Mexico City

Mexico City, it’s not the easiest city to cycle into. The 8.8 million people make it quite busy. Including the outer areas, it’s 21 million people, and that’s a lot. However, google maps came to our help so that 40 kilometers outside of the city the route was following a comfortable and quiet little dirt road. But after that no more. The suburbs are very colorful when you see them on the hillsides, often with super straight roads that go straight up the hill. But, lots of traffic. Though, that is an advantage too, because so often the traffic was completely stuck that it was easy to overtake everybody on the shoulder. Mexico City’s elevation is about 2100 meters, which is quite high and makes that you get out of breath when walking up some stairs in your first days.

Volcanos surround the city. Originally, in 1325, there was a lake within this valley with a little island on which the Aztecs principal god, Huitzilopochtli, presented an eagle that landed on a cactus with a snake in its beak. This made the Aztecs realize it was the perfect place to build their homes. The lake is gone now, the whole valley is one mass of houses and other buildings. But the Aztecs are still there. At the location of their eagle landing, an old Aztec temple is being renovated and contemporary Aztecs can still be heard and seen with their drums and feathers performing uplifting dances using the energy that they still find present at that spot.

These volcanos meant that there was first an up before gliding down into the city, but not too steep fortunately. Once closer to the center we incidentally found little cycling paths, and we realized that cycling on the roads wasn’t too bad, because people were quite considerate with us. Mexican cyclists use the metro-bus lanes for cycling, the trick seems to be that when a bus comes you get out of the lane so you don’t get run over. On Sundays between 8 am and 2 pm, the city closes roads for cycling. One Sunday I followed one of the routes and came to a loop of about 35 km! This loop is maintained by police who are closing the roads for other traffic and regulating cyclists/car traffic on crossings. There are water stations and first aid stations along the routes and some other activities are being held, like dancing on music. Thousands of people take out their bike or roller skates and sometimes kids, and hit the road, it’s quite something. In downtown you have to stop often for police letting cars cross the route, but outside of the center the road follows a main road, so that for about 20 km you can just ride without stopping. That’s where you see the road-bikers and triathletes. Of course there is no harm in trying to keep up with them on a tandem bicycle … I also learned what happens at 2 pm when it ends. A police car drives the route, and police that are closing the roads can open them for traffic once this police car passes by. The car has lights and sound on. Nothing like being followed by a police car with full sirens to pop up the speed a little…

There were other things to do then cycling… I took some Spanish lessons, so now I understand everything :). No, unfortunately just joking. Also, the pyramids of the Sun and Moon are a 1h bus ride away from Mexico City. These things are amazing and very impressive. The pyramid of the Sun is the second largest in the world, only one in Egypt is larger. To see such a massive pile of stones is impressive, though personally it makes me wonder why the mountains around the city didn’t suffice. But, it’s hard to grasp how impressive such a manmade pyramid must have been when the decorations where still present and priests where walking around doing their thing. Very Cool. On top of that, the city is ideal for wandering and exploring. There is a cheap metro system that can bring you anywhere and so you can explore neighborhoods, food, and whatever you’re interested in, and get home easily. We moved around hotels/hostels a bit, but ended up at a very nice hostel close to the original eagle landing spot, where the Zocalo palace is located, on which front square we enjoyed free concerts in the evenings, and saw some protesting taking place.

Less good news is that Leigh had a bit of pain in his low belly, that didn’t go away by resting and prevented him from biking further. We ended up leaving the bike in Mexico City and heading back to Canada in the hope that we could figure out better what the problem is and then solve it. So, currently we’re on a break from our break. We have no idea yet what the next update will be about, just wait and see…. :)