Day F aaaa

Mexico City, the city of: corruption, pollution, crime,  drugs, end of the world, and the first destination on my short-lived mexican vacation. I have heard of every bad association Mexico City has, however, I always found it strange how every Mexican is a big fan of D.F (districto federal) and over the next 3 days DF would show me how it broke all of the stereotypes that Americans place on it.

Reforma Ave is this beautiful street lined with trees, not garbage.

The best comparison I can think of for Mexico City is if you were to combine Washington D.C with NYC.  I know first hand (along with Matt Stedjan) That there are places you DO NOT want to be in DC at 5 AM. This is probably where mexico gets its bad rap from.

Also I thought I would need one of these...

While Mexico City wasn't the cleanest place it must have improved... The same can be said about Pittsburgh. My grandfathers have both told me stories about black snow and coal dust you could wipe off your cars.


Here is some smart dude talking about it..."Mexico City has actually seen great improvement recently in terms of air pollution," says Dave Calkins, founder of the Sierra Nevada Air Quality Group and former chief of the Air Planning Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. "So much so that the government actually has to campaign to let everyone know that pollution is still a problem."

A street leading to the Zocalo

Lucky for me there are a lot of great Mexican families that are incredibly generous and inviting. I was fortunate enough to stay with one of my football player friends I made over summer, Alex Consuelos. (a really great family but more about them later) He lives in Tlalnepantla (try saying that 10 times fast)

Alex

The hard to pronounce city

The first night we rode on a bus with a bunch of his friends and went to a "club" in the DF. This club was one of the most shocking things I have ever seen... Straight out of the movies. 4 stories high with maybe 1,000 people rockin out... oh and a Foo Fighter cover band that made me forget I was in mexico! Bulldog cafe was a real fun time and mixed drinks for $1.50 it was pretty hard to beat.

Something that I have come to know, yet still not expect, is the incredible generosity Mexican families have down here. The next few days were filled with trips to their favorite places in DF and more on that in my next post. Something that I always find myself doing is meeting everyone's extended families... Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. My visits always seem to correspond with some family function that leaves me an awkward foot taller than every one and usually full of great food.