Geographically, Mexico City is situated
in the valley of Mexico in the high plateaus region of south-central
Mexico. The city has a minimum height of 2,220 metres above sea level
which is equivalent to
Australia's highest mountain, Mount
Kosciuszko, at 2,228 metres. It's funny because you kind of
don't realise the city is so high. But when I first arrived, as well
as being super tired from jet lag, I had a headache from the change
in altitude. There was some debate with my girlfriend, Abril's family
about whether it was altitude or air pollution that was causing this.
Air pollution is an issue for the city as it's surrounding by higher
mountains and volcanoes that stop wind from clearing the pollution
above the city.
Demographically speaking, it's
estimated that 8.8 million people live in Mexico City proper, but
that Greater Mexico City region has around 21 million. This is about
the population of the whole country of Australia and makes Mexico
City the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere. It is
also largest Spanish-speaking city in the world.
In terms of history, Mexico City is the
oldest capital city in the Americas. The city was originally built on
an island in the Lake Texcoco by the Aztecs in 1325 as the city-state
of Tenochtitlan. It was almost completely destroyed in 1521 during
the siege of Tenochtitlan by Spanish invaders led by Hérnan Cortés.
Due to this, the city was redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with
the Spanish urban standards afterwards.
RELIGION
One of the first things I noticed when I arrived was that Mexicans appear to be quite religious. According to the 2010 census, 83% of people here identify as Catholic, with another 10% being other Christian and only 5% identifying as having no religion (while in Australia, 25% people claim no religion). There are many churches in the country, particularly Catholic ones. Some date back to the 1500s, as the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish was carried out with the support of the Catholic church under the pretext of converting heathens and spreading the true religion. They also made a lot of money in the process.
I
might have encountered this religious aspect early on because I am
staying in the a “colonia” called Aragón La Villa, which is home
to the Basilica
of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is said to be the most important
basilica or church outside of the Vatican. The place is visited by
several million people every year. There have already been some
smaller “pilgrimages” since I have been here. The
original basilica was built after a peasant, now
saint, Juan Diego, saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. But,
coincidentally, the spot was quite close to an indigenous temple to
Tonantzin, an Aztec mother Earth goddess. In fact, one of the chapels
in the Basilica was built over this sacred site.
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| Basilica of Guadalupe |
It was quite common for churches to be
constructed on top of previous sacred sites in order to force
Indigenous people to convert to be able to continue visit them.
Another good example of this, right in the centre of Mexico City, is
the fact that the Metropolitan
Cathedral, the largest in the Americas, is built right next to the
Templo Mayor (Mayor Temple) of the Aztecs. This practice also lead to
a lot of syncretism (mixing of elements from difference
cultures/practices) in Mexican Catholicism. Indigenous people tried
to continue their traditional beliefs under the guise of the new
religion. Sometimes worshipping their traditional gods through
Catholic saints that covered a similar area or important date of the
year for a particular god.
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| The Metropolitan Cathedral over (looking) the Templo Mayor |
There are a wide variety of
archaeological sites around Mexico. From the different civilisations
that inhabited it before the Spanish conquest. These include: Aztecs;
Olmecs; Toltecs; and Mayans. Just around the capital, you can visit
the Templo Mayor in the centre of the city, the National Museum of
Anthropology, Tlatelolco, and
Teotihuacán.
A lot of the architecture, as well as
the pyramids, was made of stone so it has survived. Another
interesting method that the indigenous people used to protect these
areas during the conquest was to put more plain rocks over the top
and bury their important sites, so the colonisers couldn't recognise,
locate and destroy them. It appears that it wasn't until around the
1960s that well-organised efforts were made to excavate, document
and preserve these sites.
FOOD
Most people will have heard of Mexican
food. There has been a bunch of burrito and taco places spring up in
Australia (and I assume the United States). But most of these are
styled on Tex-Mex versions of these dishes, along with nachos and
quesadillas. It's worth noting some of the foods that are now common
internationally, originally came from Mexico, these include:
maize/corn, beans, peanuts, tomatoes, chilli peppers,
squash/pumpkins, avocados and vanilla.
In Mexico City, my rough estimate is
that 80% of all food stalls are tacos (the rest are gringo tacos or
hamburgers). They are ubiquitous. The standard Mexico taco differs a
lot from your more gringo-style tacos in the fast food outlets and
also those Old El Paso tacos your mum used to make for dinner.
Firstly, the tortilla is soft (it doesn't shatter into a thousand
pieces when you take the first bite) and only about 10 to 15
centimetres in diameter. They also the fillings are usually a lot
more simple, usually just some type of meat, onion,
coriander/cilantro, chilli sauce and some lime juice. The
“different-flavoured” tacos come from the different types of meat
they put in them and how that meat has been cooked.
A basic Mexican diets consists of
tortillas (or some form of corn), meats, salsa (usually hot), sugary
drinks and maybe beans. A lot of the dishes revolve around these key
elements with different ways of preparing them or with different
condiments. The flavours that seem to be popular are cream, chilli,
lime (they call them lemons, but they are green and usually small),
coriander/cilantro, salt and sweet.
By far, the most popular flavouring is
chilli. When I went the supermarket the first time, I saw at least 6
different types of chillies in the grocery area and also 4 different
chilli-flavoured chips in just once brand: one was even called fire
flavour. Apparently chilli peppers have been considered a staple,
along with corn and beans, since before the colonisation of Mexico by
Spain. Bartolomé de las Casas, a historian and a friar with the
Catholic church wrote that without chillies, the indigenous people
did not think they were eating. Personally, I'm not a big fan of
chilli (I think it's some sort of masochistic torture for your
mouth), but the salsa definitely adds flavour. It's a pity that one
of the salsas I like flavour-wise is one of the hotter ones. I'm
trying to build up my tolerance for it.
If you ever come to Mexico and have a
low tolerance for hot chillies, here is a guide for the heat of
foods.
Some other interesting foods I have
eaten are nopales and tuna (no not the fish). These are the same
plant which is type of cactus that we call prickly pear. Nopales are
the green pads and tuna are the fruit which we call a prickly pear.
The tunas are nice, but they have a lot of seeds in them. They also
have pasties (spelled paste) here of various flavours, including
sweet ones (I know it sounds weird). The pasties were introduced by
miners from Cornwall in England who worked in the silver mines in
Mexico. (They also introduced soccer to Mexico). There is also atole
which is a hot corn-based drink which has a few flavours and is very
filling because of the corn. They apparently use it feed babies, if
they can't be breastfed or they want them to put on weight. Another
thing is quesadillas. They are sort of similar to tacos or like
Venezuelan-style fried empanadas. They have similar fillings to
tacos, but the dough is raw and is cooked in oil. There is another
style that isn't fried and has cheese in them as the name would
suggest (queso is cheese in Spanish).
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| Pozole, a traditional corn soup with meat and other ingredients and spices |
ORGANISATION
Another thing that has struck me in
Mexico City is the chaos of daily life. This comes in many forms.
There are the random directions that people walk in the street,
sometimes making it difficult to pass because people take up the
whole footpath. There are the many street stalls selling various
products and street food that occupy parts of the street. There is
the peak hour crush in the metro in which the people getting on don't
wait for you to get out and you practically have to fight them to get
off. Even in the supermarkets, it doesn't seem like they leave enough
room for queues in front of the checkouts. People sometimes run into
you with their trolleys and in the queues for the 10 items or less
lanes people sometimes push past you even though you are waiting for
the checkout to be free.
Some of this is probably common to many
cities around the world that aren't planned. This is especially the
case in less developed countries where the city populations have
ballooned with people coming in from rural areas to try and make
their livelihoods as they can no longer do so in the country. Having
such large population probably leads to the need to have a very
competitive survival mentality of only worrying about what you need
to do yourself and not worrying too much about what's other people's
needs are.
The most dangerous aspect of the
disorganisation of the city I would say is driving/traffic. For me
personally, it's already confusing that people drive on the
right-hand side of the road. But on top of that, there don't seem to
be road rules per se, as much as there being loose guidelines of
trying to avoid crashing with other vehicles. I don't think I have
seen one speed limit or stop sign since I have been here. They do
have speed bumps before a lot of the local intersections though.
I have only driven a little around the
local area, but even this has been difficult at times. The lane
markings aren't really respected that much, that includes direction
markings. The use of indicators is pretty haphazard and sometimes is
only used to indicate that you are going slow and trying to look for
the right address. The description of the Mexican driving test that I
have read basically consists of 2 questions: can you really drive;
and do you have 300 pesos. This probably explains the driving
culture, as well as the police being pretty lazy/corrupt.
TRANSPORT
Another central feature of transport in
Mexico City is the Metro. It's reasonably cheap: it's only 5 pesos
for each ride (about 50 cents Australian) and it covers most of the
metropolitan area. It can be very intense during peak hour in terms
of the crush and also heat as there is no air conditioning. But it
usually pretty easy to navigate and you don't have to wait too long
in between trains.
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| Inside the metro |
The Mexico City Metro system originally
started in 1969 and comprised of 16 stations and covered 13
kilometres. It has grown to consist of 12 lines, serving 195 stations
and covering 223 kilometres, making it the second largest metro
system in North America after the New York City Subway. Each station
has a logo related to the name of the station or the area around it.
This is due to the fact that at the time of the first line's opening,
Mexico's illiteracy rate was extremely high, with almost 40% of
Mexicans over the age of five being illiterate. Given this, it was
thought that passengers would find it easier to navigate a system
based on colours and visual signs.
Catching the metro you will encounter
many wandering sales people in and around the station and in the
carriages themselves. They sell anything from snacks to lollies to
earphones. There are even people that sell music CDs and give you are
sample of the music by playing it through a CD player attached to a
backpack speaker. As I mentioned earlier, the metro at times can be
very busy. In 2012, the system served 1,609 billion passengers,
placing it as the eight highest ridership in the world.
Besides, private cars and the Metro
there is a lot of other transport in the city. You have the larger
metrobuses, minibus peseros, electric trolleybuses and even taxis are
relatively cheap. If you are specifically in sightseeing in Mexico,
it's worth getting a ticket for the turibus. It is a double-decker
bus. The fare is around $30 or $40 Australian and it covers 4
different routes that you can switch between at certain stops. You
can hop on and hop off at each stop to look at different sites for
the entire day and it has an audio guide it around 5 languages. Be
careful on the southern green route though! There are a lot low
hanging branches to watch out for if you are sitting on the top of
the bus.
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| Watch out for those trees!! (on the southern turibus route) |
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