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Ciudad de México en septiembre 2023

Week 43, 2023
Turku, Finland

It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog.

Today I activate myself to write here, because it is the most suitable space to share my world to the people I care about and are distributed across our amazing planet. Thinking particularly, those of you who do not know Mexico.

From week 34 to 38 I was in Mexico. My mom needed some support. Then, my time was busy at home. I didn’t even have time to see my generational friends.  However, the most important thing is that mom started to recover ??. In this blog post I share some visual highlights of my time back home, which is not tourism, but daily life.  I organize the photos in four categories:

  1. My neighborhood
  2. Food
  3. Daily life – errands
    1. Metro and Downtown Mexico City
    2. Driving and Parking
    3. Church
    4. Hospitals and medical services
  4. Daily life  – grocery shopping

Let’s start by fling to Mexico City. A sign, at least for me, that I am reaching “Aztec land” is when I am reaching Mexico City’s international airport, Benito Juarez, which it is in the middle of the “town”.  The ocean of lights is just something unique. 

Reaching the international airport Benito Juarez in Mexico city

1. My neighborhood

Mexico city is a big metropolis. When possible, you do your activities in the area where you live. In my case, I grew up in Colonia del Valle and during my time there, I was mainly in this area of the city or in the hospital where my mom is treated. The hospital is in the alcaldía Tlalpan.  Here a couple of links of the area of the city where I grow up: link 1 and link 2. Below photos of what I could see almost everyday.

A view of the city within the city

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Walking in the neighborhood

City birds and their facilities

Park for all to enjoy

What surprised me the most during this visit is to realize how many houses, which I saw as a child, now are turned down and instead there are building buildings.  The city keeps growing.
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2.Food

Mexican traditional cuisine was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO. For me, to share about Mexican food is challenging, because in my opinion all our senses should be involved. Additionally, I am not an expert and I do not know how to clarify certain ingredients which I only have seen in Mexico.

However, in this post, I will share food that I ate.  For example,  each time we were at the hospital, we treated ourselves.  The cafeteria was/is really good. Below some photos of the dishes.

Sandwich

Sandwich 2

Enfrijoladas

On Sept. 15th, Mexicans starts the independence celebration.  Hence, it is common to find diverse dishes or desserts utilizing the independence theme in their decoration. As the following jello utilizing the colors of the Mexican flag.

Jello with the mexican colours

Also in September is quite popular and very special to eat Chiles en Nogada.  My aunt makes them DELICIOUS!

Chile en Nogada

Mexican candies in September are also a must have. We had a beautiful meal on the 15.9. but I do not have photos only from the delicious food. However I have one from the sweets:

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Also we ate at the Parroquia:

La parroquia

and some Tortas Don Polo:

Tortas Don Polo

Well, I could have photos and more photos of food….. of course plenty of fruits were also eaten 😉

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3.Daily life – errands

In this section I share random photos of daily life. During my time in Mexico, I needed to run different errands. A glimpse of those are in here.

3.1 Metro and Downtown Mexico City.

I needed to do some paperwork in downtown, which I could not do via internet. In my opinion, it is faster and more practical to go to Mexico City downtown with public transport. For me the metro is the best.  A trick, or advice, is to avoid the busy time,  even though it is busier most of the time nowadays.  I mainly travel on the female section of the metro.

Metro station

What was new for me this time, which I only have seen in Asia earlier, were the stickers on the floor indicating where to wait for the metro and leaving the space for the passengers to go down.

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To find art or culture in the metro stations is relatively easy. At least in the “old” metro stations.

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Note: things were not that empty all the time, but I try to take photos when there were not people around to respect privacy 😉

Also in this trip I took a metrobus, which now the network is bigger than the last time I was in downtown.

Parada de metrobus

Downtown is BEAUTIFUL and INTERESTING and MAGICAL in its own right.

Next photo is from the main “square” of Mexico City: el Zocalo. Behind you can see the cathedral and presidential palace is on the right. There is a Metro station below so it is easy to come out from the metro and admire this spot of the city.

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Walking in downtown Mexico City is to walk through history, a mixing of cultures and one walks having a full sensorial experience including sounds, smells, images, symbols, etc. It is just something to experience.

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In the next photo, one can see the torre latinoamericana.

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Theater of Bellas Artes:

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Reforma, el caballito:

Reforma

In downtown, shopping areas are peculiar. One find the street that focuses on particular category, e.g. of electronics, or tiles, or jewelry, or bathrooms, etc. If you are curious, yes I stop in couple of these shopping areas. ??

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3.2 Driving and parking

To go to the hospital and other errands we needed to do it by car. Traffic is crazy if I compare it to the traffic in Offenburg, Joensuu or Turku (my other hometowns I would say).  It is just not comparison, they are different worlds in our same planet.

Traffic of the first photo was when we were heading to the hospital.  Here you can see a metro station that runs at ground level.

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Each time we were heading to the hospital, we passed through the estadio azteca.

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Parking is an issue in many areas, so they are looking for different solutions constantly, even inside buildings.

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That parking place is from the following building:

Mexico City zona sur

Or those tower parking places also can be found in supermarkets:

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3.3. Church

I also visited the church where my dad is resting.  The Mexican flag is in the altar, because it is September, as I mentioned above, it is a month of “Mexico”.

Parroquia de Jesús Sacramentado

Crypts:

Parroquia de Jesús Sacramentado

I found the following sticker interesting. It reads: “United in the distance.

Actually in the service, when people access the church, they use face masks and wash the hands.

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3.4 Hospital and medical services

In my opinion, we have EXCELLENT doctors in Mexico. We also have very good public hospitals.  A challenge Mexico has, again in my opinion, there are not enough hospitals for all Mexicans. The health system requires a lot of investment.

In our case, we can can do things in public institutions, which my mom has paid through her taxes during her working life. However, we need to complement certain services with private practices. The prices of those private ones can vary.  In the following photos  I want to illustrate architecture of the hospital where my mom was operated as where her rehabilitation is. I really love the Mexican architecture, across time. One can can see  mexican murals, and in my opinion the hospital is EXCELLENT.

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Hosptial en Ciutad de México

 

Hospital en cituad de México

The people must use mask in this hospital. It is mandatory.

The photo below I found it in one of the hallways. It reads: While they said to each other “it could not be done, it was done”.

Hospital en Ciudad de México

The photo below is from another organization, which I discovered because I needed to do some studies for myself. Then, aI was guided to go to Salud Digna.It is a foundation that offers medical studies to accessible prices. Amazing service and also A LOT of people.

Salud Digna

Even that there were plenty of persons at the same time,  the service was quick and good. They also have chairs reserved for different type of groups, as below you can see sits for pregnant women.

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Finally an entrance of a private hospital. Another style.

Hospitales en Mexico

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4. Daily life  – grocery shopping

Before heading to Mexico, I was asked: what type of fish do we eat there?, for example. Which I do not have an answer for. I am ignorant to the topic.  ?  Therefore I decide to share some photos of our supermarkets and “mercados sobre ruedas“.  I will be paying more attention to those important details step by step.

Below is the first supermarket I went right after landing. There the watermelon was huge:

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Here some fruits that we will not find in Finland or Germany, for example: mamey and Tuna (Fruit no fish)

Supermercado ciudad de México

It is easy to find plenty of avocados among other fruits and vegetables:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Supermarket fish display:

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Bakery in supermarket:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Alcohol is also sold inside supermarkets:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Personally, I ENJOY A LOT to buy at the “mercados sobre ruedas“. I was not able to find an article in English clarifying what are “merchados sobre ruedas”, but in brief: they are temporal market installed for one day on specific streets, where one buys closer to the producer. If you want to read more about them, here is an article in Spanish.

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

I was lucky because there were still some  mangos manila (yammi ??):

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

One can also eat prepared food at “mercado sobre ruedas”. I found interesting how they keep having covid practices.

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

A couple of things happen in my food-hunting trips, which were new for me.

One, I had an earthquake drill in a supermarket. To put some in context. We had very bad earthquakes on  Sept 19th in the past. So we have a National Earthquake drill on this day. At the day and time of the drill I was in a supermarket. So we were to the safe zone customers and employees. It was interesting.

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Another new things for me was to realized how many dogs, as pets, are nowadays. The number has increased so much that even supermarkets welcome them.

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The blog post is a bit long but I hope it transmits a bit of my world in a daily life in Mexico city. Missing other stuff, as we play board games each Sunday  – and some other days when possible- , cleaning the house, etc. However maybe in another post we can talk about other details ??  .

-Yop!

Paternoster

Week 3
Praha, Czech Republic

What is a Paternoster lift? Do you know it?
On my behalf, I had not clue about a paternoster lift even though we had bee playing the Pater Noster game.

During my 1.5 day visit to Prague I visited the Fakulta elektrotechnická. There, I discovered a Paternoster lift.

Some people did not wanted to use it, as they were concern with security. On my behalf, I thought it was so exciting. It was as having rollercoster in your own school!. So, as you can imagine, we should try it and we did. Being honest, I try it myself more than once! : )

In this first video, you will see the Paternoster lift.

In this second video I record our journey, inside the paternoster, towards the third floor. I turn the camera a bit later, as I needed to learn how to jump in, and later how to jump out. 🙂 Our conversation is in Spanish, wondering about this machine! 🙂

I really enjoy discovering our world!

internet inside the bus

Week 40
Kuopio, Finland

In August 24th after I landed in Oslo, I needed to take a 1.5 hrs drive (aprox.) to my destination, Gjovik.  I got surprised in this bus drive, as I could connect to the internet inside the bus, and for free!!!! 😉

Today on my way to Kuopio I am missing the internet connectivity while I am on the road. Of course one can use the mobile phone, but nevertheless, it is not the same….

Finland you are one of the most connected countries in the world, but in reference to bus transportation, we are lacking behind!

connecting to the intenert in the bus

connecting to the intenert in the bus

connected to internet for free in a bus

connected to internet for free in a bus

muac

week 2 of 2011
from Distrito Federal, Mexico

Days keep on being busy, but I escape and assist to the  MUAC (Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo) , which it is a GREAT museum with FANTASTIC expositions.

Due to the lack of time, I  only visited carefully two exhibitions: Expectografias: memorias e historia, and the art of   Cai Guo Qiang: Resplandor y Soledad. Both exhibitions were very rich and impressive, highly recommended.

Below is a video that I found of Cai Guo Qiang when he did his gunpowder work for the MUAC, you will see how innovative and impressive his work is:

graduation

The graduation was a big event. Schoolteachers, Tumaini University students and some teachers, family and community member were present. The children move the desks from the schools to allow adults to sit, and they were at one side of the area sitting on the floor, however all assistants were under the shade of the same tree.

To start the event, the school children performed some songs. Small video clips of it below.

A song about Tanzania

Other song

There were several speeches specially stressing the importance to have computers and access to them, the importance of education and the relevance to learn the English language.  It also was stressed the responsibility of our children (who were selected by the head-teacher for the workshop) to transmit their new knowledge to the community.

When it was my turn to speak, I confess, drops came out of my eyes. The main message I wanted to transmit is: we should understand that the most important thing in life is what we feel and what we think, as the unique richness is inside ourselves and not outside. Computers are tools that will help us for different activities, but our inner is the most important thing that we have. Honestly, for be my first time in Africa, Ukombozi children gave me A LOT, much more than I could give them back.

To give does not require to say words, or to give (expensive or no expensive) presents. To give is when one connects to another one and a magical exchange takes place.

One thing I am complete sure about our planet: it does not matter the physical location, color of skin, language, culture or whatever, anything of those things need a “specific” configuration in order to be able to connect with other humans. Inner harmony with oneself and what surround us is what actually matters. Things that are not thought at school, sadly.

Each day working with the Ukombozi pupils, the experience connected as when I was a missionary at the Sierra del Zamorano in Mexico (in several winters), or when I was working every Saturday for so many years at the marginal areas of Mexico city, or in that intensive trip to India. People is so rich of life.  Even as illogical as it might sound, due that the comparison is not so straight forwards, but some of the activities relate to my experiences working with the seniors in Joensuu and the people in Lieksa keep stressing this.

When a human being is, and it does not pretend to be someone else based on what s/he has or  how s/he self-protect, then life just expresses. One can connect with different individuals and when one just is.

I am thankful for all these experiences.

Everybody elegant dressed and concentrated to hear and try to understand what the selected children of the workshop did in this period. The workshop participants explain this by themselves first to family and visitors and later with other students. Life is made by details and this one was a milestone on the way.

(Photo: workshop participants getting ready to received and explain their work to parents and visitors )

(Photo: workshop participants presenting to other schoolmates)


(Photo: A group photo of all of us. Well, we are missing two persons actually,one student and one tutor)