There is no amount of preparation can get you ready for the enormity and absolute busyness of Mexico City. It is a city that has its own rules and the only way to survive is to embrace its functional chaos. I was in Mexico City on my way to a wedding of a friend I met at a Fellowship at Yale University. This was my first time in Mexico City and what it was discovering the city. It is a sprawling city, and can get overwhelming, but I was lucky in that I had a friend who has lived his whole life in Mexico City and he could guide me.
There is no theme to the photographs I took in the city. I just took pictures of things that I found beautiful, interesting, and sometimes just ordinary.
The street food in Mexico City is on another level. Fresh ingredients, friendly service, and most important, incredibly affordable. This one of the few countries I have travelled to that the currency was in my favour as a South Africa. This of course made my adventures in Mexico City easy and less calculative when I want to buy something good to eat.
“These paintings say Mexico is an ancient thing that will still go on forever telling its own story in slabs of color leaves and fruits and proud naked Indians in a history without shame. Their great city of Tenochtitlan is still here beneath our shoes and history was always just like today full of markets and wanting.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
“Look upon our beloved Mexico―the ancient singers gave her such lovely names:
Navel of the Moon
Foundation of Heaven
Sea-Ringed World.”
― David Bowles, Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico