One of the oldest cities in the Americas, Mexico City is a city of superlatives. Set over 2400 m up in a former lake bed and crammed with over 20 million people Mexico City is one of the world's most densely populated urban areas.Mexico enjoys a cultural blend that is wholly unique: among the fastest growing industrial powers in the world, this vast city boasts modern architecture to rival any in the world, yet it can still feel, in places, like a half-forgotten Spanish colony, while the all-pervading influence of native American culture, five hundred years on from the Conquest, is extraordinary.

Despite encroaching Americanism, a tide accelerated by the NAFTA free trade agreement, and close links with the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, Mexico remains resolutely individual. Its music, its look, its sound, its smell rarely leave you in any doubt about where you are. It's 350 colonias (neighbourhoods) sprawl across the ancient bed of Lago de Texcoco and beyond. The vast urban expanse is daunting at first, but the main areas of interest are fairly easy to reach.

The historic heart of the city, El Zócalo, and its surrounding neighbourhoods are known as the Centro Histórico (Historic Centre) and are full of notable old buildings and interesting museums. Mexico City boasts well over 650 museums that appeal to all interests and tastes; from the renowned Museum of Anthropology to the various buildings proudly displaying the extraordinary murals by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Colonias Condesa and Roma, pulsate with glitzy shopping, excellent restaurants, hotels and nightlife; they are very close to the Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City's grandest boulevard. Chapultepec Park,with its greenery, lakes and extraordinary museums is to the west of the aforementioned districts.

Farther south are the atmospheric former villages of San Ángel and Coyoacán where you feel that you are going back in time and leave the hurried pace of the big megalopolis. Here you will also find the homes of Frida Khalo, Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky and the vast campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The highlight of any trip to Mexico City is a visit to the canals and gardens of Xochimilco, one of the original breadbaskets of the Americas and once the agricultural hub of Tenochtitlán, a metropolis of 235,000 inhabitants. In the Aztec's Náhuatl language the name Xochimilco means "garden of flowers." The canals are lively, particularly on weekends. Brightly-colored, squarish boats (trajineras) carry up to a dozen passengers. Families visit the park en masse and boats carrying musicians serenade young lovers. Today, as in centuries past, canals surround raised agricultural fields called chinampas that are formed by alternating layers of aquatic weeds, compost, and soil packed inside rectangular cane frames firmly rooted to the lake floor. These "floating gardens" are anchored to the lake bottom by trees planted along the edges of the fields. In the late 1500s, before the Spanish conquest, chinampas covered nearly 22,230 acres on the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco. When the Spanish arrived they began to drain the lake bed. Today's canals are the remainders of what was a much larger system. The chinampas are not mere historical artifacts but living examples of sustainable agriculture.

Cuernavaca has been a favorite vacation retreat of the rich. The city is popularly known as "The Land of Eternal Spring", and the consistently balmy year-round weather has long been cited as one of the world's most perfect climates. Cuernavaca was one of 30 Mexican cities awarded to Cortés by the Spanish king, and it was the conqueror's favorite. In 1530, he began construction of a private residence in the city -- known today as the Cortés palace - which looks more like a fortress than the usual elegant Baroque mansions that grace Cuernavaca's streets. The palace is currently the home of the State Museum, which has a number of excellent Diego Rivera murals in its collection.

A number of 16th Century monasteries stand on the slopes of Popocatepetl, to the south-east of Mexico City. They are in an excellent state of conservation and are good examples of the architectural style adopted by the first missionaries – Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians – who converted the indigenous populations to Christianity in the early 16th century.

Xochicalco is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a fortified political, religious and commercial centre from the troubled period of 650–900 that followed the break-up of the great Mesoamerican states such as Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, Palenque and Tikal. .

Puebla, which was founded ex nihilo in 1531, is situated about 100 km east of Mexico City, at the foot of the Popocatepetl volcano. It has preserved its great religious structures such as the 16th–17th-century cathedral and fine buildings like the old archbishop's palace, as well as a host of houses with walls covered in tiles (azulejos). The new aesthetic concepts resulting from the fusion of European and American styles were adopted locally and are peculiar to the Baroque district of Puebla. The city is famous for its pottery, fine cloth, mole poblano (a special sauce made from non-sweet chocolate and chili). The Spanish introduced new materials and techniques to the production of pottery, for which the city is famous up to nowadays. The city grew very quickly into an important Catholic centre. In 1575 Francisco Beccara and Juan de Cigorongo designed the cathedral, whose image appears today on the 500-peso note. Its construction was very slow, and when in 1626, the king stopped the flow of money into this project, only the chapel and a few pillars were built. The funds were renewed again in 1634, and the Metropolitan Cathedral was finally consecrated on the April 18, 1649 in a ceremony so huge that none like it was ever seen in all New Spain again. The cathedral definitely deserves admiration. It is spectacular from the outside (the towers are 70m high, which makes them the highest in Latin America), and once inside, you can admire the creations of the finest artists of the age. One of the city’s most beautiful sitesis the Temple of San Domingo. The Chapel of Rosario has been called the eigth wonder of the world and its golden polychromatic interior, dating back to 17th century, is among the finest pieces of Colonial Art.

From the ancient sites of the Pre-Colombian civilizations to the Spanish Colonial heritage, to the bursting megalopolis, our travel talk will emphasize the rich cultural and geographic diversity Mexico City has to offer. With daily non-stop flights from Vancouver to Mexico City, these places are now closer than ever!