15 hours Mexico City

The world has become small. After meeting a former colleague of Laura's in Santiago, who now lives in the USA, we are now meeting a good friend of ours during a stopover in Mexico City. Funny, these coincidences. Even funnier: Felix has just received a visit from Germany during that time, so we will see Nico again after some time in Mexico.

After a good eight and a half hours of overnight flight from Santiago de Chile, we land in Mexico City at 5 a.m. local time. We quickly find a taxi that takes us to Felix's apartment. The two boys are already waiting for us there. Before we start the ultra-fast city tour excellently organized by Felix, we inevitably have to play with Felix's roommate's little dog, who is craving attention.

Our city tour starts with an authentic Mexican breakfast. We walk to a small restaurant. Frijoles and Huevos Rancheros a la Mexicana are quickly ordered. These dishes are very hearty, which we greatly appreciate, as we usually only get toast or rolls with sweet jam in the hostels in South America. So there are fried eggs with nachos, a bean paste and a kind of guacamole, as well as a corn bread with beans, peppers, tomatoes and cheese gratin. The breakfast tastes excellent. Refreshed, we continue to the National Historical Museum. This museum is beautifully located on a hill in Chapultepec Park, so you can have a good view of the entire city and is housed in an old castle. Felix informs us that this castle is the only one of its kind in South or Central America. In fact, we have only admired Spanish fortifications on our trip so far. The museum contains huge murals depicting the history of Mexico. One of the largest deals with Mexico's independence movement against the Spaniards. There are also plenty of explanations of the pictures, but we pay little attention to them as neither our Spanish nor our time is sufficient.

It is already noon and it is time for lunch. Of course, it makes sense to eat THE dish that is immediately associated with Mexico: Tacos! Felix has been recommended a good taco restaurant by his roommate and so we go there by taxi (or Uber for the younger ones among you). The tacos taste excellent and the homemade limeade is also very refreshing after the two museum visits.

After replenishing our energy reserves, we continue with the city tour. Unfortunately, there is no longer enough time to visit the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) from the inside, but the building is worth seeing from the outside during our coffee break on the rooftop terrace opposite.

Our next stop is the Plaza de la Constitución, the main square of Mexico City, where the Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María de la Ciudad de México is located on the north side, the largest and oldest church on the American continent.

By the way, the opening scene of James Bond Spectre was filmed at the Plaza de la Constitución. A parade was specially designed to represent the Day of the Dead. Such a parade is not usual on the Day of the Dead (All Saints' Day), or should we say, until now it was unusual. The residents of Mexico City apparently had a lot of fun at this parade, because it now takes place annually on the Day of the Dead.

It is now late afternoon and we need to make our way to the airport. We go to Felix's place to pick up our backpacks, which we had stored there during the day, and take a taxi to the airport with the destination Los Angeles.

At this point, a big thank you again to Felix for organizing this tour for us and to Nico for "sacrificing" his vacation day for us! We definitely had a lot of fun and will certainly not have been to Mexico for the last time, as this country has a lot of exciting things to offer due to its diverse cultures and well-preserved pyramids!