Zocalo

Got into Mexico City last night too late to do much more than check out the Zocalo and take some cold drinks up to the roof of our hotel. This morning we wandered out early before breakfast to find the streets around us rather magically filled with orange-clad women running to celebrate International Womens Day. The Catedral and Palacio Nacional were closed (and the latter surrounded by riot police) as demonstrations were expected later on but we watched the protesters painting the floor of the Zocalo and then visited the Mexica ruins at the Templo Meyor. In the afternoon we took the Metro and then the train out to the tranquil oasis of the Museo Dolores Olmeda - where a collection of paintings by Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera are housed in a fine old house surrounded by beautiful gardens - before returning to the City in time to find the the roads blocked by protesters and riot police gaily coloured with the remnants of paint bombs. We were pretty tired by then and struggled to find somewhere to eat, ending up with pastor tacos at a place by the hotel - not the best tacos by any means but at least it was something to cross off the El DF ticklist...