Off To Mexico! March 22- 23, 2016, (Mexico City, Tultepec)

Off To Mexico! March 22-23, 2016, (Mexico City, Tultepec)

So off I went to Mexico. I have never been to the interior of Mexico before. I have been to a few border towns but that's it. So I flew in to Mexico City, met my niece and her husband and we stayed in a little (and poor) town in the greater metropolitan Mexico City area called Tultepec.

Mexico City is like one of those vines that start in the middle, and spead and spread. It is a massive city with a population of approximately 20 million people!

I was surprised to learn that in many areas, it is the poor people that live in the foothills. I was told that the police don't even like to go up there. The housing is built with no regulations so shacks are kind of "pinned" together with whatever materials and manner that they see fit.

Mexico has lots of speed bumps. Yes, speed bumps! Even on heavily trafficked streets there will be, from time to time, speed bumps. And they are pretty high so you definitely want to slow down.

        Here is a Mercado that we went to and had lamb tacos.
              I had to walk around to get a feel of this place.

                    These are bags of loose potato chips

    These are juices in a bag that you drink through a straw.
                              This is probably mango.

           Here is a stand that sold strawberries and mangos.
                           The mangos were delicious!

There are vendors for everything!  It is very common to see vendors walking between the cars on a busy street near an intersection selling, fruits, ice creams, sodas, electrical equipment, flowers - you name it!

And the food! Of course each new city has its own types of foods. I tried so many new things here that I thought I knew about but a new spin on them here.

We stayed at my niece's place near Mexico City for 1 night. It is a townhouse style unit - small living room and kitchen on the first floor and bedrooms on the second floor. Her sister-in-law came over from across the street as soon as we arrived. We soon had another 6 - 8 relatives arrive and we all went out for tacos.

 

I love American tacos, but my niece's husband took us to a place where the tortillas are only about 5 - 6 inches across (smaller than ours)

you get a fresh tortilla, tell them what kind of meat you want on it, what types of toppings, always lime and always salsa with a few other assorted possibilities. They were delicious! He ordered for everyone until we all had what we wanted, including choices of several juice sodas, (the brand name is "Boing") orange, mango, sometimes papaya, or cokes. They were truly gourmet!


The next day we had "breakfast" which consisted of all different kinds of tamales.

I didn't know there was such a thing as a breakfast tamale. It is a colored cornmeal flavored with blueberry or strawberry with a fruit filling. My niece had an unusual local drink for breakfast that I don't think I got a chance to try.

So, we went into Mexico City to "see what we could see". We walked the streets of the commercial district.

We saw many modern shops,

                                the beautiful cathedral,

                                                               beautiful architecture

local pastries

                             the beautiful old post office

and its incredible interior!

And, of course, an assortment of beautiful art!

Then we were off to San Miguel. San Miguel is about a 3 hour drive from Mexico City. It being Easter Week, many people from the city were leaving town to be out in the country for the local festivals. We wanted to get a jump on that. Like with any other major city, with a mass exodus, you want to miss the height of the exodus!