Going Native for a Capital Time

MEXICO CITY —  Forget the dance clubs. Forget the cantinas. The best party in this mammoth Mexican metropolis is aboard the brightly painted boats that ply the centuries-old canals south of the city.

On weekends, Mexican families arrive at the canals of Xochimilco (pronounced so-chee-MIL-ko) by the hundreds and pile onto festive wooden boats powered by sinewy men and boys using wooden poles. Long, narrow tables accommodate picnic-style lunches. If you didn’t have time to stock your own lunch basket, don’t worry. The canals are a veritable marketplace of beer boats and floating kitchens that will cook a custom-ordered lunch of tacos and tamales. Flower boats offer bouquets to adorn your table, mariachi boats serenade you and photographers on camera boats will snap your picture--sombrero and serape thrown in free.

The floating festival at Xochimilco--boats rent for about $10 an hour, poler included--was our favorite weekend diversion in 4 1/2 years as newspaper correspondents in Mexico. The canals are hundreds of years old, created by the Aztecs as part of a network of gardens for supplying fruits and vegetables to the city. The floating gardens still produce many of the flowers and ornamental plants sold in Mexico City, about 35 minutes to the north.

Because many foreigners associate Mexico with beaches and exotic Mayan and Aztec ruins, the capital city is one of Mexico’s most overlooked tourist destinations. And that’s a shame, because it offers enough to keep an energetic tourist busy for a week. Within a few blocks, you can be transported back 600 years to the steps of an Aztec temple, stroll the arcades of a 4-century-old colonial Spanish plaza and lunch on nuevo cuisine in a snazzy modern cafe.

In what is arguably the world’s largest city--an estimated 22 million people in the greater metropolitan area--traffic and pollution are bad. Crime also is a growing problem, but with common sense (use ATMs only in daytime, in well-trafficked places), a few precautions (don’t wear jewelry or carry cameras or purses on straps) and some big-city savvy (ask the hotel or restaurant to call a cab for you), there’s little reason to be any more paranoid about crime here than in most other big cities.

To get you out of the traffic and noise, we propose visits to lesser-known parts of the city that will give you a sense of Mexico’s variety.

You can feel the tranquillity of Old Mexico in the charming colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan, south of the city center. Once a community of weekend haciendas for wealthy city dwellers, it has been absorbed by the megalopolis. But strict historic preservation has kept tacky modern architecture and traffic congestion at bay.

The Coyoacan plaza is an oasis of clipped boxwood hedges and leafy trees flanked by 18th and 19th century homes and chapels. Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes had a villa here; a government office building stands on the site.

The bars and restaurants on the fringes of the square are great spots for people-watching and for sampling Mexico’s new boutique tequilas. These are not the tequilas of your college days; these are meant to be sipped. With some brands priced at more than $100 a bottle, you want to savor the flavors.

Stroll under the arches of the plaza entrance and walk down Calle Francisco Sosa, reputedly the oldest street in Mexico, a narrow cobblestone passageway flanked by 15-foot adobe walls, many with tiny niches housing statues of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint. Try to peep inside the walls when residents open their doors or garages. Behind the simple facades are some of Mexico’s most gorgeous homes and gardens, brilliant flower-filled yards, gurgling fountains and grand arched passageways.

An even more gentrified version of Coyoacan is the neighboring colonia of San Angel, a charming community of tiny, twisting streets between ancient stone walls dripping in the neon magentas, reds and oranges of bougainvillea.

The most popular shopping stop for every visitor we’ve hosted is San Angel’s Bazaar Sabado, the Saturday Market, open, as its name suggests, only on Saturdays. Two tree-shaded squares are jampacked with local artists selling their work--some exceptionally good--at reasonable prices. Inside the covered market area just off one of the plazas is a two-story warren of tiny shops crammed with handicrafts, clothes, jewelry and pottery.

The first stop for many tourists in Mexico City is the historic center, with its 13-acre square, the Zocalo, one of the largest city plazas in the world. The Zocalo--officially Plaza de la Constitution--is dominated by the behemoth Metropolitan Cathedral and the block-long National Palace.

The vast plane of the plaza, once the site of the hanging gallows and pillory stocks of Spanish rulers, is always alive with activity, whether it’s Aztec dancers performing in elaborate pheasant-feather headdresses and seashell anklets, or supporters of the rebel movement in the state of Chiapas peddling T-shirts of Subcomandante Marcos, or government employees protesting low wages.

The giant, twin-tower cathedral took 250 years to build. In the past century it has sunk 23 feet into the unstable soil below; in 1989 the shifts became so substantial that the building cracked down the middle.

Though the subterranean restoration work is nearly finished, the church interior is still supported by a mammoth array of scaffolding, and the floor tilts visibly. The main altar is an ornate, towering edifice of gilded saints and flocks of angels.

Next to the cathedral is what little remains of the Aztec temple the conquistadors ripped apart to build the stone foundations and walls of their new capital. Though the ruins of the Templo Mayor are hardly spectacular, they are a visible reminder of the destruction of Mexico’s indigenous culture at the hands of Spanish colonialists and Catholic priests. The museum next to the temple is worth a visit if you don’t have time to tour the city’s anthropology museum, one of the finest in the world.

Flanking the cathedral is a long, low-slung building that vaguely resembles a faltering cruise ship; it also is sinking on one end. This is the National Palace, and the main reason for visiting it is to see extraordinary murals by Diego Rivera. The paintings cover walls and ascend staircases, depicting the panorama of Mexican history, from Aztec days through the revolution of the early 1900s, with a postscript of what Rivera imagined for Mexico’s future as an industrial nation. It is populated with Rivera’s villains, Spanish conquistadors and greedy American capitalists, and his heroes, revolutionary leaders and Communist stalwarts, including his friend Karl Marx.

Dozens of narrow, ancient streets jut off the main plaza, making for fascinating rambles. Each block offers something different: exquisite little churches, funky shops selling everything from religious statues to mariachi suits, kiosks with printing presses to customize greeting cards, small museums that don’t make the listings of many guidebooks and street vendors peddling wares laid out on towels on the sidewalk.

By this time, panting and dry-mouthed from the altitude (Mexico City sits at 7,546 feet), you’re probably ready for a margarita or a coffee at the Casa de los Azulejos. The 16th century mansion’s facade is covered in brilliant blue-and-white Puebla tiles and houses Sanborn’s restaurant and department store. The restaurant, which serves food geared to tourists’ tastes, is a giant room decorated with marvelous frescoes that offer a visual feast.

A few blocks off the beaten tourist path, behind the cathedral, is the Public Education Building, which boasts some of Rivera’s most whimsical and biting murals on its courtyard walls. It is one of our favorite nontouristy stops, especially in March and April, when giant jacaranda trees carpet the courtyard in purple petals.

Paseo de la Reforma, the city’s main thoroughfare, sweeps from the historic center through the business district and into the posh residential neighborhood of Las Lomas, with its ostentatious mansions, ornate embassies and luxury homes of Mexico’s rich and famous. The avenue is studded with imposing statues of Indian, Spanish and modern Mexican leaders; gushing fountains set in the middle of busy traffic circles; and the golden Angel of Independence perched atop a marble column. Hardly a tourist visits her without snapping a postcard shot. But few tourists ever see what she shelters inside her massive concrete base. Here, behind glass windows in a dim, marble-floored crypt, lie the cracked skulls and boxed remains of some of Mexico’s greatest heroes, the men who led the country to independence nearly two centuries ago. The tomb, once accessible only to dignitaries, was opened to the public 18 months ago.

Two long blocks west is the entrance to Chapultepec Park, a giant greensward that slices through the architectural clutter of the capital’s modern downtown business and hotel district. On weekdays it is virtually deserted; on weekends it is a carnival of families seeking a patch of green space.

Up a steep hill near the entrance is the newly renovated Castillo de Chapultepec, once a military training academy where, legend has it, six cadets, now called the Child Heroes, threw themselves to their deaths wrapped in the Mexican flag during the U.S. military invasion of Mexico in 1847. It was expanded to house the court of the short-lived monarch Maximilian in the 1860s and was a presidential residence until 1939.

The National Anthropology Museum near Chapultepec Park is considered one of the world’s great museums. An archeology enthusiast could easily spend days roaming its chambers with their extraordinary artifacts culled from Mayan and Aztec ruins. But even tourists with no patience for museums can spend a few fascinating hours marveling at Mayan relics displayed in replicas of their original settings: eerie subterranean tombs, tropical outdoor gardens and artifact-filled courtyards.

After dark, if you have the energy and hire a safe hotel taxi, the Mexican capital offers a cosmopolitan night life to cap your visit. A great spot is Plaza Garibaldi, where as many as 200 mariachi bands vie for attention on weekend nights.

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GUIDEBOOK

The Mexico City That Tourists Often Miss

Getting there: Aeromexico, Mexicana, United and Delta have nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Round-trip fares begin at $300.

Where to stay: We usually directed visitors who can afford it to the Four Seasons Mexico, 500 Paseo de la Reforma, one of the city’s most elegant hotels. The restaurant is a favorite power breakfast spot with locals. Doubles with sitting area begin at $310. Telephone (800) 819-5053 or 011-525-230-1818, fax 011-525-230-1808, Internet https://www.fourseasons.com.

Majestic Best Western, 73 Avenida Madero, charges $88 to $150 for a double. Tel. (800) 780-7234 or 011-525-521-8600, fax 011-525-512-6262, Internet https://www.bestwestern.com.

Suites Coyoacan, 1909 Avenida Coyoacan, Colonia del Valle, is modern, with suites starting at $100. Tel. 011-525-534-8792, fax 011-525-534-4013.

Where to eat: La Valentina’s has two locations, at 1854-B Avenida Insurgentes Sur, at Colonia Florida, tel. 661-8401, and at 393 Avenida Presidente Mazaryk, Colonia Polanco, tel. 282-2214. It specializes in indigenous dishes with unusual sauces and the best soups in town. You can make a meal out of appetizers, particularly the blue flour quesadillas and miniature shrimp tacos. Dinner for two is about $45.

Taberna del Leon in Plaza Loreto, 46 Altamirano, Colonia Tizapan, San Angel, tel. 550-0921, serves Mexican high cuisine. Dinner for two, about $50.

Los Girasoles, 1 Xicotencatl, Centro, tel. 510-0630, is near the Zocalo. Excellent Mexican fare, including local favorites such as sauteed grasshoppers. Best picks include duck tacos and mounds of delicately fried vegetable strips. Dinner for two, about $40.

San Angel Inn, 50 Palmas, San Angel, tel. 616-2222, is a stunning old hacienda with a beautiful courtyard garden. Traditional Mexican fare; the chiles rellenos and margaritas are particularly good. Dinner for two, about $45.

For more information: Mexican Government Tourism Office, 2401 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90057; tel. (213) 351-2069, Internet https://www.mexico-travel.com.