taco's & toucan's travels ~ 2019

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DAY 14

Week 2

MEXICO CITY (Ciudad de México, MEX)

Thursday March 28^th, 2019

TODAYS MILEAGE – 10 miles / 16 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 13,940 miles / 22,434 kilometres

I’m thinking that today could just be the first actual designated day of my holidays as all my family, friends and governmental agency activities have been completed.

As usual, I was up at sparrow’s fart, completed the '4 S’s' (i.e. Shit, Shower, Shave & Shampooch) and was out the door around 5AM to take in how North Americas most populous city (21 million+ inhabitants) greeted the new day.

I was headed over to Museo Mexicano del Diseño to meet up with a local guide from Interpids’ Urban Adventure team for the ½ day Mexico City Original Markets & Street Food Tour.

Yeah ..... I know I was roughly 4 hours early, but I took the time to go for a wander around the Zócalo, also known as the Plaza de la Constitución and the surrounding Centro Historico area.

The argument could also be made that how else would I have worked out that at La Parroquia de Veracruz, a 10 ounce black coffee is 12 Pesos more than Happy Hour Corona cervezas???

Around 9AM I was joined by our guide, two 'Snap Frozen Yanks' fellas from Toronto and Ottawa, as well as a 'Helliforinian' sheila living in the Bay Area around Oakland, who as it happens, turned out to be a pretty good crew to go exploring with.

Our first food stop for the day was exploring the Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market, that was created in 1934 and deals primarily in clothing and fashion i.e the 'rag trade'. It was at the entrance of the market where we were introduced to Tamales, with me selecting the pork & green chilli, that was light, fluffy and full of flavour.

We hopped on a local 7 Peso bus over to Mercado de Sonora, that was established in the 1950’s and is known primarily for its herbal medicines and items related to witchcraft, magic and/or the occult.

Our third and final market was via the local bus and commuter train service over to the El Mercado de Jamaica. Again, this market was established in the 1950’s and predominantly trades in fresh flowers as well as a fruit & veg market. It was here that we were introduced to carnitas at Carnitas Paty, which we were served with pork off-cut tacos, that I reckon were pretty ordinary, if the truth be told.

It was also at this stop that we sampled several different moles and I have to say - I was both impressed not only with the variety, but also the rich depth of flavours.

We headed across the road to Huaraches Ramoncita where we sampled Huarache, which also a Mexican slang term for 'old sandals' and a Cuitlacoche (pronounced QUEET-la-coh-chay) and called corn smut in English speaking countries, which has a distinct earthy taste and not bad eating.

From there it was back to the hotel, for a quick shower and as there is no fridge in the room I headed out over to the local bodega to grab a ½ carton of Dos Equis, a bag of ice and a packet of plastic bin liners to turn my hotel rubbish bin into a temporary esky, – sometimes you just have to improvise to improve the experience.

All up today I covered 9.9 miles (16 k’s) on foot and as local orientation tours go, it was great. As local food tours go and, in all honesty, – a tamale, taco and some huarache doesn't make a 'Food Tour'. WithLocals has set the bar high in regards Walking Food Tours, as opposed to what I would define as a local orientation - that was interesting, factual and engaging.