It´s funny, i planned to be in Mexico City at most 2 days, but by now i´ve been here already 4. After posting that post i´m going straight to the Bus Station to buy a ticket anywhere, just to get going already. Not that it really matters, i could just as well spend all my time in MC (the beauty of not having anything pre-planned). David is taking very good care of me, who would want to leave? :)
Mexico City. 20 million people, the most criminal city in the world, the highest number of kidnappings in the world and so on. Also terribly lively and full of energy. My experience so far with locals have been that they are very friendly and helpful. If i try to explain something in my broken Spanish to the vendor, then someone always comes to help translate. I´ve even gotten offered a seat in a metro :). Of course if i´d be into extreme-tourism and would venture alone into more "exotic" neighbourhoods, then loosing my camera equipment would be least of my problems.
I do get a lot of staring, because with my light brown hair i really stand out. But at least i don´t feel like a giant, as i did in China, where the majority of population was somewhat shorter/smaller than me. Plus it doesn´t look that there´s an over-abundance of tourists here either, at least not in areas i move around. So far i´ve encountered maybe 4-5 definite foreigners, all wearing their backpacks on their bellies and clutching them frantically.
Traveling in countries like India, China and Morocco has trained me well that the best way to ignore staring is sunglasses and mp3 player :). Maybe it´s the lack of English, but people don´t attempt to talk to me much, though as soon as they see i can carry a bit of conversation in Spanish, they get much more social of course. I´ve had some original one-liners from local guys, but one Moroccan guy´s: "Take me with you, i cook and clean!" is still by far the best.
Yesterday, David made me a night-tour with his car, pointing out the neighbourhoods where someone like me does not return from. Neighbourhoods where one can buy any imaginable drug or get a gun. We drove by some very unfortunate looking women standing in street-corners and trying to make a living as prostitutes. The deal: "you come, you´re done", costs you about 100 pesos (about 90EEK).
Green Volkswagen taxis ("vochos") are one of the symbols of Mexico City. They are very cheap and quick. They also, however, are dangerous because passengers (not only tourists) get mistreated, robbed, kidnapped or murdered regularly. Of course the murder part is more rare, but not rare enough not to take it seriously in account.
In the metro
In the metro
In the metro
In the metro
Fruit vendor
The green taxi broken down. I love how the driver has emptied out the whole front part of the car right there on the street.
Mexico City. 20 million people, the most criminal city in the world, the highest number of kidnappings in the world and so on. Also terribly lively and full of energy. My experience so far with locals have been that they are very friendly and helpful. If i try to explain something in my broken Spanish to the vendor, then someone always comes to help translate. I´ve even gotten offered a seat in a metro :). Of course if i´d be into extreme-tourism and would venture alone into more "exotic" neighbourhoods, then loosing my camera equipment would be least of my problems.
I do get a lot of staring, because with my light brown hair i really stand out. But at least i don´t feel like a giant, as i did in China, where the majority of population was somewhat shorter/smaller than me. Plus it doesn´t look that there´s an over-abundance of tourists here either, at least not in areas i move around. So far i´ve encountered maybe 4-5 definite foreigners, all wearing their backpacks on their bellies and clutching them frantically.
Traveling in countries like India, China and Morocco has trained me well that the best way to ignore staring is sunglasses and mp3 player :). Maybe it´s the lack of English, but people don´t attempt to talk to me much, though as soon as they see i can carry a bit of conversation in Spanish, they get much more social of course. I´ve had some original one-liners from local guys, but one Moroccan guy´s: "Take me with you, i cook and clean!" is still by far the best.
Yesterday, David made me a night-tour with his car, pointing out the neighbourhoods where someone like me does not return from. Neighbourhoods where one can buy any imaginable drug or get a gun. We drove by some very unfortunate looking women standing in street-corners and trying to make a living as prostitutes. The deal: "you come, you´re done", costs you about 100 pesos (about 90EEK).
Green Volkswagen taxis ("vochos") are one of the symbols of Mexico City. They are very cheap and quick. They also, however, are dangerous because passengers (not only tourists) get mistreated, robbed, kidnapped or murdered regularly. Of course the murder part is more rare, but not rare enough not to take it seriously in account.
In the metro
In the metro
In the metro
In the metro
Fruit vendor
The green taxi broken down. I love how the driver has emptied out the whole front part of the car right there on the street.
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Crap, that's awesome :) I wish I'd be there, instead I'm stack here until end of April. I was so looking forward to the London trip until that went to hell...
ReplyDeleteIt seems though I'll be traveling most of May and June on a JUG tour. Not sure about the dates yet, but should be quite tight.
That's an old VW Beetle. These have their engine in the back, if I remember correctly. So, the guy is not fixing much in fact, he just took the spare wheel from the baggage compartment.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you have been keeping an awesome blog, hermana!! I thouhgt the VW beetles have engine on the back and the front is the boot, hmmmm
ReplyDeletecuidate
Josh