were there such as flautas, gorditas, burrito, tacos, chilaquiles, churros, crepes, enchiladas, taco alambre etc. We liked some of them but got kind of bored eating the same thing for 1 week.
Next day we visited some other places like Palacio de Bellas Artes, Chapultepec Castle, Soumaya Museum etc. Soumaya Museum is very pretty with very beautiful and unique art & antique pieces from across the world. Since there is lot of walking to do, I would recommend taking the elevator and going to the top floor and then coming back down each floor as it's easier to walk down than up. There is a lot of walking in catapult castle as well. Due to lot of traffic, expect delays to reach your destination.
The Internet is pretty bad except in the hotel if we use US cellular companies. If you plan to stay longer, it may be better to get a phone SIM card from there, so you won't have this issue. You can use uber to travel around the places or take one of the tour buses. Get your Nails done while you are here as its much cheaper than in US.
Following day, we visited another place called Xochimilco which is considered as Venice of Mexico with several colorful boats floating around a lake. There are stores selling stuff on either side of the lake. Water in the lake is not that neat but the boat ride was fun and colorful with singers singing Mariachi (Mexican traditional music) and picnic on boats with food & beer. We can buy stuff from sellers riding on boats and we even stopped by at a small aquarium which houses several varieties of axolotl fish which my daughter is very interested in. Axolotls are very interesting amphibians and are becoming extinct.
We heard that there are frequent earthquakes in Mexico City as the City is built on old lakebed. Because of this, there are smaller houses and not many skyscrapers except for the big hotels and office buildings. And the Taxes are high up to 35%. The city is filled with lot of wall murals everywhere.
Some of the nice things I liked about Mexico is that people stand in line everywhere. People are very friendly and greet everyone with a pleasant face.
We stayed for a few days in Marriot and then moved to Sheraton. We had lounge access as platinum members for Marriot and the food was very good there, but the room size was a bit small. Luckily, we got an upgraded room in Sheraton which was very spacious, but the food options were not great in Sheraton lounge.
Though tips are not mandatory, it is suggested to give tips to taxi drivers and in restaurants.
I hope this gives you a fair idea on the beautiful Mexico City.
