NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2004
December 19 - 21, 2004
Unfortunately we were a little crunched for time in order to catch our December 21 flight to Costa Rica. So, we had to skip Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido. Instead we decided to spend 2 days checking out Mexico City before flying out. Mexico City is everything it is cracked up to be in terms of a huge, almost unmanigable city of 20 million people. Whereas Mexico as a whole is generally a very laid back and friendly country, with ultra friendly and helpful people, Mexico City is just the opposite. The second we arrived at the central bus station we knew this was a country unto itself. The bus station could have been an airport in terms of size, multiple terminals, and frenzied agressive people all worried about one thing, themsleves. Im sure a lot of people would say the same about NYC, though we both thought even NYC had a friendlier vibe. At any rate though, it was exciting.
Once we got off of the bus we headed for the Metro (subway) because apparently cabs are very dangerous in light of a recent rash of kidnappings by cab drivers. Conventional wisdom in Mexico City (at least for tourists) is to only take cabs if you specifically call them from a hotel etc. Luckily, the Metro system in top notch in terms of frequency and scope of service. Unfortunately, the down sides of the Metro are that many transfers require a 1/2 to 3/4 mile walk (a bit annoying with 50 lb backpacks), and for reasons passing understanding people force themselves onto the train while people are trying to exit, and will also use every bit of strength they have to jam themselves onto a train which is already packed to the ceiling even though, as mentioned above, the Metro is very efficient with trains showing up practically every 5 minutes. At any rate we took the train to The Zolcolo (think Capitol Hill in DC plus the national cathedral) in order to get to our hotel, Hotel Juarez. The Zoloco is pretty strange in that it is a bunch of almost communist era looking government bulidings surrounding a big concrete plaza with the biggest flag we had ever seen in the center and not a tree or bush anywhere. This, coupled with showing up at midnight at the tail end of some music festival with only scattered people remaining and wandering aimlessly to the sounds of some sort of German/Latin trance music at jet airplane decibels with a background of flickering Christmas lights on every building was a bit overwhelming.
After a good nights sleep, albeit at the overpriced, rudely staffed, and dirty Hotel Juarez (we moved to Hotel Washington a block away which was clean, friendly, confortable, cheaper and next door to an awesome 24 hour panaderia which always had a line out the door, but was well worth the wait) we spent the day exploring what is definitely a great walking city. First we headed west down Avenida Juarez, which is one of the city's main arteries which lead us through Alemeda central, a nice park with beautiful monuments, and fountains. Then we went to the Zona Rosa which is a half fancy, half Melrose/Abbott Kinney boutique type area with perpendicular promenades filled with cafes, bars and restaurants. Mexico City is full of great fashion and very stylish people, and a lot of it can be found in the Zona Rosa, albeit at practically US prices. We finished the day with a Metro ride to the Coyoacan neighborhood (Ruthie's favorite from a previopus trip 10 years ago) and now Mike's favorite also. Coyocan is a very Venice type of artsy, crunchy area complete with great restaurants, and tons of boardwalk type of vendors in the central plaza. We had a great meal, and will definitely stay here when we come back through Mexico city in a few months.
The next day began with an ill fated attempt to spend some time in the Bosque de Chapultepec which is the Mexico City equivalent of Central Park; and we believe even larger. However, we made the mistake of entering from the Constituentes Metro stop to the south which leads you into a government residence as well as a military base which you cannot pass through. Long story short, it was about 90 degrees, and we spend about 2 hours circumnavigating the east end of the park along a freeway (literally) getting to the north end. Not fun, and made even worse by the realization that all we had to do was keep walking down Paseo De LA Reforma (another main artery we spendt time on the day before) to end up right in the heart of the park which contains the zoo, a big lake and the National Ahthropological museum. Oh well, next time.
Making lemonade out of lemons, we traveled a little further to the North to the Polanco neighborhood, which is essentially Mexico City's Beverly Hills, complete with a Rodeo Drive carbon copy (at least in terms of stores) called Presidente Masaryk. Mexico City is definitely a story of very rich, and very poor, and the very rich shop for their jewels and clothes at Rolex, Tiffany, Prada, Ermenegildo Zenga, and Versace, and buy their cars at the Ferrari dealership on Masaryk. Next time, we will hit the Bosque de Chapultepec the right way, and make a trip out to the ruins at Teotihuacan.
We flew out without any problems, and were impressed with the airport which offers evry type of service, and ran very efficiently. Our flight on Mexicana Air was also excellent, though a bit late arriving to San Jose.
