Mexico City - La Ciudad Mexico

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Mexico City, El Ciudad, has 22million inhabitants, a fantastic Metro system, lots of good food and fantastic activities. Every store, restaurant and street vendor has a turned on TV watching either soap or the beautiful game. Most sidewalks in the city are covered with street vendors, selling anything and everything, leaving only space for single file walking, if that.

The Hostel Mexico City, on Republica de Brasil No.8, email: [e-mail] is squeezed between a Chinese Buffet and a camera shop, just steps away from the Zocala or Plaza de la Constitucion, creating the centre of the city. This square is proclaimed one of the biggest squares of the world, according to the Turistico info.

On one side stands the Metropolitan Cathedral, the biggest in Latin America, behind an iron gate. The inside of the cathedral is large and incorporates the decorations of five different periods, making a visual impact befitting such an auspicious edifice. Outside the fence the plumbers, electricians and tile and plasterers wait to be asked to come do a job.

Walking past the Zocala Metro one comes to the Palacio Nacional. Here I.D. had to be shown, bags were looked into and passing thru a detector was necessary. Diego Rivera had been commissioned to adorn the second floor gallery with murals. He only completed six and since he died in 1957 the prepared panels for subsequent murals remain blank. The Federal Executive offices are here as well as a botanical Garden and a tribute to Benito Juarez.

Another side of the square is dedicated to a long string of jewellery stores selling watches, anything in gold from religious charms to necklaces to bracelet’s to earrings. Took my broken Macdonald’s Nagano commemorative watch to fix and el hombre in his shop quoted me 250 pesos. Decided to get a new cheap watch for 150.

The Post Office was housed on the forth side of the Plaza. Much to my regret did not visit this building but have captured it often on digital.


My interests lie mainly with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and architecture.
The Museum of Anthropology is a must but give yourself more than one day. I had only four hours. I did walk thru the whole thing but read very little. I did stop to read about the importance of maize and the maguey or agave cactus.
The two most important things I took time to read. .in Spanish …were:
1. Corn was unknown to the rest of the world until Contact. Other contributions from South America include the tomato, potato, squash, beans, chocolate, coffee, and innumerable herbs and medicines.
2. The cactus is used for eating, building, weaving, distilling, medicating, and now for decorating cactus gardens. There are a number of varieties of this cactus and the one that is grown in Kenya as sisal. The ropes made from this cactus plant were very important when sailing ships plied the oceans.

Mexico is a clean city with street sweepers everywhere. Mexico is a city where every bit of sidewalk space is covered by vendor’s goods. Tarps and umbrellas obscure the view of the road. Sheets on the cement make walking difficult. When emerging from the Metro the stairs are lined with sellers of sweets or shoelaces or cookies. In the metro small packages of chicelets are sold. Seems to me this is another product that comes from S.A. via the rubber tree if I am not mistaken.

In the morning, after a day of the sidewalks being full of vendors, the place shows little evidence of having been overcrowded, stiffling, and filled with the aroma of food, shoe polish and diesel exhaust. Before seven one would never believe that in a short while the sidewalk will disappear, the oils will begin to boil and the blocks of ice will cool the freshly squeezed fruit juice. All was tidy for a very short time. No where I walked in the city was there an absence of street vendors. Well maybe in the area where the Frida Kahlo Museum is. The houses here look pretty ritzy…what you can see from behind the six foot fences and automatically locking doors. Most places are so tightly barred one cannot even see thru brick fence or wooden iron door. Seems that all private houses are fenced in.



We arrived on Wednesday in time to get totally embroiled in market tarps, vendor buggies and congested traffic. When using the word congested one has to imagine one vehicle almost inside or on top of another … and we are trying to get thru with “the Monster”.

The view from atop the truck was splendid and gave lots of opportunities for good people shots and a sort of helicopter perspective of the melee of vendors.

Everything was for sale! Brassieres, socks, tapes, videos, fried food, boiled food, cold food. Ice cream, fruits with chili sauce, various colours of drinks, cakes, cookies, and roasted maize … maize being a REAL corn not that pearly&cheese peaches&cream.

No place could be found to park the monster. We sat in the heat for too long. Finally the word was ‘get what you need for the next three sleeps and walk to the hostel‘. Of course it picked this time to rain.

I cannot begrudge the people in this arid country one drop of rain … but does it have to fall from the sky when I am standing under it?

Made a beeline to the Palacio de Belles Artes to buy tickets for the Folklorica Concert. Paid $54US for a very good seat. It has a glass curtain designed by a Hungarian and executed by Tiffany that can only be seen during a performance. That is to say one does not see the curtain when on a tour of the Palacio. Forgot to do this.

On the way in and out of this most beautiful building, came face to groin with a band of naked people protesting “something“. Stark naked women walked around handing out leaflets to do with the 400 pueblos. As usual there were more naked men than women.

Spent half a day going to the Sony Service Centre. Man told me it would cost more to fix my camera than to buy a new one. So across the street was a Sony Store and I bought an upgrade to my old Cybershot for less money than the salted one cost.

Had a cappuccino and then made my way to the Diego Rivera Murals. Met a lovely Spanish speaking American volunteer. She told me all about the murals and I walked away 2 hours later feeling very stimulated and excited about going to the Anthropology Museum.

Wander, blue corn lunch, check out metro , garibaldi metro big mistake, coffee and soccer, back to hostel and organize fotos.

The morning of Thursday was spent braving rush hour traffic (was only slightly injured as a mucha gorda woman in a barbi pink sweater ploughed into me in an effort to get on the train) to get to the Frida Kahlo house.
It has been turned into a museum and does not look anything like what was presented in the movie. It does not resemble any of the old fotos either.
The colour and array of animals are gone. The courtyard has yellow tables and chairs where one can enjoy a cappuccino and read a book about Frida Kahlo available in the little gift shop. All very posh.

A group of well dressed ladies were enjoying their coffee and listening to a small talk with visual aids about Frida and her life in the house. Enjoyed a coffee and small pastry in courtyard and then it was the walk back to the Metro thru park,

Took the Metro to Auditoria . When getting out could see nothing but street vendors. One site had a large crowd around it. Went to investigate and saw my lunch before my eyes. Ordered cheese and pollo thinking that both ingredients would be put into one pocket and deep fried. Came away with two … one cheese and one chicken. Onions and coriander and chopped tomato came with it as well as salsa verde. I find the green sauce better and not so tomato tasting. For 14 pesos I joined a throng of office ladies, shoppers and men in suits eating a street gourmet lunch


Finding the entrance to the Anthropology Museum was less easy. First had to cross an extremely busy street and lights were not in view. Once across the street walked thru a miner’s convention only to find a locked gate. Asked the man behind the lock about the Museum and he pointed me in the direction I had just come. Now I was stuck behind the riot police who were walking off duty because the miner’s thing was over.
Cannot find the building and when found cannot find entrance. Finally get into the museum. Had to walk quickly thru the place because I had only four hours left of the afternoon.

The displays of all the different cultures of Mexico and the history is well worth a visit of at least two days… especially if all the info is to be read.


On the way back I try to figure out a quick way to get back to the hostel. The metro transfer points always present a hike and all the planning is foiled by the long walks required to get on the correct line.

Walked to Plaza Garibaldi, not to be confused with Garibaldi Metro past Palacio de Belles Artes. The area seemed just as rough looking once past the edifice as the metro stop had been.

Mariachi groups were gathering in their respective outfits. Some wee all in black, others all in white, The women wore long skirts decorated in the same silver stud designs as the men‘s pant legs. Instruments were stacked against the pillars of the entrance canopy. I walked all around the square admiring the statues of former famous mariachi singers.
Waiting for the playing to begin I decided to eat. Went into a huge barn of a place where one eating place after another offered more or less the same fare; meat, soup, tortillas, beer, salsas in red or green and cut up veggies. I chose mouton soup and a beer . Ate only two tortillas.
Listened to the music inside the building and watched the waiters try to entice people to eat at their tables. Waited until it became dark and hoped all the while that the mariachis would begin to play. Seems that a leader walks about, cocky and dressed to the nines, singling out family or work groups. If they are in agreement he leads them a bit off the square all the while whistling for the rest of his players. Once seated around an out of the way fountain the Mariachi Band serenades this group. Payment follows.
Once having seen the procedure. I decide to head back to the Metro.

I only walk far enough to spy a green Beetle Taxi. Take this back to the hostel. The driver gives me his phone number …. Like I’m going to phone him…. He was waving goodbye to his person? woman?
girlfriend? wife? As I got into the Beetle. The front right seat had been removed and I sat in the back seat. Allthe taxis up to now have been green Beetles. I did read that there is a change about to happen…red and white paint on bigger vehicles…too bad ..the Green Beetle works great….for one person!

Once back at the hostel …more internet ….. and then pack for the seven o’clock departure to Oaxaca.

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