Mexico Journal - Mexico City "DF"

Mexico City is the Distrito Federal, hence it is called "DF" or just Mexico by the locals. It is a city of contrasts, where new and old are mixed together, and one can find modern, colonial, and old neighborhoods just footsteps away from each other. Some areas have a very European feeling, such as the Paseo de la Reforma, which is a Champs-Elysees Mexican style, flanked by statues of the republic's most distinguished heroes and lawmakers, and every few blocks one can find gorgeous monuments like the Angel de la Independencia, perhaps one of the city's most famous landmarks.

We marveled at their transportation system (after all, getting 30 million people to and from work every day has to be a daunting task). The Metro runs very efficiently and covers the majority of the city. Twenty cents of a US dollar will get you anywhere; once you're inside the metro tunnels, you can transfer as many times as you want with a single ticket. The Metro-Bus covers areas not serviced by the metro; a series of designated lines run almost like an above-ground extension of the tunnel system. All this is combined with the traditional third world country "flag your bus anywhere" system, to provide an incredibly efficient transportation network (of course you can always take one of their famous bright-green Volkswagen beetle cabs for a few extra pesos).

If you like art and museums you have come to the right place. Bellas Artes and the Museo de Antropologia house massive permanent and travelling exhibits, and seeing the entirety of their collections will take you several days. We stormed through both of them due to time constraints, and agreed that we must go back even if only to finish our visits to these two sights. Other museums and buildings to visit include Frida Khalo's house, Diego Rivera's murals in the Palacio Nacional, and Leon Trotsky's house, which we didn't have time to see. Several Mercados are open during the week, but weekends are specially busy. Coyoacan was our favorite, but I must admit it was mostly because of the proximity to Vanessa and Raul's house. Local artisans sell their crafts, artists and musicians perform live on the streets, and there is food galore. We could smell pot in the air and hear bongs going everywhere, mostly from inside the street vendor's shops. The atmosphere was always festive and lively. Mexico City's youth flocks to this markets, usually located in plazas and zocalos, most of which also have parks. Couples sit on every bench and next to every water fountain on the parks, and it is hard to walk by without seeing people kissing everywhere you look.

We were lucky to be there on a Sunday during the bullfight season, and witnessed a corrida de toros at the "Monumental", the largest bullfighting plaza of the world, with seating for 41.000 people. Sadly, we missed the opening ceremony...we were trying to see and do too many things in one day. Tiffany had to spend Saturday in bed, her body was probably complaining from the water we drank at the hostels, or perhaps one of our meals on the street, but after a couple of liters of Pedyalite and some rest she quickly recovered, and we had to make up the lost time.

Sunday night we realized our budget was not enough, and even a generous $150 "grant" from my mother barely covered what we had originally planned to do. We decided to cut short our trip to the pyramids of Tehotihuacan and headed over to Oaxaca.