Arriving in Mexico City on Tuesday Night, after a terrible connecting flight from Amsterdam, word of advice, don´t fly KLM, unless of course you enjoy bad service & rude air stewards. I didn't really know what to expect. Drug wars, notorious gangs, we've all seen the movies. Whatever you may say, it´s hard not to be effected from what you hear & see on the tele. So although you try to keep your mind as open as you can, it´s difficult not to have those thoughts come sliding in. On arrival I was welcomed into the country by a flood of men & woman clad in army & police uniform. Oh dear, I thought. After some effort, I finally managed to get a taxi, & as my luck would have, my cabby was half blind, half deaf & totally useless with direction. The crazy thing was, he had a Gps stuck to his windscreen yet he was adamant that he didn't need it. What should have been a 25min journey took close on 90min. Maybe he was just trying to give me the scenic route. So kind.
Down town Mexico is a sea of voices, people, cars & hawkers. All just trying to get by in a city that is in the top 5 with regard to population. The constant presence in the city, is the good old policia. And to be fair, the friendly policia. Now as a traveller seeing this could leave you feeling one of two ways. Either, ´Susan-So all the stories of Mexico are true, look at all those men with guns,´ or ´Bob-Susan don´t you just feel so safe seeing every street corner patrolled by policeman?´
Speaking of which I was strangely struck by the lack of Bob´s & Susan´s in the city. You know Bob & Susan from Portland. They the one´s sporting the matching sandals with velcro straps, cam corder & over sized & under used Nikon. If you still don´t know who I´m describing, look for the couple with the shortest shorts & the whitest pins.
Downtown you´ll find the presidential as well as the mayor´s office which overlooks one massive square.
Getting downtown would require one to inevitably having to use the dreaded subway, cue dreaded music. Or maybe not. Subways, or actually all means or public transport comes with its own degree of trepidation when on foreign shores. That sense of trepidation is increased should one not be familiar with the local tongue. Yes that would be me. My spanish is half-decent, well not really, but I do all the mannerisms really well. However, even if like me your language knowledge does not include much, I found to my surprise the subway to be very user friendly. Once you know where to go, Zocalo or downtown, all you do is have a look at the numerous maps painted across the walls, or go to one of the ticket booths where you´ll get a pocket map book. It´s also dirt cheap, 3pesos. Figuring it out after that is pretty simple. Once on the train, you hit by sweat inducing heat. Take a minute, close your eyes & imagine this. Well, maybe don't close your eyes because you won't be able to read what I wrote. So just sit there & imagine. Ready. Take that feeling of walking out of an air-conditioned office into the sweltering midday heat. If you reading this in London, you going to have to imagine even harder. We know you unaccustomed to that feeling. Ok, you got it? Know, I don't think so. So throw in a crowded train with passengers, hawkers & your token crazy guy, & for good measure, multiply that by 4. Now you getting the picture.
Although being in a foreign culture & country, I try not to do to many ´touristy' things, prefer rather to be where the locals are. If you said, 'so you want to be in jail or Los Angeles then.' Shame on you. Anyway, that being said, it´s worth a visit going to the National Anthropological Museum. That would mean taking the metro to the Auditorio station.
Even if bones & stature´s of half naked men & woman with really bad hair killing animals is not your thing, it´s still really interesting. On the grounds, there´s also a palace that was built for some royalty. The reason for not knowing the name of that royalty, & no trying to get the number of the school tour guide was not the reason, well not completely the reason. Is that not many of the pieces on view have english translation, which is rather down right stupid as the museum is predominantly visited by tourists.
I eventually ventured into the Mexican night. I went to the Hotel Habita in Polanco. I was told that's where all the 'glitz & glamour' hang out. So I thought I would fit in well then. It's a roof top spot with view's of the city. The manager, Migual, eventually introduced me to some of the 'glitz'. Since my past time is not watching Mexican news or Novelas, I didn't have a clue who they where. After my brush with the Mexican 'Glitz', I wanted something more sneaker appropriate. Bad idea.
It all started off well until I bumped into some Canadian students. After listening to them go on about there love for all things Canadian. For the life of me I can't remember anything worth remembering. Can you think of anything worth remembering about Canada, didn't think so. So while they were getting all misty eyed about Canada, I went outside for a smoke. Mexico City is very strict about that law. So while enjoying my Marlboro, I noticed all the policia running in. I should have known then already the score, but in I went & as soon as they spotted me, they immediately thought I was involved, luckily the waiter knew otherwise. It goes without saying that I hastily made my exit, stage left.
So the day finally arrived for my first day of hitchhiking. After some local advice, I took a cab to the city outskirts going south to La Ciudad Puebla. To my surprise it took me 10min to get my first hitch, good start. After 2 hours or so things went pear shaped. I discovered I was heading north. 'And the Oscar for stupidness goes to .....' I was hitching on the wrong side of the road. It took me another 2hrs to get a hitch back to where I had just come from. I eventually ended up in a town called Chalco. It has a border town feel about it, but without the border. If I'm completely honest, it's also like one big rubble. After finding some cheap Motel, I went to have a look at what Chalco offers as form of entertainment on a Saturday night. The answer was, The Chalco Circus, 'STEP UP, STEP UP'. To be fair, it wasn't all that bad until I got kicked out for taking pics of the performance. Bunch of prima dona's. I was about to demand my money back, but like I said, the spanglish has limitations. I was pretty tired in any case, but before I went to bed I thought I'd see if there's anything worth watching on the generously large t.v. I think you can see where I'm going with this. Yes, 24hr porn & a very large t.v. And that's all I'm saying.
Hitching to Puebla went much smoother today. To start with, I went in the right direction, which if you hitching is always a good thing. Nice weather, great view & Civil Twilight for company. Could think of a lot worse things.
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