Playing Tour Guide

My regular readers know that I thoroughly enjoy playing tour guide to friends, relatives and former students who visit Mexico.  The last time that I had the opportunity to do that was in June when a former student, Megan, and her husband John had planned a trip to Mexico City.  I had not yet made the permanent move down here, but I was here at the same time that they were.  They had already scheduled activities for most of their visit, but had some free time when we were able to get together and I was able to show them some sights.

This month Megan wrote to me that one of her classmates, Dan, and his wife Jessica, were coming down here for Christmas.  Dan was not one of my students, but I wrote to him with some recommendations, and told him that if they had any unplanned time in the city, Alejandro and I would be happy to meet up with them.  He wrote to me on Saturday that a tour that they had scheduled had been cancelled and that they had a free day.  So, we met them at their hotel in Condesa, and we took them to a couple of places that are a bit off the typical tourist track. Dan and Jessica are both seasoned travelers and were happy to delve a little deeper into the culture of the city away from the tourist crowds.

First we traveled by Metrobus and Metro to take one of Mexico City's new "cablebus" routes... the elevated gondola cars that travel above the city.  They were not built as a tourist attraction, but as public transport.  I suggested Route 2 of the "cablebus" which goes over the neighborhood of Iztapalapa.

The trip gave them a sense of the vastness of Mexico City and of the densely populated borough of Iztapalapa, home to 1.8 million people.

Since Jessica is an art teacher, I figured that the ride over Iztapalapa would be of special interest to her, since many of the houses under the "cablebus" route had murals painted on their flat rooftops.  That was slightly disappointing to me since in the three years since this "cablebus" opened, many of the paintings have faded or deteriorated.

Nevertheless, I think they enjoyed the opportunity to look down on a part of the city which they would have never seen otherwise.

From Iztapalapa we then took the subway to the Jamaica Market.  I had written many times about my favorite market in the city, and I always take visitors there.  First we had a lunch of  "tacos de carnitas" and "tepache" (a beverage made from slightly fermented pineapple) at one of the food stands in the market.  We then wandered around the market including the vast area devoted to flowers of every kind.

After the market, we accompanied them back to their hotel.  I hope that they had as much fun as Alejandro and I had.  We look forward to seeing them again when we visit Ohio next year, and I hope that someday we have a chance to play tour guide again and show them more of Mexico City.