First published in Atención San Miguel on January 12, 2007
My current home town of Mexico City (or el D.F. as it is commonly known) just happens to be one of the biggest cities on the planet. When I tell people I live here, the response is often bewilderment shadowed with trepidation. The city seems to attract more than its share of bad news headlines and, while statistics can support many of these claims, my experience of living in the city is another story. There is a lot of stimulation, so I stay alert; my blood seems to run faster here, which makes me feel young and happy.
I love the oldness of Mexico City. Founded almost seven centuries ago by the Aztecs, the city has a palpable aura of its own history. The phone book still has almost 800 Moctezumas listed, and you see those hard-to-pronounce Nahuatl names everywhere: Tenochtitlán, Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, Nezahualcoyotl, Chapultepec. The basilica of La Virgen de Guadalupe, the most revered religious site in Latin America, is built over an altar where Aztecs prayed to the great mother-goddess Tonantzin. Fragments of the past turn up at building sites all over town--even the metro has its own Aztec ruins, the temple of Ehecatl, god of wind, at the Pino Suarez station.
You can experience the history through the food, too; many things have not changed for a thousand years. Tamales, esquites, guacamole, pulque, nopales, mamey, mole, huitlacoche and huazontle are just a few of the things found daily in Mexico City that were eaten by the Aztecs. Like millions of Mexicans for centuries, I often start the day with a tamal from my local street vendor. Tamales oaxaqueños, steamed in a banana leaf, are a regional specialty often found in the city, along with the more traditional corn-husk tamales.
Surprisingly for a city of around 20 million inhabitants, I often feel I am in a small town. The pace is slower than in most big cities, the people generally patient and friendly. As throughout Mexico, there is a sense of life being lived in the present tense, of pleasure being more important than business.
My own neighborhood, Colonia Condesa, is a few miles southwest of the Centro Histórico. Condesa is a leafy maze of streets and parks dating back to the 1920s, with palm-lined avenues, lots of Art Deco architecture, and trendy stores and restaurants. As in any good Mexico City neighborhood, there is a mix of everything: rich and poor, glamourous and hideous, sublime and mundane. The colonia has that fascinating quality of simultaneous decay and rebirth that characterizes much of the city, with slick steel-and-glass apartment buildings going up next to crumbling stucco casitas or earthquake-damaged office buildings. Weekly produce markets, still known by the Aztec name tianguis, are set up in the streets as they have been for centuries. Here you might see a blonde woman toting a Chanel bag buying handmade tortillas from a country woman in braids and a rebozo. Sounds of an older Mexico are heard in Condesa, too: the whistle of the knife sharpener, the cries of men delivering gas or water, the hoot of the camot
ero who sells sweet potatoes from a push-cart at night, or a one-man band playing trumpet and drums.
With almost a fifth of the country’s population living here, you can’t really claim to know Mexico without knowing Mexico City, but it is not for the faint-hearted traveler. The air is polluted, the traffic is beyond belief; it’s in an earthquake zone and within range of a smoking volcano. You don’t come to relax or ‘get away from it all.’ Yet, with its Aztec ruins, majestic colonial architecture, dozens of museums, great food and friendly people, it ranks as a major tourist destination. More than the sites, however, it is the ambience of the city that draws me here, the audacious and improbable feel of it all, the energy of 20 million people living their lives, maintaining their dignity and respecting their culture.
Each month I will offer some tips for getting around the city and suggestions of current shows and events. One of the first questions I get is: What about the taxis? Here’s the scoop.
I do hail cabs on the street and have never had a problem in more than 10 years. But I speak Spanish and I know where I am going. For most visitors, registered sitio taxis are the safest way to travel around Mexico City. You find them at hotels and at designated spots marked with the word sitio. There is a sitio on the Zócalo behind the cathedral on the left. At most sitios you can also hire a taxi by the hour, usually US$10 to $15 per hour, with a three-hour minimum--one of the best ways to see the city. Always negotiate prices beforehand if there is no meter to avoid surprises. Taxi prices are usually reasonable--most inner-city destinations will cost under 100 pesos. Get a business card from the sitio; you can call them from anywhere in the city to come get you.
The turibus is a convenient way to see the city without worrying about transportation (www.turibus.com.mx). This red, double-decker bus passes by most of the major tourist destinations. For about US$10 you can get on and off all day at 24 stops around the city. There is a stop on the Zócalo on the left side of the cathedral, next to the taxi sitio.
