A Trip to Two Cities: Mexico City, Mexico and Bangkok, Thailand Daily Journal Entries

Day 3: Mexico City Today I strolled around a plaza called Tlatelolco, or the Plaza of the Three Cultures in Mexico City with my guide. It was fascinating to see the huge numbers of people on the streets in the middle of the day! My guide told me that the population of Mexico City is almost 9 million, with its total urban area almost 19 million! That makes it the 8th largest city in the world. The plaza symbolizes Mexico’s unique cultural heritage, he said. Once the center of some of the most powerful Native American empires such as Aztec, Mexico became a flourishing Spanish colony in the 16th century. Today, most Mexicans are mestizos, or persons with mixed European and Native American ancestry representing a third culture, thus the name of the area represents a mixture of all three cultures. Later on, we went for supper at a little outdoor cafe just off the plaza. The tortillas, burritos and enchiladas were delicioso!! Our waiter, a little Mexican girl, told our guide that she works for her parents after school in order to help them make money for the family. She didn’t look much older than ten, but she had beautiful dark eyes and black hair, like most of the people I have seen.