Toluca

I'll just get this out of the way now. Toluca sucks. OK, now I can carry on.

Making my way in the general direction of Mexico City, I made a three-day stop in Toluca, a rapidly expanding urban center (now the fifth largest city in Mexico) known mostly for the nearby Volcano, which features a beautiful lagoon in its interior. However, I didn’t get a chance to visit it, as I came down with a horrific case of food poisoning on my second night there after eating a hamburger for dinner (both beef and lettuce are common causes). That put me out of commission for the next three days. The center does have some nice colonial architecture at least:

As a general rule in Latin America, if you see colorful houses on a hill, stay away, it's probably going to be a poor and very dangerous area. Honestly, despite my staying in the heart of the city, I found most of it to be run down, graffitti'd, and totally deserted after sundown.

Before bearing the brunt of Montezuma's revenge, I did get to visit one interesting landmark within the city: the Cosmovitral. Though originally constructed as a market, it was later transformed into a curious combination of a series of stained glass murals and a botanical garden:

My arrival to Toluca featured possibly the world's worst Uber driver. First, he took me to the wrong address. He then asked me to navigate the rest of the way. Somehow, he still managed to miss several more turns. After one final wrong that led directly to a traffic jam, I mustered a "gracias", and walked the remaining three blocks, knowing it would be faster on foot at that point.