Quote: (08-27-2016 09:34 PM)ElFlaco Wrote:
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.
This is a great idea, ElFlaco. Mexico City has a lot to explore beyond Condesa/Roma for us long-termers here. Here are a few of the things I've discovered during my time here:
Birria - the best birria is near the Bondojito metro stop. The block before the stop (if you're coming from the Centro), there are two birria restaurants right next to each other. People argue over which is the best, but they are both excellent. Good way to load up on protein or get over a hangover.
Tianguis of San Felipe de Jesus - "Tianguis" are Mexico's open-air markets that are held on certain days. The tianguis held every Sunday in the neighborhood of San Felipe de Jesus are famous as "the largest in Latin America" (as many taxi drivers have assured me). This sprawling market is a labyrinth of nearly every product under the sun, usually cheap, sometimes stolen. It's worth checking out even if you don't need to buy sneakers for 50 pesos. The neighborhood is kind of hard to reach though, since on Sunday all of the streets are blocked by the tianguis. The best way to go is to either get a camion (bus) from either the Deportivo de 18 de Marzo or the Martin Carrero metro stops. It will take about 20 minutes to get there, and you'll recognize it when you're there because the bus will slow to a creeping pace because of all the market stalls blocking the street.
Pulquerias - There are definitely still pulquerias in Mexico City, and I think pulque in general is making a big comeback, especially among the hipster crowd. My favorite pulqueria for atmosphere is Las Duelistas in the Centro. Absolutely packed on weekend afternoons, it gets a mix of old-timers and hipsters. Another place that's technically a pulqueria but functions more like a bar is Pulqueria Los Insurgentes, which is on Insurgentes in Roma. It's in a big sprawling old building with three or four stories and a number of different rooms, each with a different ambience.
Mercado Sonora - This mercado is the place to go for all sorts of weird and wild stuff related to magic and popular superstitions, such as statues of Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde, implements for Santeria rituals (including animals suitable for sacrificing), and other New Agey stuff.
Tepito - Not that far north of the centro, Tepito is a rough neighborhood where Mexico City's main black market is located. You can find anything and everything here, and can assume that it is most likely stolen. You run a fair chance of getting robbed here yourself if you visit, so it would be best not to bring any valuables with you, and if you look very gringo, to come in the company of a Mexican.
Mercado San Juan - Another strange market near the centro. It hosts a number of gourmet food stalls that import fancy meats and cheeses from Europe and serves them tapas-style to visitors. Alongside that, it's also known as a place that sells exotic meat of every description (including lion, tiger and dog). There are various restaurants in the market that claim to serve such meats, but they only serve them cooked and sliced, so who knows what they actually are (probably burro). On the other hand, the market does definitely have some of the less common meats in raw form, so should you ever be in the mood to cook goose, rabbit or duck, it's the place to go.