Tuesday 1 July 2003
The temperature had risen this morning and despite the clouds, it was almost 20 degrees Celsius. We arrived to the Hotel Roble in the middle of Centre Historico, which we read about in our guidebook and were not disappointed.
This hotel was located close to the Zocalo square where the parliament, the palace and the huge cathedral were located. This was the city centre, where we were close to all the attractions and in a nice priced hotel with private bathroom, but without air condition or fan. On the other hand, we paid only $25 for a better room and much better service, and with a convenient neighboring restaurant.
This was indeed the city center with a swarm of people, lots of shops, stalks and street traders. Mexico City is the biggest city in the world and unfortunately one of the most criminal ones. Rather quickly, we bought a discrete shoulder bag for my brand new DSLR camera and to avoid theft or something worse we were overall attentive and observant.
The city centre area was funny and lively. The small stalks on the street corners sold fried corn on the cob with butter and salt, delicious and strong tortillas as well as fresh pressed orange juice. Moreover, we found that the city centre was unexpectedly nice and clean.
We chose to follow our guidebooks recommendations and visited a vegetarian restaurant called “Comindo Vegetaria”. The place had an austere interior where we did not understand anything from the menu or the waiter’s explanation. As result, Ane received a pink kind of soup that tasted like candy and I had seaweed with sour vegetable. This was not the perfect début of the exciting Mexican cuisine.
Later we found an Internet café and were positively surprised. The speed was pretty fast and the rate fair $1.5 a minute. I had brought myself an USB-key, which enabled me to send emails with topical photos to friends and family back home.
Ane suffered a bit of altitude sickness and we went looking for a grocery. We asked for directions and everywhere we met great helpfulness and detailed directions. Shortly after, we entered a large “farmacia” that looked like nothing had changed the last 70 years. Behind a long wooden counter were 7-8 pharmacists in white coats taking orders.
Behind the pharmacists, some old narrow wooden conveyer belts ran to the first floor. Small notes went upwards and small boxes with medication returned down. Before one could get the medication, he had to pay at the “Cassa”, a tiny glass cage that measured 1 times 1 meter where a young girl managed the all payments. She stamped ones receipt after which one had to queue up at the counter the get the medication.
In one corner of the pharmacy, we found a small grocery and the range of goods was extensive and inventive. This was really the basis for all kind of health products, miracle cures and surprisingly a tobacconist's at the backmost of the place. This would definitely not be legal in a Scandinavia pharmacy. We succeeded getting our “Diamox” against altitude sickness, which then soon would be history.