Gentle Reader, I am extending my break from writing. I cannot think of anything to write that doesn't somehow involve covid 19, unless I put out something that will be even a little bit offensive to the perpetrators of cancel culture. So, I am going to entertain you over the following weeks with my travel journals since 2008. I am sure that those who really want to be offended will still not be disappointed. We are still in Mexico City. Ta-ta!
We´´re having another thunderstorm with rain this afternoon. I got back just in time. This morning over breakfast I discovered that a lady staying here who lives in Delta has my cousin for an mla (she even voted for you, Guy). Those six degrees get pretty thin. We also had a lovely Olympics-bashing party, much to the puzzlement of other guests. I wanted to check out the rest of Chapultepec Park and walk in two of the wealthy neighbourhoods nearby, not because I like wealthy neighbourhoods but for some peace and quiet. Did another four hours or so of walking. There is a nice bike and pedestrian trail that goes on quite a way, and also some of the streets on my side of the park have been closed to traffic for cyclists. One of the traffic cops there told me they do this one Sunday overy month. There does seem to be a thriving bike community in Mexico City. I also came across one of the local cemetaries. I didn´´t go inside but noticed that it was almost all mausoleums and it looked like a city of creepy dollhouses. Polanco is mostly upscale apartment towers and expensive restaurants and shops. The Lomas of Chapultepec are something different altogether. Mansions sequestered behind walls with armed guards in little booths with mirror windows so you can´´t see in but they can see out. There is a beautiful planted boulevard there with a walking path down the middle. It looks like the boulevard on Cambie Street. There are also flower and beverage and magazine vendors stationed along there, who obviously don´´t live in the neighbourhood but their presence keeps it real. On my way back I noticed again the military presence in the park. All the soldiers I have seen are dark skinned and indigenous. I have not seen a single white person in uniform and very few Mestizos.
I was also disappointed to learn that a huge part of the park has been fenced off from the public. It looks overgrown and wild, just the sort of place I´´d like to go hiking in.
So far this is what I like and what I don´t like about Mexico City:
What I like:
1. The climate. In spite of the rain and cold mornings we´ve been getting lately it is often sunny and warm in the daytime, but not hot, with temperatures between 15 and 22 degrees. The thunderstorms are an added treat.
2. Architecture. Lots to choose from dating back to the sixteenth century. I especially like the Baroque churches.
3. Statues and monuments everywhere commemorating the many figures who have helped form the nation and culture of Mexico.
4. La Condesa, where I am staying because it is quiet and peaceful.
5. The Red Tree House. They spoil us here. The dog is sweet too.
6. Parks, lots of them, especially Chapultepec, which is huge.
7. The museums and art galleries. Lots to visit, especially the Museum of Anthropology.
8. Paseo de la Reforma. Mexico City´s grand boulevard which makes all others look like alleys.
9. Spanish immersion. I only have to be out in public and eavesdropping and it´s like a free tutorial.
10. The Metro, which is their subway system. Fare is very cheap, equivilant to less than twenty cents Canadian, and the trains are fast and they take you everywhere.
Don´t like:
1. The traffic. Chelangos should not be allowed ever to sit behind a steering wheel. Not ever. Traffic is thick, steady, fast, and they treat pedestrians like roadkill.
2. The social inequality. A few rich, an expanding middle class and lots of desperately poor who have to struggle to survive.
3. The constant onslaught of hawkers and beggars (see #2)
4. The military presence. (see #2)
5. The fact that people are allowed to smoke on restaurant and cafe patios, thus limiting the options of people who are sensitive to smoke and concerned for their respiratory health.
6. The Metro. The many hawkers who come on board yelling and playing loud cd demos should be kicked off promptly and immediately. (see #2)
7. The crowds. I have never seen so many people in one place.
8. The altitude. I have been here ten days at least and I´m still not used to the thin air, which makes long walks a bit challenging, but I go on them anyway.
9. The way this city is laid out. It isn´t really. Too much sudden and rapid growth has created a horrific urban sprawl where you have some very ugly parts jammed up against very beautiful places.
10. The autopistas (freeways, see #1). They are everywhere, and they ruin the quality of life for people here, and I think they should be converted into rapid transit routes. A hard lesson we are learning in Vancouver is that the only way to get people to take alternative forms of transit is to make life inconvenient and downright miserable for people who drive cars.
The National Museum of Art is amazing, both for its content and for the building that contains it. The building itself is a work of art. It was built between 1904 and 1911 and was originally El Palacio de Comunicaciones for public communications such as telegraph, etc. And what a palace! Beaux Artes style with Baroque, Neo-Classical and Rococco influences. Marble columns and ceiling murals and I could go on. It is all Mexican art from the sixteenth century to the present. I have long been aware that this country has a rich cultural heritage but I was not expecting this! I was in there for three hours. On the main floor they are exhibiting works by a Spanish-Mexican artist, Miguel Prieta who emigrated from Spain as a refugee from the Civil War. On the way over I stopped in yet another beautiful church. I am impressed with how many churches in this city remain open to the public every day of the week. After my tour of the art museum someone stole my umbrella, which belongs to the Red Tree House. I was careless. I could have brought my humongous mutant golf umbrella from home but I figured I wouldn´t need it. Rainy season is over. And besides, given the crowds and mobs on the sidewalks in this city I might be indicted for carrying a deadly weapon. On the other hand, it might have done nicely for crowd control. Or maybe a cattle prod. I sat outside the art museum on a bench looking at my map. Then I got up to check out the street behind. Then I realized I had left the umbrella and ran back to get it. I had been away from it for less than two minutes and it was gone, so then I went looking for a store to buy two new ones . One was to replace the stolen umbrella and the other is going to be my own, because this way I am likely to take better care of it. I mean, management and staff here are wonderful and if I´d said anything to them they would tell me not to worry about it, but I really think I should take responsibility for my own mistakes, eh? I decided to walk the three or four miles back to Red Tree House. Eventually I got lost, and got super frustrated by vendor stalls making the sidewalks almost impassable and by traffic, especially these winners who block entire sidewalks by parking their vehicles on them. Okay, I promise that´s the last time I´ll complain about traffic in this city, unless I get run over, and still have the use of my fingers.
I mentioned to Ernesto that he and his colleagues here are amazing with the patience they show towards some of us here, and that he probably has plenty of transferrable skills in case he wants to work at a job such as mine. Staying here does in some ways remind me of Venture House (for those of you who don´t know Venture House is a small psychiatric facility where I work Fridays. They are wonderful the way they treat the clients. Hi George! Hi Sue!) and as I said to Ernesto, there really isn´t any real difference between people with mental illness and the rest of the population. The rest of the population simply hasn´t been caught yet!)
In many ways, I think that my training and experience in mental health work has done a lot to prepare me for this kind of trip. Without even knowing it I find myself treating other guests, and sometimes staff here, like my clients, but I don´t mean in a clinical sense but with respect, sensitivity and discretion. And humour.
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