So, the most useful means I've found to avoid letting too-brief travel get regret-flecked or turn into checklist-tourism has been to act like I'm scouting. I don't need to see the Louvre (as I didn't, the first week I visited Paris) because this is more about seeing where I'd want to spend more time if and when I get the chance to swing back. I don't always end up revisiting places (though Florence is probably the best example of how this can work beautifully in a not-at-all-pretending way) but it helps let me appreciate a place without worrying if I've gotten the most out of it.
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| Though really what is there even to get out of a place like this? Color and quiet and leafy arbors? WAKE ME UP WHEN THEY BUILD A DAVE AND BUSTER'S |
In Mexico City, the big takeaway was that for a longer trip, I'd want to base out of Coyoacán for a good little stretch. It's not terribly well-connected by transit to the city's other hubs for visitors (Zócalo was the right place to stay for a short first trip) but it's got a neighborhood feel that isn't drowned out by tourists or traffic. The guidebook attraction is, obviously, Frida Kahlo's house/museum, and that's plenty lovely: the Casa Azul is packed with the material lives of Frida and Diego as well as some gorgeous/incisive works by both. But the real pleasure is just wandering, perching in the neighborhood's main square, taking your time. On a full trip, I'd want a few nights here to soak it in and see how daily life unfolds over a few days.
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| Is there, in addition to the Casa Azul, a great museum of popular culture in Coyoacán? I regret to inform you that there is, and that its inner courtyard has this mural in it! Sorry to offend. |
Of course, part of basing out of Coyoacán is that it would be (comparatively) closer to Xochimilco, which is worth its own day, especially if you're traveling with a crew. On Sundays, these canals are packed out with families out for the day, picnicking on boats pushed by ferrymen through the agricultural canals that hearken back to the pre-Spanish era of Mexico City. (A favorite detail of CDMX's history is that the Spanish arrived, basically covered over all the canals that had made the city essentially an inland archipelago, and then spent the next few hundred years wondering why the city was flooding constantly. (The canals had acted as drainage and damming of the surrounding lake system. The Spanish eventually launched a massive lake-draining campaign, proving that there's nothing so lovely that white Europeans won't eagerly/thuggishly/ignorantly stomp it into pieces twice.)
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| Easy to see why the Spanish would be eager to put a stop to this kind of culture. I mean: who wants to live in a city where you get around via boat??? Seems very nice and Bad. |
On the weekend, then, it's a party that floats: boats of Mariachi bands looking to get hired onto families' boats; booze, food, and toy vendors sailing around the party boats selling their wares by reaching across the water... it's a great scene. The weekend is also the best way to get onto a shared boat without having to hire your own by-the-hour boat; this'll typically take you for a cruise with a couple of pit stops out in the canals. I'm told on weekdays, with your own boat, it's a much better/calmer scene to explore the canals' non-party charms, exploring the farms that still provide the city with produce from floating gardens. It's pretty magical!
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| As you get further away from the launches you start to get closer to a sense of what a day off might feel like, and I gotta say, I'm into it! |
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| ALSO SOMETIMES WHEN YOU STOP ON AN ISLAND FOR HOME-COOKED FOOD THERE ARE PUPS THERE |
My return from Xochimilco was marked by the realization that the voice in my head wondering if getting a salad from a nice midscale restaurant was a mistake would have been a good one to listen to, and so instead of getting to explore Coyoacán further, I raced back to my hostel digs to be generally sick for the rest of that night. The next afternoon I was due to fly back to Chicago, but I woke up feeling a little wobbly but gastro-intestinally secure, which meant I could commit to the last stop I wanted to make: Teotihuacan.
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| I'm sure being in a balloon is magical, but my strong preference at present is to be somewhere cool and then see a hot air balloon. Thank you for respecting my autonomy. |
First things first: every piece of advice telling you to go here first thing in the morning is correct. Crowds are minimal when it opens (you can catch a public bus there by about 8 AM or arrive earlier with your own car or a tour - or stay nearer to the site than CDMX) but the main draw is that once the sun clears the ruins, it starts to cook. If you can be on your way back to Mexico City once noon hits, you'll be doing pretty right by yourself.
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| The vanishing mercy of the shade! The hideous sun is growing in power! |
Teotihuacan is a fascinating, only-partially-understood ancient city. I was struck by a couple of things beyond the impressive architecture and the adorable puppers at the top of one of the pyramids. First, this is one of those sites where ritual sacrifice was often practiced as part of construction, sort of a good-omen practice. It occurs to me that we basically do the same thing now, only instead of formalizing/ritualizing the sacrifice, we basically just agree that some amount of human death has to be accepted in order to (a) truck our goods across the country very fast because we need that thing from Amazon tomorrow, or (b) manufacture goods or build new buildings, because safety regulations would Slow Down Capitalism, which would be the worst possible outcome. But no, we're definitely a rational and moral society that isn't rotten at the core!
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| If we can just make yoga mats even cheaper to arrive even faster, then just think of what our culture's hulking ruins are gonna look like! Future generations can look over our barren plains from even taller buildings than this pyramid! It's called "winning," look it up. |
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| Irritable ranting against the immorality of late-stage capitalism aside, it was EXTREMELY GOOD to find a very nice pupper at the top of this lil pyramid. THE BEST BOY. |
In any event: that was my too-brief, too-fast, too-fragmentary glimpse of Mexico City. I would love to get back for more (though a couple of destinations have more immediate claims on my attention) but I'll add to the chorus saying: it's a very special place, and well worth visiting. You ain't got to worry! Go dig deep and take your time. Live the life I want to live! Go tooooo!
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| Frida's paints, and an idiot photographer. |
Obviously things have been, er, busy around here. I'm in the midst of a few not insignificant life transitions, some of which are complete, some of which are still underway, but I'm hoping that once a subset of things that I've thrown up in the air settle I'll be able to more quickly catch up on my LA and New England footage from approximately 1873, and by that time I'll also have much to say about... the Minnesota State Fair. YES: next weekend I will be making a pilgrimage to the Best Place for some seed art, dairy and cider bonanzas, and lots of wandering to discover more surprises that lurk in the magic of the fair. There'll be a Twins game in there somewhere, at least one run along the river, and... y'know, just a general "ah, Minnesota, you are good for my heart" breath before we gear up for fall.
Anyway, how's your summer going?
