Walked our feet off again!

It was a pretty good included breakfast here at the hotel. Scrambled eggs, toast, sausages, mixed vegetables, fruit, and of course coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. As I said yesterday, we got a good deal at 773 pesos ($53 CAD, $38 USD) a night. I forgot to mention the name of the hotel... it's the Hotel MX lagunilla. Wouldn't hesitate to come back here. 

The only drawback is that it's beside a busy road, and there is a fair amount of road noise if you get a room facing the street, which we did. One of the interior rooms would be quieter, but without the view. It's a tradeoff.

We were meeting Dave and Helene early afternoon, so we didn't leave the hotel until almost 11:00am. First stop was an Aztek ruins site about a km north of the historic district. It's actually surprising we've never been there before, since this is our 6th visit to Mexico City. But, it's such a huge city with so much to see. You could spend a month here and not see it all.

The Tlatelolca ruins.

They want 80 pesos ($5.50 CAD, $4 USD) entrance fee, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot more to see that you couldn't already see from the perimeter fence. In fact, it was all pretty much in open view. There was absolutely nobody inside except for a couple of guys trimming the grass. So we just viewed from the outside.

Entrance to the ex convent.

The courtyard in the ex convent.

The ruins, the convent, and the old Spanish church are all located in the same block. They had been building an apartment complex back in the 1960's when they discovered the ruins. Of course there are more ruins that are undiscovered in Mexico City simply because of the modern city that has been built on top of them.

Side entrance to the Church of Santiago.

The church was built in 1540.

There is a blue hue to the interior because of the blue stained glass windows.

This huge, strange painting is above the side entrance.

They say this is Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. He is our kind of guy! A sign said that this was originally painted in the year 1545.

Another view of the ruins from the front of the church.

You can see one of the 1960's era apartment buildings that had been built.

The front of the church.

Another view of the ruins.

Not sure what this statue means.

From there, we walked back towards the downtown area, and then to the Roma district.

Mexico City has a lot of old churches!

But there is a lot of new, modern stuff as well!

Monument to the Revolution.

That is a modern elevator they built in the center to take people to the top.

Some kind of dance going on in the plaza.

We had never seen any of the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, but that was where we were meeting friends Dave and Helene.

Very cool building!

The barbershop on the ground floor is called "Scalper".

Statue of David in the fountain.

David's behind!

Met up with Dave and Helene and went and had lunch at a streetside patio.

Dave, Ruth, Helene, and Kevin.

Nice statue in the center of the roundabout.

The same statue.

Scenery along the way.

We hopped in an Uber to take us all back to the central area. There was a library that Ruth wanted to see.

But traffic was so bad that it would have been just as fast to walk! In fact, we ended up getting out early and just walking because traffic had come to a standstill.

Another church along the way.

Leftover day of the dead display in the church.

Fancy facade.

Inside the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada library.

The walls are painted with very random murals.

Scenery along the way.

We then made our way back to the Palacio de Bellas Artes. When we were here the day before, the Sears store across the road had been closed. The reason we wanted to go to the Sears store is that if you go up to the 7th floor of the store, you get a fabulous view of the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Of course we've been there before, but we wanted Dave and Helene to see it...

Beautiful view of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Of course it includes a view of the Mexico City smog!

We parted ways after that, and Dave and Helene headed back to their hotel. They had an early flight back to Canada, and were going to have to get up at silly o'clock. Ruth and I continued on to the zocalo just to see what's going on.

Decorated for Christmas.

Mexico City Cathedral.

They had a large section of the zocalo (Mexico City's central plaza) blocked off, and a big stage set up. No idea what was going on.

More Christmas decorations being put up.

So, that was a fun day in the city, and we walked our feet off again. I think Thursday we did over 19,000 steps, and Friday was over 21,000!

Today, we are going to do the 11 km walk back to the bus station, and then return to Valle de Bravo. Buses leave every hour on the hour on a Saturday afternoon, so we'll have no problem getting back to Igor by late afternoon.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record low deal on the Ancestry DNA Genetic Test Kit.

And in Canada...

8 Rolls of Bounty Paper Towels.