Growing Roots in Mexico City

I had a feeling Mexico City would be right up my alley, but I didn't think I'd end up staying more than3-4 days initially.

Yet the attractions here are so numerous that I decided this morning to scout some cheaper hotels, and I ended up taking a $21 room in the Zocalo district, so now I won't make a move north to Guanajuato until Thursday at the earliest.

Since I have only two weekends left on this trip, it looks like a plan to spend the coming weekend in Guanajuato and St Miguel de Allende, and I would still have a few days' leeway to explore some more of that region--with plenty of time to close out the following weekend back in the DF.

I want another weekend in the big city because until today I haven't taken very many photos, and I'd like to revisit Condesa and Coyoacan for that purpose.  And if I decide to try a couple of the many museums here, there will be plenty of time for that.

Here are some of my impressions and observations of this great city now that I've been here a little more thanfour days:

1.) This a city that never sleeps, and the sheer number of people out and about at any given time is astonishing.

2.)  There are very many itinerant musicians, and some of them are excellent players.  Just now I photographed a 10-12 piece Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble with vocalist busking on one of the pedestrian streets.  They had a huge crowd gathered, and as I dropped a plastic blue 20 peso note in the "hat" I noticed that it had plenty of company with other blue notes and 10 peso coins.

3.)  But it's certainly not all mariachi and musica latina.  I've also seen classical cellists,  jazz sax players, many violin/guitar duos, solo guitarist/singers, and more.

4.)  This city has tons and tons of cops, they are everywhere and everywhere.  Yet paradoxically many Mexicans don't equate the number of police with safety.  David Lida writes that there are perhaps 20 seperate´police agencies operating in the DF with total numbers approaching 100,000--a huge ratio even for such a large city.  The main problem is the average cop gets a fairly low salary, forcing many of them to solicit small bribes from motorists and others in order to make a decent living.

5.)  I've spent the bulk of my time so far in two neighborhoods:  the Alameda Park and Zocalo areas.  Amidst all the hustle and bustle of people working, eating, selling things, playing music, organ grinding, and hustling for the next peso, I have seen very little actual begging.  Apart from the occasional elderly woman or a woman with 2-3 children, there seems to be almost no panhandling to speak of in these two primary locations.

6.) Many people I meet in the course of  a day-a waiter in my hotel, a mom and pop store proprietor--have friends and/or relatives in el norte.

7.)  Vehicle traffic can be brutal at nearly any time of day, but if you use the Metro at the right time (skip rush hours) it is very fast, relatively comfortable, and for only 30 cents per ride it's one of the best bargains of the city.  Not at all like the slow, gloomy, and sometimes scary New York subway or Chicago el, the Metro is comparable to the system in Paris:  long trains with quiet rubber wheels arrive once every 2-3 minutes, and the nine or ten lines cover a huge swathe of DF territory.  And like Paris the station maps are excellent, so it's difficult to get lost underground.

8.) I love the food, and the coffee is great too.  Just as Californians have developed their versions of sushi, so too have the Mexicans.  I stopped for coffee in chain which featured on the menu the usual espresso and latte/cappucino drinks as well as French and Italian water, pastries, ice cream, sandwiches, Mexican lunch and dinner specialties, Mexican-style sushi, and more. . .

9.)  It's the rainyseason, but there hasn't been much rain at all, though often there is cloud cover.  It's been very temperate in the daytime--70s and low 80s--and sometimes quite chilly at night!

10.)  Finding a good internet shop has been surprisingly difficult--I'm still looking for a good fast one with plenty of lightso I can manage the tricky Spanish language keyboards--but I'm not complaining much since it's still only one or two bucks per hour to use.  Compare that to Kinko/Fedex in the U.S. ($12 an hour) and you're laughing. . .