Mexico City, until recently the Distrito Federal and now the State
of the City of Mexico, is (by some measures) the largest city in the
world, the total metropolitan area containing roughly 25 million
inhabitants.
The pollution is not so bad as it once was and I had the good fortune to visit when traffic was at its lightest. Still, on the flight out you find yourself through a brown bubble, one of Sherlock Holmes' s classic pea-soupers.
On
the whole the city has a very New York-y vibe. Huge, bustling, dirty,
and teeming with culture. They even have a fake Empire State Building
(the Torre Latino):
Others sites to see:
Mexico
is the home of the only Royal Palace on the American continent,
Chapultepec Castle. Home to the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian, it sits
atop a large hill in the middle of the city's central park.
Anthropology Museum
Mexico
City is full of museums. The largest (probably) is the Anthropology
Museum, which attempts to encapsulate all of Mexico's indigenous
history. Of which there is a lot, and much of it is marvelously preserved:
La Casa Azul
It really is blue.
Despite
the plaque, Frida and Diego never lived there together. Their
relationship was somewhat, ah, fraught. Probably for the best they lived
apart.
Murals
The
muralismo movement is justly famous, with Diego Rivera and Orozco as
prominent examples. This is is Man, Creator of the of the Universe. It
depicts:
Alebrijes
Brightly colored fantastical folk-animals, these guys can range from larger than life:
to small enough to fit in your hand. They were actually invented by an artist named Pedro Linares, who conceived of them during a hallucination brought about by illness.
There is, of course, much more.
