Taxi Hate-Post

I knew it was coming eventually...I hate taxis in Mexico City. This feeling was solidified yesterday, after a rather unfortunate experience when I was simply crossing the street. I'm okay, first of all. But, here's what happened: I live about 5 minutes away from a large street called Patriotismo. This is a one-way street with 6 lanes. I crossed Patriotismo when I saw the intersecting street had a green light (the light for traffic actually on Patriotismo was red). I had just crossed the 4th lane when a taxi decided it was a good time to run the red light. This taxi was in the far left lane to begin with, but somehow decided it was a good idea to swerve all the way over to the 5th lane on the right. When I saw the taxi coming towards me, I started running, so he only clipped my right calf and foot. He didn't stop, didn't even slow down. My only "logical" thought is that he was drunk, had no perception of space, and was going to try to get me as a customer, but decided to keep going after he hit me. (The cab drivers here tend to drink and drive. A lot.) My leg is a bit purple and sore today, but it's alright, and I can walk just fine. However, this was the final straw for me with taxis here.

To the red and gold taxis: I hate you most.

My severe dislike of taxis began back when I was living with my dad's cousin, Cindy, in Cuajimalpa. Cuajimalpa is kind of like a suburb that's between 45 minutes and 90 minutes from my office (depending on traffic). Since there were no direct bus routes, I took taxis every day for a month. To leave from her house, I would call a taxi company and they would charge me the same rate every time. Since they could see that I wasn't from here, they overcharged me by about 30%. They didn't use the price-meters, and they wouldn't negotiate with me, since I'm obviously American. There was also one driver who I refer to as "The Creepy Cabby," who liked to talk with me about things that were way too personal, to say the least. I started avoiding conversations by pretending that I was really busy preparing my classes. Thankfully, I was able to survive that month.

My next bad taxi experience was when I was leaving from the office and going to Cuajimalpa. I always took taxis from a site, because that's safer than hailing one off the street. The site is near a busy intersection. When I got in the taxi, another driver ran a red light and almost hit my taxi. Both drivers blamed each other, got out of their cars, and had a nice little fist fight in the middle of the street. What the heck was that for???

Another, more annoying aspect of taxi culture here is that they kind of harass people to get customers. My thought is that if I want a taxi, I will signal for one. A taxi driver seems to think that if there is a person walking, they most certainly are wanting a taxi. They'll honk, flash their headlights, and literally pull up right next to you "Taxi, taxi, quiere taxi?". They remind me of the seagulls on Finding Nemo. (Mine? Mine?) Blatantly ignoring taxis seems to be the best policy here.

I'm also afraid of taxis, as I've heard lots of bad stories. Express muggings seem to be the most popular taxi crime, so everytime I get in a taxi, I have to be prepared to lose whatever I have with me. Though this has never happened to me, and hopefully never will (I never take taxis anymore anyways), it's something I have to keep in mind.

Also, taxis and buses can't get pulled over by the police here. So, they drive terribly. Red lights are like yield signs (sometimes), speed limits are nonexistant, and bike lanes are "bonus" lanes. And on top of that, the taxi drivers are often intoxicated.

Drinking and driving, hitting people, driving generally terribly, harassing people walking, express muggings, overcharging foreigners...Yes, I absolutely hate the taxis here.

Going to Work

Hey, I'm still alive! Our internet at home has been broken for a few weeks now, which is why I haven't posted anything or done much emailing at all. We're supposed to get a new modem installed this week (actually, it was supposed to be installed two days ago), but it's D.F., and there are no guarantees. The last few weeks have been busy with work, and next week is going to be even more full. I'm really happy in my job, though. I work in three locations around the city, depending on the day. Most often, I work in Polanco--a wealthy business district. Other days I go and do an on-site company class at a company that makes appliances (refrigerators, stoves, washers, etc.), located in what I call "The Skyscraper District." On Tuesday and Thursdays, I work in another branch of our offices near the metro station "Nativitas." The office is very nice, but the area is not particularly beautiful. On Thursdays, I work in all three locations--it's a lot of commuting!

I really enjoy when I work in Polanco, because I can walk to work from my apartment. It takes about 45 minutes each way. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I walk to and from Polanco twice each day. I leave from my apartment and start walking through my neighborhood: Escandon. It's busy but quiet, nice and safe. It's neither a business district nor a residential district, it's more of a mix of the two on a small scale. There are lots of trees and flowering bushes on the sides of the street :)

Flowering tree

Soon, my neighborhood ends, just as I pass a pretty park called Parque Mexico. It turns into Condesa--a really pretty district with lots of cute restaurants, cafes, and bars. It's a very popular nightlife area, and it's always bustling and loud when I'm walking home at night. After I walk through Condesa, I come to a street called Sonora, which has a mix of small businesses and apartment buildings. On this street, I'll see my "20 minutes from work" landmark: the big, glass IXE tower.

Almost there!

On the left side of the IXE tower, I pass some sort of monument, but it's not a particularly impressive one. To me, it just looks like a really tall, bleached wafer cookie.


Giant cookie!

Right after I walk between the monument and the IXE building, I take the Chapultepec underpass, and then immediately after climb up onto a bridge that passes over 3 major highways.


Ah, don't breathe in the car fumes...

About 15 minutes from there, I get into the prettier part of Polanco, and arrive to the office!



One of the rooms where I teach :)

In the mornings, I teach there for 90 minutes, and in the evenings, I teach two back-to-back classes, leaving me there for a cozy three hours. It's really a fun job!

That's all for today, time to go teach again...



El Metro

Ah, the metro. We have such a love/hate relationship. Well, not love. It's more of a toleration/hate relationship. The metro is definitely the quickest way to go somewhere 5+ kilometers away, which is really good (when you accidentally overslept and your class starts in less than an hour). It's also dirt cheap. For 3 pesos, or roughly 25 cents, you can enter the station and make unlimited transfers. They have these handy little prepaid cards that you just scan and enter. (I'm guessing they have these in every single subway system around the world, but as I have never taken a subway before arriving in D.F., to me these cards are magic.

My magic card!

So, step inside on of the D.F. metro stations.Take a deep breath in. No, wait, bad decision. Cough that out. Try not to breathe too deeply--the metro station smells like a mix of the 12 million people it serves daily, overheated machines, cheap cleaning products, and fast food. (Keep in mind that it's very hot in the metro stations--so those 12 million people? They're all sweating. Ewwwwww...)

If you listen hard enough, you can probably hear the DF metro from Iowa. It is so noisy! People chatting. Screeching trains. Vendors yelling advertisements for their products (both in the stations and on the train cars). They sell anything and everything: food and drinks, magazines and newspapers, toys for children, phone chargers and headphones, cleaning products, beauty and health products, even drain stoppers. The thing I absolutely despise is how the music vendors advertise their product. They hop on the subway car with speaker-backpacks, and blast terrible music at deafening volumes. Right among all the people, who are trapped in the car until the next stop. The live music performers, on the other hand, (well, some are still awful and probably tone-deaf), some are quite talented. I'm thinking of the man who plays the fiddle in the Tacubaya station, or the group of young men and women who play wooden drums in the cars that travel along the blue line, or the occasional talented singer/guitarist who hops on the train car. All looking for money, but all practicing an art (and they usually aren't pushy about asking for money). My favorite noise-makers are the live performers :) Except the tone deaf ones. They seem to think that the louder they sing, the better they get. Yikes!

My "home station," Patriotismo, is luckily one of the least busy stations in the city!

The picture above is of my "home station" which is almost never busy, but step into a station like Tacubaya, Chilpancingo, Auditorio, or Polanco and you really start to understand the quantity of people here. 21 million people live in this city, and the metro is the most popular mode of transportation. You see all types of people, all ages, all sizes, all attitudes. The grumpiest people to the sweetest people, the needy and those well-off. Lots of police, in theory to keep everything running smoothly. One thing I do genuinely like about subway culture is that chivalry is not dead. People immediately give up their seat to a pregnant woman, a woman carrying a baby, an elderly person, a handicapped person, or an injured person. Men give their seats to women. Even in the busiest, most crowded, and hottest metro lines, kindness lives on. It almost makes up for the times when the subway is so crowded that the outside people start pushing and cramming everybody together in the car like sardines. Almost.

The metro is hot, sticky, noisy, grubby, smelly, and crowded. But, it's cheap, really convenient, and somehow entertaining. With a little hand sanitizer, the metro is...tolerable.

The Prettiest Walk

After spending just over 3 months total in D.F., I'm becoming very familiar with select parts of the city. My hands-down favorite place to walk is definitely along Paseo de la Reforma (one of the major streets here), and in certain areas of the Zocalo (city center). My walk starts from the Metro Auditorio:


Big grey building: The Auditorio Nacional (National Auditorium)

I walk towards the area with lots of museums--my favorite being the Museo de Antropologia (Anthropology Museum). On my right, I pass a beautiful park, Parque de Chapultepec, which is a very very large park and another nice place to walk. Inside the Chapultepec Park's gates, you can find a lake, a castle, a zoo, botanical gardens, more museums, monuments, fountains, walking paths, and loads of street vendors.

After walking straight along Reforma for awhile, the Angel de la Independencia comes into view. This is a very large, very beautiful monument located in a roundabout intersection of several important streets.


The Independence Monument--I hear you can go up to the top, which is on my list of things to do!

Continuing to walk for another few blocks, the top of the Revolution Monument can be seen off to the left, and though it is not directly on Reforma, it is well-worth the detour.


You can also take the elevator to the top of the Revolution Monument, which I have done, and the view is spectacular! The entrance fee is cheap, too.

 Returning to Reforma, I continue walking towards the Zocalo, passing several tall buildings, restaurants, shops, statues, and greenery along the way. When I come to the intersection with the El Caballito statue (The Pony statue), I veer right on the intersecting road.



"El Caballito" is the bright yellow sculpture

 After walking awhile longer, the top of the Palacio de Bellas Artes becomes visible. Continuing straight down that road takes you right to it.

Bellas Artes. I love this place.

I used to think that Bellas Artes/the Zocalo would be nice places to sit in the shade and read a book. I've learned better. While they are quite beautiful and comfortable places to sit and read, I have repeatedly had this problem where young men, complete strangers, seem to believe that when someone is reading it's a good time to strike up a conversation and get super-friendly-chatty (to the point of uber-creepiness). So, sitting alone and reading has become a no-go for me in this area. Walking and stopping briefly to take a picture or two is okay, though people still try to stop me and chat. Usually at that point, I just ignore the person completely, or pretend that I don't speak a word of Spanish or English. It sounds awfully rude, I know, but here in Mexico City it's necessary--traditional Iowan politeness ends up wasting loads of time.

My walk continues onto the street Francisco I Madero, a street only for pedestrians that is hell to try to walk through on weekends. (The Sunday afternoon crowd is the worst.) This street is always bustling with people walking to the many trendy stores and restaurants on either side. It's also a good place to see street performers any day of the week, especially on Saturdays. My favorite restauant is actually on a street intersecting with this one, just 2 blocks off.

Francisco I Madero, the least busy I have ever seen it. Monday at noon is the time to go???

Walking to the end of this street, you will finally come to the Zocalo--the city center, a really big square. On one side, there is the beautiful Catedral Metropolitana. Another side is occuppied by the Palacio Nacional, and the other 2 sides of the square are long lines of stores--mainly gold and overpriced jewelry stores. Nestled between and kind of behind the Cathedral and National Palace is the Templo Mayor--an old Aztec pyramid/temple that was discovered quite by accident in the 1980's. I think admission to the pyramid + museum is only 57 pesos (about $5USD), and well worth the cost.

Catedral Metropolitana

Part of Templo Mayor, with the Cathedral in the background

The National Palace--a very long building, with many murals by Diego Rivera on the inside.

Total, that walk takes a little over an hour, without stopping. It could definitely be made into a day trip, or longer, touring the inside of the buildings and taking pictures!