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MEXICO CITY
Introduction | When to Go |
Events | Attractions |
History |
Getting
There & Away | Getting Around
Introduction
Mexico City is the
world's third-largest metropolis and in spite of the negatives, Mexico
City is a magnet for Mexicans and visitors alike. You certainly won't be
bored!
 Mexico
City's 350 colonias (neighbourhoods) sprawl across the ancient bed of
Lago de Texcoco and beyond. The vast urban expanse is daunting at first,
but the main areas of interest to visitors are pretty comprehensible.
The historic heart of the city, El Zócalo, and its surrounding
neighbourhoods are known as the Centro Histórico (Historic Centre) and
are full of notable old buildings and interesting museums. Avenida
Madero and Avenida Cinco de Mayo link the Zócalo with the Alameda
Central park. West of the Alameda, across Paseo de la Reforma, is the
Plaza de la República, a fairly quiet, mostly residential area with
budget and mid-range hotels. Mexico City's grandest boulevard is Paseo
de la Reforma, running across the city's heart, connecting the Alameda
to the Zona Rosa and the Bosque de Chapultepec. The Zona Rosa (Pink Zone)
pulsates with glitzy shopping, eating, hotels and nightlife; it's bound
by Paseo de la Reforma to the north and Avenida Chapultepec to the south.
The Wood of Chapultepec, known as Chapultepec Park, is to the west of
the aforementioned districts. It's a big bunch of greenery and lakes,
with museums and cultural tidbits to boot.
Five kilometres (3mi) north of the city centre is the Terminal Norte,
the largest of the city's four major bus terminals. Avenida Insurgentes
Sur connects Paseo de la Reforma to most points of interest in the south.
Just west of Insurgentes, south of the Zona Rosa, is Colonia Condesa, a
restaurant hotspot. Farther south are the atmospheric former villages of
San Ángel and Coyoacán and the vast campus of UNAM, the National
Autonomous University of Mexico. To the southeast, canals and gardens (and
many a tourist) wind through Xochimilco.
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When to Go
 Mexico
City's climate is temperate year round, though it can get a little nippy
at night from November to February. During this period, because of
thermal inversion, air pollution is often at its heaviest. April is a
pleasant month, breeding jacaranda blossoms all along the streets.
Though the city will sweep you up at any time of the year, the holiday
periods of Semana Santa and Christmas to New Year are particularly
jovial, busy times to visit. Many Mexicans do their holidaying in July
or August.
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Events
Between Christmas and Día de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings' Day or
Epiphany) on 6 January, Santa Clauses around Alameda Central are
replaced by the Three Kings. Kids get loads of gifts, and the streets
are aflutter with shopping stalls. In March, the plazas, palaces and
theatres around the city are taken over by the three-week Festival del
Centro Histórico, a program of classical and popular music, dance and
cultural events. Semana Santa, Holy Week, starts on Palm Sunday, and
closures are usually from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.
 On
Labor Day, Día del Trabajo, there is a big unionists' gathering in the
Zócalo in the morning, as well as parades around the city, and Cinco de
Mayo on 5 May, marks the anniversary of Mexico's 1862 victory over the
French. Día de la Independencia (16 September), commemorates the start
of Mexico's war for independence from Spain, and on its eve, thousands
of people gather in Zócalo to hear the president recite a version of the
Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores). Mexico's most characteristic fiesta
by far, though, is Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead; a happy
atmosphere prevails as families build alters in their homes and visit
graveyards to commune with the dearly departed, bearing garlands, gifts
and food. 12 December is another big day on the Mexican calendar,
celebrating the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the country's major
religious icon and Mexico's national patron. Groups of brightly costumed
indigenous dancers and musicians perform on the basilica's large plaza
for two days.
Public Holidays: New Year's Day (1 January), Constitution Day (February
5), Day of the Flag (24 February), Anniversary of Benito Juárez's birth
(21 March), Good Friday (March/April), Easter Sunday, Labour Day (1
May), 1862 Victory Celebration (May 5), Día de la Independencia (16
September), Día de la Raza (12 October), Día de la Revolución (20
November), Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (December 12), Día de
Navidad (December 25).
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Attractions
Alameda Central
Dominating the east end of Alameda Central, Mexico City's leafy city-centre
park, is the white-marble Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts).
Construction of the concert hall began in 1904 under Italian architect
Adamo Boari, who tended toward neoclassical and art nouveau styles. But
the building's heavy marble shell began to sink into the spongy subsoil,
and work was halted. Architect Federico Mariscal eventually finished the
interior in the 1930s, with new designs reflecting the more modern art
deco style. This is the place to see if you're mad about murals: some of
Mexico's finest are found upon the immense wall spaces of the second and
third levels. Works by Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José
Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera are among the highlights.
 Speaking
of Rivera, the Museo Mural Diego Rivera was built in 1986 specifically
to house a single outstanding mural of his. In his Sueño de una Tarde
Dominical en la Alameda (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda),
the artist imagines many of the figures who walked in the city from
colonial times onward. All are grouped around a skeleton dressed in
prerevolutionary ladies' garb; a pug-faced-kid version of Rivera and
Frida Kahlo, appear next to the bony figure. The museum has a space for
temporary exhibitions.
Bosque de Chapultepec
Chapultepec, which means Hill of Grasshoppers in the Aztec language
(Náhuatl), once served as a refuge for the wandering Aztecs before
eventually becoming a summer residence for Aztec nobles. In the 15th
century, Nezahualcóyotl, ruler of nearby Texcoco, gave permission for
the area to be made a forest reserve. The Bosque de Chapultepec has
remained Mexico City's largest park to this day. It now covers more than
4 sq km (1.5 sq mi) and has lakes, a zoo and several excellent museums.
Still an abode to Mexico's high and mighty, it contains the current
presidential resident (Los Pinos) and a former imperial and presidential
palace (Castillo de Chapultepec).
One of its handful of museums, the Museo Nacional de Antropología (National
Anthropology Museum) is one of the finest museums of its kind in the
world. It is extremely large and overwhelming, with more than most
people can absorb (without brain strain) in a single visit. The ground-floor
halls are dedicated to pre-Hispanic Mexico, and the upper level covers
the way modern Mexico's indigenous people, the descendants of those pre-Hispanic
civilizations, live today. With a few exceptions, each ethnological
section upstairs covers the same territory as the archaeological exhibit
below it, so you can see the great Mayan city of Palenque as it was in
the 7th century, then go upstairs and see how Mayan people live today.
The park has other museums, including the Museo del Caracol, which
covers the subject of the Mexican people's struggle for liberty, the
Museo de Arte Moderno, which has a permanent collection of Mexico's
notable 20th-century artists, the excellent children's museum Papalote
Museo de Niño and the Museo Nacional de Historia.
 Centro
Histórico
Centro Histórico (Historic Centre), brims with fine colonial buildings
and historic sites. Its nerve centre and the heart of Mexico City is
Zócalo, the Plaza de la Constitución, which is home to the powers-that-be.
On its east side is the Palacio Nacional, built on the site of an Aztec
palace, which formerly housed the viceroys of New Spain. It now holds
the offices of the president, a museum and the historical murals of
Diego Rivera. On the northern part of the plaza is the Catedral
Metropolitana (built by the Spaniards in the 1520s on the site of the
Aztecs' Tzompantli), while on the south you'll find the offices of the
Distrito Federal government. The plaza is also a stomping ground for
political protesters - it's often dotted with makeshift camps of
strikers or campaigners. At daily the huge Mexican flag flying in the
middle of the Zócalo is ceremonially lowered by the Mexican army and
carried into the Palacio Nacional.
Also in the vicinity is the excavated Templo Mayor (Main Temple) of
Aztec Tenochtitlán. Its excavation commenced after electricity workers
happened upon a buried eight-ton stone-disc carving of the Aztec goddess
Coyolxauhqui in 1978. The temple is thought to be on the exact spot
where the Aztecs saw their symbolic eagle with a snake in its beak
perching on a cactus - still the symbol of Mexico today. In Aztec belief
this was literally the centre of the universe. Like many other sacred
buildings in Tenochtitlán, the temple, first begun in 1375, was enlarged
several times, with each rebuilding accompanied by the sacrifice of
captured warriors. What we see today are sections of several of the
temple's different phases. Museo del Templo Mayor, an excellent museum
within the Templo Mayor site, houses artefacts from the site and gives a
good overview (in Spanish) of Aztec civilization.
The Museo Nacional de Arte (National Art Museum) is one of the most
stellar museums in the area, while the panoramas from the modern Torre
Latinoamericana skyscraper are the truly tremendous.
Coyoacán
About 10km (6mi) south of downtown, Coyoacán was Cortés' base after the
fall of Tenochtitlán. It remained a small town outside Mexico City until
urban sprawl reached it 50 years ago. Close to the university and once
home to Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky (whose houses are now the
fascinating Museo Frida Kahlo and the Museo Léon Trotsky), it still has
its own identity, with narrow colonial-era streets, plazas, cafés and a
lively atmosphere. Especially on the weekends, assorted musicians, mimes
and craft markets draw large relaxed crowds from all walks of life to
Coyoacán's central plazas. A pleasant way of approaching Coyoacán is via
the Viveros de Coyoacán (Coyoacán Nurseries), a swath of greenery,
popular with joggers.
San Ángel
Sixty years ago San Ángel was a village separated from Mexico City by
open fields. Today it's one of the city's most charming suburbs, with
many quiet cobbled streets lined by both old colonial houses and
expensive modern ones, and hosting a variety of things to see and do.
Every Saturday the Bazar Sábado brings a festive atmosphere, masses of
colour and crowds of people to San Ángel's pretty little Plaza San
Jacinto. The 16th-century Iglesia de San Jacinto, off the west side of
the plaza, is entered from a peaceful garden where you can take refuge
from the crowded market areas. Ten minutes walk northwest of the plaza
is the Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Studio Museum, the 1930s avante garde
abode where the famous couple lived from 1934 to 1940, when they
divorced. The museum has only a few examples of Rivera's art and none of
Kahlo's, but has a lot of memorabilia.
Plaza Loreto, a 600m (a third of a mile) walk south of Plaza San
Jacinto, is Mexico City's most attractive mall, converted from an old
paper factory a few years ago. It's more than just a place to shop:
there is a mini-amphitheatre for performances, two multiscreen cinemas,
a variety of eateries and the excellent Museo Soumaya, which houses one
of the world's three major collections of French sculptor Auguste Rodin,
plus work by Degas, Matisse, Renoir, Tamayo and others.
Xochimilco
Xochimilco, which means 'Place where Flowers Grow' in Náhuatl, lies
about 20km (12mi) south of downtown Mexico City. It is known for its
canals, which remain one of Mexico's favourite destinations for fun and
relaxation. Hundreds of colourful trajineras (gondolas), each punted by
a man with a pole, cruise the canals with parties of merrymakers and
tourists. You can board one at one of the embarcaderos (boat landings)
near the centre of Xochimilco. On weekends, a fiesta atmosphere takes
over and the waterways become jam-packed with boats, people and tourist-targeting
touts. Weekdays offer a more relaxing vibe.
Basílica de Guadalupe
Dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a Spanish manifestation of the
Virgin whose cult was particularly popular in early colonial times, the
enormous Basílica de Guadalupe was established in the mid-16th century
after an indigenous Christian convert saw a vision of the blessed lady
on Cerro del Tepeyac (Tepeyac hill).
 Lotería
Nacional
The tall art deco tower on the west side of Paseo de la Reforma opposite
Avenida Juárez is the headquarters of a Mexican passion: the Lotería
Nacional (National Lottery). Each ticket purchased is for a particular
draw (sorteo) on a specific date, with prize money ranging from nice to
woah. All sorts of calculations, hunches and superstitions are often
called upon to decide which numbers may be lucky. Regular zodiaco draws,
in which each ticket bears a sign of the zodiac as well as a number,
adds more spice to the procedures. Take a seat in the cozy auditorium
upstairs, and at exactly the ceremony begins. Cylindrical cages spew out
numbered wooden balls, which are plucked out by uniformed pages who
announce the winning numbers and their respective monetary winnings. You
can buy a ticket of your very own at a street vendor or kiosk, and start
dreaming of an early retirement in Mexico, a lifelong trip around the
world, or at the very least, a lifetime supply of Bohemian lager.
Tlatelolco - Plaza de
las Tres Culturas
The Plaza of Three Cultures is a calm oasis in the city, but is haunted
by the echoes of its sombre history. Founded by Aztecs in the 14th
century, Tlatelolco was a separate dynasty from Tenochtitlán, on a
separate island in Lago de Texcoco. In pre-Hispanic times it was the
scene of the largest market in the Valle de México. Cortés defeated
Tlatelolco's Aztec defenders, led by Cuauhtémoc, here in 1521.
Tlatelolco is also a symbol of more modern troubles; it was where
hundreds of protesters were massacred by government troops on the eve of
the 1968 Mexico City Olympic games.
You can view the remains of Tlatelolco's main pyramid-temple and other
Aztec buildings from a walkway around them. The Spanish, recognising the
religious significance of the place, built a monastery here and then, in
1609, the Templo de Santiago. Outside the north wall of the church
stands a monument to the victims of the 1968 massacre. The full truth
about the massacre has never come out: the traces were hastily cleaned
away, and Mexican schoolbooks still do not refer to it.
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History
As early as 10,000 BC,
people and animals lived around Lago de Texcoco, the lake that then
covered much of the floor of the Valle de México. After 7500 BC the lake
began to shrink, hunting became more difficult, and the inhabitants
turned to agriculture. A federation of villages evolved around the lake
by 200 BC, but the biggest one, Cuicuilco, was destroyed by a volcanic
eruption that occurred around 100 AD.
The next major influence in the area was Teotihuacán, 25km (16mi)
northeast of the lake. For centuries Teotihuacán was the capital of an
empire stretching to Guatemala and beyond, but it fell in the 7th
century. Of several city-states in the region in the following centuries,
the Toltec empire, based at Tula, 65km (40mi) north of modern Mexico
City, was the most important. By the 13th century the Tula empirehad
fallen too, leaving a number of small statelets around the lake to spat
over the Valle de México. The Aztecs emerged as the winners.
Wrecked during and after the Spanish conquest, the Aztec capital
Tenochtitlán was rebuilt as a Spanish city. The native population of the
Valle de México shrank drastically - to fewer than 100,000 within a
century of the conquest, by some estimates. But the city itself emerged
by 1550 as the prosperous and elegant, if insanitary, capital of Nueva
España. Broad, straight streets were laid out and buildings constructed
to Spanish designs with local materials such as tezontle, a light-red
volcanic rock that the Aztecs had used for their temples. Hospitals,
schools, churches, palaces, parks and a university were built. But right
up to the late 19th century the city suffered floods caused by the
partial destruction in the 1520s of the Aztecs' canals. Lago de Texcoco
often overflowed into the city, damaging buildings, bringing disease and
forcing thousands of people away from their homes.
 On
October 30, 1810, some 80,000 independence rebels had Mexico city at
their mercy after defeating Spanish loyalist forces at Las Cruces, just
west of the capital. But leader Miguel Hidalgo decided against advancing
on the city - a mistake that cost Mexico 11 more years of fighting
before independence was achieved.
Mexico City entered the modern age under the despotic Porfirio Díaz, who
ruled Mexico for most of the period from 1877 to 1911 and attracted much
foreign investment. He had railways built to the provinces and the USA.
Industry grew, and by 1910 the city had 471,000 inhabitants. A drainage
canal and tunnel dried up much of the Lago de Texcoco, allowing further
expansion.
After Díaz fell in 1911, the Mexican Revolution brought war and hunger
to the city's streets. In the 1920s, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro
Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and other young artists were
commissioned to decorate numerous public buildings with dramatic, large-scale
murals conveying a new sense of Mexico's past and future.
By 1940, 1.7 million people lived in Mexico City, and factories and
skyscrapers started shooting up left and right. The supply of housing,
jobs and services couldn't keep up with the growth, and shantytowns were
born on the city's fringes. Despite continued economic growth into the
1960s, political and social reform lagged behind. Student-led discontent
came to a head as Mexico City prepared for the 1968 Olympic Games. Ten
days before the games began, 5000 to 10,000 people gathering in
Tlatelolco, north of the city centre, were encircled by troops and
police. To this day, no one knows how many people died in the ensuing
massacre, but the number is estimated to be in the several hundreds.
Mexico City kept growing at a frightening rate in the 1970s and began to
develop some of the world's worst traffic and pollution problems, only
slightly alleviated when the metro system opened in 1969 and by attempts
in the 1990s to limit traffic. Despite a devastating earthquake that
killed over 10,000 people in 1985, people have continued to pour into
the city.
The poverty and overcrowding that always existed alongside the city's
wealth were exacerbated by the recession of the mid-1990s, which left
hordes of people living on marginal levels of basic subsistence. One
effect of the crisis was a huge jump in crime. Subsequent recovery was
very gradual.
In 1997, the Distrito Federal was granted political autonomy, and
elected its own mayor for the first time that year. The new
administration was widely seen as honest and well-intentioned, and made
the first serious efforts to combat police corruption, a major factor in
high crime levels.
Today an estimated 1100 newcomers arrive in the city daily. It has
multiplied its area more than 10 times since 1940, but it's still one of
the world's most crowded metropolitan areas.
In 2000 Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a member of the left-leaning PRD,
was elected mayor. Capitalinos have generally approved of his populist
initiatives, which include an ambitious makeover of the Centro
Histórico. The PRD's overwhelming victory in the capital in 2003's mid-term
elections boosted López Obrador's potential as a candidate for the
national presidency in 2006.
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Getting There & Away
Aeropuerto Internacional
Benito Juárez, 6km (4mi) east of the Zócalo, is Mexico City's only
passenger airport. There are at least 25 airlines providing direct
service from US and Canadian cities, and many others provide one-stop
connecting services. Only a few flights from Europe fly to Mexico
nonstop; US airlines require a plane change in the USA.
Four long-distance bus terminals in the city are divided among the four
points of the compass. Buses go to and from various destinations all
over Mexico. Trains, which have been on the decline for decades, aren't
quite as readily available. Only three trains were running to/from
Mexico City at the time of writing, and their future was doubtful.
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Getting Around
Mexico City has an
inexpensive, easy-to-use metro and an equally cheap and practical bus
system plying all the main routes. Taxis are plentiful, but some are
potentially hazardous - people have been beaten, robbed and sexually
assualted by cab drivers. Always call for a taxi rather than hailing one,
and make sure to get the driver's license plate and name from the
dsipatcher so that you know that you're getting into the right car.
Cycling is a pleasant way to see the city, especially as the weather is
clement and the ground flat, but watch out for potholes and loco drivers.
Obvious though it may sound, always look both ways when crossing streets.
Some one-way streets have bus lanes running counter to the flow of
traffic, and traffic on some divided streets runs in the same direction
on both sides.
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