I've just returned from a week-long trip to Mexico City. It was a remarkable combination of everything imaginable... exciting, fun, exhausting, boring, hard work, very social, mildly confusing, exasperating, etc. Which is much like Mexico city itself, really. Highlights included tacos (at left!), guacamole, tortilla soup and tamales... I have a whole new love for Mexican food, and it's nothing like you can find at home.We arrived late on a friday night and checked into the swank and chic W Hotel. The lobby bar is a popular place for locals, so the party was in full swing when we arrived. We were prudent Canadians, however, and had a single welcome drink before heading to bed. The hotel rooms are pretty unique, with huge bathrooms against the window and a vibrant red and white decor...
Saturday was a day of exploration. We had a van and driver, a young guy named Daniel who moonlights as a bouncer at the Hard Rock Cafe. He promised to be our bodyguard, which was probably a good thing as he took us to some apparently pretty dodgy neighbourhoods. But first stop was the suburb/town of Coyocan, where the Frida Kahlo museum is, as well as a small market in the town square.
And then we asked him to take us to the Centro Historico, the older part of town which has some of the more historic buildings and squares, as well as Aztec ruins on which the city is built over. Being too polite to say no, he concurred... and we found ourselves stuck in traffic for an hour or so. But although this would have been really annoying in any other circumstance, it was quite fun, as we got to see the crazy side of Mexico City pass by, all from the safety of our air-conditioned van.
Sunday's expeditions were a little more civilized, as we stayed in the area near our hotel, the ritzy Polanco district. The shopping options in this part of town are Starbucks, Fendi and Volkswagon ... a far cry from the black-market street sales of Centro Historico. We walked along the tree-lined section of Paseo Reforma, the main artery where many families were out enjoying the sunshine and the nearby Museum of Anthropology, but travelling on foot definitely wasn't the norm in this neighbourhood, where most people drive (or are driven to) the doorstep of their destination, and quickly ushered inside by doormen or security guards.
On Monday, our work began in earnest, and Monday to Wednesday is a blurr of faces and meetings with journalists and editors from all types of publications from Mexico City. For these three days, we had all of our meetings at the Four Seasons hotel, otherwise known as my gilded cage. The hotel is built around a serene and calming courtyard, and for three days that's all we saw of Mexico City. Inches outside the hotel walls was the chaos of the Paseo Reforma - traffic jams, protests, stray dogs and people, but inside all we knew was the velvet touch of this luxury hotel. A surreal few days, but on the work side of things, really remarkably productive!
The days were long, with a radio interview on Tuesday night (below) and a cocktail event on Wednesday evening. And with 'latin lunches' which didn't start until at least two in the afternoon, we were experiencing a kind of cultural jet lag. But the people we met were so much fun and the experiences all so new, that it was well worth the lack of sleep.
But the two highlights of the entire trip were on the last days. Thursday we had a meeting and tour of the Televisa soundstages, where many of the Mexican soap operas are filmed. Now, it's important to know that Mexican soaps reach a level unheard of to us, with prime-time airtimes and viewerships of 10 million and more. The current big hit is Rebelde, a show about a private high-school. The show has it's own magazine, and a spin-off music band which is apparently at the top of the pop charts.
We wandered into the soundstage with our host, who kindly introduced us to one of the show's stars, Alfonso. He is, not surprisingly, really good looking, and when he greeted us all with the standard cheek-kiss greeting, it wasn't hard to imagine what a big star he is in Mexico, and how we were probably the envy of every Mexican woman at that moment!!
Friday was a day off from work, and Wendy and I had set up a cooking lesson with one of the country's leading chefs of Mexican Cuisine, Carmen ('Tititia') Dellagado, at her restaurant, El Bajio. She walked us through the basic components of Mexican cuisine (corn, beans and chili peppers, with a hefty dose of tomatoes) , the wide and wild range of corn-based snacks like quesedillas, tacos, sopas, gourditas, and my new favourite, tamales, before showing us the more complex dishes that her restaurant prepares, such as octopus and squid stew, mole verde, and pork chiccarone. All I can say is, yum!!!
And that pretty much wraps it up. A great trip, but glad to be back home with Scott.