Sunday, January 24, 2010
"36 Hours in Mexico City" by New York Times
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
In conclusion
My feet are tired but my mind is rejuvenated from the endless walks during which I soaked in sights, sounds and impressions. I picked up on some Spanish, too. My vocabulary is a little larger but the improvement is mostly in being able to understand others. The locals were fun to interact with and typically very polite. I felt no less safe than in NYC, although I am sure keeping cautious helped.
I'm going out into the nightlife now and to hopefully find a wi-fi spot, and then some local food, drinks and folks. My flight is at 9am tomorrow.
GRACIAS for everyone's encouragement and a special thanks to all who followed my blog and contributed.
Watching tennis at the hotel
This is Ana Ivanović, Serbia's second racquet (among female tennis players). She is kicking some ass at Australian Open. I am watching this on ESPN Vivo with commentary, of course, in Spanish.
Taking the metro
The metro is very efficient, user friendly and a bargain (3 pesos, or less than US$0.25). The trains don't make any noise and they certainly don't screech like the NY subway. Trains run until midnight every night and are fast, frequent and crowded during rush hours.The paper ticket which I'm holding in the picture has a magentic strip. This is a single-ride ticket and it is kept in the machine where you insert it... no littering.
Exploring more local (street) food
This large mix of various fruits cost MX$20 (divide by 12.5 for approximate US$ value). It came with hot chili powder sprinkled on it and a squeeze of lime juice. Another available option was salt.
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The splendid white-marble palace is a premier opera house, a concert hall and an arts center.It was started in 1905 under an Italian architect Adamo Boari. Complications started as the heavy marble shell sank into the spongy subsoil plus the Mexican Revolution intervened. It was eventually finished in the 1930s.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Torre Latinoamericana
the tallest building in Latin America for many decades and now it is
#4. Mexico City's own WTC is now the tallest.
Lunch at Vips
reminded me of Denny's restaurants in the US. The beef fajita looked
much like in any Mex restaurant in the States, but it tasted 100 times
better. It came with guacamole and beans.
Catedrala Metropolitana
was started in 1573. It remained a work in progress during the entire
colonial period, hus displaying an array of architectural styles. It
was originally modelled after Seville's seven-nave cathedral, but
after running into problems with the spongy subsoil, it was scaled
down to five naves.
Mexico City is sinking into ground and the cathedral appears to be
tilting to a side. The historic center has dropped some 10m (30ft) in
the last 100 years. The entire city has been sinking since the
colonial times, when the Spaniards got the bright idea o draining the
lake that filled the highland basin.
The huge flag (missing)
disappointed to miss it today. Here is a stock photo of it (a
screenshot of a Mexico City guide applicatio on my iPhone).
Day 3 starts at the Zócalo
The heart of Mexico City is the Plaza de la Constitución. The
residents began calling t the Zócalo, meaning base, in the 19th
century when plans fo a major monument to independece went unrealized,
leaving only the pedestal.
Measuring 220x240 meters (720x800 feet), it is the world's third
largest city square, after th Red Square in Moscow and Tiananmen
square in Beijing. It is surrounded by Palacio Nacional, the Catedral
Metropolitana and city government offices.
The emptiness of the square allows it to be adapted and rearranged for
multiple uses - mass protests, a free concert venue, a human
chessboard or an ice skating rink. With my luck, today it was largely
blocked off for construction.
National Museum of Popular Culture
