By Haider 
“Muy Grande” is the first thing that comes to mind when describing Mexico city. Although, it can feel a bit intimidating at first, this is a very friendly tourist destination. Like any metropolis, Mexico City is filled with amazing art, museums and beautiful buildings, but somehow Mexico City feels different than every other city. Its streets are colorful, carrying the sound of cumbia and delicious smells of food from street carts. You will never see a place more dynamic and colorful than Mexico city!
The Tipsy Gypsies stayed in Mexico City about a week and there wasn’t a day that we got bored. Check out our recommendations for Mexico City!
1. Centro Historico
The main plaza at the Centro Historico is the largest plaza in Latin America. It is surrounded by historical buildings as old as the 16th century. Unfortunately, Mexico city and it’s beautiful buildings are sinking, due to the fact that this city was built on an ancient lake bed by the Aztecs. You can see the deterioration with your own eyes; some buildings have sunken more than a few feet on one side, leaving the structures looking crooked.
Perhaps the most fascinating site located in Centro Historico, is Templo Mayor. It’s an ancient temple built by the Aztecs. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in the 16th century, they tried to destroy the existing culture and one of the things the Spanish did was to build over of the aztec structures. The Temp Mayor was accidentally discovered by two workers in 1978, and it has been excavated since then. New discoveries to the site are constantly being made.
2. Palacio de Bellas Artes
We started our tour of Mexico city by visiting the Placio de Bellas Artes. It’s hard to miss this grand, white marble building located near the historical center. Not only is the building itself gorgeous, but the museum inside is filled with beautiful murals, which are quintessential in Mexican art. Palacio de Bellas Artes is a good start to get aquatinted with the work of the great muralists like Diego Rivera, Siqueiros and many others. We are not going to link any pictures of the murals here because we feel like the pictures don’t do justice for expressing the scale and beauty of these masterpieces. If you are interested you can also attend dance and music performances at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
3. Chapultepec Castle
We visited this castle as per many guide books recommendations. We don’t regret visiting this castle, but we were a bit frustrated to learn on arrival, that all the historical information was written in Spanish only. So if you love history like us, and would like to learn about this place, we recommend hiring a tour guide before going into this museum. The castle itself is very beautiful and well preserved. Since we couldn’t understand any of the descriptions, we walked around enjoying the gardens and massive murals.
4. Xochimilco
This place is a lot of fun and is popular not only amongst tourists but locals also like coming here, especially on the weekends. What is Xochimilco? It’s a series of canals where you can rent a boat and cruise around. It’s not quite as glamorous as the Venice canals and gondolas in Italy, but in our opinion it’s more fun. Where else can you get a giant 1.5L Michelada, buy food from vendors, and listen to the Mariachis on a boat? Only in Xochimilco!
We paid 500 pesos/per hour for the whole boat. Even though we came here during the week, and the place was dead we couldn’t get a lower price. The best option is split the cost with other tourists around. Even thought this activity was a bit expensive, we enjoyed the whole experience.
5. Try Pulque
Let’s start with explaining what Pulque is. Pulque is an alcoholic drink made from a fermented agave plant. The consistency is a bit thick/viscous, but if you can get pass that, the taste is actually quite nice. Apparently, this drink had a bad reputation for a while and many traditional Pulquerias (a bar that serves Pulque) disappeared, but luckily it is making a come back!
Pulque comes in many different flavors: from the natural, white in color, to fruity like mango, coconut, savory like celery and even pistachio. Our friend told us that it’s hard to get drunk from Pulque because the drink is almost like a meal itself, but we had 2 and fell asleep in our uber ride back home.
The best Pulqueria in Mexico City, in our opinion, is El Temple de Diana located in Xochimilco. This place is a true local’s hangout. There is a very small sign on the building, and if you didn’t know what this place was you would most likely walk by it. It’s like a speakeasy, but its not trying to be one. You enter the bar through some very nondescript glass doors. The floor is covered with saw dust, which apparently helps to create extra absorption against the spit on the floor, and it is easier to clean the tiled floor underneath.
Mahboob