Life As Canvas

In the old quarter of Mexico City, men are sweeping the streets and piling up remnants of the hectic market day. Only hours ago it was packed with slow moving lines of people sifting through the multitude of plastic toys and hot food. People whistled in all directions, some of them at me. One boy touched my arm and when I turned to look at him he gave me the intense stare a teacher might as if to scold and tried to wave me over. Instead, I let myself be swallowed back into the sticky street.

This place seems to have Spanish ghosts lurking about in the brickwork. Streets are narrower, as they are in Europe, and most are paved with cobble stones. Nobody follows the traffic rules so police officers, mostly women, stand guard and whistle, waving cars by in short white gloves.

They say it’s a dirty place and they’re right. The air is thick and smells of car fumes, yes. The ground is covered in some sort of blackish film. Women beg with their children along the street. But I don’t find it disgusting or overbearing, even on the first day. Any filth I encounter is immediately countered by a friendly stranger, like Jose, who I met in the aeropuerto. He just struck up a conversation, not caring too much that I don’t really speak Spanish, guiding me through the vocabulary. We managed to say that I’m here because I was ready for a new adventure, we talked about languages for a while, he mentioned he was waiting for a friend who makes shoes that are sold across the country, he has 3 children, two hijas and one hijo. We talked about family. I told him how impressed I was at the way families seem to interact here. Children trotted gleefully into their fathers’ arms as they stepped of the plane, some wrapped themselves around mama or papa’s legs, some piled up three or four thick in a pile of clobbering hugs and frenzied kisses. Jose told me that the family is the most important thing in life. A Treasure. Then he corrected himself. Dios is the most important thing, he said, actually crossing himself, then family, then self. I nodded and he handed me a piece of gum.

People in general are just this easy here. Well, at least on day one. And it’s an easy city to negotiate, being set somewhat on a grid. Today we set out to get pictures of the festival going on in town and then I took a nap. Tomorrow we shall explore!

I can’t believe I’m here – it snuck up on me, as these trips usually do. The result is a pleasant surprise. I’m in Mexico! A few more days in Mexico City (otherwise known as el D.F.) and then it’s off to the beach to try out that new swimsuit my mom bought me for Christmas.

Hasta Luego

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 6th, 2007 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.