Rich and Strange Aeons

I've been facing the challenge of packing up all my stuff again. Compared to when I moved here: all my T-shirts are larger, which adds up in bulk and weight; I've acquired yet more masks; I invested in a second pair of jeans; I have an air purifier, bathroom scale, and folding bike, all of which I might want to take along.

Verrry late in the process it occurred to me to try to be logical/mathematical about it. This turned out to help less than I'd hoped. ( Read more... )

Where does this leave me? Still in indecision. I'd hoped the math would make it clear "ah yes, you should live minimally and walk away from stuff", but in fact there's a reasonable value proposition for maxing out my luggage, even with the extra taxi and baggage fees. At the very least clothes and bike, and not, say, "bring folding bike and buy new clothes". (Though I don't think single-luggage is even an option with this bike and current gear, I doubt it'd fit in my case without wheel removal, and maybe even with removal.)

Of course, the other consideration is some upper bound of willingness to deal with stuff. Even if bringing more makes sense as a $/lb measure, at some point I'm just done with extra pounds. But I'm not sure what point, yet.

I'm actually staying just a few blocks from the previous place. Not as fancy decor, similar layout otherwise -- 2BR, twin beds in the second bedroom, master bath is through a closet. Open plan kitchen, no purifier, more modern fridge. Microwave might have a toaster oven function too, not sure; no rotator. Anyway.

Today I took Metrobus 7 back to the Bosque. Closing time was near, but not too near, I got some tree walking in, in clean air -- AQI today was in the 30s, vs. 130 yesterday.

I went out the west side, over an overpass, and hoped for "Bosque Seccion II", but it was fenced off. Lots of roads through the area. I ended up back on Reforma, at Auditorio, which intersects with a Metro line. *Lots* of food stalls. I wasn't hungry though. Crossed, walked through some nice small parks, to Campo Martes, the end of the MB 7. And *then* I realized I was just a few minutes south of Polanco, a supposedly posh area I hadn't been to before. So I went.

Yeah, it's posh. Wide sidewalks, fair bit of pedestrian traffic, but no sidewalk vendors, so I suspect that's policy. A very nice Parque Lincoln, and restaurants just north of it. I finally got hungry, figured the Portuguese place would be cheap compared to Portuguese places in the US, and tried it, Casa Portuguese.

Verdict: ehhh. $31 (after tip) for onion soup, duck rice, and the smallest bottled water. The food was passable, not great; I was adding spicy bread sauce (table bread came with two spreads, like mayo and a spicy thing) to the rice to make it more interesting. Around the corner from me I can get $1 tacos al pastor that bring more joy.

Well, I tried.

Thought about walking home, but bladder and footsoreness called for a ride home. By now I've taken the BRT a bunch of times, since my first complaint, and there's been no repeat of that disaster. It's still a bit half-assed for BRT: no signal priority, no physical exclusion from the bus lane. Granted, with a bus a minute, drivers might hate signal priority, but fuck them, there are more people on the bus. Though, I'm not sure how frequent signal priority interacts with *pedestrians*. Hmm.

The buses have audio announcements of stops (better than all of Australia); video seems hit or miss.

Masking in Walmart or on the bus is nominally close to 100%, with a lot of KN95s; but also a fair number of noses, some of them talking (plus one maskless) on the ride home. I'm guessing they get laxer later, and this was nearly 10 PM.

Google Maps has not had any complete disasters like it did in the Historic Center, but it still has Problems. Besides the absurdly convoluted routes it likes to suggest regarding the Bosque, it has some odd estimates of walking time. Like, the total will be the sum of the components, plus an extra six minutes for no reason. And its estimate of the components can be off: it was saying 9 minute walk from the El Angel stop to my place, and I timed it as 5. Granted I started after the first walk sign turned for me, but even waiting for a signal would just add a minute.

I finally took public transit here today! I was up early enough to try the botanical garden without getting UV-blasted, and wanted to spare my leg muscles. Went to the Palma Metrobus stop -- there's a machine, but only for recharging cards. I walked to Insurgentes, got a card, got confused -- turns out it gets both the 1 Metro (subway), which I wanted, and the 1 Metrobus (BRT), which I didn't, but which was more salient (the Metro being underground).

Google said I didn't want the Metro, with a half hour perverse walk from Chapultepec to the gardens, but I assumed that Google was in error again, and I was correct.

Gardens were nice, especially given that they're free and hassle-free (no bag or water check!) Cactus garden, orchid greenhouse, other stuff.

Took 7 Metrobus back, or tried to. It's supposed to be BRT, but was not, was totally stuck in traffic. No bus lane, not even one cars were cheating in. I got off early, perhaps shortly before it might have picked up speed. There *are* bus lanes on Reforma, I see them on Google Maps even in the park... but I sure wasn't in one.

Whoops, been 8 days. Let's see.

Last Sunday I finally met up with Rachel and husband, as they gave me a food tour of a Sunday tiangui near us, based on their expertise of a friend having given them a tour the week before. :) We had barbacoa tacos in crowded outdoor dining :eek: and later some seafood -- I had a shrimp empanada, which I think was tasty but I was paying more attention to the conversation. Lots of produce there, also cheese, I got parmesan and I think pancela.

Since then I've had enchiladas, walked around Zona Rosa, found a Sukiya and had a beef bowl, had really bland Chinese food that came with insanely hot sauces, discovered that too much capsaicin can induce diarrhea as your body tries to flush out 'poison', twice gotten my currencies confused and treated 100 pesos as 100 yen or one dollar.

Oh, and seen so many bollards. Systematically protecting street corners, or mid-street crossing points. It's neat. Also a couple of protected bike lanes -- one protected very well, with high barriers, another less so, with rumble bars.

It's amazing how PM2.5 air pollution can vary by 10x over a day.

I slept decently, which puts me in a much better mood. Though it helped that the storm drove cool air in, I wonder what other nights will be like, especially with the Northern Hemisphere heat wave coming to visit tomorrow. (In a mild form compared to other places, but still.) Also I would be happier about the lack of A/C in CDMX (or Vancouver) if more places had bug screens on the windows. First place was fine (21st story, not bugs) but these places are 3-4 story, I got a bunch of mosquito bites at the last place, and just squished a bug on my temple, and can feel the bite rising as I type.

(My places in Richmond had side-swing windows but some pretty clever screen you could reach through to get to the handle... I can't describe it well, but it was neat.)

Positive stuff:

This may be the cheapest Airbnb per sqft I've ever had. It's a bit cheaper per day than the previous place, but whereas I'd estimate that as 20-24 m2, I think my master bedroom alone is around 16 m2.

There's a big pitcher and I'm making barley tea again. This sounds trivial, except for all the shops in CDMX, I have trouble finding things I actually want. Like I dunno where I would get a cheap plastic pitcher. And Rachel forgot to pack a washcloth and it's a quest to find one.

Stuff: checked out Amart, an Asian market, meh. Had instant noodles and sriracha and some dumplings, but nothing like H-Mart or T&T. Walked around, found an organic produce market (with mamey fruit, recced by Rachel). Few pedestrian signals, especially across one busy street that needs them.

Went south, found whole wheat pasta in a Circle K of all places, passed the US embassy (no architecture awards there), saw cow sculptures, saw the Angel of Independence, wandered into the edge of Roma Norte and back, down a tunnel into Insurgentes station with a huge recessed plaza. Also with machines that will sell me a metro card.

Photos of the apartment and appliances. Try to guess which ones are older than I am. (Not that I know, but *geez*. I know fridges are expensive -- though I wonder how much energy an old fridge wastes -- but a new microwave is like $100.) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/albums/72177720300650574

Photos from wandering: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/albums/72177720300640671

I did museum stuff, but not Templo again. Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo. Free! Temperature check, no drinks, but they might let you check a bag. Decent size. Felt a bit odd to be spending time there, because there's nothing about Mexico: halls on ancient Egypt, the Middle East, Persia (especially carpets), ancient Mediterranean (Phoenicians, etc, also brief mention of the Iberians), China, Japan, Korea... But it was interesting, and some of the placards/exhibits covered new territory, like Mediterraneans governments, or body depictions (the old static form, vs. dynamic classical Greek and Roman forms.)

There was also a temporary exhibit of political cartoons about walls and borders, and another more serious exhibit about a few borders (US/Mexico, Israel/Palestine, Western Sahara) and refugees.

Masking 100%.

I did pass Templo Mayor on my way home and it looked *very busy*, so just as well.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/albums/72177720300620969

[Edit: Most of the 'ancient' artifacts in the museum are actually replicas. This seems perfectly sensible to me, for a latecomer museum. And many are very well done, looking exactly like old distressed bronze, say.]

Part 2 Already!

First, a photo of the second set of tacos as they came to me: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/52212707803/

After which I decided to not be whiny gringo and to try to assemble them. Didn't 'shred', of course, but meat fell off the cooked chicken pieces easily enough. Then I added some rice and salsa, and voila, tacos. Undermines the idea of them as a convenient street food, but then my first tacos this trip came with a plate of steak and a plate of tortillas, so.

(Helps to not be whiny after I'd eaten something; hadn't eaten since a morning sandwich and banana, on top of the all the "do I have to fly into covid to keep my job?" stress.)

Then I did open the beans and had a rice+bean+salsa taco. Still have some rice and tortillas left, but after 4 multi-tortilla tacos + 3 more pieces of chicken, I'm filling up.

By the way, research has suggested that the Mexican definition of taco is "food in a tortilla", very generic like "sandwich" in the US. So if you're worried about the authenticity of your tacos, you can relax.

Day 7 had no part 2.

Got out at 9:45 today. Yeah, yesterday's quiet was a Sunday thing. Everything was open! Not actually true, but felt that way. Even the torta stall I like was active already, unlike other Mercado food places, and I got a torta milanesa carne de res. Also a croissant-shaped thing from the Mercado bakery which is not at all croisssant-like, more of a sweet bread, and I may throw it away.

Walked back to Templo Mayor et al, got croissants from Maison Kayser -- not great, but recognizable as croissants -- noticed that the Plaza de la Constitucion, aka Zocalo, is fenced off. Not that it looks super attractive, just a large expanse of flat concrete. Apparently it's not the Plaza de Armas, but the old center of Tenochtitlan itself. There was a small protest on the south side of the fences, demanding respect for indigenous communities.

Or maybe the Spanish used it as their Plaza de Armas. Still, I remember the Plazas in Chile, which had been turned into parks with greenery, fountains, and seating.

My host had provided a 10 liter bottle of water, but it's already nearly done, so I got a new one from the convenience store across the street. I guess I could drag a 20 L one home, it's closer than the distance I covered in Coyoacan, but eh. Oh, and it would probably be too heavy to fill the reservoir.

About that. At my first place, my host provided a USB-chargeable pump that you can put on the bottle, and it acts like a tap. Very convenient. I'd asked for a funnel to fill my personal bottles with, but never used it. No pump, or funnel, here. But the fridges have a 'tap' in the door, that just drains a reservoir that you can fill. I have been able to fill it from a 10 L bottle without spillage, even without a funnel's help.

I noticed more holes in the wall selling junk food, bread, and shelf-stable milk -- with an apparent bias toward lactose-free milk.

Some time after 4, with lower pollution and UV levels, I ventured out again for not set purpose. Around the corner was a street market, so I followed it. More clothing! But other things like phone cases and wallets (almost of interest to me) and whatnot. I kept going north, to see if I could run out of market. Nope, not before I ran out of enthusiasm for walking without water or phone. I did risk a loop, passing some almost tempting food stalls (but I'd had the second half of my torta, which was really quite good), and headed back south along another street. And found that Calle Justo Sierra, on which I'm staying, changes its name a lot. The sign was something else when I got to it, but I recognized that big Aztec ruin plaza, so turned left.

The sky was gray and it was starting to rain, and people were packing up, but maybe not just because of the rain: when I checked my watch it was 18:15, and 18:30 is the big closing time.

Some nice things about my unit: it's 4th floor of 4, so no one is above me, except people using the roof patio. There is a roof patio. There are no units to either side of me, providing both sound isolation and more air flow. The hallway and stairs are open to the air.

"You won't need A/C" said my host who said the place had A/C. "The cross ventilation is great."

You'd think that, given the windows on both sides of a small unit, but the fan happens to display a temperature, which never dropped below 21 C, even while it was supposedly 12 C outside. I did not sleep well until I used a wet towel as a blanket. I will say the place was quieted than I feared.

Shower time! No hot water. There's an on-demand calofont (gas heater), with a display, that never got above 24 C. Someone came to fix it. They fixed something, but now I get hot water for like 5 seconds.

This is not a dirt-cheap place. $1000 USD for 15 days.

On the food front, between sleep, work, and thunderstorms, I didn't make it to the big market of stalls. Actually I forgot about it. I had had the idea that maybe the magic search term would be 'bodega', and found two candidates. Due to UV and thunderstorm, I got out late to the higher rated one... or where it should be. I couldn't really find anything, despite being open to "10 PM".

The other one actually has a photo of a milk carton, which suggest some actual food, but it was getting dark. I got some convenience store food -- pizzas, sandwich, tostadas, and retreated home.

The historic center really does empty out after 6:30. Almost all the stores up by me were locked up, rather creepy. Lots of cops along some streets, so at least mugging is unlikely. Things are more open further south, but still. Oh, and the candidate bodega is to the north...

On the plus side, the air quality the past two days has been pretty good.

UV: between latitude and altitude, Mexico City is getting really high UV indexes, like 11-14. One more in the "why did I come here now?" column. OTOH between clouds and my new Totes parasol (despite it feeling small and a bit translucent to visible light) I seem to have avoided sunburn despite being out for hours at the worst time yesterday.