Un Mes en la Ciudad de Mèxico

Here I am writing, finally, about my time in Mexico City during late summer. I’m now back in Tucson, once more, after two months away. I thought I’d get to writing this immediately after I left, but a bout of illness and then the hurried and happy pace of keeping up with friends on the east coast for the second month of the trip put me on the backfoot. And all the while I’ve been upholding the digital nomad life afoot as a full time web developer! So, apologies from me about procrastinating on getting this content updated.

I found myself interested in going there for myriad reasons. I was lured as a climate tourist, escaping the Arizona summer to a tropical highland. I was keen to explore another of the world’s megacities, with cultural and culinary options abound, and an opportunity to see for myself a slice of what Mexico really is like. For Americans, the well is poisoned on Mexican culture with endless stories of violence and economic migration in our media. By visiting their capitol, I felt that I’d get a good glimpse of busy city living on all ends of the spectrum of wealth, without a resort economy explicitly catering to wealthy anglo-centric tourists, and as well as a place mostly removed from the paramilitary struggles and horror further afield.

I’d choose to stay in Mexico City (CDMX) for a month, banking it all on a 28 day Airbnb stay in the trendy Roma neighborhood (get that long stay discount!). My accommodations felt humble, with just a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. I think I wound up doing alright for the area; as one used to spartan accommodations (oft a tent), I was quite satisfied. One of the first things I was surprised to learn on arrival was the general distrust of the water system. It’s sorrowful that the tap water throughout Mexico is generally unsafe to drink. An entire economy exists around plastic bottle consumption (Mexico lead the world as of 2016) and multi-gallon bottle exchanges. I opted to choose my own path, buying an electric kettle at Sears on my second day there and boiling my drinking water at home. Montezuma did not take revenge upon his me!

Those first days in Mexico City, taking in the scale of things was quite cool. I was fortunate to have a window on my flight in and the opportunity to gaze upon its sprawl from the air. It’s the largest city in North America, and dense civilization filled the earth from the mountainous horizon to under my wing. My taxi to the city center was the first of many experiences of the heavy congestion that snarls traffic and is a defining pulse of the city. After arriving and making nice with my host, Mariana, who ran things with her parents, I quickly set to get my bearings. Padding around on foot, replacing my sim card (I forgot to bring a paper clip to pop it out the iPhone), figuring out how to withdraw cash (it took a day, I panicked and forgot my pin) were my concerns after deplaning. Things settled into routine pretty quickly though!

I was really happy to find Mexico City positively verdant with flora for such an urban place. Lush shrubbery, succulents, and broadleaved trees filled the blocks, sometimes with their roots erupting from the sidewalks (Obviously not ADA-compliant in that scenario.) There were a good amount of parks near Roma, including some major ones like the densely wooded Bosque Chapultepec with its namesake Castle at its high point, its storied grounds filled with relics and artwork. The weather here at 7,000 feet was interesting, temperate with highs occasionally in the 80’s, typically cloudy afternoons and frequent light rains, a relieving parallel to the intensity of Arizona’s summer heat and storms.

I did this trip without much Spanish. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to myself to go to a new country with almost no skills, and see how far I could get. One month of Duolingo, a long faded high school curriculum, and a sense of street smarts was what I brought. CDMX doesn’t quite cater to English speakers, though there were a good amount of bilingual folks. I can say that it was a mixed bag overall, that while I was able to survive, I absolutely felt hamstrung interacting. Once I overcame my anxiety in the moment, it was always funny getting through with broken bits of words, pantomimes or the aide of translating apps.  I did feel perpetually embarrassed, but you just have to embrace it.

I’m a pretty chatty fellow, but I felt myself growing introverted living alone and keeping my socializing mostly localized to transactions and dining. I do feel like over my month there, I gained enough to get around and do things, and that was ultimately a degree of success. Further language proficiency definitely feels key if I were to return. It’s also interesting to have gained some perspective on what people who struggle with English as a second language feel here in the US. I hope to continue my Spanish learning and better unlock Latin America to any wandering. I’ll still be on Duo and am thinking about language classes here in Tucson if I can find the time.

But yeah, I sorta expected this outcome, if I wanna go to other parts of the world, it’s just a reality that I’m not going to be able to speak fluently; even Pete Buttigieg only speaks seven languages. I already experienced this for a week in Paris, it was just a good reminder of the sensation to try Mexico City, and for longer. I think as long as you have some earnest curiosity, good intentions, keep your wits about you and set some expectations, foreign travel will be rewarding. With time, effort and luck, good experiences can be had, or, with cash, one can pay guides. I did a little of both this trip.

What were those cool things with guides? I visited Grutas Tolantongo, a resort with hot springs in the mountains of Hidalgo state. A 4 hour drive each way got us to this most picturesque place, although personally I’d suggest finding a way to stay overnight, lest you be rushing to get the goods for the ‘Gram instead of properly relaxing. I also did an outing to Teotihuacan, only about an hour outside the city, to see ancient temple ruins and gain a glimpse of lost history. Lastly, a trip to the canals of Xochimilco on the southern border of the city got me a little too drunk partying on a boat with a bunch of other tourists taking in the lively atmosphere. If all of that sounds like a lot, remember I was here for a month!

A big draw for me, being a primo penny pincher, was that things were relatively cheap; one’s dollar goes far in Mexico. Most goods and services could generally be counted on to run for 50-75% of the US equivalent. $10 would pretty much cover the bill for a quality meal at most spots. I took a break from cooking with that advantageous exchange; It’s interesting and empowering to see your money suddenly go farther and why a lot of people are lured to travel here.

I really did love the vibe of restaurants in CDMX. Most places were fairly accommodating for laptoppers, with good wifi, pleasant outdoor seating and a culture of hanging out after the meal. Another amazing thing was the minimal plastic waste. I always am so peeved in America at how wasteful packaging is, and  when a place has a solo cup for dips or disposable plates/cups etc, it’s just irksome. There’s almost none of that in Mexico, even in street food which was honestly astounding. Food stalls would offer reusable hard plastic plates and handwash on the street unless you ordered specifically to go. Some people might be squeamish at that hygienically but it passed muster for me. I loved the quick eats vibe of rapidly getting a few tacos and scarfing them down then and there, though unfortunately very little of that scene was vegan except for one awesome truck, Por Siempre Vegana, close to my apartment that I became the number one fan of. I definitely gained love for Mexico through my stomach.

Outside of the street food scene, I found veganism to be very well accommodated throughout the city, something I researched to be confident of before making this trip here. I toured pretty wide around the city center and tried a lot of different places and cuisines; the animal rights counter culture is definitely alive here. My deficiencies at language made me worried about these dialogues (“Soy vegano! Yo no como carne!”), but my needs were sated with little stress and the food quality and options were far better than what most cities in America offer. It’s pretty awesome to see a vibrant scene here as evidence of progress made in the last decade worldwide in trending towards greater acceptance and support for eating plant based. I expect to continue being an advocate all of my life for veganism as the correct moral choice to pursue whenever possible.

Public transit was pretty functional. Ok, good luck to me hopping on a bus that required exact change in pesos and an awareness of the stops; I wasn’t that confident! Fortunately, those buses were for the more ancillary and exurban routes; at least with the help of my host, I was able to procure a transit card that worked on the metro and main bus lines (still dunno where you actually got one, but they were easy to recharge!) Those ran very efficiently, both on cost ( $0.30 USD or so ) and speed. Once I had a tap card it was like any other major city metro, and not too hard to adapt based on colors and spatial awareness even if I didn’t know all the words. The trains and buses were always quite busy, but I found it thoughtful (or thought provoking?) that they offered women-only cars as an option. There was also a full mask mandate while I was in CDMX that was pretty widely followed on transit and in commerce.

Regarding bikes, I signed myself up for Ecobici, their bikeshare, but found out after buying a subscription that they were in the process of modernizing the system and units, and for whatever reason, it was not built to be backwards compatible. Thus I was limited to a pretty narrow selection, but it still wasn’t too bad for cutting walks down or going to very specific spots. Biking felt moderately safe; there were only a few protected lanes but the traffic density helped keep speeds down. Still, the utter chaos of the city layout left me constantly checking my phone to see if I was on target or not.

I mostly used the transit system to make it to the various local rock climbing gyms. Climbing is a grounding hobby and fitness package in one, and gyms are safe spaces for me in a universal language. I really do have a goal of getting more versed in outdoors climbing this winter here, as Mexico is well lauded for a stellar scene and that alone could make for a great excuse to return with better language and climbing proficiency!

I also hit up a few of the premium museums around town, an astonishing library, plenty of parks and hip neighborhoods for walking, and also a Franz Ferdinand show whilst they toured their greatest hits. It was about at that FF show that I realized how intensely hard people work in Mexico to make a buck. It was surreal to see hundreds of merchants outside the stadium venue hawking bootleg wares. Inside, it was also a little weird, with men carrying trays of beers on their head maneuvering through the crowd yelling, “Cerveza!”, and then somehow conducting cash transactions in the dark throngs without spilling a drop. Just a big cultural departure for me after many years of NYC showgoing, but at least the crowd here was into it!

Then you take that experience and think about the rest of the city, where every subway stop had sometimes claustrophobic collections of vendors selling everything you could need; I even once saw a keymaker’s kiosk on the street. Buskers and vendors galore, with various art, crafts, or music. I’d even go to one park where once a week, fine art is on sale, right on the street, another where all the hot wheels enthusiasts gather and one can barely squeeze by. Those were fun places to stroll! Wandering mariachis would hit you up while seated outside, which is definitely interesting the first time, although of course a tip is expected. Sometimes, this spectacle would be a bit sad, with an off tune accordion a step above panhandling, or with children in tow. Other times, it was just strange, like merchants strolling around with heavy rugs (who wants to carry that back with them?) or security armed with submachine guns outside a mall. Are you gonna spray full auto into the crowd to deter shoplifters?

Near the end of my 28 days, I was feeling ready to go. I started coming down with a cough that manifested into flu-like symptoms in Baltimore (though it wasn’t COVID nor flu), and I missed my friends, both the ones in Tucson I’d not see for another month yet, and then the ones awaiting me on the east coast. My last day would have the excitement of a minor earthquake; my apartment swaying gave me a mild nausea. A subsequent power outage followed that evening before an early flight out; I saved a luxurious torta for a big, honking, 4 AM breakfast to tide me over before a full day of traveling that got me to Baltimore and the latter leg of my journey.

Even if my spirit was weary, I’m so glad for this opportunity to see Mexico myself and live my life there for a month. The culture was so cool, the pace of living in a foreign city was a challenging but compelling adventure, and I felt like I really learned a lot of Spanish language and a good deal of Mexican culture. I hope to make it over the border soon near Arizona as another step in this journey of life, as well as putting digital nomad to the test again next year in similar fashion.