Sunday turned into something of a lazy day on account of Cryn feeling unwell following Saturday night's drinking shenanigans and our pretty hectic previous five days in Yucatan. In many ways we needed the rest - and in my case time to update this journal - so no one really surfaced before midday. I was awake and tweeting by 10am but then the living room where I'm sleeping on the sofa is probably the brightest room in the house and I get awoken by the brightness of the Sun. I don't think anyone else struggled with this and I was happy to let them lie.
Cryn was feeling pretty bad and Misha needed to stay with him while he recovered, so after a tasty brunch of toca (which in this case was a bread bun filled with fresh cheese, ham and delicious chipotle mayonnaise), Misha directed us to a rather bohemian part of the city that he thought we might enjoy. Misha also told us that mature cheese is not really a thing in Mexico and that Mexicans prefer their cheese fresh which was an interesting little fact. After a leisurely talk, we left the house at about 2pm bound for the Coyoacan region of the city to the south-west. This metro stop had a coyote as its symbol so instantly became one of my favourites. We boarded at the wasp stop, Chilpancingo, and changed onto the green line to travel to Coyoacan. On our way I wondered about the bizarre blocky font with which the metro signs are written while as before the itinerant sellers were on the trains peddling all manner of things from earphones to CDs to wooden spatulas. As it was a Sunday, the metro was noticeably less cramped, and although we nearly boarded on a women and children only carriage, the journey to and from Coyoacan was largely uneventful.
Finding the bohemian district was pretty straightforward as it was a straight walk from the metro, with the buildings becoming noticeably older and more colonial as we went. We soon found ourselves on a neat little square with a rather large church at one end and some red and yellow Victorian style trams going down the main road. A fair few people were about enjoying the sunshine, with clowns and mime artists doing their thing in the park in front of the church. Some people were playing organ grinders - quite a common site throughout Mexico - and while the music was pleasant, Taneli refused to give them money for just turning a handle. There were quite a few balloon sellers too, with one guy selling a large number of Peppa Pig balloons which looked like an amorphous blob of porcine torment. In the wind this collection of pig balloons spun and followed me around like a virus in the bloodstream and it all got a little overpowering. It was creepy quite frankly. In the middle of the park there is a delightful fountain of two dogs playing, with the water gushing over their bodies, which added a nice carefree touch to the square. Meanwhile the architecture in the church was rather stunning, with the light shining through the two windows either side of the alter projecting a beautiful deep blue hue that touched even my spirit and I'm a non-believer.
Misha had told us about a little museum just down the road from here and having walked around this little area for fifteen minutes, we opted to check it out. Luckily for us, Sunday was the culmination of a four day festival called the 7a Feria de Nacimientos Mexicanos, which I think was a market stall offering of Christmas related items. There were some interesting things on sale, particularly the wooden models of the nativity which were intricately and painstakingly carved, while I opted to buy a wooden carving of a wolf, brightly painted in blue with Mexican design as a present for Wolfie. I was going to get a larger howling wolf in brown but at 1,900 pesos, I thought that was far too expensive.
The market was in the grounds of the museum while inside the museum itself was a collection of cross alters and a baffling exhibition called Taco de Ojo, exploring sexuality in art from pre-Classic times up to the present day. I don't know what to make of this - there was no clear narrative and it seemed to be a miscellany of stuff from a range of eras. Much of the artwork had hidden sexual content, so hidden as to be not discernible, while there was a range of sculptures of various sex acts, some involving skeletons, others with a scatological theme and some involving a bear like creature fucking a woman. There were masks in the shape of phalluses while some of the more modern paintings looked like something knocked up in a sixth form art lesson. There were also lots of snake related pieces, mainly of wood and ceramic, so much so that this was an oft overused metaphor. The pre-Hispanic content - particularly the stone carvings representing pregnancy as well as men and women's physical attributes were probably the strongest part of the exhibition whereas some artwork was truly bizarre such as a penis sticking out of a packet of cigarettes and the T-shirts of a muscle dog advertising a bar in Acapulco that wouldn't look out of place in a Carry On Film. Everything was written in Spanish but even had it been in English I doubt it would have made any sense but it was an interesting way to wile away half an hour, particularly as it was opposite a room containing a range of crucifixes.
We decided to grab an ice cream after this - Neapolitan for me - and watch a little of the traditional Mexican dancing in the front courtyard. It was dancing performed by elderly people so it was rather slow and methodical, although it was very well delivered from a technical perspective. The traditional music added to the ambience of the yard and many people were watching the couples strut their stuff. As we had gone into the museum complex, there had been one couple dancing but as we left there were four.
Walking through these narrow streets, with the waning sunshine trying to force its way through the branches of the trees made for a very pleasant stroll as we headed towards the Vivaro Cayaocan, a giant landscaped park in the heart of the city. Here there was a modest arboretum, a place where trees could sprout and an arid area containing a variety of different cacti and some possum-like rat type creatures. There were many black squirrels in the arboretum and I made it my challenge to try and grab some good pictures of them. They were rather tame and let you walk to within a few feet of them before darting away. I soon got wise to this though and started taking some good shots, particularly of them climbing up trees, where one looked like he was threatening to jump me at any moment. The arboretum would contained about thirst different species of tree, some native to Mexico others such as the eucalyptus imported and had I known more about trees then I probably would have been more fascinated. In the end, we just had a pleasant stroll around the park as the sun set, seeing the Bimbo bread bear talking about tree management (as Bimbo are involved in the project in some way) in the process, before heading back to the house to see Cryn and Misha once more.
With us leaving on Monday and Cryn still feeling a little rough, we ended up staying in the house for the rest of the evening doing stuff like the laundry and checking in for our flight. We did get food from the same delicious takeaway from which we had ordered on our very first night and the tacos were just as delicious again, particularly with the hot red salsa mixed with the fresh chopped onion and verdant parsley. The same was the case with the dried cheese sheets and the refried beans which were more delicious when fresh, particularly when dipped with crunchy nachos which came in a variety of shapes and sizes, some of them slightly over toasted. I had coconut horchata with all of this, but it was from a mix so it wasn't as fresh as the one I had in Yucatan. Still coconut milk is fantastic and it's a shame we don't have more of this in the UK. After this we sampled some delicious pineapple ice cream that was actually served in half of the empty shell of the pineapple from which it came. It was very delicious, far more creamy than other fruit based ice cream which I tend to find being too much like sorbet. The top was a bit chewy as it had oxidized but underneath it was most delicious. Apparently they also do orange flavour. We then sunk a few beers (or in Taneli's case a whole bottle of wine) while chatting, first with Misha and Cryn, then just Misha, before I went in the shower and watched TV for a bit to end a rather relaxing final full day in Mexico. I also got to know their two cats a bit better - the one Taneli calls Gordo as he's quite fat, the white and brown one, and Chiki the black one. Chiki is more sociable but far more skittish, running away from everything, particularly if there is a sudden movement. Chiki does like me though after being somewhat unsure at first, even once trying to eat my hair as it dangled in front of her face, while Gordo just likes to eat and doesn't want any pettings. His white and ginger tail is most like a snake and it has scared me once or twice before. Still, both cats get on with me and considering I'm a puppy in a kitty household that's no bad thing.
I went to bed quite late, around 1:30am due to me writing this journal, and yet I was the first one up again this morning although as has happened nearly every night since being here, I've woken up needing to piss halfway through my sleep. I knew the cleaner was due to arrive about 10am but I didn't realise she had her own front door key, necessitating the quickest dressing possible so she wouldn't see me naked. That would be quite a shock first thing in the morning, me naked wearing nothing but my leather dog collar (which I didn't quite manage to remove in time). While she was cleaning and I was waiting for the others to wake, I did some Japanese work as I have a reading test on Wednesday for which I'm not that well-prepared. I have translated all three chapters from the three lessons I have missed and done the exercises too, but I still need to learn it and that's always the hardest part. In addition to this, we land on Tuesday evening and my test is the following day so I may be jetlagged very badly but at least I can say I have done all I can. I'm hoping to steal a couple of hours of revision at work on Wednesday before the test and do some on the plane this evening.
I did my packing this morning and grabbed a few banderillas for breakfast, which are like sugar coated sausage rolls without the sausage bit. Effectively it's pastry casing surrounding air but they are a good breakfast or supper snack, particularly with milk as they are a little dry. We then discussed the day's plan with Misha as our flight isn't until 9.50pm so we effectively have the whole day to sightsee. University City was deemed the place to go as there are a few museums there and the Olympic Stadium from the 1968 Games. It's also a simple Metrobus from the house down Insurgentes so it's easy to get to and from, making it the best option for the few hours we have left. We got the Metrobus down there, which works exactly like the metro with its own dedicated stops in the centre of Insurgentes and a dedicated bus lane, although it is more than double the price of the subway. It was very simple to use and we got to see the range of shops and restaurants down the entire south side of this major thoroughfare, with little snack vans dotted down the street to feed hungry workers - at lunchtime we saw quite large queues at some of these but often they were pretty deserted aside from the proprietor. Some of the huts were more permanent and sold things like magazines and confectionary, and really bad bikini porn it would seem. We could have got the underground down to University City but the walk at the other end would be longer and you get to see more of life this way, watching people doing their general daily business on a Monday. On the bus we weren't hassled by itinerant sales people but there was a TV playing music and adverts, including one of a chicken cluck-singing about a spice mix you could use to season him with, which seemed a bit bizarre. Why would a chicken be advertising a product designed to make it taste nicer? No logic whatsoever.
We got off the Metrobus at Doctor Galvez, 16 stops south of our starting location. University City is just a short walk down the road from here and we soon saw the Olympic Stadium loom into view, with its Sixties style lighting stantion poking out above the trees. This was built at a time when concrete was king but the walls of the stadium were quite graceful, sweeping around in an arc shape resulting in a structure with different heights at different points around its circumference. You wouldn't really get that now with the all-purpose metal cram as many people as possible into the arena stadia. We walked around the stadium - literally around it as it wasn't open to the public and there was quite a high security presence for some reason. While walking around it, we dodged the free university buses which swing by on the road, picking up students and taking them across this mammoth campus. We spied a gym and boxing centre halfway around but sadly there was no way in, so all we could do was glimpse at the interior, which has grey seating a bright green grassy pitch. We also spied some of the beautiful purple flowering trees which adorn Mexico City at this time of year - the flowers are an intense almost regal colour and they look stunning in the sunshine.
The stadium now belongs to the university and on the other side of the main road is where the campus starts. This is a beautiful area of concrete paths with grassy squares interspersed between while the buildings are all adorned with delightful mosaics. The one in front of the main university library details the Ptolemic and Copernican systems of celestial movement in intricate detail, with the religious and societal connotations also highlighted. It is a brilliant work of art and it was very pleasant strolling around this area for fifteen minutes, enjoying the last sunshine and warmth we are likely to see for a while due to our forthcoming return to England. There were students everywhere here with a languid buzz that only students provide, an atmosphere which I love as it evokes memories of my university days. We had hoped to go to the Museum of Art and Science in the university but unfortunately it is closed until March (and the guided tours office was shut too) so we had to make alternative plans so we sat outside in the sun for a while in a bit that looked a little like a Sixties British council estate before heading north back up Insurgentes to check out a few sites highlighted on the 2003 map with which Misha had provided us. We saw a couple of monuments up here of a more modern and utilitarian style although the human and eagle carvings on the Obregon monument were a pleasure to view, particularly as it was set in a little park off Insurgentes with yet more black squirrels. We also saw a delightful church with a beautiful mosaic roof around the Plaza San Jacinto, a charming little square between two main roads (one of which being Insurgentes) with many nice looking restaurants and a tiled fountain. We also saw a restaurant called La Lupe that made me happy but puppy's not feminine *pouts*.
The journey back on the Metrobus was far more rammed, not aided by the guy who got on with a giant box. The doors only open for five seconds which made getting out interesting but we managed it by positioning ourselves adroitly before our stop. It would have been helpful had the advert TV service mentioned the stops - there weren't even announcements on the way back making it something like a free-for-all. At the last but one stop loads of people piled in, so battling our way out became very difficult and in the process I fell on some people, crushing someone's hand.
Cryn came home from work about 5pm and before we headed to the airport, we went to Cantinas El Afan for a final meal. Here we tried Mexican tequila for the first time on this trip. It was called Herradura and this was the premium distilled variety, with a rich golden colour and sharp taste. It was very smooth to drink and is followed by a chaser of neat lemon which was intense in its flavour. It warmed my stomach quite well without burning it, and I must admit it was rather pleasant. I certainly didn't get the usual acrid burning I get whenever I try spirits. I also got to try cecinas, salt beef, which was extremely delicious and a nice local classic with which to end our stay in Mexico. We also shared some sopes, pastry bases stacked with lettuce, fresh crumbly cheese and chicken in this case. Served with spicy green or red salsa which you sprinkle on yourself, it makes for a great starter.
I'm really going to miss Mexico, it's been a fantastic 12 days and Cryn and Misha have been excellent hosts, letting us stay, driving us around and pointing out things to see when they were busy with work. We have also managed to try a range of different food and drink, half of which I don't think we would have even known about without them. Guidebooks can only tell you so much and they don't have the depth of knowledge that a local has. To me this is what furry is all about, travelling to meet new people in new cities and countries, and to share experiences. Taneli has been a great travelling companion and we haven't fallen out, with only one or two minor irritations on the way. Largely it's all been positive - I just wish we could have stayed longer but circumstances dictated that 12 days at this time of year was all we could do in 2014. There is actually very little I would change, perhaps spending one more day in Cancun so we could have done some snorkelling but aside from that I think we have done Mexico well. It's been good to get away from the darkness of the UK and the Christmas crap which pervades everywhere at this time of year - decorations are up here but it's far more understated generally (although as we have gotten further into December there has been a greater Christmas prevalence and interestingly it's very much an American Christmas with snowmen particularly prevalent which is odd as I doubt it has ever snowed here). Cryn says we can stay any time and I hope we can do this again, while I've invited both Cryn and Misha to stay in Leeds at some point in the future. I didn't know them before I came here but I would like to think I've made two new good friends and I hope to see them again very soon.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this account of the Mexican trip, despite it's rather protracted length. If you have been reading, please leave a comment, I would be interested to discover who is interested in my travels and travelling in general.