Patty de la Mora makes her blog debut:

 

I just came back from amazing Mexico City! Even though I grew up there, I hadn't seen it in years! I am very impressed about its size and all those massive overpasses all over the city. Some people think they are ugly, but I see them as amazing!  I had to cross the city many times different ways and I remembered all those streets and wide avenues as I passed by.

Certainly the traffic is heavy, but people are so skilled to drive is amazing too! There are buses now running sometimes opposite to the traffic and with the traffic, but in a special lane where the other cars can't go so they can flow free besides the subway and "trolys."

When I had to cross the city from north to south I did 3 hours each way, which went by quickly seeing all there is on the way, except when we were stuck for 45 minutes due to some works on the road. I went through the largest avenue in the city, Ave. Insurgentes, so amazingly large, as you go along it changes (no wonder Paris, France seems so compact and easy to walk).

Colonia Condesa

There is a large zone with good restaurants and shops that is so nice, there are many offices of well known companies like Mercedes Benz and famous brands of clothes, then it goes through a residential area where the houses are very old and beautiful and keeps changing as it crosses the city. Same thing going through the "Colonia Roma" and Colonia Condesa, which is in style again and has many nice restaurants. It's nice to go have dinner and then walk through the streets and enjoy the beautiful places.

Alebrije!

Reforma is the main avenue in Mexico city and it has amazingly wide sidewalks where now you can pick up a bicycle for free and enjoy it. Today they have an exhibition of what they call the "Alebrijes" and they are big sculptures of animals, or monsters (?). Very interesting! There are many of them throughout the avenue as well as samples of the work of artists exhibiting in the different museums that are along the way.

Cathedral from the Zocalo

Finally el Zocalo, with its Cathedral, so beautiful inside, breath taking, and all the great buildings around it, all worth while. It was the only free day we had so I took my Mom to the famous restaurant specializing in the "Chiles en Nogada" and sure thing they were fantastic! With a refreshing sangria it was nice. The building is an old convent, very Mexican style, and nicely decorated for the season, I recommend it! After dinner we walked along some streets that are closed, turned into pedestrian boulevards, so people can stroll around and stop at restaurants and shops. It was packed!  

There was also a singer in a balcony singing opera and a block later a lady also singing some other type of music from another balcony, while downstairs there was all kinds of things selling from algodon (cotton candy) to toys, watches, tools and plants, and mimes performing too in a perfect moonlit night .

So if you have some time, take a couple of days to see this amazing city. There are the tourist buses that have different routes and with your ticket you can hop from one to the other and see the main areas the city offers.

Palace of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes)

After all the excitement of Mexico City, I love going back to my nice and quiet little town of Bucerias, coming into the perfect winter weather... dry, cool nights and sunny days.