"Hola guapas!" - Day 1 in Mexico City

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Mexican men like to look. And whistle. And occasionally bow. I don´t mind the bowing, but the rest I can do without. Yes, Cortes has returned, apparently in female form. Thanks for the compliment, I think.

Mexico City is amazing. Muy loco. NO traffic rules, although there are actually people conducting it in extremely natty uniforms with tassels and hats, and occasionally little green men although they´re not to be trusted. Roads crumble into nothing or are well-paved. Beautiful colonial piles crumble next to new flats and grubby mercados, rather like Spain and Greece. There´s a lot of development in the city, but most of it is yet to catch up. That said, it seems full of friendly people who like to make an effort: there are topiaried trees and high-end shops scattered around almost incidentally, the plazas are all getting relanted so there are lovely fresh plants in rows and much digging activity, and the people at least are mostly smiling.

Our breakfast, served on the roof terrace, is scrambled egg with toast and crazy-yellow jam ("This one´s Jam", said Jas, "It´s Red.") We make a friend: a nice chap from Brazil who gives us his walking maps as he´s off home today. We follow them round and come to...Chinatown! Well, every city´s got to have one. We stop off at the Torre Latinamericana, Mexico City´s own Empire State Building, and take the lift to the 42nd floor to see the wonderful panoramic view. Jasmine reminds me we are 6000ft above sea level in this ex-river basin high in the mountains, and being up here makes us even higher. We can feel it - the atmosphere is pressuring on the lungs and we distinctly felt dizzy when we woke up this morning. Up here, it´s the view instead that takes our breath away - we can see everything we want to visit that day.

Coming down, we head to the Zocalo, the main square, the most massive anywhere. The amazing Cathedral dwarfs it, but we skirt this and head to the Palace, where a brief look at our passport and inside out bags grants us access to Diego Rivera´s wonderful mural ´The Ages of Mexico´, depicting the history of the country in beautiful, colourful detail, despite being rather a piece of Socialist propaganda. A shame we´re not going to get to see much Frida Kahlo, but this seems to make up for it.

Next stop is the Metro to Bosque de Chapultepec, the massive park which, within its cool treeshade and calm water features, houses several museums, including the one we´ve come to the City to see: the National Museum of Anthropology. It is utterly fantasic, with traditionally-dressed dancers outside, and a wonderful layout inside that takes you through the entire history of Mexican mankind, from the birth of humanity to the conquering of Mexico by Spain...all in Spanish. Still, the wonderful gardens, full of rebuilt relics, and the breathtaking murals, commissioned to present images of what once was, tell the story in images. I feel like I´ve waited all my life to see the gladiatorial altar where men fought to the death, circular and carved so that originally it was thought to be an Aztec calendar, and the stone carvings of jackals, said to be shamans in animal form (sacerdotes - Latin word! - priests).

It´s all absolutely sating, and we practically crawl back to the Hostel to book our next trip and think about cena (Latin word! - dinner!)


*nb: I realise I have accidentally subscibed my entire contacts book to receive updates - how incredibly big-headed of me! Please do unsubscribe if you can´t bear to read my ramblings!*

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Comments

[Vikki]

Ole!
Hi Laura - sounds awesome. Mexico (well all of central america and south america) is on my LIST! So, looking forward to hearing all about it. Loved your comments re the flight - and have my own 24 hr one to look forward to in a few weeks :-) Look after yourselves and have a total ball, play the redheadness to the max and allow them to give you free alcohol ;-) Works for me!