Vamos! Arriving in Mexico City

In which Sid and Doris acclimatise to Mexico City though Sid is as relaxed as an electric fence.

It is an eleven hour flight from Heathrow to Mexico arriving conveniently early evening. You don’t want to doze too much or you will not sleep at your new bedtime.  Happily we would not be able to get to bed too early as the police had set up a road block to do breathalyser tests making a vairy big jam which seemed to have a lot of police in it too.  We tipped the taxi driver enough to make up for his lost working time. He seemed quite sober, which given his speed was encouraging.

On checking in we were pointed to the hotel’s ground floor cafe, with mysteriously free food and soft drinks. Fie, what of beer? Sid and Doris invested a few pesos to find that on this trip they will be drinking Victoria, a richer brew than Corona.

We are now planning what to see and do in Mexico City and how much to drive or fly as we head toward Cancun and a flight to Washington. We had thought to follow an Explore itinerary but there you would have had a driver and minder cum guide. If we are doing the driving, finding where to go and where to stay in a language we do not have then we need less to do. We looked at using trains but when the network was privatised in 1995 they immediately closed the passenger services. (There is a piece of work to be done on public transport and Gini Coefficients.)  So we are planning to ‘do’ Mexico City in three days and then fly maybe to Tuxtla or Campeche, hire a car and head to Cancun via many fine ruins and colonial cities. It is more a strategy than a plan just now. More from Doris on the real planning.

Today, Monday, is museums all shut day but churches are open (unlike our experience in Scotland). We are at Hotel Central Zocola (which is one Audley Travel use, and is as nice as you would expect) and are right by the main square looking across to the Metropolitan Cathedral, so that was our first visit.

Covid masks are worn everywhere even outside, our temperature is taken as we go in places, and hand sanitiser is pressed on you at most street corners. There are mats with foot-and-mouth style anti-thing liquid on the ground which we are to walk over and that prevents thing. Outside the cathedral the courtyard is taped off so there is less space for people to spread out which shows the church is taking this seriously if not sensibly.

The cathedral was started in 1573 soon after the Spanish conquered the area which was already the capital, built on an island in lake Texcoco. It took 250 years to build so maybe the project team at Cross Rail haven’t done so badly? As a result the original plain Gothic plan was subverted and the higher you look the frilllier it becomes. See also Churrigueresque, ultra decorated like the vast gilt screen behind the altar alive with cherubs, saints and kings beloved of God. Sadly for the craftsmen no Spanish king ever visited their South American empire.

To add to sad, the lake was drained (to build more city and reduce mosquito breeding), the water table has dropped and now many older buildings have a bit of a lean to them. The Cathedral is no longer among the world’s 100 most imperilled important cultural monuments thanks to some busy work in the 1990s.

Constitution/Zocalo square has not been redeveloped and has been spared from earthquake damage so looks all of a piece. As we walk away we enjoy spotting 19th and early 20th century styles. The Tower of Latin America, started in 1956, was a bold statement of intent for the region but 65 years later it looks rather run down.

What of that bright future? Mexican GDP per head is less than $20,000. Argentina’s is a bit better and Brazil a bit worse. The average across the Eurozone is about twice that with the USA at three times. Is there something about military and populist regimes which fails to provide the education, infrastructure and institutions that enable people to flourish?

To help us chew on this we are plotting visits to Leon Trotsky’s well fortified house. (Russia’s enemies have not been safe abroad for some time.)  We will go see Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera murals. Would these champagne bohemians have been any better at guiding the young nation than the soldiers and land owners?

In the absence of a convincing engineering institute Sid and Doris will seek out the Museum of Architecture and maybe the city museum.

We are a little more relaxed having wandered the town without having been caught in any significant shooting. We have marked out some restaurants for excessively authentic dining so must fortify ourselves. Hasta la Victoria siempre!

PS The open air Maize Museum wasn’t shut.