2011-September-26: Day 42

Monday mornin'!  Wake up in time to leave with Ricardo by 8 for work; he drops me off at the metro station and it's off to Centro de Autobus Norte, which, coincidentally, is the same bus station by which I entranced Mexico City!  I go to the Chihuahuenses counter (since they faired me well from Ciudad Juarez) and buy a ticket to Cuernavaca; it was like 10 USD.  It took about an hour to get through the city (Cuernavaca is south and I left from the Norte station), and I fell asleep almost immediately after we hit resplendent wilderness, waking up (not fully realizing I had actually been asleep) in Cuernavaca, only about 10/15 minutes from the terminal.  So we arrived: I strap on my belongings (big pack, day sack, and waterpack), exit the station, and start looking for the Zocalo or Benito Juarez (street).  I step out onto Morelos and head left, since left is uphill and right is downhill and I'm obviously still a tad masochistic.  I pass some important-looking church thing ('cause those are rare...) and keep trekkin', thinking something-or-other to justify the direction in which I am walking.  But after a few more blocks walked and ounces of sweat lost, I decide to turn around and try the other direction, stopping along the way (at the church in fact) to pick up a bite to eat and ask in which direction the Zocalo may be found.  The cook tells me I'm heading in the correct direction (of course...downhill.  Assholes).


Yes, it was tasty

So, now with food in my belly and a semblance of where to go (I'm going to Sam's workplace, which is on Benito Juarez, which is supposedly one of the streets framing the Zocalo), I make my way downhill, indeed finding the Zocalo, AND Boulevard Benito Juarez (I asked someone)! So I keep on cruising, then decide to stop at a payphone and call Sam to ask her where she is slash where I am in relation to her. Who knows. Keep going south aka downhill, when suddenly, BOOM! a güera! And one I recognize! Hi, Sam. We go into her workplace (IMSS), I meet her coworkers (hola Alberth, Yes, and Juas), and we bounce! Which of course means lugging my baggage back up the hill; turns out my bus station was just a few blocks north of their place, so that's convenient. Well...I'm trying to remember if we did any cruising or if we just toured the apartment and complex. I'm pretty sure we cruised a little; we at least picked up another jug of water.

Front window bannister

Hi Sam!

Hi Me!

So that's Day 1 of Cuernavaca. I put up a fair amount of pictures from the past couple days' excursions (and in general), but I had planned to do a little snapshot biography of Mexico, Distrito Federal. So I shall! This is what I see when I think "Mexico City."

I'm guessing this is a Kindergarten.  These first few (many) are Coyoacan

Frida & Diego's wall

I like this shot

City

The Matriarch

Wall + Tag

Wall with Window + Tag

Meh

Tag

Tree?

Ex-Windows

It's like the sky...

Former Glories...

Don't Park Here!  Or Do Ecstasy!

Ketz is for sure the best tagger in the City

?

Warning: Using TelMex has been proven to cause one to wear glasses, point to his/her palm stupidly, grow a fake mustache, and receive dick in the mouth

BOOM!

Buddha

This is Gorgeous, Ketz.  Props.

More Ketz

Politics

Buncha stuff

Eye'm Watching You

No Mo' Blud

Fairly nice strokes

(Chapultepec)

Sexy Time

(Centro)

Wall + Stairs (I like this picture)

Alley

Oval window + people walking

Statue in front of Bellas Artes

Bellas Artes

Chess Games

Packed

(Narvate)

Wall

Dragon!

(Back to the Centro)

Next morning: still packed

Politics

Phenomenal use of color!

Zocalo

Tankin' it

If you Ever have an Emergency:

?

Pretty sure this sign is telling me something about the Flash setting on my camera

Colors!

Hobbits!  (Except there should only be one door)

Wha?

(Zona Rosa)

Good idea I guess

Panda!!!

Abandoned building=graffiti template

Si!!!

Ooooo

Heart :)

I like this photo also

Outdoor hallway

Mornin'

Errrrrrrr

Yum!

Tired...

Simplicity

Ketz, or Hetz?

Colors

Great

The first of many Diana pictures

Her face is actually a foot

I'm not as flexible.  Or tiny

(La Condesa)

2-Dimensional shoes

An interesting picture

The "3" is missing...

(Zona Rosa)

Los Dos

...

...

Nice

Out the window

Me and Fuzzy! (or: Fozzy).  If you only knew how many times I received a phone call from Fuzzy saying he needed my help...and 90% of the time he turned out to be dead anyway.  Asshole.

Fuzzy!

Diana!

Painting on wood.  Odd.  Also: don't suck police! ?

It's like Robocop, only different

Blegh!

Jeff Goldblum!

Life!

Purple!

Anarchy!

Barbed Wire!

Ha

I like this

Bus

Yet!

Infinity taxis...

Wall

Light!  Well...almost

Wat?!

The photo of which I am most proud:

Mickey!

It's like being at the Bronx Zoo all over again!

Green!

Sky

Keep It Sexy, Mexico City!!!

I like the wall

A Lot

So Much!

Mirror

Hola

Colors!

Sky

A little more sky

Different sky

Shadow vs Light

Sky

Hi!

Through the rabbit hole

Night time

Perfectly sums up the city (well, people should be kissing in the background I'm sure they are...)

Puddle

2011-September 25: Day 41

After the concert we went back to Ricardo's and I decided I would stay back and cruise the City tomorrow while he and his sister went up north, being that it would basically be my last day in DF. Monday I will be traveling to Cuernavaca. So I woke fairly early and cruised around the Gustavo A. Madero and Azcapotzalco delegaciones before picking up the orange metro in Tacuba and heading down to the Cuauhtémoc area.

Poo

I tried to tag but forgot how to spell my name. Or it's my new cool code name!

Glass

Moi

Lightning McQueen's twin brother who was shipped to Mexico at birth

A trash sculpture?

Someone had a good dinner

Yellow!

?

Little known fact: Beethoven briefly tried graffiti after going deaf. Proof:

Feather

Abandoned railroad tracks: Southward

So by now I've reached my desired area; I stop and head into a bagel shop, relax, enjoy a bagel with pecans and honey, then make my way to Parque Mexico, also known as The Dog Park, and enjoy the hectic ambience of supposedly lesser minds. Also, it finally happens. I had seen other succumb to its trivial ensnarement but hoped to resist the temptation. And the frivolous spending. But alas, it finally happens. I pay to use a water closet. Drop off my four pesos and head in to drop off my kids: they are way past due at this point... Woops, there is a distinct absence of toilet paper...luckily the previous guest took too many napkins from the "front desk" and left the spares for my enjoyment. Woops, there is a distinct lack of plumbing. Plumbing, like the ability to flush a toilet full of shit. What are we paying four pesos a pop for...? Um...guess I'll just leave it there...? Ok, those napkins were a bit scant, better wash my hands. Backtrack: "Woops, there is a distinct lack of plumbing." Plumbing, like the ability to wash your shit-stained hands. This place is fucking balls, I'm Audi 5000. Luckily there is a fountain, which is also seemingly the primordial center for dogs in this City, if not country, so I join them in their bathing rituals, lie back on a rock and take a half-nap to the soothing melody of a wet, romping dog symphony.

A sense of proportion...

Hiiiiii!

Windshield

Colors!

Broken flower

Living flower

Leaf

This dude wants you out of Mexico City! Pinche gringo...

Yes, this is a shot of insulin in a tree...

After a brief stint at a Starbucks, it's time to leave. I decide I'll walk back up to the Ferreria metro, where I first met and will again meet Ricardo. Mapping it out on google maps the most direct route (which I obviously could not have taken) is 11.6 kilometers. Needless to say, I walked a fair amount this day, I'm guessing about 20k. Making my way back up through the city was fun, unwittingly sprouting up in the centro, finding metro stops hitherto unseen and unknown, keeping the sun, as it set, on my left so as to keep myself northward bound. Ricardo said he'd be back by around 8 and would be able to pick me up at the 7-11, so once I arrived (around 8:30) I gave him a jingle and we headed back to his place.

Bruised fruit atop the subway grate

Some old, most likely important building

Bellas Artes!

Bye-bye :)

2011-September-24: Day 40

Ok, Saturday. Out of the Escalante house. So my pack and I take a cruise and stop for some brekky at a little cafe along Parque Espana and use the internet. I found a last minute Couch Surfing host, Ricardo, and not only was he willing to host me for two nights, but he was attending a metal concert that night and going up to visit his family on Sunday. So I said both sound good to me! I (finally) found a metro station, took the pink line west, hopped on the orange to the tippy top, where I transfered to the red and headed east, meeting Ricardo and his sister at a 7-11 right outside the station. We hopped in the car, went to Ric's place, I set my bag down and we were off! We first had to pick up Ricardo's sister's boyfriend, Pepe, from the airport (straight off the plane to a metal concert: radical), then went to the house of his friends' (Marco Antonio and Adrian) parents. We were treated to some real hospitality and I almost felt bad for not eating (though no one did, so it's not like I was sticking out any more than my gringo-ness already provides). We were sitting around talking, each drinking a beverage of his/her choosing: I a water, Ricardo a paloma (a ton of Squirt with a dash of tequila), so of course I was advised to try my own paloma (well, I had mentioned that I liked tequila and mezcal...). I tried it and liked it, though accused it of having too little tequila, at which point straight tequila was offered, as was mezcal, and I didn't exactly refuse, which meant mezcal was on the table. I had a few shots (sipped, not slammed), and felt more sociable and less agoraphobic: aka ready to rock this concert. So this was a metal concert, like crisp, trebly metal with hair-swinging, elaborate and exceptionally fast drumming, and an overall super Classical-inspired melodic theme. It was like listening to Bach way too loud with some German guy singing in English about fantasy stories/characters/plights with a couple hair helicopters trying, in vain, to levitate. That was kind of code for it was fun.

Breakfast

Lunch

Colors!

Ooooh, pretty

"Everybody Loves The Sunshine"

Party Time!!!

2011-September-23: Day 39

Friiiiday! Woot woot! Umm, woke up, took a walk around Zona Rosa, a little on the thinky side... Returned, kicked it for a while, played with Diana otra vez

?

Super Serious

Happy!

Also, I had an amazing breakfast that was tasty to the point of distracting me from my camera, but it was amazing. Poached egg with ham and a squeeze (or many) of lime. Delicious. So after a while I headed out for another miniadventure, again making my way to Bosque Chapultepec. Because it's awesome.

Still in the apt complex

Soapy Water

Oil

Self-Centeredism

Winky Face

Song Of The Day:

Back to the roof

I had to eat, so I cruised around Zona Rosa and quickly realized I didn't want to be cruising around, so I picked up some tacos (cabeza and pachuca) and headed back to eat them indoors, but not before finding these gems:

Guess Whom Ain't Nothin' To Fuck With? Even In Mexico!

Radical