My First Steps South of the Border

5-14-07

Step one - land in world’s biggest city. The Boeing aircraft lands amid nine million people sprawling across the Distrito Federal’s 1,500 square miles (and that’s not including the 20 million more living in the surrounding metropolitan area). Success.

Step two –find metro. Two pesos per ticket. Dos pesos por boleto. I fumble to ask for tickets with my limited (Intro to Spanish II) vocabulary. After receiving a funny look, success.

Step three - find hostel (http://www.hostelcatedral.com/). We exit the metro at Pino Suarez, one stop early. We pass part of an Aztec pyramid discovered during subway construction in the early ‘70s. My vist encounter with the ruins of ancient Mesoamerican occurs in a subway.

We walk underground to the Zócalo stop. My head is on a swivel. Bookstores line the tunnel; vendors sell any literature imaginable. Children’s books in Spanish catch my eye (my current reading level). Four city blocks seem to pass in the fluorescent light. Shoulders fall asleep under the straps of my backpack.

Above ground, pigeons scatter across the enormous zócalo (a plaza with government building and cathedral). An enormous eagle flies overhead. In front of red, white and green, the eagle clutches a snake in talons. The symbol dates to the city's Aztec foundation when the once nomadic people discovered a prophesized eagle-devouring-snake-atop-cactus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mexico).

The enormity of the flag seems to distort all perspective. As if warped by the dimensions of a snow globe, a crowd scatters across la Plaza de la Constitucion concentrated around the flag pole. I seem to be in a Europe populated by Hispanics. Wide streets stretch from the city center like the Champs-Élysées. We walk away by the Palacio Nacional and Catedral Metropolitana. We arrive at Hostel Catedral on the west side of the zócalo.

Step Three is success.

We made our reservations the night before from Chicago. Roughly $24 USD (240 pesos) for two dorm beds. Compared to European and American hostels, this is dirt-cheap. But in retrospect, Hostel Catedral was the most expensive place we stayed in Mexico.

Last summer, I stayed in hostels throughout Europe, and this is hands-down the largest I’ve ever visited. Super-sized in an ideal location + reception speaks English = good hostel for a gringo. Then again, we encountered zero hostels in Mexico that spoke zero English. In Europe, I generally booked hostels a day in advance (hostels.com, hostelworld.com, hostelbookers.com, etc), but this wasn’t necessary during our travels in Mexico. Booking upon arrival worked fine.

We lock our bags in the dorm security lockers, take a nap, and then explore the surrounding area... We find a restaurant. I dig into my enchilada verde, and thoughts of the Richter Scale fill my mind. I imagine my stomach a dormant volcano. I remember all the warnings (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/travelersdiarrhea_g.htm) about traveler’s diarrhea (TD, Moctezumma’s curse, turista), and I wonder if/when I’ll face eruption.

After dinner, Starbucks provides our first opportunity for planning. Tentative plans. These plans changed daily. We originally planned to visit Belize and Guatemala, but both countries eventually fell from the itinerary. On a tight budget, we don’t order anything. No coffee. Nada. Joyce pirates wireless Internet with her laptop. We sit for a few hours, then we take steps along the cobblestone streets and return to the hostel. More successful steps…