Mexico City

It might be the most populated and one of the most polluted cities in the World, but Mexico City is smart and cool with it. After the privations of West Africa it seems remarkably sophisticated, with sparkling shops, a superb public transport system and the dinkiest green and white VW Beetle taxis buzzing around everywhere. It also has more museums than I´ve seen in virtually the whole of the rest of the trip put together. Throw in a few margharita cocktails and guacamole filled tortillas and you have the makings of a real good times kind of a town. I´m loving it.

Mexico City was the capital of the Aztec Empire long before Hernan Cortes arrived with his army on conquistadores in 1521 to consign the Aztecs to history. Although the heart of the old city is remarkably Spanish and reminiscent of Madrid in terms of its architecture, it overlays the old Aztec sites. In fact there are Aztec traces wherever you look, not only in the faces of the people, but also in the cuisine, the names of Metro stations and some of the traditions of the street. Visiting the impressive Anthropological Museum you are really struck by the sophistication of pre-colombian societies in Central America, whether in terms of their mastery of astronomy and mathematics, or their ability to produce highly intricate and beautiful objects without the use of metal tools. You also get an insight into the cruelty of these cultures which organised themselves to fight war on a semi-permanent basis and which practiced widespread human sacrifice as an aspect of their religious beliefs. Tomorrow we head away from the museums to explore the ancient cities themselves, starting with Teotihuacan, whose Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon rival those on Ancient Egypt in scale.

Mexico City was also one of the great centres of Art Deco in the 1920s and 30s, and is home to a fabulous array of stylish buildings and interiors that would make it a perfect setting for an Agatha Cristie movie. Much of this movement was associated with the political left, with a school of muralists coming to prominence in the city who decorated the interiors of many public and government buildings with images associated with Zapata and the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The foremost of these artists, Diego Rivera, has really appealed to my imagination somehow, and I´ve been trailing around the city searching out his murals and paintings. As Chairman of the Mexican Communist Party he also arranged political asylum for Trotsky in the city in the late 1930s. You can still visit Trotsky´s house and see the study in which he has hacked to death with an icepick by an agent of Stalin´s in 1939. They´re a bloodthirsty lot these Mexicans.