MEXICO January 23, 24, 25, 2010: Dos Dias y Medio en La Ciudad de Mexico

Hola —  One very very long travel blog.. covering the entire 2.5 days in Mexico City..

Quick trip to Mexico City (where Mike is teaching intermittently during this winter term…)

Half Day – Friday
I arrived at about 4 (after braving unbelievable weather in Phoenix, forcing the plane to be about one hour late) at Mexico City Airport. Mike was waiting — he flew in from Merida where he had been for the past week with students (half are Mexican from UAM and half are from UW)..

We taxied to the hotel — Hotel de Cortez  — which is a former convent from the 15th or 16th century. We stayed here eons ago .. it’s still a haven from the hustle and bustle of Mexico City, but it’s had quite an “up-do”… with very modern amenities since the last time we were here. But the courtyard is still wonderful and unchanged. The Cortez is located near Parque Alameda, very close to all the major landmarks in the centro historico. So we settled in quickly (with a great margarita) and then set out to walk the neighborhood — through the park to the Palacio des Bellas Artes, several major churches (all of which are sinking into the ground), and the Zocalo. Then we set out to the Polanco neighborhood for dinner at Izote — an upscale Mexican fusion restaurant that was wonderful (with mini tamales and other goodies), but definitely several price scales above what the average Mexican can afford.

Dia Uno – Sabado
On Saturday we set out for Coyoacan (about 10 km south of the centro) — via Metro, which was — as always — totally crowded and filled with music of all sorts — boom boxes, live accordions, guitars, etc. We walked through the delightful colonial neighborhoods of Coyoacan – eventually ending at La Casita del Patio Verde — where we hope to stay when we are both back in February. (Mike is actually staying in Mexico this next week and then back in California on Feb 1; we head back to Mexico, together, on Feb 13)

Got to La Casita to find no one there. Turns out, it is a charming house with just one guest room and one guest cottage. We phoned the owner who came by about 15 minutes later.. and we settled that we would stay there. It has a wonderful garden, and whoever did the renovation did a hell of a good job. I plan to study Spanish in February and am hoping for a miracle.. Mike will commute that week from Coyoacan to Xochimilco — 15 minutes without traffic (which is never) and about an hour at other times! Fortunately, I think his hours may enable him to come and go during non-commute times (and he is heading in the opposite direction of most traffic that will be going into the centro.)  After meeting with the proprietor, Jose Luis .. we walked all through Coyoacan — which was once its own town and has now been incorporated as a neighborhood into Mexico City. Coyoacan is considered very middle class, with lots of professors, artists, etc. choosing to live here. It’s picturesque and quiet.

Mexico City — with its 25 million+/- people — goes on forever.. .sort of Phoenix but with lots of buildings, no empty lots, and at a higher altitude. It’s much larger than it was when I was last here (about 20 years ago).. but it’s as lively, as noisy, and nearly as polluted as I remember. Indeed it’s hard to describe the city without the smells and the sounds, especially the music.

After leaving Coyoacan (a bit more complicated to get back than we had planned because we opted for a taxi — they are very cheap — in lieu of Metro, thinking it would be faster since it was a long walk back to Metro.. but it actually took three times longer), we headed back to the Bellas Artes to meet an old friend who has been living in Mexico City for 15 years and now definitely calls Mexico City “home.” Along with two of his friends (one an interior and furniture designer and the other an executive with Banamex, who says the US banks used money it got from their Mexican subsidiaries which are profitable to pay back the government), we all trekked to his new house which is located north of Mexico City by about 12 miles (but it takes him about 2 hours to get to work each day.. via a bus and then Metro… On the way home he gets off the bus and has to run across the freeway.

Anyway, Peter recently purchased his home through a Mexican program that
offers loans to residents. The house is part of a new complex (really a city in and of itself) with 60,000 new units… Peter’s being one of those 60,000. It was fascinating. The house is just under 400 sq ft, and has been designed so that the owner can expand upward creating a second or even a third floor (which he plans to do next year. The house cost $20,000 US dollars which is equivalent to one year of his salary (as the coordinator of the foreign language department at the university). It will cost $2,800 to do the extension which will nearly double the house size. The house is a long rectangular box about 10′ x 35′ and it’s set back from the street. There are a few different prototype houses, but basically they all fit this module.

When he went to the meeting with all the other buyers.. they were told the “rules” (sort of like condo rules).. which included the fact that these were all residences and owners should not be creating businesses in the front of their houses… Peter said that when he moved in (and he was one of the first to occupy … people were already setting up businesses in the front of the houses, and by now — two years later–he’s one of the very few people who don’t have a structure that has been built in front of the house nearly occupying the entire lot with some kind of business, from fruit stand to car mechanic to beauty shop to dentist! So now this rather sanitized complex has quite a life going on.. and the community can truly be — as Peter says — very “sustainable.”

Speaking of rules — Mexicans don’t really follow them. There are stop signs at nearly every corner (mostly 4 way stop signs).. and no one, not even the police ever stop at them.. the story is that someone got a contract to print and install all the stop signs through some corrupt government at some point, and they don’t make any sense… Traffic is sort of like a symphony with everyone just weaving around and pedestrians creating their own pace between the cars. And while many things take a long time in Mexico City, where people do seem to savor a certain waiting time (no one ever gives you a bill at a restaurant unless you ask for it.. you could wait forever).. the one thing that is not slow, is driving. Indeed the little green man on the traffic light is literally running.. not walking (in order to remind you that you are taking your life in your hands as you cross very busy intersections)

We came back into town with Peter and had dinner at one of those venerable old Mexican restaurants with lots of mariachis, and big portions (low prices) and lots of people… We over-ordered, not realizing how much food would come.. but we had a good time, and walked back to the hotel.

Dia Dos – Domingo
On Sunday (yesterday) we had breakfast in the wonderful courtyard of the hotel and headed out to explore in more depth, the centro, Alameda, and zocalo areas — starting with the Parque Alameda and the museum that houses the fantastic Diego Rivera mural – Sueno de una Tarde Dominical en la Alemeda Central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park)… about 50′ x 15′.. It goes through three periods in Mexico history. A class at the university was assigned (as far as I can tell from reading all the information in my limited Spanish — although my reading comprehension is 10x better than my verbal skills) a project to create contemporary images of the park today… which includes lots of photographic details of people and things one sees today. Anyway, the mural used to be in a hotel lobby. The hotel was severely destroyed during one of the earthquakes and the mural miraculously survived unscathed.. It was transported to this space where they created a museum around it.

We ventured through many areas in the downtown — went to the 41st floor of the Torre Latino Americano — what was until recently the tallest building in all of Latin America… From this vantage point (and on a somewhat clear day — or at least clear for Mexico City ) you can literally see “all” of Mexico City and get a sense of what it means to have a population of 21 million (+more than 2 million in the ring around the city) in an area that is about 1,000 sq miles (by comparison, I believe that Houston has about 2 million people and is 600 sq miles; Phoenix has 1.5 million people and is about 520 sq miles).

We walked through (or peaked into) dozens of great courtyards; passed scores of churches; wandered through many walking streets (which didn’t exist when we were here years ago) with great street performers; had wonderful flavors of ice cream and made it to the Zocalo… where there were protesters directly across from the main cathedral — objecting to the church’s stand on abortion, gay marriage, and gay adoption.  Apparently Mexico City has approved gay civil unions and most recently the leading political party in Mexico City (PRD) announced an amendment to the Civil Code to legalize same-sex marriage. This is opposed by the second largest political force in the country, the right-of-center PAN and the Roman Catholic Church. So now Mexico City became the first Latin American jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage.

We also visited the Museum of Popular Art (Museo des Artes Popular) which was fantastic.. Must return when I’m back.

Eventually, we headed back to the hotel for a margarita and then went off for our last dinner here in Mexico City (actually Mike will have several more dinners, but last for me as I head back in the morning)… We taxied to a very sweet, unpretentious Mexican restaurant called Fonda del Refugio.. Food was quite good… and then back to hotel..

Oh — on the political front. Some people are hopeful for a swing to the left in the next Mexico City election.. and even nationally.. but ??? I guess the periphery around Mexico City which has its own government has swung more left recently.

Now — to pack and return.
Adios — or rather Hasta Luego!

I hear it’s raining again in the Bay Area — Not looking forward to that. Weather here has been in the 70s or higher during the day and drops down to 40s at night.