Mexico City Mania

We spent two weeks in Mexico City. It so happens that those two weeks were the ones when most Mexicans head to the beaches on vacation and so the city was less crowded than normal. Still, I think reports of the dirt, smog and traffic in the city are highly exagerated. The traffic was way better than L.A., the dirt way less than downtown Miami and the smog not all that bothersome. True, we rarely saw blue skies, but twilight was purple instead of cobalt - cool. Most tourists (us included) end up hanging out in a few areas. The historic center has a lot of the museums and government buildings. If you want sex shops, gay bars and multicolored hair; you go to the Zona Rosa. Condessa is an outdoor café and yuppie scene. And if you want to shop at Hugo Boss or Louis Vuitton, you head over to another area called San Angel. Mexico City has about three times as many people as New York, but there are very few skyscrapers (earthquake zone). As you can see, it just kind of goes on forever. Luckily, the city has invested heavily in its public transportation and you can get anywhere easily and for about 20 cents. In fact, they have the cleanest subway I have every seen. It doesn’t even smell like piss. (Take that New York.) I’m guessing that the armed guards in every subway station may be deterring any potential subway pissers.

Which brings me to another thing about Mexico City, there are armed and uniformed people everywhere. The first day we arrived, we saw truckloads of riot police and heard what sounded like tear gas. People were protesting changes to the government pension system (some first steps toward privatization). There were more riot police than protesters (and there were a lot of protesters, as you can see in the photo). Mostly the police hung back looking bored. I was surprised to see reports in one of the papers the next day that said the protesters caused “chaos.” We didn’t see any of that (unless you consider the closing of a few museums for lack of employees “chaos”). Aside from riot cops and anti-piss subway patrols, there are tons of traffic police. All of the traffic police are women and they are all cute as a button. They must use 1970s flight attendant criteria for hiring them. I saw many men checking them out. They aren’t just for show though. It takes some coordination to get 22 million people to navigate the streets without killing each other. I did feel very safe in the city, but sometimes it was a bit like a police state.

The art in Mexico City is amazing and abundant. If you went to a museum every day, it would take half a year to see them all. Of course, by then they would have changed all the exhibits and you would have to start all over again. Mexican artists are most famous for their murals and some of the best murals can be found in the Palacio de Bellas Artes. This is the Orozco mural in the Palacio. That’s a prostitute eating Chris’s head. The Palacio is actually a performance space and the place where we saw the Ballet Folklorico. It was touristy, but fun. Believe it or not, one of the most impressive musicians was a harpist and one of the most impressive dancers was a guy with a lasso - who knew. I won’t go listing all of the museums we went to. Suffice it to say that we hit as many as three in one day and are now well versed in everything from the origin of man to sixteenth century Flemish painting.

Quite a few of the museums in Mexico City are located in the Bosque de Chapultepec (Mexico City’s version of Central Park or Golden Gate). The park is huge and full of people (even during the week). We visited a few museums in the park, but my favorite thing was the voladores outside the Museum of Anthropology. Traditionally, on the gulf coast of Mexico, people would climb to the top of a huge tree, tie themselves to the top by their ankles, and spiral down on long ropes. It’s some sort of religious thing, I think. These days they use a metal pole and they have a little spot on top for a flute player, who provides the soundtrack. It takes a long time and, for someone not deathly afraid of heights, is probably meditative. Here’s a pic of them spinning. I hope you can tell how high they are. It’s crazy. Of course Mexico also has tons of other parks and plazas. Near the historic center is the Alameda. Way back when, inquisitors tortured heretics there. (Sing along now - “Inquisition, one two three...” History of the World? No?) Today couples lay on the grass every afternoon, napping and necking. That is where Chris took that photo of me posted on his blog.

Another park-like place and must-do on every tourists agenda is Xochimilco. Before the Spanish came along, Mexico City (then Tenochtitlan) had canals instead of streets (like Venice). Colorful boats still travel the canals in Xochimilco, except today the canals are dirty and crowded and the people steering the boats no longer wear traditional outfits (or have much fun). I don’t mean to paint a completely bleak picture, because it is still worth a trip. There are boats selling beverages and food and boats full of musicians. You haven’t lived until you’ve been serenaded by a 7 piece mariachi band balancing precariously in a small wooden boat. You can tell the locals/pros by the loot they bring with them. Instead of going to a park, Mexican families pack up their coolers and head to Xochimilco. The boats have long tables surrounded by chairs and are a great place for a family picnic. Then you can hire a mariachi or marimba band to ride alongside you and it’s a party. This is a picture of Chris and I on the boat.

One of the coolest things about Mexico City is how many layers of history are all piled up on top of each other. Modern glass buildings built next to five hundred year old churches, built on top of thousands of years old Aztec ruins. Somehow it all works. Of course, a lot of the most impressive structures have some kind of religious significance, whether Aztec or Catholic. We saw lots of churches, including the Basilica de la Virgin de Guadalupe. (For the whole story, check out Wikipedia.) The place is enormous and a bit like Epcot - except all Virgin, all the time. Some people were walking up the steps to the old chapel on their knees. We thought about following suit, but I didn’t think anyone would believe me when I told them how I got the knee scrapes. Our first stop was to get Chris’s mom a rosary at the gift shop. It was packed - like a religious WalMart the day before Christmas. Afterwards, (as you can see in the pick) Chris braved the crowds and got the rosary blessed in a religious sponge bath. What a good son. Not all of the religious sites are quite that nuts. There are a few old convents that have been converted into schools, hotels and museums - very tranquil. Of course some of the coolest religious sites were the pyramids, the remains of one being right in the middle of the historic center. You can look at thousands of years of history in one glance.

A lot of historic buildings have been turned into restaurants, like the Casa de los Azulejos (House of Tiles), home to one of the Sanborns restaurants (a local chain). This is a picture of it. Café de Tacuba is another must on every tourist agenda. The place has been going strong since 1912. It was jammed with people waiting for a table, but worth the wait. Not only was the restaurant gorgeous (dark wood, stained glass), but the food was some of the best we had in Mexico City. If there is one area where Mexico City still has a bit of work to do, it is the food choices. Granted we were only there a couple weeks and didn’t spend a lot of time in areas with better restaurants (like Condessa), but a lot of the food we had just wasn’t that good. Maybe I’m a little spoiled from living near San Fran where every restaurant is delicious. The best food we had in Mexico was, hands down, at Marcela’s house in Irapuato. She really needs to open a restaurant. As Chris mentioned on his blog, we ended up at Starbucks a lot. At least we never went to McDonalds. I don’t care what anyone says. Starbucks is the best. I hope they have one in every city, town and jungle we arrive in. (If other people want to compete, they need to start putting heroin in their frappuchinos too.) We also hit an Olive Garden-like chain in the Zona Rosa. The food sucked, but they seemed to be the only people in Mexico City who knew how to make a proper frozen drink

Of course, you don’t have to go to a restaurant to get food in Mexico City. There are street vendors everywhere. In fact, it seems like everyone in Mexico City is selling something. Every sidewalk is half taken up by vendors. If the vendor is particularly popular, you can just forget getting by. The market went on forever. It was streets and streets of stalls. Each stall had a different item in every color imaginable. There was a stall for ribbons, a stall for incense, a stall for garden hoses.... It’s not just stalls either, people are selling things walking around the streets, walking around the ruins, walking through the subways... Everywhere we go someone is trying to sell us something from; candy to a sad story. My most intense purchasing experience was definitely the day I went to the pharmacy for more anti-malarials. It was insane. First you wait in a line for the pharmacist, who gives you a prescription. Then you wait in line at one of the cashiers to pay. Finally you go to the counter where you need to pick up your prescription. You have to hand the girl your paid prescription form and then she gets the meds. It is bedlam. Dozens of people are holding up their little slips of paper, pushing, trying to get the girl to take it from them. It resembles the stock exchange scene from the movie Trading Places, except with little old ladies shoving each other to get their medicine.

Shopping madness and some disappointing meals aside, I liked Mexico City a lot and hope I can go back and catch the hundred museums we missed the first time. Aside from the museums and the history, I think the other great thing about Mexico City is how everyone seems to take things in stride. For example, one day we were on the subway and some police came on and evacuated us. (We found out later the subway was closed for repairs.) Everyone just got off the subway and got on the two-block-long line for the bus. No one even grumbled, everyone just took it in stride. Maybe it is in part because no one seems to be in that big of a rush. I was really surprised to find a city of that many people who just stroll. New York it ain’t and it ain’t trying to be, which is another great thing about the city. Some places we’ve been, Vancouver for instance, don’t seem to have their own personality. Mexico City has taken indigenous customs, Spanish religion, french subways, U.S. music, and German companies and combined them into something completely its own. And you can always tell cities where the people know how great their city is. Everyone knows they are living in the center of it all.

We are currently in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala which puts me a couple weeks and a few cities behind on my blogging. I’m going to try to catch up this week. Ciao.