Mexico: Mexico City (Sep/99)
 

    Monument of the Independence

Yet another business trip with some free time. This time, it was Mexico City.

Highlights:

• Tasting a perfect "Chile a Nogada" at the L'osteria de Santo Domingo,  located inside a XVI-century building.
• Answering "I came to Mexico City to compete in the World Championship of Karate" to a thief at a less traveled section of the Passeo de La Reforma. He said "Hasta luego" and disappeared :o).
• Sitting on top of the "Pyramide del Sol" looking at the "Pyramide dela Luna" and think about nothing.
• Riding one of the green VW beetle street taxis in the congested downtown and being able to chat with the driver in Spanish for the whole extension of the trip.
• Learning that Tequila is made of the juice of Agave, a cactus. Right before the cactus bloom, they remove the core of the plant. The empty space fills with a sweet liquid which can be collected daily for a few months, before the plan dies.

I went to Mexico for some business meetings and to give training to a couple of companies. To save money on the airfare, they sent me there on Saturday, which ends up being a good deal for me too.

I stayed at a small hotel close to the "Monumento de la Independencia" (picture) off the Passeo de la Reforma. First day I walked to the "Zona Rosa" (Pink Zone, area where the tourists - and tourist traps - are), the Chapultepec Park (a big "Central Park", where families go on the weekend), the extraordinary Museo de Antropologia (one of the finest in the world) and Museo de Arte Moderna.
 

On the second day, I went to Teotihuacan, location of the ruins of the city built by an unknown pre-Aztec civilization. The city has a 2-kilometer road along its main axis, with stone buildings and temples on each side. At one end, is the "Pyramide dela Luna". Off the main axis, is the big "Pyramide del Sol", which is massive and, I read somewhere, has a base as large as the more famous Egyptian cousins. You can climb the pyramids and enjoy the view from the top.

Sunday evening, had dinner with a business contact. Despite the fact that it was half work, it was a memorable dining experience. We went to one of the best and oldest restaurants in the historic downtown, the L'osteria de Santo Domingo. The building is an original XVI-century construction and is located by the Cathedral de Santo Domingo, right at the heart of historic downtown.

I learned the ritual of drinking shots of Tequila with a pinch of salt and a bit of "Sangrita" (a mix of tomato, pepper and other stuff). We had a special quesadila (with some type of corn fungus, I forgot the name) as appetizer and than ate a delicious "Chile a Nogada", a chile stuffed with beef and nuts, covered with a sauce (have no idea what it is made of) and Pomegranate seeds.

Monday and Tuesday were work days. I gave training to new distributors of the products we manufacture. I went to Mexico planning to train to some people. Nobody had told me that part of the people would not speak English. It was very tiring and painful to spend a full day trying to speak in my precarious "Portunhol".

Other things I tried during my stay: Agua de Tuna (the juice of a cactus), a beverage made of fermented juice of a different cactus (forgot the name of the beverage and the cactus is the one used to make Mescal, another spirit), several types of Tequila and all the Mexican brands of beer (nothing specially notable, just Corona, XX, Negra Modelo, Tecate, etc).