Mexico City, MEXICO

Mexico City is totally an amazing city....where the Volkswagen Beatle is still king...and many green VW Beatles are taxis (one front seat removed to allow passenger to get into the small back seat). WARNING: Dont use these green taxis! They have a reputation to rob their foreign passengers.

I can't believe the size of this city (and density) as we circled over it before landing. I can now believe that 18 million people call Mexico City their home.

From my travels around South America, I am used to "mobile merchants" ....jumping into busses and trains and stay on board for a while to sell their products. On the vast Mexico City underground train system (3rd largest after Moscow and Tokyo -- with 4.5 million users per weekday), music is the most popular product sold. Merchants jump on and off trains and in between stops we are entertained (or often annoyed) by their blaring boom boxes playing the Mexican artist they are promoting. Music is not the only product sold on trains -- on your way to your Christmas Party you can pick up a gift for all -- sweets, pocket knifes, TV antennas, screw drivers, pillow cases...something for everyone. Within a 20 minute subway ride you will have all your stocking stuffers!

I spent all day yesterday at the Teotihuacan Aztech ruins about 50 km north of Mexico City. The "pyramid of the sun" is the second largest after Cheops in Egypt. Check out this site for pics of Teotihuacan. While building engineering not nearly as impressive as in Egypt and Peru, it is still interesting to see.

This afternoon I am off to Palenque in the far south of Mexico, in the state of Chiapas, close to the Guatamalan border. In Palenque I will see impressive Maya ruins amongst the dense rain forrest with tucans flying around and howler monkeys adding to the ambiance (of an Indian Jones experience)

...and by the way, the Mexican people are really nice people..and so is the McBurrito at McD...you know them right?

Adio Amigos!