Saturday morning, I awoke with the determination to get a lot of exploring done. It was my first full day (one of two) in Mexico City. After breakfast at the hostel, i set out. I started at the Zócalo square with the Catedral Metropolitana and from there i more or less followed a walking route through the central historico and into the Alameda area.
I won’t list every sight I saw, but I took in the big ones – several cathedrals, markets, parks, and pedestrian streets of note. It was a great day for wandering. Hot and sunny but not humid, and every turn revealed something worthy of my attention. The harmonium players provided a soundtrack to the touristy areas, tempting food carts, eateries, and cantinas, people just going about their days.
There were certainly very modern areas that looked like any big city and then, turn a corner, and it became more colourful and what I imagined as Mexico revealed itself. At no point did any area feel unsafe.
I did go to the Palacio de Belles Artes, which is a gorgeous building on edge of a lovely park. I saw huge Diego Rivera murals, and various other permanent collection items, as well as a great exhibit of modern, weird art. I didn’t linger, but I was glad I visited.
I went to this one food market (I think it was Gastrónomica San Juan) where they had the usual fruit and cheese but also a gruesome collection of wild game – allegedly everything from lion to capybara, with creatures laid out, torsos like cornucopias of horror. I took a bunch of pictures, but the came out blurry; I was self conscious about taking photos an was attracting too much attention as the lone “gringa”.
I wandered the near endless aisles of the Centro de Artesanias, looking at all the colourful things I didn’t want but liked to look at. People were certainly interested in selling, but in a very casual way that made browsing pleasant, not stressful. I did get a break out my Spanish haggling phrases, which is some of my best Spanish. I had lunch of tortilla chips, beans, and salad with avocado. Not a lot of veg options, but I was happy for the food and the rest.
Rounding back to the Zócalo, i walked down Regina street, which is a great pedestrian street lined with bars and restaurants and some of the best street art around. It is like a gallery…and i may have found inspiration for a new tattoo.
I didn’t want a bar, but found a quieter restaurant, sat outside and ordered a pizza. Too late I discovered that they did not allow smoking on the patio. (Grumble.) But I had a fine time people watching and having my dinner…until a light rain turned into a tropical style downpour, which turned into so much hail it looked like snow. I waited until it died down and then made a dash for it. The rain got worse again and turned into thunder and lightning, which left me hostel bound until almost midnight, at which time I went for another late walk and cigar.
There are police everywhere here, at least in the historic centre. There are frequently clusters of them, with riot gear at hand, sometimes 20 of them, standing around a particular corner before they hop in the back of a pickup truck and move locations. I guess it adds an air of security, but then, I’m not sure if the police are to be trusted. Either way, they spend most of their time on their phones, texting and surfing the internet, as best I could tell.
Another random observation: there are so many sweets shops here selling churros, ice cream, candy, etc. Like…a lot. Plus lots of garbage fast food joints. On the plus side, there are lots of bike lanes and juice shops. I also found that for a city of 20+ million people, there are a lot of slow walkers, not the satisfying hustle I expect from a big city. If there’s one thing I can’t tolerate it’s a slow walker. That is my only complaint though. On the whole I found the city I saw to be entirely delightful.
Postscript: my impatience with the slow walkers came back to haunt me two days later when I was suffering from food poisoning and wickedly sore legs from excessive stair climbing at the pyramids. I was left walking like Frankenstein, slowly and with self loathing.
The weather was perfect and the city begged to be explored. Sousse dates back to about 9th century BCE and is centred around a walled medina just blocks away from the harbour. The medina is smaller than the one in Tunis but is no less interesting, the souq is bustling with mostly locals and the streets are filled with vendors selling nuts and sweet treats, kids playing ball, and people going about their daily lives.
