Tour Mexico City cultural attractions and more for $20 a day or less
In Mexico, a dollar goes a long way. Cough up $20 and youwill be thoroughly entertained, by anything from a professional wrestling match to a night of dancing to Latin music. And many of these options will steer you clear of the ready made foreigner friendly Mexico, while you save money and live it up with the locals.
Start with a free, self guided walking tour in the Historic Center, where you’ll be impressed by the scale of the huge central plaza, the Zocalo. If you go on a weekend evening, you may run into an outdoor concert, and during the day you will find street protesters, crafts vendors and traditional dance groups.
The buildings surrounding the square date back to the Aztecs, whose ceremonial center was located there before the Europeans built over it. At the Templo Mayor, just off the plaza’s northeast corner, archaeologists continue to excavate ruins of the civilization that fell to the Spaniards. You can tour both the museum and the archaeological site for $4.
Right next to the Aztec ruins is the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral, designed by 16 architects and built over two centuries. To the east is the National Palace, where stunning murals by Diego Rivera lay out the entire sweep of Mexican history. It is free to enter, but well worth finding a free, accredited guide to the left as you enter or paying about $9 to one of the guides outside to explain the images.
As for Mexican music, there are plenty of options swaying with a partner to romantic Norteno cowboy music, getting serenaded by a mariachi band or dancing to the Mexican version of the cumbia.
One of the best places to hear the costumed, guitar-playing mariachis is Plaza Garibaldi, where they ramble across the plaza and take requests from customers in the many surrounding bars. Another is the canals of Xochimilco on the city’s south side, where you can rent a 14 person boat for about $13 an hour, order lunch from passing boats for about $6 and request songs from mariachis floating by. Official prices are $2 to $7 per song depending on the type of melody, but as with most services in Mexico, prices are negotiable and tipping is customary.
To dance to Norteno music in a club that mixes rodeo, traditional Mexican sounds and modern music, go to the Rodeo Sante Fe in Satelite, in the northern part of the city, for bouncy banda rhythms, cumbia and a separate room with rock, pop and techno. For prices, concert listings and directions, visit http://www.rodeosantafe.com.mx/
The intrepid traveler on a budget should not miss the Lucha Libre, the Mexican version of the WWF, where you can see masked, muscly giants like Mistico and Blue Panther pummel one another in a crusty downtown arena that will bring Jack Blacks Nacho Libre to life.
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Courtesy of grouptravelblog.com
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