Advertisement
Published: August 26th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Approaching Mexico City from the air you appreciate this City's vastness, with buildings filling available space for miles around. The airport is part of the City, rather than being outside of it and both are over 7,000 feet above sea level.
This was my first trip to Mexico. I wasn't sure what to expect, but had been briefed by my wife that I had to be a lot more security conscious. Felicity has been to Mexico twice before and she spent a year travelling in South America - so I was in good hands.
Whilst from the outside Mexico currently has something of dodgy reputation - especially with drugs wars going on- there is a significant police presence in the big towns and Cities and this means security is better than imagined. Nevertheless, a secure taxi rather than a street taxi is still a wise option and that's what we took from the airport.
Driving to our Hotel, it was noticeable from posters dotted around the City that the government was on an anti-obesity drive, emphasising its link with Diabetes. This was in stark contrast with perhaps the World's most overweight country, that we'd just arrived from. Perhaps
there is a lesson there Uncle Sam.
It was also noticeable that, like Bangkok, traffic in Mexico City is a nightmare. For the driver it is a game of every person for himself, with only the traffic lights and some speed bumps offering some degree of control. For the pedestrians its a game of chicken, as it often requires a weave through grid locked traffic or a dash across the road when the traffic lights are changing.
Our Hotel was in the Zona Rosa area which, since it is the business and entertainment district of Mexico City, is one of the liveliest. No it is not the red light district - that would be Zona Roja - but rather the pink district. Whether that explains the quite large gay population in the area is up for debate.
It certainly has quite an International feel to it, helped by some of the street names, such as Liverpool, Havre, Nizza and Londres - the road on which our Hotel was. In addition, the presence of large Multinational high-rises (eg HSBC, ING) and the ubiquitous presence of the big American fast food chains and Starbucks. But the ever present street traders offering tacos, fruits and various other Mexican delicacies, as well as Mexican clothes and art, ensure you always know you are in Mexico.
Culturally challenged me had come to a city rich in culture. There are only so many arty things I can see before I start getting bored and covering up by saying „yes that is nice isn't it“. However, I was here to learn and learn I did.
Mexico has been home to many reknowned artists and in our first full day we sought out the Diego Rivera 'Man, Controller of the Universe' Mural in the Palacio de Bella Artes. This is one of Felicity's favourite piece of art anywhere, so it is a mecca to visit when she is in Mexico City. It is a huge mural that started life in the Rockerfeller Centre in NY, but since it reflected Rivera's revolutionary sentiments and depicted communist leaders such as Lenin it was initially covered up. Soon after it was finished it was destroyed by workmen, who maybe thought it was one way of 'fighting communism'. Rivera later recreated a smaller version in Mexico City and that's what we saw. Smaller it maybe, but it is still huge and requires quite a while to view it in detail. Even for someone as artistically challenged as me, this is still an impressive piece of art.
Rivera's work is actually all over Mexico City and we (and I do include myself in that) also enjoyed one of his other famous murals "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park". Its again a large complex life study with various messages, and we saw it at the aptly named Diego Rivera Museum.
I'd clearly heard of the movie 'Frida' but as it was about arty things I had never seen it. I'd also never heard of Diego Rivera or knew that Frida Kahlo was married to him. Those of you in the know can probably now understand the depth of challenge I culturally have. So Rivera is probably more famous now after 'Frida' has been glorified on the 'silver screen'.
However, Frida is doing her own bit for Mexico City tourism judging by the queues we saw outside 'La Casa Azul', Frida's home - which we avoided. We passed that when we went to see another of Mexico City's famous past residents, who was definitely more Communist-aligned than Rivera. Leon Trotsky. Clearly we didn't actually see him - he has been dead for over 60 years. But we saw where he lived in exile from Russia and where he suffered two assasination attempts, the second, with an ice pick, succeeded. The house has been left pretty much as it was when Trotsky left it and enhanced by information and pictures about Trotsky's life. In short, it was worth the trek out there and compared to Frida's place, this was a tourist free zone.
As I mentioned, Mexico City is huge. But getting around it is made easier by a clean and safe - in the daytime at least - underground/overground Metro system. This is what we used to get to most of the places we couldn't walk to. Those running the Metro pride themselves on their security, and let you know that CCTV is watching you. They also have parts of the platform, and by implication the trains, that are only for women and children - also in the name of security. Like the London Underground though, you often have to walk quite a way to change lines - but its one way of burning off the mexican calories.
In England the joke is 'chips with everything'. In Mexico the fact is (almost) 'cheese with everything'. Tacos and Quesadillas - standard street and restauarant food - have cheese. Salads have cheese with them. Passadillas - grill arrangements for meat - have an accompaniment that almost certainly is hiding some cheese...and if you wondered what that stringy white stuff that comes with a lot of dishes - its cheese. Oh and if you don't get cheese, then you'll get tortillas or an unrequested side order of tacos. But to be fair, the food in Mexico City was quite good, although as we were to later to discover other parts of Mexico have better, if a little weirder, food.
After completing the museum run we travelled around Mexico City to see some of its architecture and try our luck at dodging the traffic a little more. One of the things you do notice, if you look up, is that many of the centuries old cathedrals and palaces that can be found in many parts of the City are leaning, as subsidence affects their very foundations. They are not quite at the leaning tower of Pisa stage, but these are huge, grand and in many cases beautiful buildings clearly at an angle. There is a lot of rennovation work going on in Mexico City, but its unlikely much of this is addressing building foundations. Plus money is tight - the Mexican economy is currently not in the best of health. For now such architectural quirks are a tourist attraction, but you have to hope that Mexico City's history is not swallowed up by subsidence.
Mexico City was for us the entry point into three weeks of Mexican life. We had decided to take the opportunity to try and brush up our spanish to help us during our two and a half months in Central and South America. So after 3 nights in Mexico City, we got on a bus and headed South west. We were heading for the City of Oaxaca, but the town of Puebla was going to be an interim stop.
For fellow travellers who may be interested, I'll now start adding various places we found good and can recommend. You'll find these at the bottom of the blog. Only places we think are worth a look are mentioned.
Places we have visited and can recommend:
Hotel:
Del Prinicpado, Londres 42, Zona Rosa
The room rate we got from Agoda (USD31) was a bargain.
Museums:
Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes (Diego Rivera & other murals)
Calle López Peralta, east end of La Alameda, Centro Histórico (Bellas Artes Metro stop)
Leon Trotsky Museum
Av. Río Churubusco 410 (Coyoacan Metro stop)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.207s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0922s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb