Mexico City, For a While

June 30, 2017

A lot depended on whether or not I liked Coyoacán.  And I’ve fallen in love with Coyoacán.

I’ve decided to spend three weeks here in Mexico City studying Spanish.  I’ve signed up for an intensive three-week class that meets Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to noon.  It starts next Monday, July 3.

It’s hard to write blog posts about personal decisions, of which this is a big one and into which many thoughts factored.  But of course the main piece is that I want to know Spanish better.  As a tourist I can get by at hotels and restaurants with the usual few phrases and gestures, but otherwise I’m continually behind that barrier, on the other side of which are conversations, the opportunity to learn about people’s lives, a greater participation.

I don’t expect miracles from a three-week class, especially since, after all the study I’ve already done—with CDs, books, the DuoLingo app etc.—I still placed in the rank beginner class per their entry test.  But focused daily study has to help.  And in the meantime, this is an unexpectedly fine place to stop for a while.

In my original itinerary I wasn’t looking forward to Mexico City at all, beyond the one day I HAD to spend here to visit Trotsky’s grave (see my previous post).  Credit that for directing me to a hostel in Coyoacán, and credit perhaps my bad timing, arriving on the day the Casa Trotsky was closed, to give me the chance to stroll around.  But Coyoacán is a wonderful neighborhood: a haven of wide, quiet, leaf-shaded streets and pretty houses, with coffeehouses, pastry shops and funky little restaurants at every corner, and at the center a lively square full of shops and music.  The vibe here is intellectual and sophisticated, the young people with glasses and interesting T-shirts, the older generation with a quiet, twinkly-eyed mien.  I credit the spirit of Trotsky and Frida Kahlo (the latter perhaps more, as it’s considered an “arty” neighborhood).  It's been a pleasure to get to know it leisurely and, after a life on the move, to become almost a "usual" at my favorite coffee houses.

Coyoacán is not exactly Mexico City, which exists just beyond the stark border formed by Universidad Avenue with its snarl of gridlocked cars intersecting at three angles and all honking.  A block beyond that and you’re into malls and auto dealerships.  Alas, my class isn’t here in Coyoacán, but out in the “real” Mexico City, in a region called Roma Sur that I must take the Metro to reach.  

Mexico City has a solid, modern, crowded and boring Metro system, which is very cheap (about 25 cents for a ticket) and sometimes fast.  (When I took it yesterday it wasn’t, but later I learned that the station at the end of the line had been flooded by excessive rains, so it wasn’t a fair test).  It’s true that on my first ride I went the wrong direction, but I blame that less on being a hapless American than on this New Yorker’s long exile in subway-less Seattle.

As for Roma Sur, as far as I can tell from my one visit it's a typical mid-city residential neighborhood: aging apartment buildings and faceless office towers, with its share of quirky shops and spaces along the cobblestoned streets below.  It’ll be an interesting area to explore when “school is out.”

But this points up another reason to spend some time here: there’s an enormous amount to see just in Mexico City, never mind on weekend side trips in my car to the outlying regions.  I definitely want to visit the ruins at Teotihuacán and the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.  So those following this blog for exotic travel destinations will not be disappointed in the next few weeks.  (My next post will feature some Mexico City exploration that I’ve already done.)

But what does this spell in Mexico City spell for the larger trip—the goal of driving my Miata to Tierra del Fuego?  That remains inconclusive, and in fact encouraged on both sides.  On the one hand, having a better command of Spanish would mean a better and safer drive.  On the other hand, three weeks chopped out makes the remaining timetable iffy.  I’ll be figuring that out over the next few weeks.

What remains for some reason fixed on my compass is the desire to visit Buenos Aires.  To be honest my goal for learning Spanish has less to do with Mexico as with arriving better equipped there.  How that plays out, and what form this adventure takes, is still to be determined.

For now, the hostel I’m staying at has an actual private garage (!) in which I can safely park Pepin, and though I’ve used her for shopping expeditions, driving in Mexico City is a nightmare and I’m quite happy to let her sit quiet while I take the 25 cent Metro and stroll Coyoacán by foot. 

And learn Spanish.