Hello From Mexico City A Compact Day Of Discovery Of Downtown
After our visit to the huge government-owned pawnshop, Nacional Monte de Piedad, we saw a side view of Mexico Citys and Latin Americas biggest cathedral: the Catedral Metropolitana. It is also at the heart of the worlds largest Catholic diocese. Due to the fact that Mexico was built on the former Lake Texcoco, the cathedral is slowly sinking and scaffolding in the interior of the building attests to the efforts to try to stabilize it.
In front of the Cathedral are numerous merchants that sell all sorts of handicrafts to the tourists. The wide open public space in front of the church is called the Zcalo and it is said to be the second largest public square in the world, after Red Square in Moscow. An indigenous healer was performing a cleansing ceremony in public with a local couple. He had a variety of herbs and was burning incense for this purification ritual.
To the left side of the cathedral is the Palacio Nacional which today houses the offices of Mexicos president. One of the typical organiceros was stationed outside, playing his automated melody, but none of the organ grinders we saw today...