I read if you were to try to compare Mexico City to a city in the United States, your best bet would be to combine New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. Before flying into Mexico City on Wednesday, January 5th, I really did not know what to expect. A crime filled, smog ridden, metropolis of 21 million? Yah, maybe. In some aspects it is. My eyes felt a bit sore on some days, maybe the smog, but according to the Lonely Planet the city smog has gotten much better since the city has started to limit the amount of cars that can drive each day. Every day here has been blue skied and in the 70's. I've never felt in danger and have grown quite fond of this city. The road side tacos are cheap and delicious and the Metro is easy and $3 pesos (.25 cents U.S) can take you nearly anywhere you want to go. Mexico City has been thriving for nearly 1500 years and now has nearly 20% of the country's population and its people consume 2/3 of the countries energy. The historical center of the city is where the Aztecs believed the center of the universe was. Today it has a 500 year old cathedral and an incredible national palace. On Saturday the streets were literally filled like a stuffed burrito. All kinds of cheap crap was being sold on the curbs - "¡Diez Pesos!"
The night before I attempted a night out in Mexico City on my own. My $10 dollar a night , 10 bunk hostel room was empty, so I was on my own. The bar scene was crazy and it being only my 3rd day I didn't have the courage to enter a bar. My spanish is terrible and who goes to a bar by themselves? On top of that I probably wouldn't have even been able to talk to anyone. There are not as many people who speak English as I thought there would be. I still had a nice walk, but felt like a wuss cake when I walked back into the hostel at only 10:30. I cheered up a bit when I walked back into my dorm. It seemed when I left, two beautiful girls from England had moved in. They are sweet girls - Aimee and Ciera. We went to the largest park in the city together and I acted a bit like their tour guide since I had already had three days to get to know the area. They are on a similar trip, but moving a bit faster so I'm sadly saying goodbye to them when we both leave the city.
Prior to meeting the English girls I went outside the city for a day to Teotihuacan - An ancient city built between 200 and 600 AD. It has the third largest pyramid in the world - Pyramid del Sol and I lung busted it to the top. The city at one point had as many as 125,000 people living in it. Exploring ruins will be a main part of my journey.
On my last night in the city I went to my first Corrida de Toros. A bull fight. It was certainly like nothing I had ever experienced. Three matadors kill two bulls each. It's not simply one matador in the ring, but several of his toreros help to tire the bull out at first with the waves of their cape. Then the picadores come into the ring. These are men on large horses all padded up to prevent goring by the bull. These guys have large spears and they use them to weaken the bull even more. Then the matadors toreros take turns stabbing pairs of elongated darts into the shoulder of the bull. With their hands held high they must wait until the bull has nearly gored them to correctly insert the banderillas. After all this, when the bull is at his weakest is when the matador is finally alone with the bull and performs artistic passes with his red muleta. One kill went terribly wrong. The matador failed to perform a clean kill and the bull just wouldn't fall. I believe in honor of the bull's strength the crowd yelled "¡¡Toro!! ¡¡Toro!!" and boo'd the matador as finally the bull was ended with a small dagger behind the neck to sever the spinal cord. As gruesome and cruel as most people think bull fighting is, I believe when the time comes, aficionados prefer a quick death for the bull. Prior to this poor display a matador performed a perfect kill. After several fine passes and ¡Ole's! from the stands he slid his sword deep into the bulls neck on his first try. The bull jabbed his head one last desperate time and fell dead instantly. His performance was so great he was allowed to walk around the ring as each section of the crowd cheered and several people threw their hats into the ring in appreciation.
Just as I begin to really get to know this city it is time to move on. I'm off to Puebla, two hours east, and will have to find my way about in a new city once again. That is the way of it though. For the next few months this is my life and I love it.
P.S. - please excuse any spelling errors - no spell check in English here!
P.P.S. - I will work to get pictures up, but the computers are so slow it is difficult and the one I'm at now charges by the hour so I don't want to take the time to upload them.
The night before I attempted a night out in Mexico City on my own. My $10 dollar a night , 10 bunk hostel room was empty, so I was on my own. The bar scene was crazy and it being only my 3rd day I didn't have the courage to enter a bar. My spanish is terrible and who goes to a bar by themselves? On top of that I probably wouldn't have even been able to talk to anyone. There are not as many people who speak English as I thought there would be. I still had a nice walk, but felt like a wuss cake when I walked back into the hostel at only 10:30. I cheered up a bit when I walked back into my dorm. It seemed when I left, two beautiful girls from England had moved in. They are sweet girls - Aimee and Ciera. We went to the largest park in the city together and I acted a bit like their tour guide since I had already had three days to get to know the area. They are on a similar trip, but moving a bit faster so I'm sadly saying goodbye to them when we both leave the city.
Prior to meeting the English girls I went outside the city for a day to Teotihuacan - An ancient city built between 200 and 600 AD. It has the third largest pyramid in the world - Pyramid del Sol and I lung busted it to the top. The city at one point had as many as 125,000 people living in it. Exploring ruins will be a main part of my journey.
On my last night in the city I went to my first Corrida de Toros. A bull fight. It was certainly like nothing I had ever experienced. Three matadors kill two bulls each. It's not simply one matador in the ring, but several of his toreros help to tire the bull out at first with the waves of their cape. Then the picadores come into the ring. These are men on large horses all padded up to prevent goring by the bull. These guys have large spears and they use them to weaken the bull even more. Then the matadors toreros take turns stabbing pairs of elongated darts into the shoulder of the bull. With their hands held high they must wait until the bull has nearly gored them to correctly insert the banderillas. After all this, when the bull is at his weakest is when the matador is finally alone with the bull and performs artistic passes with his red muleta. One kill went terribly wrong. The matador failed to perform a clean kill and the bull just wouldn't fall. I believe in honor of the bull's strength the crowd yelled "¡¡Toro!! ¡¡Toro!!" and boo'd the matador as finally the bull was ended with a small dagger behind the neck to sever the spinal cord. As gruesome and cruel as most people think bull fighting is, I believe when the time comes, aficionados prefer a quick death for the bull. Prior to this poor display a matador performed a perfect kill. After several fine passes and ¡Ole's! from the stands he slid his sword deep into the bulls neck on his first try. The bull jabbed his head one last desperate time and fell dead instantly. His performance was so great he was allowed to walk around the ring as each section of the crowd cheered and several people threw their hats into the ring in appreciation.
Just as I begin to really get to know this city it is time to move on. I'm off to Puebla, two hours east, and will have to find my way about in a new city once again. That is the way of it though. For the next few months this is my life and I love it.
P.S. - please excuse any spelling errors - no spell check in English here!
P.P.S. - I will work to get pictures up, but the computers are so slow it is difficult and the one I'm at now charges by the hour so I don't want to take the time to upload them.
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