DF (Distrito Federal) aka Mexico City

A couple of things have pleasantly surprised me lately: (a) I can actually sleep a full, 9 hr night on a bus; (b) being sandwiched between ten men on an evening subway ride in downtown Mexico City is not always as bad as it sounds, and in fact much like being in a hellishly overcrowded club (which I guess sounds very bad); (c) a lost affinity for taking cold showers can be recovered. In fact, this list could go on forever, because almost everything about our trip to DF was surprisingly smooth, despite the horror stories that we'd heard.

 Our first lovely surprise: Puerto Vallarta is much more charming than it looks from the plane or the bus station. Aside from an Americanized resort strip and the parts of town you can see from the bus, there is also a pleasant downtown, with elaborate old Spanish architecture, lots of restaurants, nice walking streets, and a beautiful cathedral. Also of importance is Hostel Oasis, where though we were greeted by an openly hungover Swedish manager, we were given beds, cool common areas, and free pancake breakfast. We walked all over the town, Stephanie, Denver (her boyfriend who was visiting and flying out of PV), and I, ate some delicious tamales and mushroom tacos, and went out to a lofted bar, which we entered through a sketch elevator in a hotel lobby. This was really fun. Denver had a shot of tequila and a Modela, and I had a tequila sunrise. Yes, we are tourists now.

The above photos (its true, I just discovered Picasa), show our excitement of making it to the city and wandering around to find free art and entertainment behind every open doorway. We were especially enthused by this Spanish Culture Museum music exhibit, which included rooms of blown up gig posters and photos, a room on the history of Sony music-listening machines, and our new piece of heaven: a room with playlists from over 15 Mexican and Spanish labels (plus Arts & Crafts...) along the walls. After a 5 hour over night bus ride (not long enough for a night's sleep) we had arrived that morning at Hostel Mundo Joven, a chain hostel right in the Zocalo. They gave us free toast and fruit, but we were still a little dazed. This state turned into starry-eyed relaxation when we stumbled upon the music exhibit where we were given awesome headphones and little clickers with which to listen to the playlists. It seemed like this was made for us, for in the center of the room sat a group of fluffy beanbag chairs. Needless to say we stayed in that room for a long time.

I got in trouble for taking the above photos, but they seem so necessary to my foreign portrayal of DF. They hang in a high ceiling-ed hallway gallery outside of an urban chic bookstore/coffee shop. There are over 20 different poster designs, all speaking artistically to the cultural offerings of the Centro Histórico. From info gleaned across the city, notably the "MEXICO 2010" signs on the Metro and at museum entrances, it seems that the government has recently gone through a total image renovation, aimed at reversing the dirty, dangerous Mexico City stereotype into one proud of it's rich cultural center, full of art both youthful and old. I haven't the city pre-2010, but I'd propose from the first hours of our visit that the renovation has proved successful. Everywhere we stepped there was not only art, but also sources of learning about Mexican culture and history. The center for this was the Palacio National, known for housing the bulk of Diego Rivera's murals:

It was difficult to photograph the murals, as the sun was shining in from the open courtyard, but I hope the pictures at least hint to their massive scale as well as their ability to tell powerful, layered stories of Mexico's past, present, and future. The Palacio also showcased many artifacts and displays discussing Mexican political and social history, which added great depth to Diego's murals, as well as to our knowledge of both the city and the culture. In the top of the bottom left snapshot, you can see Rivera's rendition of Teotihuacan, the ancient Aztec city whose remains live on, about an hour outside of present-day Mexico City. Our second day in the city we woke up early, had hostel coffee and sweet Bimbo Bakery toast, and navigated through Df's truly accessible Metro system to catch a public bus to the ruins. We were going to get a guide, but instead decided to purchase a map, and guide each other around the ruins. This ended up being a wonderful decision, and resulted in almost four houses of wandering with some direction through the ancient city, spending much time sitting on pyramid levels and weaving between stone walls, chatting and exploring. It was pretty magnificent.

Exhausted from walking up and down pyramids in the midday sun, and my body striped red and white from a little too much of said sun, we relaxed at the hostel for the night, waking up the next morning to roam the Centro Historico one last time. The following at four photos of things I really liked: (a) The cathedral, sitting enormous and elaborate in the center of the square, right before our hostel, (b) this Luis Granta exhibit, which was set back in this large, but unfinished museum. We walked through a courtyard with random construction equipment in it to get to three spacious room of Granta's work, which was colorful, a little abstract, and deeply layered in paint, just like I like it, (c) a plate of sweet bread served before a meal at Cafe Blanca, a big white diner, the type with a counter around the grill where many old men sit and read the paper. I never knew there would be so much delicious bread in Mexico. Can't get enough; and (d) the juxtaposition of old Spanish architecture and modern public art that makes big cities so appealing to me.

On Tuesday we took a combination of metro/train/bus outside of DF to visit Stephanie's friend Cailey and her beautiful baby Xitlali. Her family welcomed us in for the night and she made us some mindblowing chile rellenos. It was definitely worth the hours of transport :)

After returning to the city, we took the metro to a new area of town, Condesa, where we found a bizarrely cheap hostel. Condesa is a semi-hip neighborhood with lots of big old townhouses, trees, and little boutiques and galleries. The hostel itself was pretty hip as well, with a rooftop patio and coffee-shop like bar/common room. It was run by a family who seemed to really like to party (grandma included), and was a tad disfunctional, but for one night it provided us with beds, easy access to a cool area, and a mojitos night complete with some new friends and free internet. The next morning, our last in the city, we went to the infamous museum of anthropology. The museum was really impressive, with extensive exhibits on Mexican history. The artifacts were less interesting, I thought, than the display tags, which turned complicated history and anthropological arguments into comprehensible, affective paragraphs. It was the last museum we went to so that may have influenced my experience... We also took a rainy walk through Chapultatec Park, DF's largest green space, and then walked down the Reforma, a tree lined boulevard that led us to the Angel de la Indepencia:

And so our time in DF went smoothly. It's funny how accomplished a solid little trip can make you feel. There is such a difference between being abroad in a city and being abroad in a tiny town in the country, so we are still adjusting to the reverse of all that excitement (not a negative reverse, don't worry). Our summer camp, which has been our project for the past few weeks, started today and I think it will make the next three weeks fly by. Not that I want them to... I'm a little torn about going home so soon, and am trying to soak up as much Spanish, beautiful beach views, and La Manzanilla as I possibly can. After a long walk on the beach this evening, I think that will be easy to do.