Last hours in Mexico

Note: I meant to create this post yesterday, but as I was doing so the hostal clerk came into the comp room and informed vergueishon and I that our cab to the airport was waiting outside. Sigh. So this post is going to be a bit of retrospective; Im gonna try to recapture a bit of what I was feeling yesterday so here goes...

I dont want to leave. Im sitting here and its warm outside and there are people everywhere out in the street, street vendors screaming "Todo por diez pesos. Vale diez pesos" or whatever the price for the stuff they're selling, which ranges from perfumes and snickers to tangas (or thongs) and tamales. The hostel we've been staying in for the past two days, the Hostal Moneda, is just a block and half from the Zocalo located in the Centro Historico, where sits the colonial era Catedral Nacional, the Palacio and most important and closest to my heart, the Templo Mayor or Huey Teocalli--the main temple in the former ceremonial precinct of Tenochtitlan (btw, if you are ever in Mexico City and are looking for a great but reasonable place to stay, Hostal Moneda offers private rooms for two at US$33 a night, with breakfast/dinner and internet included. The staff are incredible hospitable and nice, even at 3 in the morning or maldrugada.

There is certainly an exciment and liveliness in the air, not just cause there's a free concert going on. The Zocalo is always a happening place with lots of great energy, even when there are angry political protests going on. Many people are out hanging and enjoying themselves and I wish I could stay right with them. Mexico City is very much an interesting place to be and not only because there are 28 million people constantly circulating through it. Its very vastness and overwhelmingness gives it a character unlike anything I've ever felt or seen. The contrast with mas tranquilo Oaxaca could not be greater (though I love both).

At the moment, Mexico feels more like home, and more right, than anything else. Im gonna miss when I get on that airplane.