Ahorita… o mañana?

Desde los +20C de la oficina, no se ve tan mal…

Pero los 3 o 4 minutos en la calle para ir de la casa a la parada del camión, más los 4 minutos esperando al dichoso transporte y los otros 2 minutos adicionales para llegar al edificio más cercano de la univ fueron suficientes para sentir el frijolín.

Y faltan los mismos +5 minutos de regreso. Ash.

No puedo evitarlo, siempre caigo en el juego. Esta es mi favorita a mejor cancion. Falling slowly de la pelicula Once.

Downtown is another favorite, in my case more by circumstance than by choice. I lived there around 9 years but downtown is by far more interesting that the other two neighborhoods I’ve inhabit so far.

So, you are at the Pino Suarez metro station and you want to buy, say a pair of shoes… jump off the train, go out the station and walk along Pino Suarez Avenue where a lot of shoe stores are located. But if what you need is a book, remain underground because there is a pedestrian tunnel where almost all the editorial houses have a stand.

No matter the choice, eventually the Zocalo square will be the next destination. A good display of the two worlds that collided during the Spanish colonization is there. Remains of an Aztec temple and the Cathedral are side by side. Some pictures, here. Close by, there is an interesting museum (Museo de San Ildefonso) with top class exhibitions all year round. There are also murals by Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. (Filler note: Free entrance on Tuesdays).

Other constructions worth seeing in downtown are the Palace of Fine Arts. My suggested route to get there is to take Madero Street and maybe stop by the Temple of La Profesa -common temple but it was the headquarters of one anti-independence conspiracy in 1820 . On the same street, is the Palace of Iturbide -where the first “emperor” of the independent Mexico lived; now owned by a bank but sometimes holds exhibitions of mexican craft.

After visiting the Palace of Fine Arts, there is also a chance to go to the National Art Museum (Filler note: Free entrance on Sundays. This is the case for almost every museum in Mexico City) or to the Palace of Mines (there is a permanent exhibition of Inquisition torture instruments).

Downtonwn is my choice for shopping. Almost everything can be found somewhere. Either from shops or street vendors.

As mentioned, pics here, here and here

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If taking a walk on the wild side is appealing, there are a couple of places worth trying (they are not in downtown itself, but close). From the Palace of Fine Arts walk north on Lazaro Cardenas Av. Expect to find some kind of suspicious looking bars, shops and fellas along the way. The destination is the “Plaza Garibaldi” where mariachi bands are playing, most of the time waiting to be hired for a gig. (Filler note: a cousin likes the pozole served in one small restaurant inside a food market next to the plaza. I totally agree with her).

From there, keep to the north and turn east at Rayon Avenue. Need a cheap electronic device? Or maybe some bootlegs or knock offs, or the devil knows what? Tepito is the place.

(Filler note: the same cousin claims that a more tasty pozole is sold there. I haven’t had the chance to try it. When we went, the joint was closed. Next thing was to get out of there as soon as possible -necessary precaution since we are not from the hood- of course trying to look all the time cool and street savvy. When I lived downtown the family used to go there probably once a month and never felt unsafe; definitely, times have changed).

So, better going back to safer territories and buy something at the bakery “La Madrid”:

Due to popular demand (actually, just one person asked -and most probably only out of courtesy), some posts will be in english.

Mexico City is home. Big, noisy, confusing, contrasting (clean and dirty, poor and rich, ugly and pleasant, pessimistic… and you get the idea). Always the capital. The spanish conquistadors founded the capital of the New Spain over the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

Now, I prefer to call it DFectuoso (may be translated as “defective”). Mexico City is the Federal District (Distrito Federal -DF- in spanish). The previous mayor (or maybe it was before his time?) named it La ciudad de la esperanza (The city of hope) and the current mayor, Ciudad en Movimiento (City in motion).

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In the following 3 or 4 posts including this, I will mention some of my favorite places. The Cineteca Nacional (National Cinematheque) is one of them. It is probably the joint of choice to find interesting movies not so easily accessible in the commercial circuit (although lately they also show some hollywood crap). It has 8 screen rooms with different capacities (from 40 to 500) and it is near the metro station Coyoacan.

(Filler note: The very first movie I saw there was Kieslowski’s Blue)