Mexico City
Well the city is nothing like I expected. I was half inclined to give it a miss. Its brilliant. Its pretty safe, noisy, cheap and totally nuts.
Its a cross between a free festival and say Amsterdam. The city is built on swamp in an earth quake zone so everything is skew, including the skyscrapers, which are far from vertical. This and the fancy architecture gives it an Alice in Wonderland feel. The main square contains marching soldiers, faith healers, various mystics, a couple of troops of Indians vigorously and loudly swirling around, hundreds of market traders which line the adjoining streets for miles. Then add in dozens of swarming bright green VW beetle taxis, it makes it into a fun place.
Just to add more fun a pack of dogs decided to have sex in the middle of the four lane gyratory, so total (if it were possible) chaos ensued.
Hostel is fun, roof garden looks over the city, which is strung with brightly coloured hammocks. Great free breakfast, pancakes, eggs, fresh fruit, toast and proper tea.
I was being dull last night, working on the internet, got to my room at 11 opened the door and was immediately handed a beer and told to join the party. The thing was this was my room. I did a double take, checked the door number, fortunately I knew most of the people, they said they thought I would nt mind, which I suppose I did nt, bit odd though.
Its sometimes difficult to remember this life is not normal. I was relaxing in a hammock thinking all was well. But thinking about it the church bells where going ten to a dozen, pulled by hand so fairly random, God save the Queen was being played loudly by an organ grinder down in the street, MTV was in the bar, while a thousand street vendors where shouting 2 for 10 pesos at the top of their voices. It all seemed normal at the time.
The street markets are insane. Thousands of people jammed into narrow streets all shouting. Add in the smells of numerous tacos being cooked and eaten as you shuffle along. Kids with wheel barrows wheeling through the crowd selling sweets. Vats of chips being fried while being pushed along through the crowd. The odd scooter with a chicito on the back (no helmets of course) and through this madness comes a bus, as they have not shut the road. The best bit is when the cops come along and the traders grab their gear so all the carefully piled merchandise scatters everywhere as they belt up the side streets dragging their gear behind them. Give it two minutes and they all come back again.
Did the cultural stuff, museums, churches and pyramids. All very nice, bit peeved Diago Rivera´s museum was closed for two weeks. I like all the day of the dead stuff lots of skeletons, and strange looking little imps and devils. Bit like Tim Burtons "Nightmare before Christmas", which unsurprisingly is very popular over here.
My stomach sorted itself out. That is until I bought a green taco off an Indian women. I like hot food but the chili sauce near made me go blind. Speaking to a local girl (and they have chili sauce on popcorn) she said the native stuff is too hot for her and generally had a good laugh at my expense.
The thing to look out for is sneaky jalapenos. They usually attack when not expecting it. It was 6am at the bus station and I asked the sandwich lady to make us a cheese sandwich, which was great (tomato, lettuce, advacado and local made cheese, bit like Holumie) and half way through I get a whole mouthful of chills. Not what is needed before a long bus journey. Same happened with the Cornish pasty (Im sure the Cornish gold miners never had chili).
Loads of food here, buy it off the street and its virtually free. Cake shops to die for. You can buy virtually anything here. Each block (and there is a lot in a city of 25million) specializes in a certain product, such as typewriters, wedding cakes, surgical supports. In the pharmacies you can buy full surgical equipment, all kinds of nasty looking stainless steel instruments, a complete range of cutting equipment, plus all the stuff you would find in a Chemistry lab. The mind boggles what they do with it.
Its a shame to leave, but the only downside is the pollution. It is worse than LA and has been catching in the back of the throat.
Its a cross between a free festival and say Amsterdam. The city is built on swamp in an earth quake zone so everything is skew, including the skyscrapers, which are far from vertical. This and the fancy architecture gives it an Alice in Wonderland feel. The main square contains marching soldiers, faith healers, various mystics, a couple of troops of Indians vigorously and loudly swirling around, hundreds of market traders which line the adjoining streets for miles. Then add in dozens of swarming bright green VW beetle taxis, it makes it into a fun place.
Just to add more fun a pack of dogs decided to have sex in the middle of the four lane gyratory, so total (if it were possible) chaos ensued.
Hostel is fun, roof garden looks over the city, which is strung with brightly coloured hammocks. Great free breakfast, pancakes, eggs, fresh fruit, toast and proper tea.
I was being dull last night, working on the internet, got to my room at 11 opened the door and was immediately handed a beer and told to join the party. The thing was this was my room. I did a double take, checked the door number, fortunately I knew most of the people, they said they thought I would nt mind, which I suppose I did nt, bit odd though.
Its sometimes difficult to remember this life is not normal. I was relaxing in a hammock thinking all was well. But thinking about it the church bells where going ten to a dozen, pulled by hand so fairly random, God save the Queen was being played loudly by an organ grinder down in the street, MTV was in the bar, while a thousand street vendors where shouting 2 for 10 pesos at the top of their voices. It all seemed normal at the time.
The street markets are insane. Thousands of people jammed into narrow streets all shouting. Add in the smells of numerous tacos being cooked and eaten as you shuffle along. Kids with wheel barrows wheeling through the crowd selling sweets. Vats of chips being fried while being pushed along through the crowd. The odd scooter with a chicito on the back (no helmets of course) and through this madness comes a bus, as they have not shut the road. The best bit is when the cops come along and the traders grab their gear so all the carefully piled merchandise scatters everywhere as they belt up the side streets dragging their gear behind them. Give it two minutes and they all come back again.
Did the cultural stuff, museums, churches and pyramids. All very nice, bit peeved Diago Rivera´s museum was closed for two weeks. I like all the day of the dead stuff lots of skeletons, and strange looking little imps and devils. Bit like Tim Burtons "Nightmare before Christmas", which unsurprisingly is very popular over here.
My stomach sorted itself out. That is until I bought a green taco off an Indian women. I like hot food but the chili sauce near made me go blind. Speaking to a local girl (and they have chili sauce on popcorn) she said the native stuff is too hot for her and generally had a good laugh at my expense.
The thing to look out for is sneaky jalapenos. They usually attack when not expecting it. It was 6am at the bus station and I asked the sandwich lady to make us a cheese sandwich, which was great (tomato, lettuce, advacado and local made cheese, bit like Holumie) and half way through I get a whole mouthful of chills. Not what is needed before a long bus journey. Same happened with the Cornish pasty (Im sure the Cornish gold miners never had chili).
Loads of food here, buy it off the street and its virtually free. Cake shops to die for. You can buy virtually anything here. Each block (and there is a lot in a city of 25million) specializes in a certain product, such as typewriters, wedding cakes, surgical supports. In the pharmacies you can buy full surgical equipment, all kinds of nasty looking stainless steel instruments, a complete range of cutting equipment, plus all the stuff you would find in a Chemistry lab. The mind boggles what they do with it.
Its a shame to leave, but the only downside is the pollution. It is worse than LA and has been catching in the back of the throat.
posted by Richard at
11:03 pm
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