Introducing Mexico City
On a crisp October evening, families crowd the Zócalo to look at tombstones. Rows of these mock monuments stand on a carpet of colored sawdust strewn with marigolds and painted skulls.
French poet André Breton famously called Mexico the surrealist country par excellence, and the capital seems to revel in its strangeness. The world’s third largest urban area (by some estimates) fills a highland basin 2240m above sea level, so you might already feel a bit light-headed upon arrival. Often described as a malevolent maelstrom of unbreathable air and rampant crime, the city nevertheless impresses visitors as a wonderfully weird and welcoming world, and captivates them with its year-round springlike climate, bubbling street life and abundant cultural offerings.
Like any great metropolis, Mexico City presents a mosaic of scenes. One moment you’re knocking back tequila at a grand old cantina, the next you’re grooving to world-class DJs on a rooftop terrace. Breakfast on tamales and atole (a drink made from corn) from a street corner vendor, dine on fusion cuisine by one of Polanco’s acclaimed chefs. After an afternoon spent sharing the anguish of artist Frida Kahlo, watch masked wrestlers inflict pain on one another at the lucha libre (wrestling) arena downtown. To be sure pollution and crime remain real concerns for Chilangos, but since the turn of the millennium, there’s been a palpable sense that the capital has turned a page. Rather than heading for the apocalypse, it now seems destined for a renaissance.
Advertisement
Last updated: Jan 14, 2011
Tips & articles
-
A dream trip for art lovers
1 December 2011
So you want to do the Louvre, the Metropolitan, the Hermitage. Okay. You could trot the globe touring the world’s...
-
Top 10 festivals and fiestas in Mexico
15 September 2011
The Nobel Prize-winning Mexican writer Octavio Paz said, ‘The art of the fiesta has been debased almost everywhere else, but...
-
Street eats in Mexico
15 September 2011
The sweet temptation of street eats seems to be lurking around just about every other corner in Mexico. With food...
Thorn Tree forum discussion
Recent posts
-
Re: Mexico City & Suburbs Chrismas to the New Year
by thecontemplativelife 15 September 2011
Thank you for the information and suggestions, as they've been quite helpful. I have "Let's Go" Mexico, but it seems most guidebooks…
-
RE: 2 weeks. Surfing. From Oaxaca returning to Mexico City
by tomwolff 14 September 2011
yes - i did mean to post it on mexico branch. my bad
-
RE: Mexico City & Suburbs Chrismas to the New Year
by chris0daniel 14 September 2011
Yes, Alterigor, you've traced on a map the principal road between Zacatlan and Cuetzalan. It is all (or almost all) paved and most of…








