I guess I thought CDMX would be like the big european cities.
In some places it feels very classically European – 4-5 story buildings butted together uniformly across a whole block.
In other areas it feels more modern European: highly diverse architecture butted together uniformly across the block. Most of the first floor is some kind of retail, or a highly secure entrance (More on that later.)
But even in the wealthier neighborhoods there are plenty of small tiendas and taquerias, and people out in carts and tents hustling their stuff. Some senses this. This is like the Tabac shops in Vienna, but there’s something distinctly Mexican about them, and then there’s the _scale_.
I went to a Street market this afternoon, the little small Street market in the very wealthy neighborhood that we are staying in. There must have been 500 merchants there, each with their own table selling raw meat, all the vegetables you can imagine, all the fruits, all the food, and all the clothing and toys. And it was _tiny_ compared to the city markets.
Briefly: big city architecture has failed to completely colonize Mexico, it’s in amalgamation.
Dogs
I think I notice the dogs because I feel like we speak a common language. And there are a lot of them. Most seem very well behaved which is kind of shocking given the environment they live in. There was a pair of working dogs who nearly attacked some lap dog in front of a coffee shop we were at. Very unexpected and a bit frightening.
The most frequent evidence of dogs is the barking. All of the parking all day long. So many dogs.
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