The lovely Artus put me up in his flat very close to Coyocan metro station (for those of you reading this who know Mexico City), and I spent my first couple of days just hanging out, wandering around and remembering to speak Spanish. It was lovely to relax after all the craziness of packing up in London. Then on Friday night Artus organised a tradtional Fiesta de la Rosca and invited many of my old Mexico friends. This is a party where you cut and eat a traditional cake ring to celebrate the Dia de los Reyes Magos (6th Jan) when Mexican children receive their Christmas presents from the Wise Men. Of course our party involved more drinking wine and chatting than anything else, but even so... I´m having difficulties downloading photos from my camera, but if and when I manage it, I´ll put up a couple of fiesta photos here (click on the photo to see the rest of the album).
It was funny how my Spanish improved greatly as the evening (and the drinks) wore on! It was extremely nice to see many of the friends I´ve hardly been in touch with since my last visit to Mexico almost five years ago.
Artus has also had his Maltese boyfriend Chris staying with him, and we three had a touristy day on Sunday, first taking the new Turibus open-top bus tour all around the city (so much has changed it´s incredible - all new shiny skyscrapers being built in the Zona Rosa and around, and now La Condesa has moved on from hip to a bit passe). The centro area has also changed loads, as it´s lost its sketchy, edgy feel and now is (comparatively) much smarter and safer. I have to admit though that secretly I sort of miss the old cool too. Then later on we went to the Ballet Folkorico to see a show of traditional Mexican regional dances (along with a theatre full of gringo tourists). The following day we took a trip out to the state of Michoacan with Artus´s mother to see the Monarch butterflies which come through and spend winter here in their millions.
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| Mexican sightseers |
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| Las Mariposas Monarcas en Michoacan |
A couple of things I´d wanted to do in Mexico as part of the Latin American acclimatisation were to travel around by pesero/microbus and also to wander and eat in the markets, both of which I managed to fit in in between my photoshoot with Toño for Artus´s friends gallery of photos (and let me tell you this was quite an experience!) And then, horribly quickly it was my last day and night - I met up with an old friend Pancho for a traditional comida corrida lunch and then we had a dinner and drinks de despedida (goodbye) in the evening with everyone. Funnily enough all the lovely Mexicans were on British punctual time and I was the Mexicana arriving 20 mins late! We had a fantastic evening, and I felt very sad to be heading off the next morning... But I have made lots of promises to return to Mexico very soon.
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| Mexico City farewell dinner |
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