This weekend I experienced the most strange, amazing adventure at the Zocalo. The Zocalo is the origin of modern day Mexico, the center of the Aztec Empire where its great city of Tenochtitlan lay. We visited it earlier with the whole program as a field trip for our history class. The Zocalo was overcrowded with people and traffic all trying to see the beauty of its landmarks like the Catedral, the Palacio Nacional, and the ruins of the Templo Mayor. It was definitely a sight to behold!
However, this was not the day of my adventure. A few weeks later, a few of us wanted to visit the Zocalo right after a night of exploring Garibaldi, a mariachi plaza full of traditional Mexican tunes. Considering Mexico City is the largest city in the Americas with a population of 8.9 million, I was expecting the center of the city to be filled with people. I was wrong. The Zocalo was a ghost town. Except for the few policemen working the night shift, there was not a soul to be seen. Being the adventurous person I am, I pressured the group to walk a lap around the Zocalo and to take in the views empty of the crowds that are there every morning to late evening. Much of the group was scared out of their mind due to the eeriness of the situation, but we were all glad we did it because of the great views we got to witness.
