(Photo by: Jami Buck-Vance)
A day removed from a pit of Mexican fire in my stomach – it had burned bright with tequila and salt – I comfortably reflect on Zona Polanco in Distrito Federal Mexico.
Polanco, in effect the Beverly Hills of Mexico, from Burberry to Gucci to my favorite: the eclectic Common People, where we bought beautiful soaps and bath salts and a bright magnet of the Lady of Guadalupe, radiant against a red background. That’s Mexico for you these days – radiant and resilient, yet against a red background of worsening drug violence. We didn’t see many other American tourists but felt safe.
Mexico City has more density than NYC and is vaster than LA, with a total population roughly equal to both combined. Thirty million people hived around us there, yet the affluence of Polanco was most striking. The pedigreed pooches in sweaters and bows, with well-coiffed and attired owners in tow, themselves with expensive sweaters tied around their necks. The rolling tree-canopied park and the fine shopping, and the restaurants where I found so many friendly tables.
Past the biggest flag I’ve ever seen, one Zona over is the giant park, the lake where families and couples cruise on peddled boats, the museums and street food vendors. On a Sunday afternoon, we strolled amongst thousands. One street vendor saying, “Wow,” at the beauty of my lady, as the sugar of the churros stuck to our hands. We stopped in for a margarita at a swank spot and then were given a free ride back to our hotel in their courtesy van. The night still awaiting us.
Fitting that I’d just bought a souvenir folk art miniature Mexican Cantina in Cuernavaca, I thought, as we explored the nightlife in Mexico City, with somewhat mixed results.
Before all this, was the mansion once-owned by the lovely Hollywood actress named Bardot in Cuernavaca, Land of Eternal Spring. Cuernavaca is a city of around one million, a city behind gated walls that opened to reveal large homes with gardens and outdoor space. The place we stayed, cobalt and white and flowing and as majestic in taste and decoration as any I’ve seen. The guest house alone was a shrine to all that is good about Mexico, and there’s so much.
The smell of steaming tamales removed from foil and banana leaves, for breakfast. The memory of Texas relatives that loved the culture. The feel of being seated outside under a temperate sky and consuming cold Mexican beer with limes sliced sideways, with the woman I love. The thronging Zocalo and the reverence and spectacle of ornate churches. The taste of piquant salsa verde and handmade tortillas. The art and color – yellow, cobalt blue, galaxy blue, Aztec blue, pink, hot pink, red, orange, all pop against the browns and tans.
To-and-fro Cuernavaca, we traveled by luxury bus, from the airport in D.F., where we shared our first mexican meal, a delicious bistec torta (sandwich). The city is mammoth from the air and feels enormous while navigated by auto. Housing packed on top of shallow stores and restaurants selling food and goods to the multitudinous masses. Soccer facilities and parks along the graffitied Metro train line, as we bounced in the bus through the crush of traffic.
Followed by the rurality of mountains and fields of hay that is most of the land in the nation of Mexico. Coming into Cuernavaca, we felt the energy rise again. And life did pulse there, with the same Mexican fire that we felt of the biggest city in the world, 100 years after the revolution, 200 years after declaring independence from Spain.
Students flock to Cuernavaca to study Spanish; while Capitalinos (as residents of D.F. are known) retreat the short distance to Cuernavaca for cleaner air and relative calm. Mariachi players wait near the Zocalo in full uniform ready to be rented to play. And a raucous mid-day celebration once swept us up, a tipsy local painted as an Indian for the festivities putting his arm around me and introducing himself and his less than pleased date, as we charged down the street with them. He told me I should have been out there at 10 a.m.
The silver town of Taxco that we visited on a day trip was brimming with humanity – flooding narrow city streets, full of pedestrians and vehicles and thousands of shops, every structure white with only black-lettered signage. There, I prayed in the most ornate church I’ve ever seen and then had a drink at the rooftop bar across the plaza. Next, dinner included chicken enchiladas and a hilltop view of the entire village from a large restaurant/hotel.
Our last night in Cuernavaca, fireworks bombastically filled the air from the club next door, as we finished with fine dining in a gorgeous open air restaurant. The Mexican night felt so perfect to us, under the candle and lamplight. And we anticipated the frenetic energy of the megalopolis of D.F., which was again on our agenda.
Back inside the mansion that night, we settled in to fall asleep and then were at one point suddenly awakened to noises on the tiled ceiling. We moved to the kitchen, and two curious Coatis glanced at us through a window from atop the property’s wall, before one bounded over the other as they exited our view. The magic of Mexico evident to us.
