Wandering

I enjoy taking long walks in Mexico City, wandering through neighborhoods and along streets that are new to me.  Last week when I went to see the mural inside of the Torre Manacar, I could have taken the Metrobus back to the apartment, or walked back along Insurgentes Avenue, a route that I have taken many times.  Instead, I decided to go a couple blocks to the west, and take a route parallel to Insurgentes along mainly residential streets. It is always amazing how in just a short distance, you leave behind the hustle and bustle of the largest city in North America and enter a tranquil neighborhood.

I was walking though a "colonia" called Insurgentes Mixcoac.  It is a pleasant, upper-middle class area of quiet streets and walls covered in bougainvilleas.

The streets here are named after cities and regions of Spain.  I came to a round-about called Plaza Sevilla.  In the center was a pretty, obelisk-shaped monument decorated with stained glass panels.

I later read that it had been built in the 1920s and had been designed by a couple of the leading Mexico City architects of that era.  It had fallen into disrepair, but was restored a few years ago.

Continuing northward, I crossed into another neighborhood called Extremadura Mixcoac.  There were many apartment buildings, but also a few large, colonial-style houses such as this one still exist.

  Another house had a colorful and distinctive entrance.

I came to the side of "Parque Hundido", a large park which faces Insurgentes Avenue.  The name means "Sunken Park", and at one time it was the site of a brickyard.

In the center of the photo, you see another palm tree which has died due to an infestation of the red palm weevil.

The park is dotted with replicas of pre-Hispanic sculptures.  Unfortunately, the carvings are not identified, although I recognized some from my visits to museums and archaeological sites.  This one, for example, is a replica of a carved stone from the Zapotec ruins of Monte Albán in the state of Oaxaca.

After cutting through the park, I found myself one again on Insurgentes Avenue.  It was early evening, so I took that familiar route the rest of the way back to the apartment.