Mexico City Pt. 2 happy new year!

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Well, I'm losing track of days by now so it will be hard to know where I left off. This is a good sign though. At least I know it is no longer 2008. I will not miss you 2007.

I think a couple days ago I was still with Juan and Maritere. Yes, it was Sunday because I went to a bullfight. But first my wonderful hosts wanted to take me to the museo de Rufino Tamayo. Yep, this guy I've never heard of before has a whole museum to himself. And it's huge too. I asked Juan if he'd been here before and he said, "yes, many times. I've lost count." I couldn't imagine going to a museum more than once, let alone many times, let alone a museum that is always the same and featuring only artist. Anyways, my consensus that anything Tamayo in his early years was crap, especially anything still life. His more abstract and conceptual stuff was great though. I could possibly see myself coming back here...but I would probably have to go through a heavy dosage of amnesia first.

A walk in the bosque de chapultapec (literally forest of grasshoppers; think Central Park, sprawling gardens and trees with museums and random other attractions) brought us back to the car and they took me to the Monumental Plaza Mexico, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) bullrings in the world. I was supposed to meet up with Juan's sister and friends, but they had already purchased their tickets in the $20 section. I decided to enjoy it on my own in the nose-bleeds for only $6.

So for all the people that are against the sport of bullfighting because it is cruel and what-not...whatever, it's rad. True, the first time I saw the matador skillfully plunge his sword deep into the neck of the bull, I winced, but then I heard all the cheering around me, well, it was alright. There were 6 fights, and the second was probably the best. The bull was extremely aggressive, and at one point caught the matador with his horns and tossed him up and onto his back. The matador recovered and made a mocking gesture to the bull, then turned to the crowd, arms out, showing that he was pretty much the balls. I can't be for sure, but it looked as if he had the blood of the bull streaked all across his face. The matador won, and thus followed immense applause, the tossing of hats and flowers onto the floor, as well as an assistant presenting him with the ear of the bull.

That night I found some great pozole (a stew with pork and hominy kernels) and a couple of enchiladas at this literal hole in a wall. I could tell the small family-run establishment (which seemed to only serve pozole and enchiladas) did not often receive foreigners or even Mexicans for that matter. The kind of hospitality one gets in this places is what makes walking that few extra blocks for something different worthwhile. And it was crazy cheap too.

On New Year's Eve I decided to move on from Juan & Maritere's. They were great hosts, but I needed go be with my own people...no, not Americans, travelers. As great as Juan and Maritere were, they didn't seem to get out much.

I metro'd to the centro historico in search of a cheap room. Hotel Isabela is what it came to, because of the price (and what I got for $15). But the place seemed dead. Were there no other traveler's here, or were they just out on the town? It was the middle of the day. I wandered around a while and didn't meet a single person...This was looking like it could be a lonely holiday. I tried to take a siesta in the afternoon, but I am terrible at naps, so I ended up just going down to the lobby to read and hopefully meet some people to celebrate with. It's tough because traveler's can be extremely pretentious, judgmental, anti-American and cliquey.

As soon as I entered the lobby I saw a young couple, and the guy was just departing. The girl was poring over a map of Mexico. Boyfriend's gone, I know a Mexican map, a-HA! Here's the chance! I asked her where she was headed to and she said she didn't know, maybe Oaxaca? Me too! By this time, boyfriend returned and introduced himself. They were definitely Israeli travelers. Schloamee (not the right spelling of his name, but that's how it is pronounced) and Maya. They were extremely friendly and within minutes we were forming plans for Teotihuacan (Aztec pyramids) Oaxaca, some secret waterfalls and caves as well as the new year's eve.

Maya, 28, does a lot of natural herbal stuff. She makes her own natural medicines and does that science thing where they analyze your health by looking at the patterns of your iris. Most of what she talks about goes right over my unnatural, carnivorous head.

Shloamee, 34, trades jewels. He goes to places like India and China to buy jewels, then sells them in Israel. He is a crazy guy, like a mix between Borat (not the Jew-hating part) and Johnny Depp in Blow. Really cool and slick business man, but with a funny accent. He only will eat kosher meat, so has been eating a lot of guacamole. He also brought bags of food from home. This is their first long-term trip (2.5 months) and they brought suitcases, not backpacks...I have a lot to teach them.

Upon meeting up with these two I realized why I had decided not to pack the book that Gus gave me for Christmas called "Schticks and Stones", which was full of Jewish jokes and stories.

Anyways, We didn't head out until almost eleven, after having a glass of their wine they brought from Israel. We went to Zocalo, which was still beautifully lit up from Christmas. There were grandstands overlooking the temporary ice rink and music was blasting. A man in a cowboy hat was singing in the middle of the rink with a dancer on each side of him. When he was done singing, Maya wanted to find some food. Well, on our way, we found out this guy was pretty famous because there was a crowd getting autographs. And yes. I got one.

I asked Maya where she wanted to be for midnight and she said "somewhere drinking". Fair enough. And then we discovered that Mexico City is surprisingly dead on this holiday. Even some of the 711's were closed. Eventually we found a place (just after midnight) that had a live band of 3 women singing a mix of Spanish and American rock. My favorite was of course their rendition of The Door's 'Love Me Two Times', which they pulled off quite splendidly. We had a couple beers and Maya and I had shots of tequila. Shloamee declined as he was feeling sick from his poor diet since leaving Israel. We tried to hop to another bar...but once we started the jump we couldn't find anywhere to land. So back to the hotel it was to finish their bottle of wine. However, we didn't even make it up to their room as we got in a conversation with Miguel, the doorman, who had a significant line of empty beers under the couch he was sitting on. He insisted on drinking tequila with us, so after finishing the small bottle I had brought, he brought a fifth from the hotel's bar. Eventually we were joined by some girls from Norway, a German guy who was teaching German in Monterrey, and a Nicaraguan girl who works at the same newspaper that I will be working at when I get there, as well as random other travelers passing through the lobby briefly. We tried to convince Miguel to come to Oaxaca, but he kept making up excuses like, "but I have to work!" Whatever Miguel. I thought we were friends.

Finally at 3:30 I finished the GLASS of tequila that Miguel had poured me and retired to my quarters. I am sure those are the exact words I used too. Well, New Year's in Mexico City, while not exactly what I was expecting, turned out to be a success. Especially compared to last year's.