LATIN AMERICA 2013: MEXICO CITY Chapultepec

David and I arrived at The Red Tree House at 10:45pm after some 30 hours in transit. Our Virgin flight from Brisbane got to Los Angeles a few minutes early and, to our great relief, we were able to retrieve our bags and check in at another terminal in 2 hours. The flight to Dallas was uneventful but the next plane left 45 minutes late and was diverted to another airfield (?where) because of ‘wind shear’ 20 minutes from Mexico City. We sat on the tarmac in the plane for 5 hours – American Airlines is strapped for cash but one muesli bar and a small bottle of water was all they provided. Some consolation was the excellent legroom on all flights.

On Tuesday we walked 4km to Chapultepec, a park of 686 hectares, containing museums, lakes, cycle tracks, many trees and squirrels. We realised that everyone is on holiday this week and in the park, many people were exercising – judo, tai chi type, or this guy leaping up the War Memorial steps.

The scene at Audiorama del Bosque, with relaxing background music and guards ensuring silence was quite a contrast.

We reached the lakes after walking past avenues of the fairground-type stalls where parents were buying junk food and cheap toys for the many (very well-behaved) kids. By the way, after 4 days here, we have yet to see an angry parent, a brat or any rudeness. There was no litter, open-topped rubbish bins, no birds strewing rubbish or annoying people (just black grackles, sparrows, doves, ducks …).
The lakes seemed alien to all life-forms, covered with green algae. However, people were boating, birds were swimming and a night-heron caught a fish.

We finally entered the greatest tourist attraction in the city, Museo Nacional de Antropologia, where we spent four hours, punctuated by lunch and afternoon coffee. Few exhibits had English labels or information but all were well displayed and interesting.