Mexico: Mexico City: The Charms of a Big City

Just south of the main city, the canals of Xochimilco offer a festival of authentic Mexican family life. These waterways are filled with brightly colored boats carrying families, tourists, and vendors. The canals were created by the Aztecs hundreds of years ago. Passing through the sea of boats, travelers can purchase food from floating kitchens as well as have a photograph taken.

Back on the mainland, the outskirts of this city of 22 million offer bars and restaurants as well as Aztec temples and colonial style buildings. Travelers can stroll along the Calle Francisco Sosa, a cobble-stoned street lined by 15-foot walls that is the oldest in Mexico. The San Angel’s Bazaar is a Saturday market featuring the wares of local artists and vendors. Mexico City has one of the largest squares in the world, the Zocalo. This 13-acre square houses the Metropolitan Cathedral as well as the National Palace, both of which have begun a slow demise, their foundations sinking into the ground. For an extensive insight into the Aztec and Mayan Civilizations, visit the National Anthropology Museum, considered one of the finest museums in the world.

Mexico City is filled with the usual attractions of the big city -- a cosmopolitan nightlife and the normal hustle and bustle of humanity. But for a more authentic feel of the culture the city offers, travelers should make their way to the city outskirts. Here a tourist will find the authentic culture and charm this city has maintained for hundreds of years.