UNDISCOVERED MEXICO CITY
I've lived in Mexico City for several years now. Here are some ideas for day trips within the city itself. They're not generally considered places of interest for tourists but they do show an undiscovered / off-the-beaten-path side of Mexico City that few visitors experience. You do need some basic Spanish for most of these, for your safety if nothing else.
In Iztapalapa, La Central de Abasto is an enormous indoor wholesale food market, the biggest in the world. Wikipedia in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_de_Abasto. You can get there on foot in 10-15 minutes from metro Apatlaco or metro Aculco.
Another forgotten part of Mexico City is all the way to the north: Cuahtepec. Take the metro to Indios Verdes and take a bus from there. Because it's isolated geographically -- there's only one road in -- it feels very much like a small village. There is some street life at night. You'll never see another foreigner there. Order an elote (corn on the cob) on the street and walk to the plaza.
To the south, there's the semi-rural 'delegation' of Milpa Alta. I've been exploring and walking around neighborhoods there (the first bus of the trip leaves from metro Tasqeña).
Tláhuac is located in the southeast of Mexico City. Take the new metro (line 12). It's an aboveground/elevated train for most of the line, so you get to see neighborhoods and churches along the way. That could be your whole trip, actually, but if you get off at the end of the line, walk around and you're in a small town not far from agriculture. Earlier in this thread I published a photo of a pulquería there. You don't feel like you're in Mexico City at all.
Neza (Nezahualcóyotl) is a famously sketchy neighborhood to the east of Mexico City (actually in the State of Mexico). Take a bus (a combi, actually) from metro Pantitlán that goes along Avenida Pantitlán. That could be your whole trip, or get out and eat something.
Chalco is on the same general side of town (state of Mexico). Take a bus from Metro Santa Marta. Get off and walk around. Dirt roads. I had some custom bookshelves made there once.
Another way to experience the city is to just get on any bus and take it to the end of the line, wherever it's going. The trip is the adventure. Just tell the driver you are going to 'la base' or mention one of the places listed on the windshield sign. It's liberating to not have a destination in mind. You can do the same with the metro.
These are all potential 'escape/get-away' destinations if you're based in Mexico City, just visiting and want a short day trip without a car or the guidebook. Mexicans would find these recommendations to be bizarre at best. They can't imagine the appeal. An interest in these kinds of places and experiences sometimes gets denigrated as 'poverty porn' but there's nothing at all like them in the US, so that by definition makes them potentially interesting, to me at least.
Thanks to naswanji for suggesting I write about Iztapalapa. His Mexican Cultural Calendar Datasheet is here: thread-57884...pid1380670.
I've lived in Mexico City for several years now. Here are some ideas for day trips within the city itself. They're not generally considered places of interest for tourists but they do show an undiscovered / off-the-beaten-path side of Mexico City that few visitors experience. You do need some basic Spanish for most of these, for your safety if nothing else.
In Iztapalapa, La Central de Abasto is an enormous indoor wholesale food market, the biggest in the world. Wikipedia in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_de_Abasto. You can get there on foot in 10-15 minutes from metro Apatlaco or metro Aculco.
Another forgotten part of Mexico City is all the way to the north: Cuahtepec. Take the metro to Indios Verdes and take a bus from there. Because it's isolated geographically -- there's only one road in -- it feels very much like a small village. There is some street life at night. You'll never see another foreigner there. Order an elote (corn on the cob) on the street and walk to the plaza.
To the south, there's the semi-rural 'delegation' of Milpa Alta. I've been exploring and walking around neighborhoods there (the first bus of the trip leaves from metro Tasqeña).
Tláhuac is located in the southeast of Mexico City. Take the new metro (line 12). It's an aboveground/elevated train for most of the line, so you get to see neighborhoods and churches along the way. That could be your whole trip, actually, but if you get off at the end of the line, walk around and you're in a small town not far from agriculture. Earlier in this thread I published a photo of a pulquería there. You don't feel like you're in Mexico City at all.
Neza (Nezahualcóyotl) is a famously sketchy neighborhood to the east of Mexico City (actually in the State of Mexico). Take a bus (a combi, actually) from metro Pantitlán that goes along Avenida Pantitlán. That could be your whole trip, or get out and eat something.
Chalco is on the same general side of town (state of Mexico). Take a bus from Metro Santa Marta. Get off and walk around. Dirt roads. I had some custom bookshelves made there once.
Another way to experience the city is to just get on any bus and take it to the end of the line, wherever it's going. The trip is the adventure. Just tell the driver you are going to 'la base' or mention one of the places listed on the windshield sign. It's liberating to not have a destination in mind. You can do the same with the metro.
These are all potential 'escape/get-away' destinations if you're based in Mexico City, just visiting and want a short day trip without a car or the guidebook. Mexicans would find these recommendations to be bizarre at best. They can't imagine the appeal. An interest in these kinds of places and experiences sometimes gets denigrated as 'poverty porn' but there's nothing at all like them in the US, so that by definition makes them potentially interesting, to me at least.
Thanks to naswanji for suggesting I write about Iztapalapa. His Mexican Cultural Calendar Datasheet is here: thread-57884...pid1380670.