You didn’t state where in Mexico you had been, but since you’re from L.A. I’ll assume perhaps Tijuana or somewhere nearby.

Mexico City, and other cities within Central Mexico are nothing like the border towns. Where as the cities of Central Mexico are hundreds of years old with beautiful spanish colonial architecture the border towns are relatively new phenomena which only sprouted up as ways to capitalize on the regions proximity to the U.S. Thus most stores are based on selling booze, fireworks. prescription drugs (with no prescription)to americans, and the cities attract more beggars than elsewhere simply due to the abundance of "rich" Americans who pass through looking for such items. This combined with the sprawling industry in the area due to american firms dodging local wage/pollution laws but still wanting to be close to the home market of the U.S. and you generally have an undesirable region just over the rio grande. Once you get further into mexico, the older the architecture gets, the nicer the people get and the less scuzzy the cities get.

Mexico City does not have the beggars that Tijuana has (although don’t venture into the shantytowns) and is in the mountains so heat should not be much of a problem (especially if you are from L.A. Think of it as a cross between Madrid and New York. A Megapolis with an spanish colonial feel.

People love Mexico City, and people hate it but in my opinion it is a must see either way. I loved it but my friend who I went with hated it (I love large cities, she doesn’t). But it is nothing like other regions of Mexico so don’t judge it on your experiences elsewhere.

I agree with Chucko. Mexico City is the most amazing city in the world. It sits at an altitude of about 8300 feet above sea level, so although you may have hot days, the nights are fresh and the mornings are nice and cool. This also means some truly beautiful blue skies despite the smog. As Mexico City is also in a desert climate, you shouldn’t have the humidity that you will indeed encounter at the beach.

New York meets Madrid sounds about right. You have masses of people everywhere (I mean this in a good, NY Fifth Avenue kind of way). You have beautiful Spanish-style architecture in the colonial center, including the biggest cathedral in Latin America.

Being a big city, Mexico City always has something going on. On a Friday or Saturday night, the Zocalo (main square) is THE place to be, with merchant selling their wares, with musicians (often big name artists) putting on concerts, and with Aztecs dancing to folk music. The more affluent young people often hang out in Coyoacan, which is sort of like the Latin Quartier of Paris, with local artists, cobblestone courtyards, etc (Frida Kahlo grew up in this neighborhood). For much of the year, soccer/football is played in the Estadio Azteca, and I’m told it’s quite the spectacle.

What else…Mexico City has some of the best museums in the world, especially art and anthropology/archaeology. The Museum of Anthropology is considered the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Just off of the main square is the Aztec excavation "Templo Mayor," just a small corner of the much larger pre-Hispanic city of Tenochtitlan. The adjacent museum (included in the site admission) is great. If you like art, you can do much worse than visiting the Palacio des Bellas Artes, and you can also visit the National Palace to take in some stunning Diego Rivera murals (there are more in the Palacio des Bellas Artes as well, including one featured in the movie Frida).

You can easily take a two-week trip to Mexico City and never even make it to the ocean. The city itself deserves at least three full days (I would say four days), and there are innumerable day trips in any direction. The best is to the pyramids of Teotihuacan, which probably earn a spot in history alongside Macchu Picchu, Angkor Wat, and the Pyramids of Giza (though I haven’t seen any of the other three sites). You can visit the small silver city of Taxco with its pink church and winding cobblestone streets. You can visit Puebla, just two hours east of Mexico City and with more churches per capita than perhaps anywhere else in Mexico.

If you want to see images the Virgin Mary, you’ve come to the right place. Down here, they call her the Virgin of Guadalupe because of an indigenous monk who claimed to have seen her twice atop Cerro de Guadalupe, a hill that also happens to be in Mexico City. Watching the devout Catholics make a pilgrimage to the basilica that now sits on this site—literally on their knees—is quite the sight.

Sorry for the long post, but I get a little carried away whenever someone asks questions about Mexico City. It’s not the cleanest place and it unfortunately carries a bad reputation for petty crime (though I have ALWAYS felt safe there). But goddamn if it doesn’t feel like a million miles away, with some of the nicest people anywhere in the world. I’ve been there four times and I hope to return many more.

Also, Jana, I live in LA as well, and the good news is that it is very well-connected to Mexico City. United has 1 daily flight and Mexicana flies there prolly 12 times/day, including red-eye overnight flights that leave LA at 12:30 am and arrive at 6 am so you don’t waste the whole day getting there (Mexico City is Central Time). It’s an easy flight, about 3.5 hours going and 4 hours returning. Expect to pay anywhere from $300-$450.

I’m from Mexico City, so you may take my word as carved on stone, or think I’m not being objective. Probably both are right in some bizarre way.

I hate Mexico City. It’s dirty, it’s polluted, and yes, it is full of crime, and we can be hostile people depending on the circumstances. But I also love it, and when you learn to love after hating so much, there’s no turning back. Chucko Fantastico and Home Skillet have written an essay on Mexico City that I couldn’t have done better.

Everytime I go away and the heat gets to me, they say "aren’t you from Mexico City?" So what? Yeah, we have dessert, but we have forest as well, mountains, valleys, this country is one of the most diverse on climate, terrain, fauna, etc. Mexico City being in a valley, we don’t get extreme weather, although it can get warm or very cold during winter. But even now in summer, I’ve been wearing a sweater, our weather is mainly crazy.

As for the Day of the Dead celebration… We celebrate Halloween as you would, with trick or treaters in costumes, etc. That is on October 31st. Then on November 1st is the Day of the Saints, or some people say it’s the Day of the Dead Children. Nothing extreme happens that day, except the preparations for the Day of the Dead, which happens on November 2nd. This is our most antique tradition, and we hold onto that with jealousy, spanish conquest, french invation, US propaganda, this is what little we have left of the ancient indians.

It’s the only day of the year the dead come to spend the day with us, the portal between the land of the living and the dead is open. We celebrate it with altars. You’ll see many, both indoors and outdoors. Every home has one, every business, school, institution, etc. It’s very colorful and actually, as morbid as it may seem, it’s also a happy festivity.

The altars are colorful, we decorate them with black or purple cloth and orange flowers called zempaxuchitl or xempaxuchitl, only this time of year you can get this kind of flower. They are the flowers of the dead. There’s also papel picado hung everywhere, it’s china paper in many colors cut in nice shapes, some depicting skeletons, typical figure of these days. In the altar, we put pictures of the people we’ve lost, and we put things they used to like when they were alive. In children’s altars, you’ll see candy and toys, on adult altars, you’ll find cigarretes, tequila or mezcal, and food, lots of food prepared especially for the dead, not for us. Mole is one of the main dishes you’ll find, and also pan de muerto, or bread for the dead, covered in sugar. Also you’ll see sugar skulls decorated in colorful things, some with names on their forehead of either dead or living people. Oh, we burn copal as well, something similar to incense which has a very peculiar smell.

We also have a calavera contest, which are poems written about the death, but of living people, but these are supposed to be funny.

It is quite a thing, quite a sight, it can’t get more mexican than this, and if you want to see something worth while, go to a graveyard that day. It will be crowded, but the colors and presents are something to talk about.

This is my favorite festivity and I am getting excited already.

Honestly, to anyone that wants to come to Mexico, toss away those taco bell-tigres del norte stereotypes, you will be amazed. And the further south you go, the more breath taking it will get.

it sounds lovely. i’ve been to cabo san lucas, mazatlan, and puerto vallerta ( sp? ). the main attractions i remember were beaches though, i’m not a huge beach person. and of course, they were quite touristy.

everything i’ve heard of the day of the dead and/or related art i’ve seen has been really interesting. the church i went to as a child that scared the shit out of me, i so badly want to see churches like that now. that church is one of the most vivid memories i have from childhood. it was really beautiful. just being a child, i found the imagery a bit too disturbing.

thanks so much for your responses. i definitely think i’ll get there this nov.

Wow, jana, you WERE traumatized! I’m so sorry, but you need to let that go. Pleeeease do not let that hold you back from giving Mexico City, D.F., another chance!

Quite simply, it’s one of the most fascinating, exhilerating, monumental cities in the world. If you go to southern Europe, and Italy is on the itinerary, what—you leave out Rome? NO!

So, go. But, don’t just go for the Day of the Dead, and then leave. Check out El Zocalo, the Anthropology Museum(one of the best of its kind in all of the Americas—-possibly the world), Chapultapec, the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Gardens of Xochimilco, the ruins of Tenochtitlan(about 80 miles north of the capital), and many streetside cafes, shops and restaurants downtown. You will see that Mexico City is a whole lot more than you thought.

I have been there twice and am thinking about going again ASAP! Yes, It has polloution but I just came back from London and the air seemed way worse there to me.
It’s FUN! You won’t be bored. There is a lot to see. The people seemed really nice, it’s not overpriced or jammed with tourists(like Mazatlan or CanCun), good transportation system, great nightlife, beautiful sights…I don’t know about you but it has everything I want in a fun trip (plus a lot of stuff I haven’t discovered yet) and if I wanna go to the beach I can get on a bus and be in Acapulco/Pie de la cuesta in a few hours! I do Love Taxco too….If you like caves the Cueves de Cacahuamilpa (sp)are near there and super cool Don’t be scared

I grew up in Puebla, 2 hours away from Mexico City. I recommend you check out other places around Mexico if you don’t mind moving around. Every time I have to go to Mexico City, to a concert or whatever, it sends chills up my spine being there, I feel very unsafe there. You’re breathing disgusting air everywhere, you eyes are irritated, you can’t roll down the windows in the car cos they’ll rob you or shoot you, why go on?

Come to Cancun! it’s so much nicer

Duke

Wowww, Duke, what newspapers did you read??? It’s not as bad as people say. I know I’ve been lucky, I’ve stupidly been in nasty parts of town in the wee hours of the night, by foot, and luckily nothing ever happened to me. But if you skip the dodgy parts (ie. Neza, Col. Morelos, Iztapalapa, etc.), you won’t be shot or robbed if you roll down your windows. Mexico City is not what it used to be 10-15 years ago. I’ve never been robbed here.