Febuary 17th - 19th

Friday in México City was a  little less busy.  I slept in a little and then goodbye to my host Tonio, who was off to Appuculco.  I hope you had a great weekend Tonio!  Later on I went down to the market about 2 blocks away.  A huge contrast to what you find back at home!  The colors and displays are fantastic.  It must take these folks hours to stack up and arrange their food and products so nicely.

The Piñatas were very colorfull too and some of them were giant.  

A vendor even had a stand for string, yarn, and cord of all types.  Seemed kind of different to see items like this displayed and sold at a market, but hey...this is Méxcio! 

I decided to just go down the street to the cafe and have something to eat.  The "rollo" or roll with meat, cheese and pumkin was different and quite tasty. 

My dinner was also served with a drink called Horchata, which is water, milk, cimmamon and rice mixed together. It was good, but since I didn't have a clue what I was drinking it was a little freaky. Next time I'm gonna enjoy it a lot more.

Taking the bus here was an experience.  The bus stations were in the middle of Insurgentes Calle, which is a main artery running north to south.  When I first entered I was a little confused why the policemen told me to keep moving further onto the platform and then I realised that the the men and women boarded the bus separately.  I was a little puzzled by this until how I saw how people have to push to get onto these extremely crowded buses.   It was quite scary when one guy's leg slipping in between the platform and the bus, but he managed to get himself out before the bus tried to close the doors.  Of course after struggling to get onto a bus for 20 minutes; i got on the wrong one and ended up having to come back to the same station and catching another one.  

It was kind of hard to capture how tight we were packed into the bus, but believe me when I say it was totally full.  

After travelled 5 kms in one hour, I didn't save any time from walking , but still felt a sense of accomplishment.

I showed up to a couch surfing meet and greet that a lovely lady named Diana organised.  Thanks so much for your efforts to organise such a fun event and to make sure I got home safe too.  I never stay out till 3am, but it was such a great time, I had to make an exception.  This is a pic of some of us guys that were out that night.   Next time I'll get a nice pic of the good looking ladies too.

Yamaha looks like the bike of choice for the cops in México City.

I was kinda sad to leave México City knowing I had only experienced a minuscule fraction of what it offers, but part of me was excited to move on and meet Scotty with my bike in Tijuana.  I  had a delicious breakfast with one of my new couch surfing friends, locked up Tonio's place and took a taxi  to the airport.

I had arranged to couch surf in Rosartio which is just outside of Tijuana, but started having second thoughts that maybe I should get a place close to the border if there was any issues with the bike and to make Scotty's arrival easy.  Before I could change my plans, I was unexpectedly greeted at the airport by Alejandrina and her boyfriend my couch surfing hosts, who whisked me away and have been spoiled me ever since.   That night I got to meet her awesome mom, brother and a bunch of his friends, who have a band that plays some RUSH covers and was jamming in the basement and entertained us all.  I can't say enough about these wonderful people.  But, I'm going to tell you a lot more about them soon.  I'm just too exhausted at 1:54am to do it right now.

Alejandrina looking at her Ipad.

Alejandrina's boyfriend and a very kind host; Cesar.  Thank-you Cesar!

A very cozy home.

Cuauhtemoc. Last emperor of the Aztecs.

Very cool statue of Cuauhtémoc. I was commenting how his attire reminds me of the ancient romans.

After some site seeing we decided to take a much needed ice cream break.

Decisions...decisions!

My banana split had coffee, chocolate and "mamey" icecream.  They told me mamey is a fruit here.  It was different and tasted pretty good.

Alejandrina's mom.  What a wonderful lady she is!

This was one of the meals they prepared while I stayed. It's tradional Méxicano Sopa with 2 kinds of cheese, sour cream, avocado and chips.  It was delicious and it looks beautiful too.

 Their back yard is huge and nicely landscaped.

The house decorations are very classic.  I love this rams head lamp!