As I write this, I am taking generous gulps of air, as the atmosphere here is unbelievably thin given the altitude. This is in fact, the second highest city in the Americas, and the thinness of the atmosphere is matched only by the strength of the sunhine, which one might find both cheerful and relentless. The oxygen thing does suck though, and sometimes I feel like no matter how deep I breathe I’m being given the cheap stuff instead of real O2.

Already I am struck by the massiveness of this city, as well as the vibrancy and chaos. From the air, my first impression was “OK, clearly this is LA”. But then there were pieces of the city that were New York. And Houston. And Madrid, and Caracas. And more LA. On the ground, the similaries and differences were only magnified, and I found myself being driven 20km to my hotel while conversing with the driver about the relative safety of different areas and watching the different buildings zip by in a riot of color. There simply isn´t a shade of paint this place has never liked.

Given that most of the day was spent arriving, I haven´t done much yet other than spend some time walking around the hotel area (I am north of the Plaza de Independencia, which I photographed here) and conversing with the shopkeepers and locals, and fellow tourists such as myself.

I also had the most delicious ham and cheese sandwich I´ve had in years. This was with aged jamon serrano (the kind of stuff you usually only get in Spain) and unpasturized gruyere. Both the ham and cheese were complex and flavorful and I can’t tell you how a simple thing like a ham sandwich can be a thousand times more delicious with the right ingredients. I wish I could get this stuff in the States.

So aside from my sandwich eating, air gulping, photo snapping ways, I haven´t done much. Tommorow I will visit the Zocalo (the blood-soaked plaza I mentioned in my previous post) and the museum of anthropology. Hopefully I´ll have more interesting stories to tell, and more insight into this gargantuan noisy place I’ve inserted myself into. Until then!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.