Driving into any large city after dark in Mexico is not recommended. Actually, don’t even make it a consideration.
And I’m not even talking about Mexico City (yet)
After San Miguel I made a pitstop in Toluca, where I would meet up with my friend Marisol and drive into Mexico as a team. Her cousin Hoswin, as a resident would join us also for some extra guidance into the city. Yes, I was extremely hesitant about driving into a city of over 21,000,000 folks that more than likely see lanes and stoplights as suggestions.
But first, I drove into Toluca after sunset due to my clock being off and getting sidetracked to the time. Honestly, I was expecting to sleep in the truck after close to two hours and back and forth and 5 different hotels with no availability (note, the “reasonable” ones of course). But in addition, the traffic made it near impossible to see or to stop anywhere. Maybe I should have researched that this was the capital, and the 5th largest city of the country before heading in? Here I was just thinking it would be a nice pitstop on the way to Mexico City.
Well, needless to say, it is busy, not just “all kinds of folks strolling the streets” busy, but “I’m in a hurry so get out of my way busy”…this was going to be interesting…
Wanting to make the best of the stay, I headed to the Zocolo area in search of this crazy lit up stained glass building that briefly zoomed by me driving in. This turned out to be the highlight of the visit and something I would recommend stopping into Toluca for, if nothing else that to solely see it.
The Cosmovitral, which began a sort of uneventful life as a Mercado around 1910. I believe it was to serve as a centennial, but it didn’t quite happen. Then in 1980, it was renovated as a botanical garden that I would have to admit is just amazing…especially for 10 pesos admission…
Cosmovitran outside after dark
Cosmovitran inside
Inside
And that just about sums up Toluca. Except for some cheap food!!!
Toluca tacos 9 pesos
Next, Dia de los Muertos casts a spell on the Xterra…