Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2006
Edit Blog Post
I´ve been in mexico city for 5 days now and it has been amazing! Why haven´t I come here before? I¨ve been quite surprised at how accessible, friendly, historic, affluent (in parts), and energetic this city is. I´m not one for big cities in the first place, but I am having a great time. I have not had a single problem. (Famous last words?) My hostel Cathedral is great so far?clean, hot showers, lockers in the room, etc. Have to get used to 4 or 5 roommates, but it is not too bad because the only time all are there is when we are all sleeping. Have met some very interesting people from all over coming for all different reasons: a girl from Illinois who heads up the Mexican branch of Witness for peace, an Austrian girl who is studying international human rights law and speaks 6 languages, a german guy studying Spanish for fun, a burnt out Australian wanker, an old Dutch man who has been at this hostel for 6 months involved,etc. There is a bar on the roof overlooking the main square and internet access and a paltry breakfast, all for $10/day. I have been forced to use
my Spanish quite a bit, but it will be a while before I can understand at native speed. Thanks to Derek for helping me get prepared.
I¨ve been mostly walking around soaking up the city. There is a tall building nearby where one can see the whole of the city in all directions including the outlying mountains that ring the city. I´ve used the buses and subways with no problem. The subways are clean with marble floors. Just east of my hostel is an area that puts the mall of America to shame. Blocks and blocks up open air markets selling everything you can imagine. It is quite an experience just walking through. As far as culture goes, I¨ve visited the excellent museum of anthropologia, presenting all the pre-hispanic cultures, including the Aztecs, Olmecs, mayans, toltecs, and many others. It is always interesting to me when old cultures are described as ?war-like? or ?fierce warriors? of such and such culture. When does that not apply? How will our culture be described in a few words? Yesterday I bused outside of town to the Pyramids at Teotihuacan, which are the ruins of the ancient civilization that were built around 100
Banner in the Zocalo
I liked this...Permit one injustice and you open the door to all the rest. to 500 CE. The Pyramid of the Sun is actually the 3rd largest in the world after Cheops in Egypt. The 2nd largest is in Cholula, which I will visit in a few days. It is quite a hike to get to the top, but there you can just sit and survey the entire ancient city, imagining an entire ancient peoples going about there daily business and the leaders working hard at empire. It was a beautiful day to do it too, with a breeze and cloud cover, though I still got sunburned. But the weather here is temperate compared to Iowa, mostly in the 70´s in the day and a late evening shower for a couple hours. Also visited the Bellas Artes, the fine art Museum, which was actually disappointing, as they had very few exhibits. The exceptions was the the always interesting Diego Riviera and Tumayo murals, 2 famous Mexican artists, whose work is everywhere in this city. I have yet to find my bone appreciating contemporary, modern art, which often seems to say, ?here, I had some spare time and took this crap and arranged it haphazardly, love it, i´m a genius!? Can you tell I haven´t
studied art much?
My first day here I was going to be picked up from the airport but the street to downtown were blocked off so I was told to use the subway. If you´ve been watching the news lately you probably have heard about the election problem in Mexico. The streets have been filled with people protesting the election results, claiming voting fraud, and demanding a recount. (Sound familiar)Felipe Calderon (conservative/right)was declared the winner, but the Court has until Sept. to decide a final victory. There have been estimates of 500,000 to over a million people and some say it is the largest in mexico´s history. Almost everybody I see is in favor of Obrador Lopez (left), the mayor of mexico city. His supporters have literally taken over and are camping from the center (zocalo) radiating out in all directions for miles. People have been peacefully marching and singing, ?Obrador! Obrador!? and there have been speeches and concerts from morning until midnight downtown, which is where I am staying. I´ve never seen anything like it. There are political cartoons and banners everywhere lambasting both Vincent Fox (outgoing president) and Calderon, who they see as corrupt fascists essentially. That
Art Museum
From atop Latin America Tower being said, it seems unlikely the court will demand a total recount or favor Obrador according to people I´ve talked to. It is going to be interesting to see what happens then. There seems to be a much higher level of political consciousness here than in USA, but that might be just because of the recent elections. I´ve never seen so many Che t-shirts and leftist books are sold prominently on corner bookstores.
In addition to a few other churches, I also went to the famous new and old Basilica de Guadalupe, the famous site commemorating where the Virgen appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, helping with the Indian acceptance of Catholicism after European contact/conquest. As many of you know, I have a different take on religion, having studied it and philosophy for the last decade. Nothwithstanding the amazing architecture of the basilica and the many cathedrals here, I find myself adopting the same attitude as in India at the enormous and extravagant temples and their iconic representations of deities, etc.: I am short on appreciation and border on cynical dismissal and perhaps contempt at times. So much human energy and resources based on illusions! In fact, Catholicism and
Lennon in DF!
Elvis isn´t the only one reappearing from the dead! Hinduism have much in common with regard to imaging the sacred, the stone and plastic Jesuses and Marys and saints are of a species with Ganesh, Shiva, Hanuman, etc, excepting the animal parts of the latter of course. I better get used to it though because Latinamerica is muy catolica and the virgin is everywhere, being empress of the Americas. I also couldn´t help but notice that the path leading out of the basilica was out both sides into a series of shops and vendors, like in India. Big religion/big business. Mexico is very secular and very religious simulatenously, like the USA and India. That being said, most of the people visiting the basilica seemed devout/sincere, in that they held in awe the image of the virgin, mournfully touching the glass housing a representation of the Virgen durmiendo/sleeping (not dead, because she was assumed into heaven). But an illusion is still an illusion. If I offend, so be it.
Mexico City has a park a bit like central park in nyc called Bosque de Chapultepec (lots of non-spanish indian names here that takes a bit of pratice to pronounce) that is nice to walk through and see people and
trees and a lake and a museum. In fact, there are many parks that are nice for just people-watching and resting from miles of walking. So far I haven´t got lost.
Random observations:
A taxi with a sign: ?Fuck fear!?
Stores with a handful of guards with shotguns.
People give up there subway and bus seats to women and old men.
There is random music playing all the time from all kinds of places?elvis, mariachi, shakira, latin pop, classical, rock from usa, etc.
I´ll be in Mexico city for a few more days and then I´m heading to to outlying areas. Overall, I would recommend the city to anybody who want to take a long weekend or week and explore a great city so close to home. Pics to come once I get my page set up. I´d love to hear what´s up with everybody. Oh, ummm?.and I finally passed my friend painfully just yesterday. That will make sense to those who know.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.209s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 16; qc: 81; dbt: 0.117s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Barbara Battin
non-member comment
Pyramid scheme
Seeing you against the pyramid reminded be of climbing the ones at Ushmal - I spelled that wrong - sound it out phoenetically for the correct place! - and Chichen Itza (also possibly spelled wrong - it has been a long time since I was in Mexico! Traveling mercies to you!