uninhabited land between Cuernavaca and Mexico City reminds me of some of the land in Oregon.(pic) It took us about 1 1/4 hours to get from one to the other (with a movie playing, of course) on the bus. We arrived at Terminal Sur at the south end of the city and took the Metro towards the middle of the city to the Comexus Office (i.e. Fulbright Office in Mexico) so that Reed could get a box that she had sent herself. On the Metro, at almost every stop (12 in all for us), someone would get on selling something--mostly CD's but also Chiclets, candy, and DVD's. The people sellin
g CD's had CD players and discs in their hands and wore backpacks equipped with small but incredibly loud speakers. They would yell, over the top of the music, who the artist was, play several songs, announce the price (10 pesos), then exit at the next stop. It was entertaining, to say the least! After getting off the Metro, we stopped and had lunch at a small restaurant (teriyaki--go figure!) on a major street. I think that we saw at least 1 million people, of the 23 million people who live here, walk by! The major streets are amazingly packed (but the flow never stops) with pedestrians and cars. We walked to our hotel (pic), got settled and then ventured out to see what was in the area. As we were walking to the Paseo de la Reforma (the 'grand avenue' of D.F.--10 lanes) rain began to fall in buckets! We headed into the Zona Rosa and found a cafe/bar to have a beer and wait it out. This is the first time we have been a little chilly here.
The next morning, we walked to the Bosque de Chapultepec (pic -
by the way, the 'fog' that you see is not my camera, it's the smog
in the city!) which is a huge (1600 acres) park in the city. The castle, (pic) located in the park stands 7,628 feet above sea level and has served as a military academy, imperial residence, presidential home, observatory and currently, as a museum. It is the only castle in North America that was ever used as a residence by a ruling European sovereign (Maximillian and Carlota). The
museum was amazing and told of the turbulent history of Mexico City and the surrounding area. I am beginning to understand why there is so much distrust (except towards family) in this culture!Later in the afternoon, we headed south to the University District to visit Reed's Fulbright colleague.
Coming soon: D.F.--part 2
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