Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2014 | Page 156
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Travel | Bucharest, Mexico City, Atlanta
Mexico City
In celebration of Garuda
Indonesia joining the SkyTeam
airline alliance, Ryan Craggs
ventures to the thriving
metropolis of Mexico City,
home to SkyTeam airline
alliance carrier Aeroméxico.
Words by Ryan Craggs
Somewhere around the third bite of a chicharrón
de queso, a flaky cheese crisp served at El Califa
taquería (taco stand), or perhaps the second
Diego Rivera mural viewed in an afternoon,
the wonders of Mexico City come into focus:
here, in a metropolis of nearly nine million
people and twenty-one million in the metro
area (only slightly smaller than Jakarta), a day
can be filled with as much art, history and food
as the heart – or stomach – desires.
A few short years ago, an outsider wouldn’t
have considered traipsing around the
dust-covered streets of Mexico’s capital.
But in the 20th year of the North American
Free Trade Agreement, the fruits of open
exchange radiate in Mexico City. Ever the
financial juggernaut, the Distrito Federal,
or DF as it is commonly known, sprawls
upwards and outwards. In no place is this more
apparent than along the Paseo de la Reforma,
the city’s most famous boulevard.
Along this street in the financial district,
the imposing HSBC Tower exemplifies
the wealth of the world’s eighth-richest city.
Just east of the world-famous National
Anthropological Museum, business
headquarters and luxury accommodation
pepper this stretch of the Paseo. Power
lunches and thousand-thread-count
sheets come with the territory at the Four
Seasons Hotel and St. Regis Mexico City.
But a short jaunt across the street reveals
even more activity.
Bordering the southern edge of the Paseo de la
Reforma, the Zona Rosa, or Rose Zone, teems
with life. The streets of this neighbourhood
resonate with old-world character, with streets
named after European cities and many homes
designed a century ago to resemble their
European counterparts. If not for the sound
of spoken Spanish, the cafés and clubs of the
Zona Rosa could easily transport a visitor to
Paris or Rome. And amid the comfortable
subtropical climate, an extended espresso
break or lingering lunch amid the sculpturelined streets just seems like the thing to do.
In the shadow of the HSBC Tower on
that famous boulevard, the Ángel de la
Independencia, or Angel of Independence,
looks northeast towards the city’s centre.
And it’s in this locus that one finds a hub
of culture and history. Really, the Centro,
or the historic centre, is a city within a city,
boasting more museums and buildings of
cultural note than some entire countries.
Here explodes a sensory overload: the smell
of freshly fried churros, the harmonies of
street musicians and the palpable buzz at the
epicentre of Latin America’s richest city.
Further up Paseo de la Reforma, heading
east on Juárez, many of the city’s finest gems
neighbour one another. The Casa Mural Diego
Rivera showcases his work Dream of a Sunday
Afternoon in Alameda Park. And on the eastern
corner of the Alameda, the Palacio de Bellas
Artes hosts concerts, art symposiums and even
more of Rivera’s murals. Diagonally opposite
to that rises the Torre Latinoamericana,
which allows vistas around the capital from
the building’s 44th-floor observation deck.
Though Centro offers the greatest number
of famous sites in Mexico City, the newfound
affluence and vibrancy of the DF shine
Mexico’s landscape is filled with ancient history,
with ruins of the Aztec, Toltec and Maya indigenous
peoples influencing the country’s art and culture.
© Mauricio Avramow / Shutterstock
© ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock
Continuing east on Juárez, the grid offers
numerous hotels and restaurants such as the
Downtown Mexico, a trendy Habita Group
hotel set in the Palace of the Countess of
Miravalle, and El Cardenal, possibly the best
restaurant for a traditional Mexican huarache.
Gravity continues pulling eastward, towards
El Zócalo, one of the largest public squares in
the world, and home to the National Palace
and the Metropolitan Cathedral.