Mexico City, Mexico

Up nice and early again and off to the airport. A short flight back to Lima then about a 5 hour flight to Mexico.

Mexico City is the largest city we've been to so far and you can tell straight away. Billboards and smog are the main give aways.

We rock up to our air bnb place. They have a very modern apartment in a nice area. We love the place.

A quick chat to our hosts and we are off in a direction of town to one of their food recommendations. Surprise, surprise... a taco joint. We attempt to walk but quickly realise it's too far and head to the nearest metro station.

The underground metro system is fast and cheap in Mexico (about 30c a ride). Still trying to figure out if they are buses or trains though. They move fast, whatever they are.

We get off and wander in the direction of Downtown. The streets are packed with people (a Monday night). The place has the feel of one giant open air market, with every stall selling either mobile phones or DVDs. Apparently Mexico City (DF) is very organised like this; mobile phones in one area of the city, shoes in another, jewellery in another etc.

After watching a few street performers it's time to get down to the business of taco eating. We find the place and stare dumbly at the menu. The waiter speaks English and makes a recommendation of pork (which they're slicing off a big rotisserie, yiros meat style) and steak. The meat is served on corn tortillas with as much cheese as you could ever eat in your life and it's devine. Meat juice and cheese dripping everywhere. We're enjoying it so much we order seconds, this time a share plate of Turkey, choritzo and pork. There not really big on sides so we slopped on the green chilli sauce and washed it down with a couple of Pacificos.

More cruising round the streets, not going anywhere in particular. We find a street band playing to a small crowd tucked away somewhere. We think it may have been an after market party since it was near a little city of tents and tarps closed for the night. We had a little dance and headed for the nearest metro station.

We nearly fall asleep on the metro but manage to make it home to bed somehow. Loving Mexico straight away.

Day 2

We smash down an awesome breakfast. The air bnb breakfasts have usually been much much better than anything the hostels put on. Very impressive.

Another item on the list is to see a trendy neighbourhood out north called San Angel. There is apparently a bizar out there and some cool markets. Then maybe over to Coyocan (the oldest neighbourhood of DF).

We get the metro as far as we can then walk. We find lots of markets, but none like what has been described. We ask a few people, no one knows what we are on about. Ah well, let's eat our frustrations away. We head to a spot on the map where one of the best restaurants of DF is in Coyocan.

We get out the cab and find no such place. TripAdvisor is letting us down today. We settle for the nearest restaurant called La Pause. It looks fairly snobby, but since everything is so cheap it doesn't matter.

The chef comes out and gives us a run down of the menu. Really friendly guy. He gives his recommendations. We accept and order deep fried duck tacos for entree and a bubbling pot of choritzo, steak and what we think is pork in a delicious sauce, served with flour and corn tortillas. We dig in and it is heaven. We also accept the chef's recommendation and order the 'cream' of Mexican beer, Negro Modelo. And it is. We share a strawberry tart for dessert, $70 all up. Best accidental restaurant find ever.

Ok, so that's lunch done. Now home for a nap before venturing back out to town again. We get a cab through peak hour back. It takes about 30 minutes and cost us $8.

We 'nap' from 630pm to 630am... Oops.

Day 3

Feeling refreshed from our 12 hour slumber (still recovering from the Inca Trek?) we're up at 6am. Our hosts have noted on their list a nearby park featuring a cable is nice to look at in the early morning. We grab a coffee and head over.

Its a beautiful sunny morning and the air is quite brisk. Still not what you would call winter. Lots of locals there getting their early morning exercise running up and down the hill, one guy chanting the mantra 'Vamos, chilli'. Whatever gets you moving I guess. We get to the castle and being Mexico it's too early for it to be open, of course. Instead we see squirrels, good trade off in my opinion. We head back to the apartment and have breakfast with our hosts.

Wanting to squeeze in as much Mexico City we head to a big square (Zocalo). Once again TripAdvisor leads us up the garden path, and not a very nice one at that. We hop in cab and it takes us there in about 5. It's midday somewhere in the world so we park up on a balcony for a corona, more tacos and people watching. The coronas really are better in Mexico.

We then head to a look out at the top of a 44 story building to get the obligatory city view shots. It's then back to the apartment to say goodbye, grab our bags and off to the airport.