Aimee and I were in no rush to leave, especially since the ranch staff kept bringing out more food. But we eventually (if begrudgingly) packed our bags and checked out.
The bus back to Mexico City was almost as pleasant as the one that brought us to Zitácuaro. But the only available seats that were next to each other were in the back of the bus by the bathrooms. Aimee and I both agreed that if the alternative was cozying up to a rolling Porta John, we will be sitting apart on the next trip.
The bus terminal in Mexico City was charmingly chaotic, but easy to navigate. And catching a cab was equally simple. In an effort to make taxi travel safer for tourists, the city government has instituted several smart reforms. The most noticeable are the taxi cashiers at every major transit hub.
The cashiers sit at a glass window like a bank teller. You tell them where you are going, and they charge you a clearly-displayed flat rate based on the distance of travel. They print you a ticket that you take to a well-marked taxi stand out front. No haggling, no wondering if your driver is taking the "scenic route" to run up the meter, no worries about having the right change. There's a paper trail if there are any issues, and the driver only gets paid if you are happy with the ride. It's an ingenious system, and the transactions always felt safe. The taxi rides themselves were still as hair-raising as ever, but kudos to Mexico City for taking a step in the right direction.
Now, Mexico City is unrivaled on the driving aggression scale. In this town, the meanest, hardest New York City taxi driver would be run off the road by a grandma on her way to church. And I am very much not kidding about that. It's nuts.
But even according to that scale, our driver today was pretty damn aggressive. He was a crusty man in his 70s that looked (and smelled) like he had smoked a pack a day since puberty. If there was the tiniest gap between two semi-trucks, we would find ourselves between two semi-trucks. If there were pedestrians crossing the street, our driver would teach them to reconsider that next time. And I'm pretty sure he was colorblind to anything red. We looked forward to each traffic jam giving us a few moments to catch our breath, and the only thought that I had room for in my brain was a fixed look of disappointment from my mom.
But we finally made our way to the right neighborhood, and our driver asked me where we were staying.
Let me tell you, there are few words less reassuring to hear in that situation than, "Is that a hotel? I've never heard of it."
I'm not sure if I was more worried about the dump that Expedia had sent us to, or about spending the next ten minutes in this cab looking for it.
Our driver rolled down his window and asked a construction worker where our hotel was. Not a good sign. The construction worker then hollered the same question across the street to someone wandering by. This was not shaping up well.
But the pedestrian pointed us in the right direction, and I had never been so excited to step out of a car.
Our hotel actually turned out to be a pretty nice boutique inn. It just happened to be a small hotel on a small street, so no one had heard of it.
After unpacking our bags and updating our wills, we took a much less exciting taxi ride to Mexico City's version of Central Park. Our primary destination was the National Museum of Anthropology. We had heard that it housed a nice collection of Mesoamerican artifacts (think Mayans and Aztecs). It was very well done, and Aimee and I enjoyed the stroll.
We learned that the Mayans are rightfully celebrated for their advanced knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. They lived in the lush tropical coastline of Eastern Mexico, and bestowed with plenty to eat and drink, they could turn their attention to other pursuits. As early as 750 BC, they were displaying a complexity of thought far beyond where they should have been for the age of their civilization.
The Aztecs lived a little later (peaked around 1400 AD), but lived in the dry highlands of central Mexico. Limited resources led to a brutal civilization that existed at a time of near-constant war. Both civilizations are fascinating, and are probably under appreciated for the major advances that they brought to human development.
On our way out of the museum, we stumbled upon a pretty amazing sight. But I don't want to spoil the experience for you, so do what we did: take a look, and then read about it on Wikipedia.
Incredible.
