I’m  home in Vancouver, four months in Mexico City done and dusted. I enjoyed it more even than I’d expected. I had two reasons for staying in the city as long as I did: to enjoy it, of course, but also to see whether I liked Mexico City for an extended period of time as much as I did on previous shorter stays. I did, and I do.

I loved every minute of it and could easily have stayed longer. I fell into a very comfortable and enjoyable routine and felt at home and curious every day to see new things. Four months was the right amount of time, too. I didn’t feel as though I’d pulled up stakes and permanently relocated, but I definitely felt as though I lived there, at least for a short period.

Reflections in a Roma book shop window

It’s a great city. It’s not necessarily for everyone – you have to like big
cities – but it suits my interests and holds my enthusiasm. It’s not like any other city I’ve been to and I was consistently at a loss to try and define it. It’s more than the sum of its parts.

Here are some things I learned:

1. Mexico City is not as big as I had always thought.

Wait, that requires some explanation: it’s actually geographically bigger than I had always thought, but once you get a handle on the various districts and how to access them the city shrinks. That’s not to say that every corner is fascinating and worth visiting, but most corners are, and generally speaking it’s easy and efficient getting everywhere (by way of a caveat it’s worth pointing out that I had the luxury of not working, could travel around outside of rush hour, and was never in a hurry).

It’s not the impenetrable behemoth I’d thought, and far away from the central barrios many of the neighborhoods are vibrant and interesting and never visited by tourists. An example: the Mexicable cable car in Ecatapec my friend Emma and I visited one day. It’s used by the locals as transportation, but we went for a fun day out to explore a new neighborhood. It opened up an entire part of town I never knew was there, a destination in its own right.

The Mexicable cable car in Ecatapec – bird’s eye view over a part of the city

2. Mexicans are not going to set the world on fire.

This is a good thing and a bad thing. On the plus side they’re mostly gentle, courteous, forgiving, mild mannered and engaged. For a city that size, and for all the problems in Mexico in general people are wonderfully cheerful and easy going. Mexicans put a lot of emphasis on spending time with family and close friends, and by and large they shrug off problems and get on with enjoying life as best they can. This is a huge positive.

Painters in the plaza along Leandro Valle, Centro Histórico

On the minus side, people can be meek and apathetic, and laid-back to a fault. Even I, as an outsider, noticed social problems and government ineptitude that would never go unchallenged in Canada. People are used to the idea that things don’t always work, and that the government is corrupt and out of touch with people’s needs so they just shrug their shoulders and carry on. It’s an attitude that undoubtedly ensures less stress, but it makes the country a little apathetic while inequalities and discrimination continues.

Mexico is not all that well known in the world. They don’t have a lot of movers and shakers and their names don’t appear often in the news or in surveys of the best places to live. I got the idea it’s because they’re so mild mannered and don’t always want to shine or stand out. There are many, many exceptions of course, and I can’t claim years of intimate experience with the country, but it’s an observation.

Waiting patiently for the train at Popotla station

3. Central Mexico City exists in a bubble.

It’s true of a lot of countries that their largest cities don’t always represent the flavor of the entire country – Bangkok, Manila, Nairobi and Mumbai come to mind – and it’s true too of Mexico. Like other big cities, CDMX has big-city safety issues – pickpockets, break-ins, rape & murder – but it’s largely managed to escape the terrible narco/cartel violence that’s erupted in much of the country. The core of the city is generally safe, clean, efficient and mostly modern. You see a lot of very smartly dressed wealthy people, and a lot of plain, normal families going about their business like anywhere else.

The metro works well, public transportation and public art are plentiful, the cafes and restaurants are full and there’s music and color in the streets. Living in or visiting the core areas of the city, where I was, you don’t get a sober idea of the troubles and socio-economic problems they have in other parts of the country and on the fringes of Mexico City. Residents of Mexico City – Chilangos, as they’re known – have it relatively good, all things considered.

Street murals in Roma

 

Plaza Garbialdi Saturday afternoon before the crowds and mariachis arrive

 

Mask from the National Museum of Anthropology, a true world-class museum

 

4. It’s a place I could easily live long term.

I don’t have any plans to up and relocate permanently to Mexico at the moment, but I could. I find the mix of developed and developing fascinating, and it scratches an itch for me. Mexico City is crammed full of all sorts of interesting museums, plazas, shops, cantinas, people, buildings and things to see and do. It’s cheap, and even expensive things usually offer excellent value. The people are wonderfully normal and don’t stare, follow you, ask for your number or invite you home ten times a day (hello India!). The climate in Mexico City is excellent with near year-round spring weather (notwithstanding the often poor air quality), and the streets are clean and welcoming

The only really downsides to the place?

1. The air quality is bad.

It’s much improved from the ’80s and is improving all the time, but on many days the air can be thick and unhealthy. I have an app on my phone that reports daily air quality (hourly, actually). It informs you about certain particulates and other bits of data, but it also just says, “Good”, or “Bad”. There were a few bad days in March, but not many. Most days were “Normal”. Then there was an amazing change when the rainy season started in May; the weather turned a few degrees cooler, and the sky became much brighter and crisper. My app told me many days were “Good”, and it was noticeable. But still, it’s not the Swiss alps.

Guanajuato on a blustery afternoon

 

2. It’s difficult to get out of the city for exercise.

CDMX has some amazing parks and gardens, and there is excellent walking and hiking in the national parks in Mexico and Hidalgo states (Mexico City is surrounded by mountains), but it takes effort and time to get there. For anyone used to Vancouver where you can lace up your shoes and walk out the door for a run or a hike in the woods there’s serious disappointment headed your way if you try to do the same in Mexico. It took time, but I found a lot of very pleasant places to walk and run, picnic and loaf.

Mexico City has some lovely green spaces, you just have to know how to find them

3. It’s not an international city.

It’s big and crowded, and has museums and concert halls and good food and art and bookstores and sporting events and interesting people studying at good universities, but it’s not very multicultural or multi-ethnic. Most people are catholic and Latino. Mexico City had a lot of immigration earlier in the last century, from Europe and Asia, and certainly there are pockets around the city where you can find people with different backgrounds, but compared with places like London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne it’s very limited in its diversity. On the plus side, Mexico City has much better Mexican food and Mexican art than any of those other places!

At one time I had thought of exploring more of the country in search of other, better places to live short term or long, but I don’t think I will now. Mexico City is just too compelling a place. Why live anywhere else in the country when you could live in Mexico City? For me it’s no contest.

Guanajuato cathedral, late afternoon

 

San Judas Tadeo mass at San Hipólito church, held the 28th of each month. San Judas Tadeo (Saint Jude Thaddeus in English) is the patron saint of impossible causes, an important icon in an imperfect place.

 

So that’s that. Thank you for following my short stay in Mexico City. I hope you learned something and enjoyed seeing the photographs. Have a dig through some of my older posts and read about Turkey, Ghana, Japan and the Philippines, among others.

Next up: India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka starting in November.

For those who simply can’t get enough you can follow me on Instagram: @arjwilson

Stay tuned!