Driving in D.F.

Can't understand why people are so confused when driving in Mexico City?

Crime in Mexico City

Another insightful GEM stolen from the blog MidwesternerInMexico This is a great blog for people like us trying to navigator around this huge city. Also reinstates how the fear of Mexico City that most Americans have is unreal. Sure there are parts of Mexico City that are very unsafe, just like any big city. But I really do feel safer here than I do in Tucson. In fact I'll be happily surprised if our house in Tucson does not get robbed while we are here in Mexico City :(

The Official MidwesternerInMexico.com Quiz for Determining your Risk of Violence in Mexico

(please answer yes or no to the following questions)

1. I am the head of a powerful drug cartel.
2. I am employed by a recent drug cartel start-up, and my title is “Business Development Manager, Mexico”.
3. I cannot leave the house without my 3 diamond rings, diamond stud earrnings, and emerald necklace.
4. I only travel by limo.
5. I insist on wearing shorts, sandals with socks pulled up to mid-calf, a Hawaiian shirt, and a floppy hat at all times, while using my obnoxious American “outside voice”.
6. I have a tendency to flash wads of cash while trying to pay for a $10 peso bottle of water with a $1000 peso bill.
7. I travel strictly using libre taxis hailed off the street in Mexico City, like the green VW bugs, because I don’t want to pay the extra $30 (+/-) pesos for a safer sitio taxi.
8. I am a high-level Mexican law enforcement official actively engaged in the fight against drugs and am not on the narco payroll.
9. I prefer to drive long trips between cities in Mexico only at night, and I am too cheap to pay the tolls to drive on the safe, well-maintained cuota highways.
10. I insist on going out drinking by myself, getting loaded, then stumbling around the back alleys of Mexico City singing “You are my sunshine” at the top of my lungs.
11. I sell drugs to a circle of depressed, soccer-moms in a US suburb, and I am traveling to Mexico to take advantage of the crazy dollar/peso exchange rate to find a new dealer for my drug supply.
12. I am visiting Mexico to conduct a major business transaction for which I intend to convert $20,000 USD into $306,000 pesos in public at the airport currency exchange desk.
13. I ask taxi drivers to take me on tours past the homes of local drug lords, where I get out of the taxi and take photos from the middle of the street during broad daylight.
14. I insist on traveling to parts of Mexico City not mentioned in guide books or specifically mentioned as areas full of criminals, like Tepito, a.k.a. the “Thieves’ Market”.

OK, end of quiz! Time to review your score.

If you answered yes to #1, #2, or #8: I strongly recommend you avoid travel into Mexico, leave Mexico if you are already here, or seriously consider a new line of work.

If you answered yes to #3, #4, or #6: perhaps you have forgotten that you are visiting a country where the daily minimum wage for 2009 is $54.80 pesos. That is $3.58 USD PER DAY at the current exchange rate. Please bear this in mind and stop flaunting your money like a fool.

If you answered yes to #7 or #9: have you checked the exchange rate lately?? During the 8 months we have been here, it has gone from 10 pesos / 1 dollar to 15.3 pesos / 1 dollar. Stop being a cheap ass and spend the extra pesos to pick the safe option.

And finally, if you answered yes to #5, #10, #11, #12, #13 or #14: you are simply not very smart and probably shouldn’t be allowed to travel, period.

I hope this insightful quiz has eased your fears about travel to Mexico, as long as you are not an idiot or a criminal.

Now all this said I know that my mother is praying each and every day for our safe arrival back home!!! Because even her Mexican gardener has said that he would not go to Mexico City because of the crime.

With love from Mexico...

We happened upon a cute and crowed toy store last weekend and started collecting some gifts for our nieces.
I'm a little over excited about them! And can't wait to improve my Spanish so that I can acquire some more cool little gifties.

First for my two year old niece Pearl in Australia, a tortilla making kit. Look it even comes with a mini tortilla press!!! She will definitely be the coolest kid in school now, especially when she strolls into her Australian preschool with mini handmade tortillas. I mean, really.

Also for both Pearl and our sweet little Audrey in Napa, Stuffed microbes!!! YAY!!!
Who in their right mind would not want their child to get E. Coli and Influenza from Mexico? (Hey, at least I didn't bring them back herpes.)

Yep. Nothing is too good for my nieces.

WEEK 1!!!
My family and I have been in Coyoacan for one Week today! It's still pretty hard to get around and we are having a hard time understanding everyone around us. We have been walking 45 minutes each way to our daily Spanish classes, then up to our apartment on the 4th floor (whew!). Not surprisingly we are pretty tired by the time we get home and have not explored around our hood too much. So today we ventured out of our bubble a little and took the trolley back home. It was nice not to have to walk for a change.

Even on trolleys Mexico Ari is "super."

Later we refilled our water bottle and walked through our hood a little. Found a very popular vegetarian restaurant and... what... a language school??! We could have been walking a mere 2 blocks to learn Spanish and not several miles? Well, where is the adventure in that?!
We also found a nice organic market and bought some beautiful eggs, organic veggies, organic milk, and strawberry jam. We still needed to go the the "Mega" for some other things, like tortillas de nopales (hey, worth a try!) I think the kids just like to go to the Mega just because of the escalator?

Also found another blog with some worthwhile info about living in Mexico City....

http://www.midwesternerinmexico.com/random-facts-ive-learned-in-mexico-city/

Day 3 in Mexico City

Today we walked our guero butts over to the language school and signed up for classes. We all start Monday! As you can imagine the girls were delighted to learn that while all their friends are relaxing and swimming this summer they will walking several miles and going to school to learn Spanish. YAY!!! Look at the excitement in their eyes!

 

As we walked back home I saw this sign on the bus stop. Hmm... ?
Just in case you had any doubt about how Mexicans feel about SB 1070.

 

Day two:

Mexican plumbing is not my friend.
I guess you cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet here?
I have been plunging and dumping hot water down the toilet all day.
As soon as I get it somewhat cleared out ... there is a new prize for me in there and I start all over again.
I guess I need to call or email the landlord.

We walked around a little today, trying to find the large park Viveros de Coyoacan. Don didn't really know where it was, but insisted it was just right up the street. An hour, two crying kids, and many blisters later we just turned around and came home.

I have to admit I really do not want to be here, but I'm trying to make the most of it. It would be entirely different if I spoke spanish, but I don't understand anything that's going on around me and it's very frustrating.
Plus I do not understand why we are here if Don can't speak spanish? His whole dissertation is based on interviewing Mexican cab drivers. I seem to the only person here that think speaking the language is important. Which is also very frustrating.
Plus the poop issue, not a good day.
Oh lord! Hope is gets better.

Mexico City, baby!

I going to try and actually keep up this blog while we are here in DF, wish me luck!

Day numero uno:

My family and I are living in Mexico City for 3 months.
We are staying in Coyoacan in a social help building. So while Coyoacan is a rather expensive place to live, our apartment building is pretty mixed and family oriented. It's also very loud at times with lots of activity all around.
Don's not to fond of that part.
We were lucky to have good friends with good relatives and were able to get a ride to our apartment from the airport, saving us a cab ride.
It's always an adventure driving here! Cars are going every different direction at once and honking, it seems like complete pandemonium. But I'm sure there is some kind of hidden order? The biggest car gets the right of way, maybe?
When we got to our apartment and settled in we had to go grocery shopping for food and to make dinner. We were told by our landlord to go to the "Mega" about three blocks away. We are definitely going to need to teach our children how to walk in a big city! They were all over the sidewalk, in everyones way. The Mega did not lie. It was MEGA. More mega than 5 Food Cities and a walmart smashed into 1. Two stories with a parking garage below. It was hard to just find what we needed and leave.
Eventually we did finagle our way out of the store and walked back to our new home.

The girl settled into Scooby-Doo en espanol, and were delighted to find an occupied nest right outside their window. They have been watching the mother inca dove care for her little chick through out the evening.
We also watched the kids below play soccer and people walking their dogs.
After we ate dinner the thunder kicked in, then rain and lightening!
What a welcome!!!