Out and About in Mexico City

What's a visit to a foreign country without going on one of the standard tours through one of the countless nondescript tour companies (even if you do have your own personal tour guide who could lead the tour herself)? Still quite an enjoyable experience when you can balance it out with getting to see other parts of the country on your own.

After hitting up some Aztec ruins inside Mexico City, we paid a visit to the Basilica de Guadalupe. This is a huge church, as evidenced by the on-duty priest under the tent outside performing mass blessings. It's a popular stop for tourists and locals alike. Many people come from all over to have something blessed - so there's always a priest out there to serve the countless modern-day pilgrims.

Across the street from the Basilica, at the obligatory "bathroom stop" that just happened to be inside a souvenir shop, I saw the biggest Rosary ever.



If religious paraphernalia wasn't your thing, the street vendors just outside the shop could usually fill the void.

As an aside, I really regret not getting a detail shot of the marionettes or doing a quick portrait of this man with his puppets because they were an interesting slice of life, but that begins to get into my overall general disappointment with my photography that came out of this trip. More on that later.