The dogs have right of way

If you’re interested in a first impressions view of Mexico City from my previous visit, check out this post.

I’m back in Mexico City (La Ciudad de México, aka CDMX), this time with (Borat voice) my wife and this time for a lot longer. We’ll be in Mexico and the US for seven months in total, starting with three months in CDMX, and then a month in Mérida, using that as a base to explore the Yucatán Peninsula in our free time. More on that later.

We feel very fortunate to be doing the digital nomad thing! Emily’s charity (So Then Can) is making in-roads into the States and Europe, so CDMX is a better base of operations than Sydney, and certainly cheaper than being Stateside. For my job, Altai is continuing our push into LATAM / North America - so the same applies for me. Meanwhile, the kids are at home, starting university and looking after the dogs and apartment, so the stars have aligned across the board.

Roma Norte

Our neighbourhood is gorgeous. We’re based a bit further North from where I stayed last time, in Roma Norte rather than Roma Sur. The architecture is 100+ years old, crumbling in many places, but often brightly coloured and full of character, much like some of the Mediterranean cities. A picture of the outside of our apartment can be seen here.

When we leave our one bedroom apartment, we go down some stairs, through a tiled outdoor courtyard, and then through a locked gate to get to the street. There are usually a few people ambling along, often walking their dogs (Mexicans love dogs! So many dogs! We like dogs and we like dog owners!), and really not much traffic. The mornings are lovely and peaceful, with street cleaners sweeping the pavements and cafes getting set up for the day. You can see a short video here.

Fit, fifty and still quite nifty

It’s about a 10 minute to walk to the gym - Emily has continued her exercise regime including swimming, cycling and yoga. For me, my exercise is still running, doing about 10km every other day. From our apartment, I start by running 1.5km North until I get to the main boulevard through town (Av. P.º de la Reforma). I turn left, and run 1.5km along Reforma to the main park (Bosque de Chapultepec), and then run a 4km loop around the park before returning home along the same route. It’s normally about 18ºc at the time I do the run, quite pleasant. Here’s a 34 second video showing the route.

It’s about a 3 minute walk to the Supermarket which is about 1/3rd the size of Tesco/Coles, and has a full range of everything we need including fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and cheeses, bread, milk, wine, etc. And there’s a big traditional fruit and veg market about 8 minutes away. So we’re eating healthily alongside the delicious-and-not-always-healthy Mexican food.

Reforma

At the weekend, that main boulevard (Reforma) is closed to traffic, and the public takes over - cyclists (including kids with stablisers on their bikes), rollerbladers, runners, dog-walkers, you name it. It’s a really lovely happy vibe. The weekend before last, Emily and I rented bikes and cycled along Reforma to get to a suburb 5km away called Polanco - one of the nicest little excursions that we’ve done. There’s a picture of Reforma here so you can get a sense of the community temporarily taking back the streets.

Vibes

Although our street is quiet, we’re actually quite close to dozens of lovely cafes, restaurants and bars. There are also food stalls that spring up on several corners within walking distance - mostly things like tacos, quesadillas, and other traditional Mexican fare. Delicious and cheap.

We’ve really enjoyed trying different food and drink, including experimenting with varieties of Mezcal - a bit like Tequila - which is served in a shot glass for sipping (not shooting!) alongside a beer. We’ve found a great bar round the corner that does a beer and mezcal promoción for $130 (that’s pesos, not dollars!), equivalent to about A$10, very good value. We’ve also made friends with the owners of a local Cantina - say hello to Jorge, here’s a picture! I now own the t-shirt in that photo…

Talking of Mezcal, we’ve bought some for home consumption, along with oranges and worm salt. You read that right - it contains a blend of sea salt, toasted and ground agave worms, and chilli peppers. Yum.

Working 9-5, that’s no way to make a living

My working day is quite challenging - first thing in the morning I have an overlap with our software engineers in Sri Lanka, where it’s early-evening, so I help them if they need it. Most of my meetings start at around 5pm, which is when Australia starts work. And my last meeting of the day includes the same colleagues in Sri Lanka, when they’re starting their day. So end to end that’s about 14 hours - but don’t fret, I don’t work non-stop during that time. I do exercise, like I said, and also take long lunches and watch a bit of telly, go for walks, do shopping, etc. Although we start work on Sunday afternoon (Monday morning in Sydney), we also finish early on a Friday. So it’s a weird balance, but it works. And the weekends are all our own.

Pueblos Mágicos

In 2001, the Mexican tourist board started a program called Pueblos Mágicos (“Magical Villages”), designating towns around Mexico as being noteworthy for tourism purposes. So this weekend we went on an adventurous trip to see one of them, called Taxco - usually a three hour drive south of CDMX. Had all sorts of fun en route…there are elevated highways here in CDMX (thankfully), whisking you over the congestion below, but the challenge is that there are usually two parallel streets running along underneath them, an express route and a local route, and Google Maps has no idea which of the three roads you’re on. A combination of chaotic re-routing and poor preparation for toll roads (no cash or credit card accepted) saw us heading North instead of South…with no obvious way to turn around…

We eventually got ourselves righted after buying a toll road tag from someone hanging around in the margins, and we picked up the trail South. Having heard about VERY occasional bandits, inscrutable police practices, and crazy drivers we were relieved to make it there in one piece. Then we found that Taxco itself is VERY hilly, with cobblestoned, oddly-angled, poorly sign-posted roads made for horses more than cars…our airbnb host had provided some very cryptic notes which led to chaos for over an hour before we found a car park that could take our car for two days. Can laugh about it now but lost the plot for a while back there…

But then….Taxco was absolutely gorgeous. White buildings with red terracotta roofs tumbling down the hills, charming bars and restaurants, music everywhere, families celebrating El Día de la Madre, and a slow way of life. A few snaps on Flickr here.

What’s next?

We’ll be staying in CDMX until the end of June, with a couple of side trips planned to Oaxaca (second visit for me, first time for Emily) and Guanajuato. Then Emily goes back to Sydney for July while I stay here. Then we continue the adventure together! You can follow along in the usual place, my Flickr feed.