Tim Fogarty’s Blog

I was in México City this past week. Had a very enjoyable time. The primary reason for going was to attend the NABBA Universo México bodybuilding contest. I created the nabba-mexico.com website, and have been helping them get established in Mexico. They asked me if I wanted to be a judge, but instead I was the unofficial official photographer.

The contest was over the weekend, but I went down a few days early to visit my friend Ricardo. He acted as tour guide and showed me all around the city and even took me out to the pyramids of Teotihuacan.

Here are some random observations of México City:

- The city smells of diesel soot. The cars have some pollution controls, but the trucks and buses do not. The weather was mild, 60 at night to 75 during the day with some rain, so the smog wasn’t too bad. But the smell of diesel is everywhere.

- Gridlock is also everywhere. And I figured out why. The stop lights are 2-4 minutes long. So when one turns yellow and then red, everyone rushes into the intersection to avoid the long wait, causing gridlock. Here in soCal, most of our lights are 30 seconds long, which people are more likely to wait for. Ricardo tells me sometimes he can get to work in 20 minutes, but more often its 2.5 hours. They are building a freeway system, mostly in the sky.

- Pedestrians walk across divided highways like any other street. People sell everything while standing between the lanes of the divided highways.

- Taxis are incredibly cheap, $2-3 for a twenty minute ride, except when the hotel doorman puts you in one without a meter, which isn’t really a taxi, but probably a friend of the doorman’s. Then they try to charge you $10 for a short trip.

- Most of the taxis are old style VW Beetles with the front passenger seat removed. Lots of leg room if you’re the last one in. Not so much if you’re the first.

- At night, police cars always have their lights on top lit and spinning (but no siren), even when they’re in no hurry to go anywhere.

- All cell phone conversations end with “OK, bye”, even when the person’s english is limited.

- If I was just starting out and needed a car, I’d want to get a Ford Ka. They don’t sell them in the US, though.

- Condesa is your standard Bohemian neighborhood, with dozens and dozens of trendy restaurants in run down buildings. You can get some really good food for about $20. Zona Rosa is where most of the night clubs are. There is no parking to be found in either location, but every restaurant, no matter how cheap, has valet.

- It is possible to make a stretch limo out of an old style VW Beetle.

- Even when I’m just reading names from a menu, waiters don’t understand my spanish.

- El Museo Nacional de Antropología is closed on Mondays. I will return to try again.

- The area to the north of the city reminds me of the farmland and hills of Orange and Ventura counties when I first moved to soCal 25 years ago. (Of course those areas of soCal are now all tract homes.) To the west (I believe) of México City, it reminds me of the forests of the southern Sierra.

- It’s probably not a good idea to hold your sporting event on the same day as the NFL is having their first ever football game in your country just a few miles away. Also not a good idea to have it on the same day that your country is winning the finals in the Under 17 World Cup (the other football). (BTW, I saw the team arrive home while waiting for my flight out. Couldn’t miss it, with all the cheering and news crews following the kids. The kids looked a bit overwhelmed, with strangers coming up to stand next to them while others took pictures.)

The highlight of the trip was certainly the pyramids at Teotihuacan, just north of the city. It was a beautiful sunny day with mild tempuratures. (Ricardo found it strange I was putting on SPF 45 by the cup, but he thought it was cute that I was also applying it to the top of my scalp.) We climbed both the Sun and Lunar Pyramid. Had a little trouble with the altitude. Toured the small museum as well. The only unfortunately event was that I was stung by a bee. Probably only the second time in my life. I was carrying some things and the bee flew right into my hand, got trapped, and stung me right at the base of the pinky. Ricardo pulled out the stinger. Had a swollen finger for a few hours.

I took my new digital camera, a Sony F828. My old one, an F707, had a 128 MB card. The new one has a slot for a micro disk. I got a 2 GB disk, which can store thousands of pics. I took 598 pics in 5 days. Most were of the bodybuilding contest, but over 100 were at the pyramids. Now the problem with taking so many is that its impossible to adjust every one in photoshop. Over the next few weeks I’ll try to select the best. But here is one from Teotihuacan. I’m standing on top of the Lunar Pyramid, looking over to the Sun Pyramid.

Click on the pic for a larger (but still reasonable size) pic. And here is a jumbo sized pic. Its over 1 MB, so don’t bother if you’re on dial-up.

I did create a PHP script to resize all the pics, without adjusting the colors, etc. You can see all 150 pics from before the contest here. Contest photos are at nabba-mexico.com. (many from the first day are too dark, when the theater’s spotlights were not working.)