Mexico City

WWF is really big here


This is how tall we are now

Getting there...
Seriously though unbeknown to us our bags were taken off the bus while we were queuing at customs and suddenly we had to chase these munchkins up the road to get them back. They were shrewd business men for their age, our pockets were lighter after this stongest boy competion.


5am in Mexico City

My first sight in Mexico City: the grand & spacious Zocalo square with its innocuous flag. Cops and crowd control fences were everywhere but there were few people to control, twas a bit too early. We find out the President was coming at 8, a decent meal was more pressing so we went in search of the famous café Tacuba for a desperately needed treat. Starched nursey waitresses with pastries held high on silver trays whisked through the hand painted tile & stained glass restaurant. Rather! We caned half a days budget before wiping the lack of sleep from our eyes.


Heres one

The illusive Jonno we have come to see finally answers his phone and comes to meet us. For those of you unfamiliar with Jonathan Farr Esquire - Dave and he both studied Fine Art together at The Slade. Jonno moved to Mexico City 10 years ago and has been drawing and illustrating here ever since, (when he’s not sneakily putting on exhibitions in London that is) and here HE is..


Jonno and his super pen and ink Mexico sky line

We treck though the wonderful cobbled streets of the old Historical part of town to Jonnos flat. I’m amazed how clean it is (Mexico not his flat) , and ogle at the wonderful array of fine architecture, I was expecting something a bit more chaotic and polluted to be honest.







Dave’s also impressed, he stayed in this area 8 years ago for a couple of months and it has had a massive face lift since then by the removal of lots of street vendors, there are still stacks of them on other streets very nearby so no loss. This is fantastic street food land, with a huge array of sizzling dishes and hordes of commuters queuing up for meat and taco breakfasts.



After settling in and meeting one of Jonnos kooky invented characters (the unidentifiable creature) for a children’s book illustration he’s working on, he takes us round the corner to his fav bustling local restaurant. For the equivalent of one-fiddy we have the set 3 course lunch, actually it’s a 4 course meal as the rice is served and eaten separately. The main is the famous Mexican Mole, a dark spicy chocolate sauce that can have up to 17 different ingredients in it, typically served with chicken. Its rich and soo good. Shame we didn’t save some of the rice course to mop up the lake of sauce, strange eating habbits these Mexicans.



While Jonno meets his publisher we hang out at the Café in the sky and check out the monster cityscape stretching below us. It’s about all we manage that day; Mexico City is pretty high (minimum of 2,200 metres above sea level) so we use the excuse we are acclimatizing to altitude.



The next day we don our tourist hats and set out in search of Trotsky and Frieda Carlos (they had a fling apparently).

On-route we are transported to Mars catching a train from the orange tube station of ‘Total Recall’ fame. A classic retro design that still looks fabulous, not allowed take photos sadly (should have done a sneaky but too green). They have a patrolled section on each platform for women and children only, music videos and icons for the stops for the illiterate folk. It feels good to be in a city again, and as a bonus we are not being stared at at all.



We amble through a large park with an extremely smelly canal round the edge and tame almost black squirrels, and discover some matadors training. The guy below made a funny grunt every time he finished a swish of his cape, very entertaining at this level I must admit. Shame he doesn’t just stick to pigeons.


You of course have to build up to bulls

Jonno asked us to set free a spider plant for him but the grounds too hard so we just take it for a walk instead.


Alternative park bench

Frieda’s blue house stands out in the smart modern leafy suburb a huge corner block of ultramarine.


Frieda Carlos courtyard

It feels familiar walking into the courtyard we’ve seen in films. Her house is a wonderful place to be, each room vibrant, folkie kitch, I’d love to have lived here. She has 3 beds in different rooms, they are tiny and carefully positioned to have the best views, she had to spend a lot of time in them due to the excruciating disease she had. One has the mirror in the ceiling so she could do self portraits while lying down. The most interesting rooms were the ones they had kept as they were. We saw some of her sketches, no paintings though??


Frieda and famous artist husband Diego Rivera & Dave’s sketch of Frieda.

If you leant over the rope (in front of the displays) a buzzer alarm went off, every few minuets someone did just that so we dashed through back to the safety of the tranquil courtyard.


Jonnos colourblind colours candle & funky 104

Its no coincidence Trotsky’s house is round the corner, when exiled from Russia Mexico welcomed him and Frieda and Diego invited him to stay at the blue house. He stayed for 2 years before moving here..

Trotsky had the gun turret added after first murder attempt, along with big steel bunker doors and a guard house. There are bullet holes in the walls of his bedroom; everything has been left as it was.


Alas the fortifications were to no avail this is the room where he worked and met his demise with an ice pick.

On a personal note as well as bedding Frieda (the old charmer) he also loved going out into the desert and collecting cactuses for his garden and keeping rabbits.


Trotsky’s rabbit hutches




A tasty lunch with the locals



I get overexcited at the bright and shiny everything market and have to be dragged away before buying several giant piñatas.


Different Mole pastes and dry spices.





We wander home through leafy squares and cobbled courtyards



Its beetle mania over here




At the National the following day

Disaster strikes! our portable hard drive with the photos from the last 4 months dies. Luckily Jonno knows a guy (as they don’t even sell these things here). So we trek across town, he seems optimistic so we leave it in his capable hands.

Fine art today in Chapultipec park…..


Wafer thin lolly stall


Chili snacks, tamarind balls of goo and monster crisps (right)


Funny Park police


Muffin fuel

The Modern Art gallery foyer had the most amazing reverberating echo under the very centre of its domed roof and we stomped about making sound movies….


Art


More art

Excellent museum, visiting exhibits and permanent floors all very interesting and not too much crammed in that you feel the need to lie down in a dark room afterwards.


I wish I’d painted that (In search of a seagull, Manuel Felguere 1959)



Felipe Ehrenberg (above) has a whole floor and is said to me the most influential modern Mexican artist. His work is cheeky, lude and satirical involving performance art, painting and multimedia, good stuff.



Even the corridors next to the loos have art, how much for this piece?


Grackle stepping out.

We leave the gallery & park with its multitude of wwf mask stalls, have your photo taken with Spiderman or big furry Muppet stalls, take away food melted onto plastic plates stalls. Eat huge leaf thin lollies or balls of tamarind goo stalls. And go out with Jonno to see ‘No Country for old men’ at the flicks, quality stuff from the Cohen Brothers. We both felt like someone was in the loos afterwards out to get us, spooky.


Guitar lessions….

The Latino tower, buy a trip up it and it lasts all day so you can go back at sunset


So we do…….

Coloured market stalls on the street below

Mexico City is in a huge bowl and we can see the mountains in the distance all around it’s such a clear day. This was the first settlement of the Aztecs, used to be all marsh with floating reed houses and a long bridge from the mountains to the city

Later that day….



One of the best things about the place was the bar at the top, we convince Jonno to meet us for drinks.


Dave in the sky high bar

They have ceiling to floor glass walls in the ladies, even in the end cubicle. I make the most of it and drop the kids off at the pool while looking down at the city. The lights go on and off with movement, when its dark the views fantastic. When the lights come back on and a helicopter sneakily flies by its not so good, I’d had enough beer to be amused though.

help me OB1 Kinobe!

Afterwards at a popular local haunt we drink refreshing micheladas (larger with fresh lime in large salt rimmed jars).


The following day more markets yay!

Jonnos pals give us a fine porky feed (Tacos l’pastor) we sit in front of them as they merrily hack up all sorts of choice innards on a wooden block with cleavers.



I take a million photos



Heres a few….


Yes you can eat cacti it’s a bit like asparagus



Later we cook a curry with minted yogurt and tamarind chutney (made from fresh ones, a right pain in the ass) for Jonnos pals Monica and Gustavo.



Other highlights include Diego Rivera (Freidas hubby) murals of the horrendous treatment of the locals during the Spanish crusades capture of the country.

Walking the streets…

The many Spiderman out and about town…



If you are going to stalk wear something inconspicuous.


Who ate all the flies?


Cheeky

On the way to friends for dinner we pop into a groovy Mezcal bar…



And try 4 types. The most popular of which has been filtered through a chicken?????? Its all so crazy, the effects rapid. Lots of checkerdness and small things including the Bonsai tree birthday present make it very Alice in wonderland.




What?, eh?, buuuuuurrrrrg?

We are very late for dinner but they really don’t mind (obviously know Jonno well). Paulina and Abes flat is amazing, curvacious 20’s building with fabulous balcony and view. Chocker with designer furniture, art and qwerky kitschness (full size deer for example), heaven. The food is equally divine particularly the fig, chicory, roquefort and raspberry reduction starter. Jonno fell asleep on the loo (to show his apreciation) while Abe brazenly showed me his collection of comic graphic porn. One story involved Wendy from peter pan with Alice in wonderland and a third famous female character I wish I could remember. Interesting evening.


Daves painting (and present for Jonno) in progress

Up on Jonnos roof on the final day in Mexico City. He’s been an absolute star letting us stay and good, skewed funny company.



Shame to leave Meccico City, truly fantastic place.


Painted shop advertisment from the bus window