Another day in DF

Apparently chocolate originated in Mexico... and I always thought it came from Africa. Anyway, I went to the most delicious churrurria/chocolate house last night. Churros are basically the mexican version of fried dough (is there a culture without fried dough?)... so at this place you could basically order two things: hot chocolate (of varying levels of sweetness) and churros, in orders of 4 or more. The churros were pretty great, although not fresh from the fryer, so not perfect. The hot chocolate, on the other hand, was out of this world. Maybe the best hot chocolate I´ve ever had, although I can´t remember the previous number one.

I spent the rest of yesterday wading through some rain storms, checking out Diego Rivera murals that are all over the city, eating another wonderful dinner of tacos and tortas, and drinking cocoa.

Today, I took a long walk down the Reforma, the main boulevard that cuts across the city and headed into the largest park in the city (name of the park: grasshopper park). The park itself was pretty nice, although all the tranquility that would have been there was killed by the pathways completely lined with people selling crap - chips, popcorn, bubbles, hats, tshirts, etc... And half of the stands feel that if they blast bad music, there is a better chance for you to buy stuff at there place instead of the cart next to them selling the same crap.

After the park, I headed to the Anthropological Museum, where they have amazing artifacts from all over Mexico - it's definitely one of these museums that you need 2 days to see everything. I spent my time looking at the Mayan, Oaxacan, and Aztec stuff... all amazing, although I think the Aztecs might have been the most amazing. And from my brief view of three civilizations spanning thousands of years, the only threads I can find among them are: 1) very advanced agricultural techniques and 2) religions that are very blood thirsty. The Aztecs apparently sacraficed thousands of people every time they added onto their main temple.

Tonight, I'm not sure what I'm up to. I'm going to go back to the hotel in the next hour or so and relax for a few hours (walking all day can be really tiring). Then I may head out and try to find a gringo bar somewhere. The one amazing thing about this trip is that I've been comletely surrounded by Mexicans. I have yet to really run into any other non-hispanic tourists (I'm not at a hostal). I like to talk to people! I figure the best place to find americans or europeans or other english speaking travellers is at some sort of an irish pub.... we'll see.

mike.