We stayed at a hostel by the Catedral Metropolitana, close to Plaza de la Constitution/Zócalo, the third largest main square in the world after Tiananmen Square in Beijing and Red Square in Moscow. Remember the HUGE Mexican flag in the middle of the square? Modern Mexico City is sitting on top of volcanic caldera, which used to be a lake; that’s why the city is sinking because of its porous foundation. The Cathedral is crooked; you can see that the only thing that is straight in the city is a pendulum, hung inside the basilica from its ceiling.

The first thing we did on the first day of the trip was visiting San Angel neighborhood, where the “Saturday Bazaar” is held weekly. Bazar del Sabato is a flea-market type of place where you can find many touristy items, starting from rusty iron work, traditional pottery, colorful cloths, and local paintings. They have any themes you can think of, many of them are in Aztec theme. After dropping off our treasures back at the hostel, we continued on to Chapultepec Park, where “the Halls of Montezuma” (from USMC Hymn) is located. We also went to the famous Museo de Archeologia to many ancient Aztec, Maya, and Inca stonework, and the highlight was the sun stone, modern symbol of Aztec. We had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe México, where we sat down with locals, cheering for Pumas (Mexico City soccer team), while munching on authentic tacos/fajitas.

We had a chance to do a day excursion to Basilíca de Guadalupe and Teotihuacán in outskirt of Mexico City on our second day. Catholic folks would adore the Guadalupe, the site where Virgin Mary appeared before an Indian boy in 1500s and left an imprint remark on his traditional cloth. The 500+ year cloth of this boy is still intact, and is hung in the middle of the basilica. Even modern technology cannot explain on how this traditional cloth - which usually barely makes a 30 year life span - survives up till today, with colorful Virgin Mary imprint on it. It is a miracle!

The second place we visited was Teotihuacán, the site where Aztec kingdom used to rule South America continent. The major thing to do here is to climb the two pyramids: the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. Pyramid of the Sun is the third highest pyramid in the world after the two in Gaza, Egypt. We climbed up to the very top of both pyramids from the Avenue of the Dead, which were very steep indeed, and the view of rural Mexican desert is breathtaking. This was hard to do, especially after taking several traditional Agave tequila shots, which were served by locals to our group.

On the third day, we visited the Palacio Nacional to check out Diego Rivera’s famous mural on Mexican history. It was an awkward situation to enter the palace because we had to present our passports before entering the gate. Is it a palace or a country? Anyway, the murals were gorgeous; Rivera did a great job combining pre-Columbian history with Spaniard Colonials, along with modern Mexican Independent. Of course I was interested to see the 1847 American/Mexican war section, which I thought it was funny. I cannot explain why it was funny; but I couldn’t help but smirking when I saw it at the first time.