Does anyone really nail it?
By Jim Johnston July 18, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

For a city of its size and importance, surprisingly little has been written in English about Mexico City, and as one who writes about the place, I am always curious to see how other foreign-born authors view the megalopolis. Three of my favorite books stand out for their style, wit, and probing curiosity.

Anyone who has fallen in love with Mexico has probably encountered Fanny Calderón de la Barca’s Life in Mexico, first published in 1843 and in print ever since. Madame Calderón de la Barca was the Scottish-born wife of Spain’s first ambassador to Mexico. Her book is a series of letters written to friends and family back in Europe about her experiences in Mexico from 1839 to 1842, and the combination of warm appreciation, occasional shock, and general open-mindedness makes this book a delight to read.

One of the reasons I love living in Mexico City is the feeling that the entire 700 years of the city’s history can be experienced simultaneously, and Calderón de la Barca brings the nineteenth century into the twenty-first on almost every page; comparisons with contemporary life in Mexico City are easy to make in the reader’s mind. For example, in one letter she writes, “There are an extraordinary number of street cries in Mexico... performed by hundreds of discordant voices, impossible to understand at first... ‘Mantequilla’ (Butter)... ‘Cecina buena’ (Good spiced pork)... ‘¿Hay cebo-o-o-o-o?’ (Do you have kitchen scraps? cries the woman at the front door)... ‘¿Tejocotes por venas de chile?’ (Does anyone want to trade their fruit for my chiles?)... ‘¿Gorditas de horno caliente?’ (Gorditas, hot from the oven.).” If you’ve been to any market or tianguis in the city, it will sound familiar.

Jonathan Kandell’s La Capital: A Biography of Mexico City is, in truth, a history of the whole country, but using the city as a point of departure. It is the book I most frequently recommend to anyone seeking a good overview of Mexican history. Kandell, a former correspondent for The New York Times who was raised in Mexico City, applies his outlook as a journalist, but also has a novelist’s sense of pacing and drama. His description of an orgy of human sacrifice at the Aztec’s Templo Mayor could be the script for a D.W. Griffith film version of the scene. The book was published in 1988 and is currently out of print, but is easy to find on Amazon.com or other online booksellers.

Hot off the press is David Lida’s First Stop in the New World, which makes an interesting companion volume to Calderón de la Barca’s Life in Mexico, updated to the twenty-first century. Its non-narrative form links various interviews, vignettes and personal observations about the city from the author’s experience as a resident for the past fifteen years. A journalistic muckraker, Lida works like a biologist who lifts the rock to see what’s crawling around underneath. He writes about the world’s richest man (Carlos Slim Helú) and about a woman who earns her living as a ten-cents-a-dance fichera.

You will meet glue-sniffing teenagers, lucha libre wrestlers, pulque-drinking taxi drivers, Chanel bag-toting housewives from Polanco, an outspoken radio personality who dispenses sex advice and a young man who impersonates Jesus Christ.

There are chapters on art, film, food, sex and politics. He writes at length about the ever-popular subject of safety, including a harrowing tale of his own kidnapping. For anyone with trepidations about Mexico City, this might not be the book to change your mind, but it offers many fascinating insights into this multi-faceted metropolis.

The definitive book about Mexico City has not yet been written, and probably never will be. The place is simply too big and too complex, and it never stays still long enough to really pinpoint what it is. Ultimately, each of us will have his or her own experience of the city, but the authors mentioned above can all help to enrich that experience.

Jim Johnston, a ten-year resident of San Miguel, now lives in Mexico City. He is author of Mexico City: an Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler. Visit his blog for more information about Mexico City: www.mexicocitydf.blogspot.com. 

Travel News You Can Use
By Judy Newell

News from Mexico

Oaxaca strike ends 

As promised, some 20,000 schoolteachers and sympathizers ended three weeks of protests during which they camped out in the center of the city. They periodically closed highways and access to the airport, as they demanded the ouster of the governor. 

Ending the protest will permit the state’s premier cultural event, the Guelaguetza, to take place. The Guelaguetza features traditional dances from the seven indigenous regions of Oaxaca, a large state southeast of Mexico City. 

Tourism is a principal industry in Oaxaca City, capital of the state. Tourists have stayed away in droves since the protests turned violent in 2006. The governor, meanwhile, has refused to quit.

InterContinental expansion planned 

InterContinental Hotels plans to open 63 additional units in Mexico during the next five years, according to Jorge Apaez, the general director for Mexico. 

Thirty-six of the new properties will be economical Holiday Inn Express and another 18 will be mid-priced Holiday Inns. Four will be upscale Crowne Plazas, with new Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites and a boutique Indigo also on the list. No mention was made of any more luxury-class InterContinental hotels, the only one of which in Mexico is the Presidente InterContinental in DF. 



Airline News

United & US Airways to charge $15 to check any bag

Starting July 1, United will slap passengers with a US$15 fee on domestic flights for the first checked bag. The charge is not included in the ticket price. You will pay the fee when you check in. 

The $15 fee is one-way, but if there are multiple stops on your route, you still pay only $15. Taxes are included. Passengers flying in first or business class or who have premier frequent-flyer status with United or Star Alliance will not have to pay the fee. 

Cost to check a second bag: US$25 each way. Third bag: $125 each way.

US Airways says it also will charge the $15 fee, starting July 9. Elite members of its frequent-flyer program won’t have to pay. But unlike United and American, US Airways is charging the fee not only on domestic US flights but also on flights to and from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.

US Airways also will begin charging customers for all non-alcoholic beverages including sodas, juices, bottled water and coffee in its domestic coach cabins. The cost of alcoholic beverages will rise to US$7 from $5. 

The airline will assess a new “award redemption processing fee” that ranges from US$25 to $50 for all award tickets issued on or after August 6. Additionally, US Airways will no longer award bonus miles on paid flights flown by its elite frequent-flyer members. 

United and US Airways follow American, the first airline to announce the $15 fee for the first checked bag. American started charging the fee on June 16.

Chaos at the airport is likely for the first few days after the programs go into effect. The airlines are concerned that their policies will tempt some passengers to try to carry too much on board. Staff members will examine carry-on luggage of passengers, warning them that they can only carry on a single large item whose combined width, height and length must be under 45 inches, plus one small personal item such as a purse, suitcase, or laptop case. Passengers who attempt to exceed that limit will be intercepted before they pass through security. 



International News

The Golden Plunger - Toilet of the Year

If you’re going to Hong Kong anytime soon, don’t miss your chance to sit on the throne of the most expensive and lavish bathroom in the world. All of the everyday bathroom fixtures—toilets, sinks, mirror frames, toilet paper holders, wall tiles, toilet brushes, tissue boxes—are made of 24-carat gold.

And to top it off, up above the chandeliers the ceiling glitters with 6,200 diamonds, rubies, pearls and other precious gems. 

You can gain access to this regal restroom by spending US$200 in the store at 21 Man Lok Street, Hunghom/Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. They ask that you please take off your shoes so you don’t track any gold out into the street. 

Read all about it and other winners of “The Golden Plunger,” the award for the world’s best bathroom, on www.thebathroomdiaries.com.  

Woman who has lived nine years aboard QE2 seeks new home

Some people cruise a little. Some people cruise a lot. And then there is Beatrice Muller, the 89-year-old widow from New Jersey who literally lives on the Queen Elizabeth 2.

A legend in the cruise world, Muller has booked back-to-back cruises on the Cunard ship in an endless string going back nine years and she had planned to keep it up indefinitely. 

The problem, of course, is that the 41-year-old QE2 is retiring in November, and as The Times of London reported over the weekend, Muller is now looking for a new ship.

Muller sold most of her possessions in 1999 when she decided to start sailing full time, and The Times says she refuses to think about returning to land. 

“What would I want to do that for?” she asked the reporter during an interview while the ship was docked in Southampton, England. “I was married to a wonderful man for 57 years. I have done my penal servitude—I want to travel.”

Muller began sailing on the QE2 full time after her husband died (during a cruise on the ship; the couple already had become regulars). She told The Times her cabin costs about US$7,000 a month, which compares favorably to the cost of a retirement home in Florida. But “it’s far more pleasant,” she told the paper. “They don’t organize you like senior citizens’ homes must do.”

So where will Muller go? The obvious choice is Cunard's Queen Mary 2 or Queen Victoria, but Princess and Holland America also have globetrotting ships that might appeal to the endless wanderer. The Royal Princess, in particular, is accustomed to year-round passengers—permanent passenger Lorraine Artz has already spent more than 4,000 days at sea.

Sources: Mexican Tourism News, Budget Travel, TRO, Travel Post Monthly, USA Today. 

Judy Newell, a writer and travel industry executive, heads the custom tour company Perfect Journeys that specializes in luxury and adventure travel. Contact her with comments or suggestions at JudyNewell_03@msn.com  or go to her website www.PerfectJourneys.net.