The Big Smoke

Mexico City really is the big smoke in more ways than one. It is truly an ENORMOUS megalopolis and the smog is a constant reminder of the amount of people and pollution in this city. There are about the same amount of people living in Greater Mexico City as in the whole of Australia. Its quite strange visiting here - in some ways its familiar because of our experience of living in Mexico, but this city is so different from where we live. Mexico City has a real “European” feel to it and has a lot of the characteristics of most big cities - it is busy, bustling and much less friendly than home. There are a lot more gringos here (both residents and tourists presumably) and we do not get a second glance, unlike at home where we are often stared at. The anonymity of it is quite nice for a change. It is a fascinating and exciting place to visit, but I imagine living here would be challenging at times, particularly with kids. The traffic is incredible and just walking down the street with a pram is not easy.

We managed to pack quite a bit into our few days here, but there was so much more we could have done. Mexico City has an awesome variety of activities, sights and outings to experience. We arrived Sunday early afternoon and headed straight out to El Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest) which was across the road from our hotel, which was in the very pretty & leafy suburb of Polanco. Chapultepec is kind of like the Central Park of Mexico City - a huge leafy oasis in the big city with a big lake inside. There were loads of people out for a Sunday arvo stroll and many many stalls to buy cheap crap or food from or get the kids faces painted.

A stall selling various chilli treats

The lake in Chapultepec Forest

Making fairy floss (with excess in the trees)

The park is also home to several museums, one of the most well-known being the Museum of Anthropology. We visited that a few days later and it was so large and impressive it deserves its own post, which I’ll get to soon!

Monday’s task, one of the main reasons for our trip was to visit the Australian Embassy to get Chiq’s first passport and renew mine and Guerita’s. We spent most of the morning checking the forms, photos and other reams of paperwork required for these things. I don’t usually spend a lot of time worrying or even thinking about photos of myself, but I’m not usually thrilled by how I look in a photo (I’m sure I’m not alone there). This time though, I thought - I am going to be stuck with this passport photo for 10 years, I am going to make an effort to take a nice one. So a few days before leaving home when I actually had some make-up on for a night out I got my husband to take a photo which I was actually happy with. Of course, when I got to the Embassy I discovered that you are not allowed to smile in passport photos! This has something to do the new biometric/face recognition chips they have - you have to have a neutral expression now. So off I went to a photo studio round the corner to have another photo taken, which of course is hideous! Oh well. I guess the shocking photo is a better reflection of what I actually look like after a long-haul flight!

Monday afternoon we wandered into the Plaza de la Constitucion also known as the El Zócalo. Lonely Planet told me it was the third largest square in the world, the taxi driver told us it was the second after Red Square, but Wikipedia tells me its number 22! In any case, its pretty big. It has an enormous Mexican flag in the centre and is flanked by the National Palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral. As most places are in Mexico City, it was jam packed with people. Actually, it was probably pretty quiet compared to some days, but we’re just not used to seeing so many people everywhere we went.

Mexican Flag in the Zocalo

National Palace

Day of the Dead display in El Zócalo

Until recently El Zocalo hosted a protest of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the unsuccessful candidate in the 2006 Presidential Elections. The results were very close and he refused to accept defeat, setting up a kind of “tent embassy” in the main square. He even went so far as to set up a parallel government and his supporters proclaimed him the “Legitimate President”. The protests appear rto have petered out, although apparently he is still making waves and refuses to give up!

The next day was a big one - the pyramids and Museum of Anthropology - that will have to wait for Part 2…