Mexico City	Historical Center	Arount Parque Chapultepec	Basilica de Guadelupe
Hotels	Hostels	Zona Rosa and Roma	Northern City

Central Mexico City

Z�calo
The vast paved open space of the Z�calo (Metro Z�calo) - properly known as the Plaza de la Constituci�n and said to be the second-largest such city square in the world after Moscow's Red Square - is the city's political and religious centre. It - and by extension, every other town square in Mexico - takes its name from a monument to Independence that was planned in the 1840s for the centre of the square by General Santa Ana. Like most of his other plans, this went astray, and only the statue's base (now gone) was ever erected: el z�calo literally means "the plinth". Here stand the great Cathedral, the Palacio Nacional with the offices of the president, and the city administration - all of them magnificent colonial buildings. But the area also reflects other periods of the country's history. This was the heart of Aztec Tenochtitl�n too, and in the Templo Mayor you can see remarkable remains from the magnificent temples on this site. It is a constantly animated place: groups celebrating pre-Hispanic traditions dance and pound drums throughout the day, sometimes there may be street stalls and buskers in the evening, stages are set up for major national holidays and, of course, this is the place to hold demonstrations. In one of the best supported expressions of solidarity in recent years, over 100,000 people amassed here in March 2001 to support the Zapatistas after their march from Chiapas in support of indigenous rights. Among the more certain entertainments is the ceremonial lowering of the national flag from its giant pole in the centre of the plaza each evening at sundown (typically 6pm). A troop of presidential guards march out from the palace, strike the enormous flag and perform a complex routine at the end of which the flag is left, neatly folded, in the hands of one of their number. With far less pomp, the flag is quietly raised again around half an hour later. You get a great view of this, and of everything else happening in the Z�calo, from the rooftop La Terraza restaurant/bar in the Hotel Majestic at the corner of Madero.
Alameda From behind Bellas Artes, L�zaro C�rdenas runs north towards the Plaza Garibaldi through an area crowded with seedy cantinas and eating places, theatres and burlesque shows. West of the Palacio de Bellas Artes lies the Alameda, first laid out as a park in 1592, and taking its name from the alamos (poplars) then planted. The Alameda had originally been an Aztec market and later became the site where the Inquisition burned its victims at the stake. Most of what you see now - formally laid-out paths and flowerbeds, ornamental statuary and fountains - recalls the nineteenth century, when it was the fashionable place to stroll. It's still popular, always full of people, the haunt of ice-cream and sweet vendors, illuminated at night, and particularly crowded at weekends, but it's mostly a transient population - office workers taking lunch, shoppers resting their feet, messengers taking a short cut and Zapatista supporters selling Subcomandante Marcos T-shirts. The Alameda was one of the areas worst hit by the 1985 earthquake, and a number of buildings are still shored up, while others (on the south side) have been cleared but not yet replaced. Around the Monumento a la Revoluci�n Beyond the Alameda, avenidas Ju�rez and Hidalgo lead towards the Paseo de la Reforma. Across Reforma, Hidalgo becomes the Puente de Alvarado, following one of the main causeways that led into Tenochtitl�n. This was the route by which the Spanish attempted to flee the city on the Noche Triste (Sad Night), July 10, 1520. Following the death of Moctezuma, and with his men virtually under siege in their quarters, Cort�s decided to escape the city under cover of darkness. It was a disaster: the Aztecs cut the bridges and, attacking the bogged-down invaders from their canoes, killed all but 440 of the 1300 Spanish soldiers who set out, and more than half their native allies. Greed, as much as anything, cost the Spanish troops their lives, for in trying to take their gold booty with them they were, in the words of Bernal D�az, "so weighed down by the stuff that they could neither run nor swim". The street takes its name from Pedro de Alvarado, one of the last conquistadors to escape, crossing the broken bridge "in great peril after their horses had been killed, treading on the dead men, horses and boxes". Not long ago a hefty gold bar - exactly like those made by Cort�s from melted-down Aztec treasures - was dug up here.

Bosque de Chapultepec y Museo de la Antroprologia)

Chapultepec Park's outstanding attraction - for many people the main justification for visiting the city at all - is the Museo Nacional de Antropolog�a (Tues-Sun 9am-7pm; US$3.30, free on Sun), one of the world's great museums, not only for its collection, which is vast, rich and diverse, but for the originality and practicality of its design. Opened in 1964, the exhibition halls surround a patio with a small pond and a vast square concrete umbrella supported by a single slender pillar around which splashes an artificial cascade. The halls are ringed by gardens, many of which contain outdoor exhibits. If you're rushed it can all be taken in on one visit, but tickets are valid all day, so it's easy enough, and far more satisfactory, to pick one or two rooms and take in each on several separate visits in one day. Better still, devote more time to the area and spread your visit over two days.
The entrance from Reforma is marked by a colossal statue of the rain god Tlaloc - the story goes that its move here from its original home in the east of the city was accompanied by furious downpours in the midst of a drought. The museum is entered from a large open plaza, at one end of which is a small clearing pierced by a twenty-metre pole from which voladores "fly". This Totonac ceremony is performed several times a day, and loses a lot of its appeal through its commercial nature - an assistant canvasses the crowd for donations as they perform - but it is still an impressive spectacle.

Basilica de Nuestra Se�ora de Guadalupe

The Basilica de Nuestra Se�ora de Guadalupe (Metro La Villa Basilica, line 6) is in fact a whole series of churches, chapels and shrines, set around an enormous stone-flagged plaza and climbing up the rocky hillock where the miracles that led to its foundation occurred. It can be reached by metro, by buses and peseros north along Reforma ("Metro La Villa"), or by trolleybus from Metro Hidalgo ("Indios Verdes"). The Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's first indigenous saint, is still the nation's most popular - the image recurs in churches throughout the country, and the Virgin's banner has been fought under by both sides in almost every conflict the nation has ever seen, most famously when Hidalgo seized on it as the flag of Mexican Independence. According to the legend, a Christianized native, Juan Diego, was walking over the hill (formerly dedicated to the Aztec earth goddess, Tonantzin) on his way to the monastery at Tlatelolco one morning in December 1531. He was stopped by a brilliant vision of the Virgin, who ordered him, in Nahuatl, to go to the bishop and tell him to build a church on the hill. Bishop Juan de Zumarraga was unimpressed until, on December 12, the Virgin reappeared, ordering Diego to gather roses from the top of the hill and take them to the bishop. Doing so, he bundled the flowers in his cape, and when he opened it before the bishop he found the image of the dark-skinned Virgin imprinted into the cloth. The cloak today hangs above the altar in the gigantic modern basilica: it takes its name from the celebrated (and equally swarthy) Virgin in the Monastery of Guadalupe, in Spain.
The first church was built in 1533, but the large Baroque basilica you see now was completely reconstructed in the eighteenth century and again remodelled in the nineteenth and twentieth. It is impressive mostly for its size and is once again partly in use having been closed for years while being shored up. Around the back, the Museo de la Bas�lica de Guadelupe (Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; US$0.50) contains a large collection of ex-votos and some of the church's many treasures of religious art, including a series of slightly insipid early eighteenth-century canvases by Jos� de Ibarra and more powerful oils by Miguel Cabrera and Crist�bal de Villalpando.
To the left of the great plaza is the modern home of the image - a huge church built in 1976 with space inside for 10,000 worshippers and for perhaps four times that when the great doors all round are thrown open to the crowds, as they are pretty much every Sunday. Whenever you visit, it's always crowded and there seems to be a service permanently in progress. The famous cloak, framed in gold and silver, hangs above the main altar, and to avoid constant disruption there's a passageway round the back. To prevent anyone lingering too long at the spot right underneath you must board a travelling walkway and admire the image as you glide respectfully by. From the plaza you can walk round to the right and up the hill past a series of little chapels associated with the Virgin's appearance. Loveliest is the Capilla del Pocito, in which is a well said to have sprung forth during one of the apparitions. Built in the eighteenth century it consists of two linked elliptical chapels, a smaller and a larger, with colourful tiled domes and magnificently decorative interiors. On the very top of the hill, the Capilla de las Rosas marks the spot where the miraculous roses grew. Around all this, there swirls a stream of humanity - pilgrims, sightseers, priests and salesmen offering candles, souvenirs, pictures of the Virgin, snacks, any number of mementoes. On December 12, the anniversary of the second apparition, their numbers swell to hundreds of thousands (newspaper reports claim millions). For several days before you see them on the approach roads to the capital making their pilgrimage on foot, many covering the last kilometres on their knees in an act of penance or devotion. For others it is more of a vast fiesta, with dancing, singing and drinking throughout the day. As the country's foremost Catholic shrine, Guadalupe has also become symbolic, and it was here that President Vicente Fox came on his inauguration day (December 1, 2000) to signal a wider acceptance of the Church, which had been sidelined for seventy years under PRI rule.

Tenayuca and Santa Cecilia In the extreme north of the city, just outside the boundaries of the Distrito Federal, lie the two most wholly preserved examples of Aztec-style architecture. They're a little hard to reach by public transport, but can thoroughly repay the effort involved if you've an interest in the Aztecs. Tenayuca is just off the Av de los Cien Metros, some 6km north of the Terminal del Norte. Take the Metro to 18 de Marzo (five blocks west of the Basilica de Nuestra Se�ora de Guadalupe) or La Raza and catch the "Ruta 88" pesero to Tenayuca (though be warned that not all "Ruta 88" peseros go to Tenayuca, so check first). There are also "Tenayuca" peseros plying L�zaro C�rdenas anywhere north of Bellas Artes: ask the driver to drop you at the pir�mide. Peseros take around 30-40 minutes from downtown.
To Santa Cecilia there are peseros from Tenayuca, and from Metro stations 18 de Marzo and Rosario, but it's also just about within walking distance of, or a short taxi-ride to, Tenayuca. Some bus tours take both in on their way to Tula and Tepotzotl�n. To return to the city from here, catch a pesero to Metro Rosario (lines 6 and 7).

Hostels

Casa de los Amigos, Ignacio Mariscal 132 (tel 5705-0521, fax 5705-0771, www.avantel.net/friends). For years the only hostel-style establishment in the city, the Quaker-run Casa has realigned itself with the arrival of the big downtown hostels. On a quiet street in a house where Jos� Clemente Orozco spent the last decade of his life, it now pitches itself as a guesthouse though they still have eight- and four-bed dorms (US$8) as well as a few singles (US$9) and doubles. Clean and comfortable with a good kitchen (breakfast available) and internet access, it is popular with people staying in the city for a few weeks. House regulations include a no-alcohol rule. Metro Revoluci�n. US$15-25.
Hostal Moneda, Moneda 8 (tel 5522-5821, fax 5522-5803, www.hostalmoneda.com.mx). Convivial hostel with approaching 100 beds (US$8.50) arranged in rooms each with their own bathroom. There's also a couple of lounges (one with TV), a decent kitchen and a panoramic rooftop terrace where a buffet breakfast (included) is served. Everyone gets ten-minutes' free internet access and there are also a few doubles. Metro Z�calo. US$15-25.
Hostel Catedral, Guatemala 4 (tel 5518-1726, fax 5510-3442, www.remaj.com). Large, secure and efficiently run modern place in a former office right behind the cathedral, that's open 24hr, has mostly six-bunk rooms each with its own bathroom (US$9, HI members US$8; buffet breakfast included) and some private rooms. There's an on-site travel agency, internet access at good rates, a caf� and bar and a great rooftop terrace with fabulous views. About the only drawbacks are a small kitchen (though it seems little used), limited communal areas and the noise that travels through the central well: bring earplugs and a lock for the lockers. Metro Z�calo. US$15-25.
Hostel Home, Tabasco 303, Roma (tel 5511-1683, [email protected]). The prefect antidote to the large-scale hostels downtown, this twenty-bunk place may be a little distant from the sights, but is perfectly located for the Zona Rosa and the restaurants and bars of Condesa, and has 24hr access. Sleep in six- and eight-bunk rooms, hang out in the sunny lounge (which has a small library, a stock of music and a TV), surf the Net at reasonable rates and cook in the smallish but well-equipped kitchen. There's a dollar discount for HI members. Metro Sevilla, line 1. US$15-25

Hotels in City Center

Casa Gonzales, Rio Sena 69, Col. Cuautemoc (tel & fax 55 14 33 02). Small, comfortable hotel which offers very good value. Only the meals are quite expensive. US$ 30-40.
Del Principado, Londres 42, Zona Rosa (tel & fax 5533-2944). Comfortable hotel with some rather unpleasant 1980s decor but it is well kept and all rooms have TV and phone. Laundry service and parking available. Metro Insurgentes. US$40-60.

Around Terminal del Norte

Acuario, Poniente 112 #100 (tel 5587-2677). Far inferior to the Brasilia, but cheaper and still decent despite the shabby exterior. Leaving the bus station turn left, then at the major junction (after 100m) turn right and the hotel is straight ahead. Metro La Raza. US$10-15. Brasilia, Av de los Cien Metros 4823 (tel 5587-8577, fax 5368-2714, www.come.to/mexhotels). Particularly good-value business-style hotel just 150m east of the bus station where you can get a peaceful sleep in comfortable, carpeted rooms which all have cable TV and phone. There's even a decent restaurant on site, and room service. Turn left as you exit and it's straight ahead of you. Metro La Raza. US$15-25

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