Impressions of Mexico City
Nov. 6th, 2006 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsPrices on everything are shocking -- the monetary symbol looks like a dollar sign, room service caesar salad $101, then I have to remember that pesos are about 10:1 to the Canadian dollar, and I can breathe again. (Yeah, that's still expensive for a caesar salad, but it is room service.) Four of us had lunch for about $170, or about 3.25 $CAD each. That was 1/2 a (small) BBQ chicken, a sausage like object, tortillas, salsa, and sodas/water/a beer. So, actually, it looks like things are a bit cheaper, actually, which is more what I expected.
Lane markings are, at best, gentle hints.
Stop lights are often treated more like stop signs -- stop, look around, go. Especially if traffic is light. Even if there is a cop clearly visible on the next block.
Street parking is crazy. People will angle-park (that is, nose straight in to the curb) all around some corners.
I haven't seen much obvious extreme poverty (I saw more pan-handlers and obvious homeless in downtown Vancover for instance), but I'm also probably in mostly better neighbourhoods.
This is a good enough part of town, that my local guide suggested we walk back from the work site to the hotel.
The air is a bit rough, but not totally nasty. Still, I'm not sure I want to live here.
There's a lot more Volkswagon Beetles around than I've seen anywhere else in ages.
The hotel I'm in is very international-business-traveller, and even has its own water treatment plant, and labels all its water as potable. My local hosts assures me the hotel water actually is safe to drink. (He has seemed to have reasonable level of caution and understanding about other things, so I'm inclined to think he is right on this.)
Canadians are the "nice gringos".
Sidewalks can be really chopped up, and you need to watch where you're walking.
Rush? Hurry? What's that?
Lane markings are, at best, gentle hints.
Stop lights are often treated more like stop signs -- stop, look around, go. Especially if traffic is light. Even if there is a cop clearly visible on the next block.
Street parking is crazy. People will angle-park (that is, nose straight in to the curb) all around some corners.
I haven't seen much obvious extreme poverty (I saw more pan-handlers and obvious homeless in downtown Vancover for instance), but I'm also probably in mostly better neighbourhoods.
This is a good enough part of town, that my local guide suggested we walk back from the work site to the hotel.
The air is a bit rough, but not totally nasty. Still, I'm not sure I want to live here.
There's a lot more Volkswagon Beetles around than I've seen anywhere else in ages.
The hotel I'm in is very international-business-traveller, and even has its own water treatment plant, and labels all its water as potable. My local hosts assures me the hotel water actually is safe to drink. (He has seemed to have reasonable level of caution and understanding about other things, so I'm inclined to think he is right on this.)
Canadians are the "nice gringos".
Sidewalks can be really chopped up, and you need to watch where you're walking.
Rush? Hurry? What's that?
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Date: 2006-11-07 04:58 am (UTC)VW Beetles were last made in Mexico, hence their popularity.
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Date: 2006-11-07 03:27 pm (UTC)And, I had thought Beetles were last made in Brazil, not Mexico. But I could easily be wrong, since that was only a vague memory.
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Date: 2006-11-07 11:15 pm (UTC)