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Published: January 3rd 2011
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Mexico City is simply enormous. One gets a sense of its scale flying in – where its 20 million plus inhabitants seem to sprawl for eternity. On the ground, the sheer volume of humanity is reinforced every time we left the leafy enclave of our friend’s home in one of the better ends of town. Traffic is a nightmare, although apparently less so than normal over the week between Christmas and New Year. Queuing a way of life.
The upside of such a massing of human life is an immense variety of things to do and see. Mexico City has more museums than any other city.
The city itself spreads from leafy upper middle class suburbs, through trendy inner city student and “bohemian” areas, to the seemingly never ending temporary and not so temporary homes of the poor that ring the city. Statues litter the city – some 77 alone on the main road through the heart of the city – celebrating everything from Mexico’s indigenous past, to the various and numerous revolutions that have shaped modern Mexico, plus a huge variety of modern art. Park benches for example come in an amazing range of artistic forms.
Our
ten days or so here have flown past.
Highlights have included Frida Kahlo’s house which is now a museum and contains lots of her paintings, plus photographs of her and Diego Rivera. Just around the corner is Leon Trotsky’s house which still has the bullet holes from the various efforts of Stalin to do him in (and in fact is the place where the guy with the ice pick finally got him). The pyramids of Teotichuan are immense and attest to the scale and complexity of the civilisations that pre-dated the Spanish conquest. An afternoon floating on the few remaining canals of Mexico City – drinking beer (the blokes) or champagne (the gals), eating cactus, and being serenaded by Mariachi Bands – gave us a bit of a glimpse of a time when the whole area that is now Mexico City was floating. We had a totally surreal evening at the “Lucha Libre” – the Mexico version of WWF – where an array of characters ranging from the macho to the very camp all wearing various kinds of masks and lycra suits slap, roll, kick, and jump on each other in a pantomime which thoroughly engrosses a very enthusiastic
crowd. At the other end of the cultural spectrum is the Mexican Folkloric Ballet whose Christmas ballet starts with the birth of Christ but quickly moves into a fantastic array of traditional Mexican dance and song.
We spent New Year with a wonderful band of friends and friends of friends in a small town called Tepotzlan which is about two hours outside of Mexico City. This is a special place. Set in a beautiful valley nestled between craggy limestone mountains, its centre is full of colourful colonial buildings set on narrow cobblestone roads. The market is the stereotypical riot of colour and activity; food, artefacts, animals, cafes, table soccer – it has it all. Tepotzlan also has the mandatory quota of soccer and futsal fields – which let Jackson enjoy a game of futsal against some of the locals.
Cuba tomorrow. But fortunately after that we will return to Mexico for another glimpse of this extraordinary country.
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Michaela Hill
non-member comment
Mairiachi music
Hi Jenny, Andrew and Jackson Wow - I want to go everywhere you guys are. This travel blog is now my travel planner for sometime in the future. It all sounds so wonderful - particularly the music and dancing in Mexico City. Looking forward to hearing about Cuba. And greetings from Melbourne where...(well something must happen)... I guess I just need to go out and look for it. Happy 2011!, Michaela xx