Posts Tagged Coyoacan
Coyoacan
Posted by Jessica Sanchez in Jessica Sanchez, Mexico on June 24, 2014
One of my favorite places in D.F. is in Coyoacan, a delegation Northeast of UNAM, approximately 10 minutes by trolebus, from my apartment. At its center, a plaza bursts with vibrant colors. Restaurants, bars, and small shops form two large squares, divided down the middle by a small avenue. Inside these squares, benches, trees and lush shrubs decorate the plaza. On a rainy day like today, water fills the pores on the stone grounds. The wet soil smells of comfort and the surrounding greenery is rich with life.
This place, so different from anything in the US, feels like home. Walking the streets of Coyoacan I see beautifully decorated buildings, each adjacent to the next, an endless array of tones, personality and design. Uniform and disorderly, in their natural state.
At the Coyoacan Market, there are rows and rows of small posts, selling everything from candy, to flowers, to fruit, to toys, meat, and meals ready to eat. At every turn someone pops out of their post to greet you with a smile and ask if there’s anything you’re interested in. There’s a welcoming buzz in the background, of people shopping, locals selling, laughter, and gossip.
Here, I stop by my favorite fruit stand, where the owners know my face and my order almost by heart. The fruit here is sweeter than anything I’ve ever had in the US. My recommendation: Banana, strawberries, guava, figs, papaya, mango, all diced up and topped with honey and granola. I always order just one more thing: 1 liter of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, with just a bit of orange juice for sweetness. It’s heaven and since I arrived in Mexico, Coyoacan has formed an integral part of my routine and the tasty fruit, a daily part of my diet.
Agur Basque Country, Hola Mexico!
Posted by Ainhoa Martinez in Ainhoa Martinez, Mexico on June 10, 2014
5.30 pm of Thursday the 5th, I have just finished the last exam of my LLB. I cannot believe Law School is now over and in less than 2 days I will be on my way to Mexico City. A good plan for my last hours in Vitoria-Gasteiz? To have dinner with my best friends in one of our favorites Italian restaurants and have some drinks.
The day before starting my trip I had lunch with my family, packed up everything I need for the trip and said goodbye to my beloved family and friends.
See you soon girls!
Having some drinks after dinner with my best friends in Vitoria-Gasteiz, to celebrate we have finished our LLB and my trip to Mexico.
Hometown.
Vitoria-Gasteiz is where I live. It is the capital city of the Basque Country and in 2012 it was awarded as the European Green Capital. This monument made of shrubbery was designed to represent the award and it stands in the center of the city.
I have been lucky because 4 days before my departure I got in contact with a woman who was renting a room for students in the area of Coyoacan, where Jessica is living. I saw the house and the room via Skype and we reached an agreement. So having solved all this issue about accommodation, before my arrival to Mexico City, have been truly handy. I will not have to go mad booking a hotel room and wondering around the city looking for a place to live.
4 am of Friday the 7th, the airport is just one hour away from my home and is easy to get there. First I will travel from Bilbao to Paris and then get the flight to Mexico City. There were so many security controls between Bilbao and Paris and the Parisian airport was so big that I almost got lost, but I finally reached the gate for my flight and as I had 3 hours left until the departure I had lunch in one of the restaurants. Got my tickets and passport ready to take my sit in the flight, if you had ever travelled such long distance you will guess I am sitting next to the corridor because your body and mind can get really tired during the 10 hours of journey and it is good to walk every hour to avoid having pain in your knees, ears or headache.
The plain is about to take off.
The journey starts in the airport of Bilbao. Incredible view from the window, the sky is quiet and calm.
Finally I landed in Benito Juarez International airport at 6.30 pm local time. There are 7 hours of time difference between Mexico and Spain and I hope the jetlag does not catch me. I went through the migration controls and got my luggage. One more thing to do before I walk over Mexican floor: I had to press a button and if the light goes green I walk forward, but if the light goes red I have to open my luggage to be inspected. Please go green, please go green… It’s green light! Thank God! I was so tired I did not want to start taking everything out of the luggage.
From 6 pm onwards it’s rush hour in the Mexican airport because it is the arrival time for most flights coming from Europe. The place was crowded, but I finally found Jessica and we took a safe taxi to get home. During the journey, the long roads and the old buildings I she through the window of the cab reminds me of the summer I spent in Beijing. Everything looks more or less the same, like a massive city, full of traffic, where wealth and poverty are separated by only a few steps.
First must-to-do things in Mexico City:
1. Settle in the house.
2. Walk around the area and locate important places such as public transport areas, restaurants and supermarkets.
3. Do the shopping! (you must be starving).
4. Find secure taxi numbers, maps and other practical information.
5. Get a Mexican cell phone. It can be easily bought in OXXO or Moviestar shops for 300 MXN.
And do not forget to try “Chapulines”, if you don’t try them you won’t live the Mexican experience. Jessica took me to a little place in Miguel de Quevedo Avenue and bought some. I just tried two and it was a mixture of spicy and salt with a lot of proteins. For a non Mexican person it was very spicy, as Mexicans say “Me enchilé”.
Chapulines.
The popular Mexican snack, which is full of proteins and tastes spicy and salt.
Regarding the Coyoacan area, I really like the house where I am living, there are 3 more students living here and every Monday and Friday a housekeeper cooks for us traditional Mexican food (I hope I can share with you a blog entry on this issue in the future). The first morning I woke up and found a welcome message written on the board of the kitchen. Rita, the owner of the house, prepared me a huge and delicious breakfast to recover from the long journey and the other students living in the house and I started talking. It seems like we have a lot in common, two of them are studying music and I play the acoustic guitar and the ukulele. The neighborhood is calm and both public transport and supermarkets are close to the house.
Welcome message.
Rita (the owner) and other students living in the house left me a welcome message written on the board of the kitchen, followed by a delicious and energetic breakfast the morning after my arrival.
Jessica and I decided to stablish our meeting place in a Starbucks, which is halfway between her home and mine, we have like a 10 minute travel by “Trole-bus” to get there. It is funny the first time I took the Trole-bus alone, it suddenly broke down and had to wait a lot until another one picked me from the middle of nowhere, but it was okay and I easily found Jessica.
Trolebus.
An eco-bus, connected to the electric system of the city.
We spent my 3rd day in Mexico City walking through the main streets of Coyoacan and it is such an active and full of live place where you can find different street markets, parks, all the food shops that you can imagine…
The center of Coyoacan.
This is Jessica and me, standing in front of a fountain in a park. The 2 coyotes in the middle of the fountain give the name to this beautiful area, Coyoacan.
My way back home early at night was such a challenge for me because more or less I could locate myself in the area during the day, but the sun had already gone. There was no problem, I took another Trole-bus to “Taxqueña” main street and just had to walk a couple of streets to reach home. So the first day walking around the place alone went pretty well.
On my way back home at the end of the day.
Here you can find one of the OXXO shops, which are so popular around the city.
Life in Mexico seems to be very “relaxing” so we had better not to be in a hurry if we need to do something. That could summarize the Mexican way of living.
P.S.: “Agur” means goodbye in Basque language and I suppose everyone will know that “Hola” means hello.
