Ciudad de Mexico has some very cool architecture. Seems like it would be fun to be an architect here. A lot of the old architecture is colonial. Some is in disrepair. There were several severe earthquakes in 2017 that have destroyed buildings. The repairs and demolition continue to this day.
On our trip through the city on the way to see the pyramids we passed through poor areas of the city. Some was by Uber; some was in the bus. This gave us a little balance to the touristy wealthy areas where we stayed. Besides the bus station which is very local we saw a mall named “Suburbia”. A lot of countries like to foreignize European culture and sometimes it’s quite amusing.
On the reverse side was the guy who had a t-shirt that said, “Mexico is the shit”. Even tho that’s a good thing some may misinterpret that in a big way. I agree and I would wear that t-shirt in the US, but not in their town. I believe it would display cultural insensitivity.
I have been wearing masks during the pandemic for two years. When my wife and I would pick up a mask to go out, she would locate hers by the makeup lining the mask. Upon arriving in Mexico it was suddenly “all masks have hot sauce in them”. The struggle is real. Everything had hot sauce and there were less napkins.
I had heard stories from expats on the quality of Mexican roads. We found the roads we traveled on to be excellent. There were lots of highways, some were toll roads, but we did Uber. There were maintenance issues with sidewalks, curbs, potholes. The highways were crowded, but people got around. There were actually a lot of cyclists. In CDMX it is very flat for miles around, almost pancake flat. That is excellent for bicycles.
On the road we saw a variety of modes of travel: bicycles, pedestrians, 3 wheeled bikes and 3 wheeled electric bikes, trucks, buses and the biggest bus I’ve ever seen – a triple unit bus. DC and a lot of other cities have double-buses, but this triple was amazing.
One struggle you’ll have to deal with is pronouncing the places names – so many syllables. Thailand is bad too, but Mexico is competitive. Tlalnepantla de Baz, Popocatepetl, Xochimilco, Teotihuacan, yep. I am just not used to seeing words like this. The challenge throws my mind in a blender. I stop. I don’t know where to begin.
Karen had a travel purse that she brought. One day I noticed that the strap was separating from the body of the purse. I found a seamstress near our residence and she was able to take care of it immediately. It was excellent, but she overcharged.
We saw a cemetery while we drove around. The tombs were very ornate with corrugated metal roofs over some of them. They reminded me of some of the crowded cemeteries we saw in Cambodia.
Interestingly, we saw a family member delivering a person in a wheelchair to the pre-boarding area of an airline gate. When it was time to board they only allowed the handicapped person to board. Their supporting family had to board separately apparently. Anyone familiar with how that works in Mexico?
