Category: Mexico

Today: Teotihuacan. No rain. Pyramids are huge and literally awesome. Walked around Zona Rosa and Insurgentes. Had some cafe con leche at a place called Gabi’s on the corner of Napoles and Liverpool and played cards.
Tomorrow: Museums and then a lucha libre match downtown. (Yes!)
Wednesday: Markets, drinks with Franc, and dinner with Ruben et al.
Thursday: More museums, walking around, last minute shopping and a baseball game.
Friday: I’m home.

I can’t think of a better breakfast than a guajolota, a tamal, drenched in salsa verde, encased in a fluffy torta roll for convenience and mobility. The price? About eighty cents. (Eight pesos.) As I sit in this cybercafe, it’s happily settling in my stomach.

My flight, although it was delayed and the passport line at the Mexico City airport was quite long, went off without a hitch.

Ruben, our host, and Martin met me at the airport. We hopped a cab back to their house, where we dropped our things and Ruben ordered in some small tacos. Basically like regular tacos, but mini sized — each of us got about 10 for around two bucks. I’ve been impressed at how cheap things seem to be here. I mean, I knew Mexico was cheap, but I figured that this being the capital and all that things would be more, but hey, what do I know?

Ruben is a twenty-something graphic designer who lives in the southern end of the city, near the Zapatas station. He shares a two room apartment with his brother and his bro’s wife, Margarita. It’s a simple, but functional pad. When we walked in, the brother was busy shooting down Nazi planes on an Xbox 360 game. All three of them are graphic designers and each have their own computer. They all speak English very well and are all from DF, the capital state.

After dinner, I suggested that we go for a walk, so Ruben took us to Coyoacan, a plaza bursting with parents and their kids, tourists, locals, rastas, hippies, and everyone else. Ruben told us that the plaza was filled every weekend evening, all year long, with various foodstalls and assorted other vendors. There were about a thousand taco stands, even fritangas (Yes, Monica, it is a real word!), churros, and omigosh, fried bananas!

In the words of Señor Boyk, there isn’t anything in this world that can’t be improved by frying it. So take a banana split, but instead of splitting it, imagine it bubbling in a big vat of oil that probably would give you a heart attack. But forget about the oil, just concentrate on the crunchy sweet exterior that is then plopped into a small, paper hot dog platter, whereupon it’s covered in whipped cream, nuts, strawberries and mangos. How much for all of this? How about the low price of eighty cents. Split three ways, I can’t think of a cheaper dessert.

After a stroll through the market, where we saw some lucha libre masks, leatherwork, t-shirts, jewelery, we stopped in at a corner place on the edge of the plaza for a churro relleno (stuffed churro), mine with caramel (cajeta) and Ruben’s with a rum-like pinapple filling.

We then spotted a local arena that was advertising for an upcoming lucha libre match — sadly, it’s on Saturday, so I’ll miss it. But each fighter had great names, like “Thunder Black” and obviously, Shrek. (WTF?) Lower down on the poster was advertising for a “mini” fight between dwarf fighters (Los Minis) — our money’s on “Mini Sexy Man.” No question about that. (There were a bunch of these posters up, so Martin snagged one.)

We’re about to head out to Teotihuacan, although rain is threatening. Today, or later this week, I look forward to sharing lunch, or rather, comida, with the legendary Franc Contreras.

My cousin Martin is about to embark, in about four weeks, on a solo two-month journey across Mexico. He’s just finishing his sophomore year at American University, where he’s majoring in Latin American Studies.

I’m going to join him for four full days in Mexico City in late June. Technically I’ve been to Mexico once before (I went on a church trip when I was in 8th grade to help build houses outside Tijuana, but that doesn’t really count) — but this will be my first real trip.

So, here’s what I want to know from you guys who’ve blazed this trail before me:

– What and where should we eat? Preferably local specialities/hangouts. (We love tacos, but eat everything.)

– What should we see? Aztec sites? A Pumas match? Palace of Fine Arts? Local markets? (I love markets!)

– Know anyone we can stay with? We’re quiet folks who love to kick back and cook a good meal. We don’t smoke or drink heavily or anything like that, but could enjoy a beer or three. We wouldn’t need much more than a blanket and some floor space. (I’ve already got an email out on CouchSurfing.)

Given that Martin’s going to have a bit more time before me, how would you spend two months in Mexico, ideally seeing as much of the country as possible, but not at a breakneck pace?

I was thinking that he fly from his home base of Hartford to San Antonio on Southwest ($100), then hop a bus from San Antonio to Monterrey ($30), and then bounce down the Gulf Coast for awhile, swing over to the Yucatan, meet me in Mexico City, slide over to the Pacific Coast (Manzanillo?), hop a ferry to Baja, and then roll up to Tijuana.

Then, because he wants to come visit me, my brother and grandparents here in the Bay Area, he can ride the bus to San Diego, take a train to LA to visit my parents, then fly up to Oakland. Then from here he can hop a JetBlue or a Southwest back to Hartford sometime in August.

Thoughts?