el DF: parte uno

Last weekend I went to what Mexicans refer to as el DF (“day eff-ay”; Distrito Federal), or Mexico City. Some people from my school were going and after giving it a lot of thought I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I promise, we were extremely careful and very aware of our surroundings at all times. We didn’t have any trouble while we were there at all, and we had a lot of fun. The city is HUGE though (something like 25-30 million inhabitants), and was definitely kind of overwhelming at times.

Kyle, Kelly and I left Thursday afternoon after I got out of classes (they finished earlier in the day). We took a taxi to the bus station to get our tickets for Mexico City. The trip takes about five hours from Guanajuato. Kyle and Kelly had gone the day before to check out the different bus lines and compare prices, and in the end we went with ETN, which was superb. Seriously, it was great. There were only three seats per aisle rather than four, and they were huge, with tons of leg room. You could even recline without feeling like you were squashing the person behind you. They gave us sandwiches and drinks before we got on the bus, and they even had played movies on flip-down TVs. The best part was that it only cost us $190 pesos each, after our student discount (50%), which is roughly $14USD. (One way, but still not bad compared to Greyhound!)

Here's Kelly and I relaxing on the bus!

We arrived about 9pm to the city’s north bus terminal (there are four total). For a bus station, it was huge. I’ve been in smaller airports.. including the one in León that I’ll be flying out of when I come home. From there, we took a secure taxi from the bus station to our hostel. Our taxi driver was super nice. He chatted with us the whole way there about the US and Mexico (he lived in LA for a few years) and was just generally really friendly. He told us he worked in John Travolta’s house for a while.. whether or not this is true is anyone’s guess, but it’s an interesting story nonetheless!

We stayed at the highly recommended Moneda Hostel. Earlier in the day we had booked a three-person room at about $17/night per person. It is only a block away from the city’s historic center, which is called the Zócalo. We didn’t do anything the first night except go to sleep pretty early.

This is a view of our room, with my bed. The window looks into a ventilation shaft.. lovely.

This is the view down our street, Calle Moneda, looking towards the Zócalo. 

This is the view from the fifth floor terrace, looking towards the Zócalo (the big building is the Cathedral).

Friday morning we got up about 9, and my roommates informed me that I’d been talking in my sleep in Spanish.. at least I’m practicing the language, I guess! We ate (free) breakfast at the hostel, and then we went on a walking tour of the city. The hostel contracts a tour company, so we just did their tours all weekend and we were really pleased with them. The walking tour was free for hostel guests, which is cool.

We started at the Templo Mayor. Mexico City was built over top of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which covered an island of about five square miles, surrounded by a lake. So, basically anywhere you dig in the city you’ll find Aztec ruins. The ruins of the Aztec temple/pyramid were discovered in 1978 by workers laying electricity cables. It’s been restored a bit by the archaeologists to provide a better idea of what it looked like. It’s definitely strange to see an archaeological excavation in the middle of an urban area.

View of the Templo Mayor

The Templo Mayor is kitty-corner from the city’s Cathedral (la Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María). The Spaniards had a penchant for razing buildings in the cities they conquered and building over them, which is exactly what happened with the construction of the Catedral Metropolitana. The Cathedral took almost 250 years to build and it is the biggest and the oldest cathedral in the Americas.

Here's me, in front of the east entrance of the tabernacle attached to the Cathedral.

If the building looks crooked, it’s because it is. Mexico City is sinking by something like 10cm/year. Parts of the city have sunk around 30ft in the last century alone, and because the weight is not evenly distributed, very old very heavy buildings are at high risk for damage/collapse. Many, including the Cathedral, actually have hydraulic systems installed underneath in order to mitigate the effects of the sinkage. Isn’t that crazy? I suppose I ought to mention why this is occuring. As I said, the Spaniards built over Tenochtitlan, and eventually expanded the city outward and outward by draining the lake (Lake Texcoco) that surrounded the island city. The soil (which is mostly clay, I believe) is very soft and unstable. Probably not the best idea Hernán Cortés ever had.

After the Cathedral, we went to the Palacio Nacional, which is the government palace. We got checked again for swine flu when we entered. They seem to be taking it really seriously, which is probably good. Hand sanitizer dispensers have been installed everywhere. The biggest reason to visit the Palacio is to see the Diego Rivera murals on its walls. It was so cool!

Here I am in front of the main Diego mural inside the palace.  ¡Qué impresionante!

After the Palacio Nacional, we stopped at the biggest bakery in Mexico City. They had giant wedding and quinceañera (15^th birthday; it’s a huge deal here) cakes everywhere, which was neat to see. After that, we went inside the post office for a few minutes; it’s gorgeous.

The staircase inside the post office

We then walked across the street to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, or Palace (Museum) of Fine Arts. The tour ended there (outside), and the three of us really wanted to go in but we decided to have lunch first. We ate at a little restaurant, tacos and such, and then went back. I loved the museum.. I am an art nerd though. It doesn’t have a ton of paintings, but it does have some really famous murals by the “Big Three”: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco. There was also a Tamara de Lempicka exhibit, which I really liked. Unfortunately, we weren't there early enough in the day to see the Tiffany stained glass "curtain" in the theatre part of the Palacio, but we still enjoyed the museum.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Here's me with the famous Siqueiros mural "Nueva Democracia" ("New Democracy"). It's one of my favorites.

After the museum, we went back to the hostel. Then we took a taxi to the Museo Nacional de Antropología and just barely made it there before the 5pm cut-off time. The museum closes it’s doors at 5pm, but it is open until 7pm for those who are already inside. The Anthropology Museum is often compared to our Smithsonian, and we were really looking forward to going. It was cool but I prefer art to artifacts.. it was a lot of bowls and rocks and stuff. There was definitely some interesting Aztec stuff, but overall there was just too much to see. It was really overwhelming. I’m glad we went though.

Here's me in front of "El Paraguas" ("The Umbrella"). It's a large carved pillar with a water fountain around the top.

After that, we went back to the hostel again, ate dinner there and hung out in the room for a while. They were having a party on the top (5^th) floor of the hostel (right above us; it’s like a bar/place for meals) and the music was super loud in our room, so I talked to the girl at the desk and she moved us from the fourth floor to the first, which helped a bit.. not much though because all the rooms are connected by ventilation shafts so everything echoes. But, we were all so tired that night that we pretty much passed out regardless of the music.

Here's our second room. Note the lovely colors on the walls.

Well, that was our first day in Mexico City! I’ll post about the rest as soon as I’m able.