Mexico City

What follows is an account as to what NOT to do!!! It ticks several of the ‘don’t do this’ boxes which are there for a purpose. Would I change it? Hell no

So, to start with I was up for a full 24 hours before going to bed. This led to my body not really knowing when when was when or even would be when. In other words I didn’t sleep well and woke up around 4am. This was even earlier than my planned early start of 5:30am ready for my first running tour of Mexico City.

https://www.mexicorunningtours.com/en/an-imperial-path-to-a-castle-tour

Enrique met me at my hotel and we started the tour there which meant subtle tweaks to the route. This run was the first of the things I ‘shouldn’t’ have done in Mexico City. Basically, without acclimatising, I went for a 10k run at 2250m above sea level in what was once the most heavily polluted city in the world. It was really good though.

Yes, it was dark when I started! As it was Christmas shortly before my visit there were still big star piñata hanging all over the place. There were also loads of different manger scenes that different companies and locals had put together. The one that I included was amazing. It was made by local artists using a very detailed and manual process, you will not be able to see but the coloured sections are tiny raised points.

The furthest point of the run was the only castle in México (although it still didn’t look much like one to me!)

I returned to the hotel still in time to have breakfast and, more importantly, coffee.

It was a good if difficult start to my trip. Mexico City is very polluted! I ended up spending the rest of the morning in my room before heading out for lunch. Veronica at runmexico had suggested a good restaurant. It was great. Looked amazing and the food was really good.

In the afternoon, I followed my morning footsteps and a little bit more in order to visit the anthropology museum. As it was a Sunday it was free. I would definitely recommend a visit. The museum covered several of the major civilisations (including Aztec, Maya and several earlier ones).

The next day was an even earlier start with a 4:30am alarm to leave the hotel in time to walk to my volcano tour start point. Just FYI, this is what they tell you NOT to do as it is still dark at this time. I actually had less hassle at this time than during the day. Less people and much less traffic. You should probably get a taxi or an Uber (these work really well in Mexico City)

The tour itself was quite mixed. On one hand it was great to get out of the city and see the volcano. On the other the tour was too slow and had too big a group. We had to keep stopping for head counts. I was also the only English speaker so I missed lots of information. Most were locals who were VERY excited to see snow!

My third and final day in Mexico City started with another early start. This time it was a visit to the coyoacan area which involved getting an Uber as it was about 10km away from my hotel. I met Enrique outside the Frida Kalo house. Apparently she is famous in the uk as well. She was an artist and outspoken advocate of women’s rights. She was also involved in bringing Trotski over from the ussr when his life was in danger. He was still assassinated in his house in Mexico City but not before becoming an important part of Mexican evolution.

The Coyoacan area is completely different than the Reforma area that I was staying in. It was very pleasant with the majority of the buildings being colonial and protected. The streets were also fairly narrow and lined with trees. Running around here was much easier as the air was so much cleaner, in spite of me being quite tired for some reason. Enrique gave me a great tour around the area including a really interesting park. It was used as a nursery to grow plants for the other parks. In addition to this, it was something of a runners mecca as it had a 1km loop of really nice running surface. Enrique’s running club goes once a week for circuits along with many other clubs and individuals. It’s called Parque National el Historico Coyoacan and worth a visit.

On the way back to the museum, Enrique treated me to a coffee at his clubs normal post run hang out. I can’t remember the name but it was near the north east exit.