Did you ever have a story the magnitude of which was so enormous, so colossal that you didn't know what to include in it or where to start it or how to present it, or how to end it ?
This is how I feel about this blog entry and how I'm going to tell you guys the story of our 10 day trip to Mexico City or as its officially know Mexico, D.F. (distrito federal), the capital city of the country of Mexico. The locals simply call it Mexico.
Mexico is one of the Grand Dame Cities of the world. For beauty, architecture, culture, cleanliness, safety, green space, public parks, public transport, etc. it rivals, and in many instances surpasses the same municipal attributes found in Paris, Rome, London, New York, Vienna, or San Francisco.
What!! you say? cleanliness! beauty! parks! safety!!! This guys nuttz you are probably thinking....we know all about the trashy streets, and criminal gangs running the boulevards robbing and raping and kidnapping. We know all about the un-breathable air. We know about all those millions of people who live there scurrying around like rats. Why Mexico City is a dangerous, uninhabitable hell hole. Our US Department of State and my neighbors next door told me so.
Forget your neighbors and definitely forget what the US Department of State has to say.....stick around and let me show you a little bit of what the real, modern day Mexico City is like.
Founded in 1325 Mexico is the oldest capital city in the Americas. The experts are not quite certain as to the actual population of Greater Mexico City but most agree that its around 20 million!!!
If you want any more facts and historical reference, go to Wikipedia. They have a very impressive write up. I wanna get to the fun stuff!
We are going to start this story in the heart of Mexico City on the
Paseo de la Reforma which is a very beautiful avenue the runs diagonally across the heart of the City.
In the 1860's Reforma was designed by Ferdinand von Rozenzweig to rival the great boulevards of Europe such as the Champs-Elysees in Paris or the Ringstresse in Vienna. Tana and I walked its entire length 3 or 4 times during our stay.....if you ever get to Mexico, you might want to put this on you list of must things to do....its that memorable....oh, you can leave your can of spray mace in the room.. you'll be safe.
The Angel of Independence constructed in 1910 to honor the heroes of the Mexican War of Independence.
Winged Victory....aka "The Angel of Independence"
Nice shot of Tana on the Paseo de la Reforma...notice all the trees. We are in the middle of the of the commercial and financial epicenter of the Latin World.
As a stand alone country, Mexico D.F. would be the 5th largest economy in Latin America. Five times larger than Costa Rica.
Diana the Huntress fountain a couple blocks down the street from the Angel....
A few more blocks down Reforma to the monument honoring Benito Juarez the first indigenous Mexican president.
I'm enamoured with Mexican architecture....old and new. I think that Mexico has and always has had the most creative, brilliant,
out of the box thinking architects. Mexico D.F. is replete with example after example of their work.
I think these are condos on the upper levels with commercial on the ground level...
Mexico City is prone to earthquakes. I think this is an office building.....
Wouldn't it be totally cool to live in that 2 story extension hanging off that building?
Middle of town....lookat the trees....awesome building wouldn't you say??
This is one of the 3 haunted hotels in Mexico City. Old building. Great design. We were thinking of staying here on our next trip. The Hotel we stayed at on this trip was one of the haunted three....and I'm a believer now after staying there 10 days.... but that's another story!
I think this is a hotel.....
Traffic can move in Mexico City....
This shot is from our favorite table in an Argentine outdoor cafe. We'd stop here to people watch, rest, grab a couple of brews, and have a few empanadas... The building across the street is the Mexican Social Security Headquarters.
OK guys that's all for this visit...don't know yet where we will be going next time...but it should be fun.
Until then...take care and ..Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment