Apart from the central square, the Zócalo, Lewis the Lion had fun wandering around the bustling city centre of Mexico City. He even spotted a Mexican celebrity on one such stroll. Apparently, Danielo, is a judge on a show like the Mexican X-Factor!
Lewis spots a Mexican celebrity on the street!
It definitely still had a Spanish feel to the place but it had some North American influences too such as the 7/11 supermarket (like corner shops in the UK) and American fast food restaurants. Lewis one time ventured into MacDonalds where he had a ‘Cajita Feliz’ – ‘a Happy Box’ as it is called there, known as a ‘Happy Meal’ in the UK.
Lewis has a Cajita Feliz!
He thought it what funny that they called ketchup, ‘Catsup’ as you can see in this photo.
The Mexican word for ‘Ketchup!’
However, Lewis much preferred all of the stalls selling cheap, traditional Mexican street food which were found all over the city. (He will tell you all about Mexican food in one of his next blogs).
Some typical Mexican food stalls
Like in other capital cities, Mexico City had many wide pedestrianised shopping streets, often with music being blasted out from the shops themselves (Can you spot the sound system outside of this shop?)
Can you see the speaker blasting music into the street?
or with buskers turning the handles of sweet sounding musical boxes.
Lewis listens to the traditional street music
Many areas within the city seemed to be divided up into shopping districts, e.g. perfume shops,
Perfume and beauty shops
shoe shops, cobblers
There are lots of shoe shops together in this street
and shoe shiners,
Lewis the Lion spots a street shoe-shiner
jewellery and gold, etc.
Lots of gold and jewellery shops line the streets near the cathedral
Some of the buildings were very grand and ornate such as the Post Office building or various museums such as el Museo de Bellas Artes, (The Fine Arts Museum) where Lewis the Lion saw some fabulous murals by a famous Mexican artist called Diego Rivera (1886-1957). His favourite ones were murals called Carnaval de la vida mexicana (Carnival of Mexican Life) and El hombre controlador del universo (Man, controller of the universe). You can see some images of his murals if you click here. Lewis the Lion also liked some of the bronze plaques he saw which were dedicated to some of the Aztec leaders.
Lewis the Lion loves the bronze Aztec plaques
He was also reminded by these tiles of how the history of Mexico might have been very different if Christopher Colombus hadn’t discovered the Americas, with Hernando Cortes following swiftly behind to conquer the Aztec Empire.
Lewis sees the tiles dedicated to Colombus and Cortes
Mexico City is an enormous sprawling city and like other big cities, it has a underground metro system. However, Lewis the Lion couldn’t believe how cheap it was at just 3 pesos! (It is one of the cheapest metro systems on the world). There was also people trying to entertain the crowds with music blaring from huge ghetto blasters carried in rucksacks. Apart from the metro, driving around Mexico City could be an experience in itself as there was so much traffic on the roads. Some people were environmentally friendly driving electric cars.
Lots of electric cars run in the city centre
He also thought that many Mexicans were entrepreneurial, especially by entertaining those caught up in traffic, e.g. He saw jugglers and people selling goods like snacks and chewing gum when cars were waiting at a red light
Wandering around near the Zócalo was interesting for people watching as apart from the Aztec dancers, there were people performing strange ceremonies with smoke above people’s heads and there were several fortune tellers.
Strange ceremonies are performed on the street
Lewis the Lion also loved the fact that there were many pleasant parks in Mexico City too: he will tell you about a very special one called Chapultepec in one of his next blogs
Even though he’d heard some bad things about security in Mexico City before he got there, the truth is, Lewis the Lion felt very safe there as there was a huge police presence on the streets and he found that the policeman were very kind and helpful.
There is a strong police presence around the city centre
One policeman even bought Helen an ice lolly as he wanted to show her how hospitable the Mexicans were!
Lewis and Helen meet a welcoming police officer
Lewis the Lion thought that the Mexicans were very friendly and warm people who were full of life and who made him feel right at home there. On his first night in Mexico for instance some mutual friends of one of Helen’s friends, Hugo and Miren, took Lewis the Lion and Helen to a very elegant district in Mexico City, Colonia Condesa, where they showed them some great traditional Mexican food and drink and they even listened to some live music!
Hugo and Miren give Lewis and Helen a warm welcome to Mexico
Lewis the Lion really appreciated the fact that these people would make strangers feel so welcome in their city and he hoped that one day he would be able to return the favour if ever they visited England. Lewis the Lion just loved the feel of Mexico City and just wished he’d had more time to stay there. He wondered if his positive experience had something to do with the fact that he had met such kind and welcoming people there too?
If you were to welcome a foreigner into your town or city, how would you make them feel at home? What things would you want to show them? What food or drink is special there that would you want them to try?
