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Published: November 17th 2008
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Day 1 - Uneventful 12 hour flight from London to Mex City apart from watching "In Bruges" and meeting Oscar from Guadalajara. Plane arrived after dark at the Mexico City airport, which was probably on the outskirts of the city when built, but is now conveniently central. Having ripped the airline tags off my rucksack to blend in, I boarded the metro where the no luggage policy at any time is only loosely patrolled. As well as visiting this new city it was my first time using the couchsurfing.com website to crash at a strangers house who lived near the ominously named Barranca del Muerto (=precipice of death) metro station.
Day 2 - My couchsufing host, David, pointed me in the direction of Zocalo square as a good place to start visiting Mex City (or DF / Dee Effe to the locals) as I hadn't been able to find a Mexico guide book at Heathrow. Lots of Day of the Dead preparations going on, which is one of Mexico's biggest festivals where it is believed that the dead can come back to visit so families hold vigils at the graves and cook the favourite foods of people. On the Zocalo,
shrines were erected with a corporate slant to it; Hilton hotel with a picture of Conrad Hilton and a local cinema advertising cinema showings. Quite a big heavily armed police presence around and all police cars seem to have their lights flashing constantly, which gave it the air of a police state. After visiting the cathedral on the Zocalo, I got a tourist bus and a tourist map of the city to get an idea of places worth checking out. Drove past a mob of scruts-wearing protesters that were upset about a city official not doing what they promised to do. Mex City is so big that the tourist bus was a good call, although the congestion meant that the tour took around 4 hours to get around the city, but it was pleasant sitting at the top of the red double-decker circling areas on interest on my map to return to later. First foray into Mexican street food - no after effects. Weird old guy, Victor, in internet cafe who kept complimenting me on my blonde arm hair and trying to stroke it. His invitations to go out for a beer were politely declined.
Day 3 - Distance
Cathedral in Zocalo, Mex City
"Catrina" is the most well known of the Day of the Dead (Dia des los Muertos) figures and is on the left. between metro stops in Mex City are not the same as in London. Took around 1.5 hours to get to Coyoacan where the Frida Kahlo & Trotsky museums are. Well worth the walk. Casa Azul (blue house) is where Frida Kahlo lived with her more famous on/off artist hubby Diego Rivera. No photos were allowed in the house of their art and possessions but the courtyard was beautiful. Trotsky also lived here for 2 years as Diego Rivera was instrumental in getting him political asylum. Trotsky repaid him with sleeping with Frida, which may have also been Frida's revenge for Diego sleeping with her sister. Trotsky ended up falling out with Diego and moving around the corner, where he was assassinated on the second attempt by a pick-axe to the head/neck by a stalinist agent. His house is as he left it and he was cremated and buried here. Amazing to think that Lenin's planned successor to rule Russia ended up tending to his chickens in this basic house, following some swift maneouvering by Stalin to get him out of the way. I paid more for my camera ticket (allows you to take photos) than for my actual ticket to
the museum. Found the best and cheapest tacos (40p each) in Mexico City under the bridge where the Av Rio Churubusco and Av Mexico meet. Bought a black cowboy hat and red face paint for the three Halloween house parties that we went to that night with David and some of his friends.
Day 4 - Woke up and it was light, but not having a watch I guessed that it was late morning and started planning out my day. David's girlfriend told me that it was 4pm and my plans got cancelled. Went to Condesa that looked like a funky little bar district from the tourist bus and had some pizza. Spoke to some Indian guys who were also eating pizza and they mentioned that the "Black Sheep" was an English-owned bar nearby. Despite initially and, possibly, rudely stating that I didn't want to go to Mex City to hang out with expats I ended up there and met 2 Brits at the bar who had just come up a 6 month tour through South America and were heading home in the next few days. Spent the next 4 hours drinking with them and ended up not having
Not Gay Pride
One of the 6-7 daily protests in Mex City. This one was a against a politician who people are unhappy with. enough money to pay the bill, but paid as much as I had when my credit card was also declined. Got lost trying to find the tube stop home, but one just needs to walk with purpose when in a place where a tourist has no business being.
Day 5 - Need to leave Mex City but not sure to go where. Bought a Footprint guide to Mex and Central America (turns out to be shit) from a big bookstore and decided to head South to Oaxaca instead of North to Guanajuato. My last port of call in this area was Teotihuacan, which has stone pyramids that belonged to an ancient civilization and is 49km north of Mex City. Dates back to around 300BC but little else known about it. I did learn from a hawker hanging around the Pyramid of the Moon that only one person died last year from falling down the steep steps. Back in the 70s /80s this figure was between 80-100, mostly children and generally on rainy days. I had a spicy mexican sandwich on the Pyramid of the Moon. There was a layer of plaster on this pyramids but I read that this
was removed in the early 1900s "by mistake". Hawkers deflected with a curt "no gracias, senor" and, like everywhere in Mex City, they didn't really hassle me at all to buy stuff. I do get stared at in the metro, which confused me as I imagined "anglos" to be quite a common sight here, but outside the tourist areas you don't see many around. Certainly on the government subsidised metro (2 pesos/10p per trip) I didn't see many. The metro was completed in the 70s but reminded me of Blade Runner for some reason. The metro stations were generally named after famous Mexicans and had a symbol assigned to each stop that referred to the name. After Teotihuacan, I took the bus back to the North Bus Terminal, but as Oaxaca was in the South of Mexico I needed to go the South of the city to the South Bus Terminal to get a ticket. Ticket bought, I decided to take the tram to Xochimilco or "where the flowers grow" due to it using floating gardens on a lake. Place was kind of run down and I didn't find the lake. Returned to the Precipice of Death, said my goodbyes
Leon Trotsky grave, Coyoacan, Mex City
He was cremated and interred on the grounds of his residence where he was killed by a pick-axe to David and took the metro back to the South Bus terminal to take my overnighter to Oaxaca.
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