Sunday 31 May 2015

Saturday 3: afternoon

In the afternoon we set out with a plan: to walk through the Alameda, to then walk south on Balderes to near Metro Balderes, where we had heard there would be Cuban dancing on Saturdays, then to take the Metro Linea 1 west, etc... Which we did not complete. It got a bit like A Bridge too Far... link to terrific little youtube clip, to show you how we rate alongside strategic genius. 
Interesting when you allow incremental decisions to drift you beyond safe and sensible situations.


This was how Jose Maria Velasco painted the Alameda in 1866.

And on our Saturday afternoon 30 May 2015...


"Primera leccione?"
"Si!"










Saturday 2: Museo Estanquillo

On the way back home along Madero, we went into the Museo del Estanquillo, the museum of the little shop. So called because so many different things, surely also because the collector, a great writer and commentator of the 20th century, was a man of irony and good humour.

The contents of the museum pay tribute especially to Mexican love of prints; they also record popular political movements from a radical perspective. Here some works from the standing exhibition.









and up on the fourth floor, a special exhibition of photography by Pablo Méndez about people of the south

The identity of the Mexican people is a deep river that flows from the south.
From there radiate the waters of our remote past, and the flowering of the high mountains of our lasting culture:
multiethnicity, multilingualism, mixing of races and modernity.


this not a photo but compare the scene in the photo above

Read about the cultural and historical importance of corn here.

and up the stairs from the fourth floor to the roof and magic...


Saturday morning

We went out from our kitchen-home office, with its lightness and style




In Calle de Bolivar below, it was cleanup time at Burger King


In the evening the ATMs had big queues, not so in the morning... out in the morning quiet of Avenida Madero, a mother and daughter and friends meeting.


oh, and students asking to ask questions in English, dad ready to record the English.


This morning street tacos for breakfast on the Calle Motolina. This stall very clean and money handled only by a hand covered in plastic.


Followed by fresh orange juice.


Guys to say hello


Turning west onto the still-quiet-before 10am Calle Cinco de Mayo, named after this battle, a surprise victory briefly against invading France, when France thought the US preoccupation with civil war provided a chance to establish an empire in Mexico, which it did, briefly.


queueing required for more serious breakfast establishments up towards the Zocalo, heading for tourist-world


See, the cathedral at the end of the street.


I came in my other decade-old Rockports to be cleaned by Jorge-Luis, today his daughter Guadelupe was on roster at this family business



as I sat I saw that the young man in red pants was not touting a cafe but an artisanal gallery


Where we went and we found some interesting quality items, as well as an ex-actor who was minding the shop on his own, his wife away visiting her mother.


He said something which I needed to record... 
"Soy feliz (to be happy) is a style of life."
or rather, in English:
"The pursuit of happiness is a lifestyle choice"

...so here is my career in toto as a film director. 

What could ever follow this performance.



Well... the answer to that question is of course to walk back to Avenida Madero, 
now the day is warming and the acts are arriving.

This at the Zocalo tourist end


and half way along the street, going west, families out



and the politics being ditched (perhaps by an opponent)... local elections 7 June.


Friday to the Central Post Office

The Palacio de Correos de Mexico is a dramatic building from the late Porfiriato, under the presidency of Porfirio Diaz, beginning of twentieth century. from the same period of monumental thinking as the Palacio di Bellas Artes across the street and the Teatro Juarez in Guanajuato, Guanajuato. Severely damaged in the 1985 earthquake was followed by restoration works in the 1990s.

The lighter coloured building in the centre, as seen from the Museo Nacional


Before we went in to the post office, we explored the tunnel of book stalls and the ledge of artisans in the side lane.


Inside









on the way home, we put our heads into the Museum of Torture and lunched on excellent tacos al pastor from a street stall.



Tacos Victoria, on Calle Motolinia, the street specialising in physical and medical therapy devices

Then we walked a block on Avenida Madero which, now it was afternoon, had lifted its tempo, jumped into a higher gear.





and turning into our Calle de Bolivar, we slipped across the street from our front door to inspect this work of surrealist artist Marina Lascaris in the entry of a restored commercial building.




after this, siesta moment!