El Centro

We visited the historic center of Mexico City, "el centro," this weekend. It is fantastic, and my favorite neighborhood so far. The whole area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and packed with great-looking buildings. We started the touring off with a breakfast at Sanborns, an old fashioned department store chain that sells everything under the sun--- this particular downtown location is found in the House of Tiles (a 400 year old building covered in blue tiles) with an Orozco mural along one stairwell. The food was fine, but the setting was spectacular and got us properly in the mood for sight-seeing.

The main downtown square, the Zocalo, is one of the world's largest plazas and is surrounded by the Cathedral (the largest in Latin America), the National Palace and City Hall. Just off the Zocalo are the Aztec Templo Mayor ruins. Conquistadors destroyed the temple and used the stone to build the Cathedral right next door. After poking around in the Zocalo, we headed over to La Lagunilla, the biggest flea market I've ever encountered. It was exhausting just to walk through, and I suspect we only saw a very small selection of all the tube socks, spatulas, nail clippers and baptism gowns on offer.