Oh Mexico City, You Beautiful Hot Mess

I’ve spent most of the last week in Mexico City, or Ciudad de México (CDMX): Mexico’s enormous, chaotic, and highly impressive urban epicenter.

I’m left with the feeling that I didn’t fully explore CDMX (insofar as a city of this size could possibly be explored in six days). Sandwiched between the rest of my one-month Mexico trip, which ends tomorrow, and my next big trip which starts tomorrow, I spent much of the week planning, resting, and catching up on work. Most embarrassingly, of CDMX’s 150+ museums, I didn’t visit a single one. (Shame!)

Still, I did do a fair bit of wandering around many of CDMX’s neighborhoods. According to my fitbit, I covered about 60km of the downtown on foot. And every kilometer was worthwhile, because this city presents you with delightful surprises everywhere you turn. Such as: cool parks and green spaces.

Nifty street art.

This gay district.

This woman rocking out on a street corner.

The many, many pop-up street markets.

Diverse and delicious food.

This adorable bookshop.

Or this absolutely massive women’s march that I stumbled upon on International Women’s Day.

The main neighborhoods I explored were Centro, Zona Rosa, Condesa, and Roma. Each had a totally different flavor and was interesting in its own right. All of them felt pretty safe, even at night. (By the way, the award for the sketchiest place I’ve visited on this solo trip goes to Los Angeles). But, there are so many things I didn’t get around to exploring, particularly attractions and nightlife. I have a feeling this won’t be my last CDMX visit.

Since this marks the end of my Mexico tour, I want to give a shout-out to all the wonderful people I’ve met on this journey. I’ve been the recipient of so many random acts of kindness in this country, leaving me with all the warm and fuzzy feelings.

Thank you to the lady on the bus from Oaxaca to Mexico City, who lent me her poncho because she saw that I was cold. Thank you to the man in Xochimilco who reassured me I was getting on the right bus, and gave me two pesos so I would have the correct change. Thank you to the many vendors, wait staff and shopkeepers who patiently, slowly repeated themselves and incorporated useful hand gestures as I strained my limited Spanish knowledge. Thank you to the man on the kayak tour who translated the Spanish-speaking guide for me, and then offered me a lift downtown at the end. Thank you to all the fellow travelers who befriended me and swapped stories with me. Thank you to Anya, who offered to care for me when I got food poisoning. Thank you to Anna, who let me use her sunscreen even though she was almost out. And thank you to everyone at Barbarenas, who helped me grow as a person. Gracias, gracias, gracias. Gracias por todo ❤️