The streets of Mexico City x 3 (by k2, bixa and htmb)

[Deleted]

The ones I have eaten so far have been all right but did not jump to the top of my list of favourite foods. In the very first dinner that I had in Mexico (not photographed because we were too hungry), they could have been mistaken for limp green beans from a can.

[Deleted]

[htmb]

[tod2]

I'm so enjoying each installment! What a good idea they had to keep the traders above the wide road where people can walk freely.
I am totally taken with the big WC sign. I think the artist had something when he portrayed the male and female signs as crossing their legs in desperation! I know the feeling....

[Deleted]

[Don Cuevas]

Very nice. Please excuse my question, but how distant have you walked from your Mexico City hotel?
Map


Did you visit the famed Plaza Garibaldi, two blocks north of the hotel? It's a somewhat raffish locale of mariachis and cantinas.

I also request that you all caption your street scenes with the name of the street. That would give me great pleasure.

[tod2]

Something is ringing a bell in my head about 'gypsy travellers' when I see those big flouncy skirt dresses. As beautiful as they are I think fathers would choose them for their daughters simply because the guy wouldn't get near her!

The avenue with the statues must be of the locals who have made a name for themselves.
The first one must be a singer...?

[Deleted]

Oct 31, 2016 16:13:11 GMT Don Cuevas said:

Did you visit the famed Plaza Garibaldi, two blocks north of the hotel? It's a somewhat raffish locale of mariachis and cantinas.

That is where we ate the first night and the third night -- and is the location of the street scenes right above with the statues.

Oct 31, 2016 16:37:20 GMT tod2 said:

The avenue with the statues must be of the locals who have made a name for themselves.
The first one must be a singer...?

Yes, they are all famous singers, presumably mariachis.

[Deleted]

On the second night we stopped for drinks at sunset on the rooftop terrace of the Museum of Tequila and Mezcal at Plaza Garibaldi.













I zoomed in on a few domes and towers in the distance.











It was nice to be overlooking Plaza Garibaldi because the other side of the building overlooks a major thoroughfare.



But you can see this in the distance!







We had beer... and tequila... and mezcal.

[Deleted]

None of us understood why Plaza Garabaldi has such a bad reputation, although the massive numbers of musicians can be a bit annoying.







Night began to fall over the city.







We had dinner a few blocks away at a place we had spotted during the day. It was served in hot bowls made of volcanic rock.

[Don Cuevas]

"Molcajete", after the volcanic mortar bowl.
Although there's little or no real connection, the dish makes me think of Korean bipimbap, also served in a heated volcanic stone bowl.

[htmb]

For the next few pictures, we were still back behind the cathedral where there were lots of shops and, apparently, many illegal vendors.







As soon as an alert went out, the illegal vendors snatched up their wares and ran down this side street.










False alarm. Soon everyone was back to business as usual.

[htmb]

Directly behind the cathedral was this cute little restaurant with space delineated by bathtub planters.




It was near the Temple Mayor.







Walking back to our hotel, we saw many interesting buildings.

[htmb]

A haunted house?




Nope. Just our very adequate hotel.

[mossie]

In shot 19 (I think), must be a loo roll for giants.

[htmb]

Leaving our hotel, we passed through the courtyard where the skateboarders were perfecting their skills.










Since it was a little early, we walked around the area a bit.



















Catching up now to the rooftop bar overlooking the plaza.

[bixaorellana]

Here I come, bringing up the rear with my pictures, so we'll be backtracking to the beginning of this thread.

I got to the Mexico City airport the morning of the 25th, impatiently excited to be meeting Htmb's and Kerouac's planes ~

Off we went to our hotel, which despite being well-placed near the main square and other landmark, was in a transitional neighborhood.
We had to be on the lookout for bad hombres ~

Mexico City knows how to make Parisian residents and Parisphiles feel at home ~

No shortage of churches. Here are some shots approaching and inside the very beautiful Alameda park ~

[lagatta]

Oh, those menacing bad hombres. Like that baaaad hombrecito. Even up here, a Mexican shop had Trump piñatas... Unfortunately, the piñatas made him younger, slimmer and better-looking than in reality. Perhaps not to scare the kiddies?

We also have a Guimard métro entrance. Why was Paris getting rid of those?

[Don Cuevas]

I caught a glimpse in one photo of the facade of Restaurant El Cardenal, Calle Palmas, Centro. It's one of my favorite Mexico City restaurants, especially for breakfast.

[tod2]

Super to see it all in sequence - so much going on! The photo that caught my eye was the balcony with the three skeletons

And thanks Don for giving me the name of the dish "Molcajete". The sauce seems to be the same as the one they made on The Kitchen - a sort of barbeque tomato concoction.

[Don Cuevas]

Nov 1, 2016 5:27:30 GMT tod2 said:

Super to see it all in sequence - so much going on! The photo that caught my eye was the balcony with the three skeletons

And thanks Don for giving me the name of the dish "Molcajete". The sauce seems to be the same as the one they made on The Kitchen - a sort of barbeque tomato concoction.

I've eaten a molcajete combo twice. The first, in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Quiroga, Michoacán was excellent. The second, in the Restaurante Los Caporales in Morelia, was very poor. The salsa was aggressively acidic and the contents of the molcajete were boiling. Both times, the sauce was a tomatillo-green chile sauce. But the choice of salsa obviously depends on the whims of the cook. So it could be red tomato-chile based. (No smoky flavor, it's salsa, not bbq sauce.) I don't favor combining different meats in one dish. 

[Deleted]

Dawn in front of the hotel was always lovely. The fountain would start to bubble, and the plaza repairers would go to work.

After spending a full day away from the centre and then at the archeological museum -- both excursions will be covered in time -- we took a bus back in the direction of the hotel. Luckily (?) it became trapped in a traffic jam caused by one of the many demonstrations taking place every day in the capital, so we got off along the avenida de la Reforma and started walking. Of course, the demonstration was moved out of the road by the police a few minutes later, and we saw our original bus speed past us. However, this gave us a chance to photograph all sorts of things along the way. I frankly would have liked to have been on foot a longer time because our cameras missed most of the quite impressive modern architecture of the banking area and the glitzy hotels, which were in stark contrast to the areas of the city we had frequented up until then.

It was already nearing sunset.

[Don Cuevas]

Nice change of scene. There are many more distinct places in Mexico City.
The next to last photo, with the white, Art Deco skyscraper, shows the National Lottery Building, and the sculpture in front is El Caballito. I seldom get over to that area.

[tod2]

Your photos are widening my eyes more and more! This Mexico City is so much better than I could ever imagine.
I have to ask....do you guys have a map with you or does Bixa just know which direction to walk?

[bjd]

Sorry to be getting here late, but it's interesting to follow along on your wanderings through Mexico City. Funny that some of your pictures are so similar of a particular building or object, then others that are so different. It doesn't really look like I expected, but I didn't really know what to expect -- perhaps more traffic or crowds on the streets.

And of course, my favourite photos are those of the little streets with the shops and the vendors, the street art and the people. On one of htmb's early photos of people walking toward her camera, the woman in front looks as though she was photoshopped in! And I can visualize Bixa and htmb in one of those huge dresses, matched with shiny sneakers of course so that they can walk.

I would probably avoid the bar area with the mariachis though -- not because of the danger but because of the music.

And the Jehova's Witnesses' Jesus looks rather like Gael Garcia Bernal. To attract Mexicans, I guess.

[Don Cuevas]

Nov 1, 2016 16:20:11 GMT tod2 said:

Your photos are widening my eyes more and more! This Mexico City is so much better than I could ever imagine.
I have to ask....do you guys have a map with you or does Bixa just know which direction to walk?

I don't know how our Fearless Threesome navigates, but I study Google Maps before venturing forth. And, of course, Google Maps is available on mobile devices and perhaps is even more advanced than the desktop version.

Before G Maps, I used to carry the very detailed, but awkward to use Guía Rojí, a paper record and map of every street, avenue and alley in el D.F. (now known as "CDMX".)
It's now on the Web, but to me it looks archaic and more awkward than ever.

I use maps for preplanning my walks, but I rarely depend on them when afoot. I like the thrill of discovery.

A sample walking tour here, of Unos rinconcitos de la Colonia Roma Norte, México, DF (Some little nooks of the Colonia Roma Norte)

Note that the short but lovely Calle de Pomona is one block from the very busy Avenida Insurgentes and the somewhat sleazy intersection of Calle de Puebla. A neighborhood's character can change radically within a block or less.

[bjd]

What does CDMX stand for? I saw it on taxis and thought it was advertising of some kind. Ciudad D... Mexico?

[htmb]

Ciudad de Mexico or Mexico City.

[htmb]

From the bus we saw a protest march.










It was also the end of the work day.










The statue in the middle of the fountain is Diana the Huntress.

[htmb]

Next we saw decorative creatures, surely meant to be used in an upcoming parade.






















After exiting the bus, we soon came to the protest area where another group had disrupted traffic.










Finally, we were near enough to know our hotel was close by.