Weekend

Mexico City

I, all on my own, took a bus from here to the centre of Cuernavaca, walked to the Pullman bus station, and headed for Mexico City on Saturday morning, a day of no studies.  This is a moment to talk about buses.  The local buses come every 5 minutes or so and are rumbly old machines whose drivers grind gears, change them frequently making the bumps in the road all more jarring.  The inter city bus however was as smooth as silk.  It provided a movie and comfortable reclining seats.  What a change!

I chose to go to Mexico because I was not intending to go back there to fly out and I figured I was close enough to take a look.  Well, I am going to go there for a few days after my stint here, because I am really taken by it.  I took a "jump on jump off" bus to tour around.  Since I arrived at near noon and had to leave by 4 or so, I did not have time to do just that.  There are so many lovely parks and museums to see that I will have to stay for a few days and do the "jump off and jump on" in earnest.

The architecture and park system us superb.  Beautiful old buildings with intricate design like the cathedral are mixed with magnificent modern sky scrapers.  The latter stand out because they are given space around them.  Not like our buildings down town which are too close together to appreciate.  Art is prime.  Parks are prime.  I must have seen at least a half dozen of them or more.  I am not talking about little patches here and there, I am talking about huge areas the size of 5 or 6 blocks. And as in all Latino countries and cities, there are plazas, many  with marketing stalls.  The most startling one was Cathedral Square.

As I popped up from the metro stairs I saw this expanse of concrete surrounded by 16 and 17 century buildings.  At the corner was a huge covered stage with a mariachi band playing full force.  On my right were 2 magnificent churches of the most intricate design.  Beside it was a group of Aztec dancers dancing a complicated dance to a drummed beat. On the far side of the square were streets after streets of pedestrian only shopping.  Each street specialized in one thing only, e.g. jewelry only, or glasses only, or clothing only, or food only.  Fascinating.

I wished I had more time, so I definitely will go there and stay for a while.