Mexico City or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love DF

Mexico!  I have been asked a few times by folks here if I had been to Mexico before.  I don´t know how to state that I was on the Pacific coast for a cruise, so I simply said yes but many, many years ago.  It seems the easiest way.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from Mexico City.  There are countless rumours and stories of it as a crime-ridden metropolis with danger lurking around every turn.  There are the more reliable accounts from friends who have spent time here that paint a vastly different picture.  From my limited few days of experience, I can say that it leans towards the latter, though a young street tough asked me for my bottle of mango juice.  I was sad to part with it but frankly if that´s the worst…totally doable.
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I´ve been based in Centro, just north of the zocalo, the town square surrounded by blocks on end of colonial era architecture.  It fascinates me to no end to think that the 500-year old city is built directly on top of the former Aztec capital of Tenochitlan.  The Spaniards, benevolent conquerors they were, wrecked the old Aztec city, razing it to the ground.  Today the few remains of the main temple of Tenochitlan have been turned into an open-air museum but it fails to capture the vision of the city as described by the conquistadors in their accounts from the 1500s.
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The city, as a whole, is full of museums.  There seems to be some debate on Wikipedia about exactly which city (Mexico City? Seoul? Shanghai? Mumbai?) is truly second-largest after Tokyo.  Regardless, Mexico City is huge.  Stunningly so.  And…and they have a well-developed and well-used metro system.  I´ll spare the talk about how amazing it is for available and ready transit for people to use, but it is a godsend for a tourist who doesn´t want to pay taxi prices.  My first stop: Chapultapec Park.
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On Saturday the park is absolutely packed.  It´s the largest one in the city and families and couples descend en masse to enjoy the weekend weather, buying any number of food, knicknacks, and other crap from the seemingly endless stalls.  For my part, I got a torta and watched a voledares show.  The area is also home to Chapultapec Castle, the former presidential residence and now museum.  It offers a stunning vista of the city too…a view that one can see without too much haze.  For those who have heard about pollution here, it is nowhere near as bad as Beijing.  That was a surprise.
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The second major stop was the Museo Nacional de la Antropologia.  The museums contains a nearly exhaustive collection of artifacts and exhibits from the native cultures of this country.  I was floored.  I had no idea there were so many different, distinct peoples in pre-colonial Mexico, nor that the chronology of the various groups spanned such a long period.  Particularly remarkable were the Aztec, Mayan, and Teotihuacan exhibits.  It was neat too to see the remnants of this legacy in contemporary Mexico.  Mayan and Nahuatl are still spoken by people, and numerous place names are derived from native words.
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The next full day was a visit to Coyoacan, a quieter (relatively speaking) neighbourhood to the south best known as the home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and where her house has a very long line for admissions on Sundays.  A few blocks away is the home of their friend and erstwhile Lenin compatriot Leon Trotsky.  Less busy and fascinating to explore, the place offers insight into the man’s life, including a bookshelf with at least 6 languages, which gives me something to aim for now.  Further, the very room where his assassin and he struggled after an attack with an icepick to the skull is there to be toured through, a bit of a haunting site.  The central park in Coyoacan was alive with activity and music, with delicious streetside tamales rounding out my dining there.  On the way to and from the metro station is a lovely park where Mexicans seem to love jogging.  Never saw that one coming but it was lovely and full of people again, taking advantage of the day off.
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All told, Mexico City has been great.  Tonight I wandered the streets for a taco stall, diverted only by a pair of young musicians playing their hearts out on violin to a tune I should by now know.  Even when accosted, it is done wit friendliness: A young fella started to chat with me for a bit about the city and country before launching into his sales pitch for bracelets.  I politely declined, he smiled, we shook hands and went our separate ways.  Doubtless the city differs vastly from the rest of the country, but it has made for a great introduction, as well as letting me wade back into using Spanish thanks to the many accomodating English speakers.  I´ll leave it with the same advice that others gave me…come and visit.

2 thoughts on “Mexico City or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love DF”

  1. Nice post. That dog looks like he is eager to get down to the first floor and eat ur taco scraps. 😛

    Please tell me there are still bloodstains from the Trotsky incident!

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