Mexico City

Er... What did you say?

Ahhhh. Bad. . .

The bigger IPN campus is on Delegación GAM.

It's called IPN-Zacatenco:





It hosts the Planetario Enrique Erro:

Wait, what IPM (and what is that) campus? Maybe I missed you saying.

At the northeast tip of GAM, the statues of "Los Indios Verdes" (The Green Indians) mark the end of the city, and the beginning of the road towards Teotihuacan.
The "Green Indians" represent Aztec kings Itzcóatl and Ahuizotl.





But you have to really want to see the statues, the place is awful and the traffic, infernal.

These statues, were originally at Paseo de la Reforma, but people didn't like them, so they were expelled to the extreme outskirts. Now the city has catched up, and there is also a movement that wants them back in their original place. (I have mixed feelings about it, poor "Green Indians" have been neglected so much, but the statues are not good).

IPN is Instituto Politécnico Nacional. The National Politechnical Institute, Mexico's second largest public university.

We saw the old campus of Santo Tomás at the end of the visit to Miguel Hidalgo.

Thanks.

So, listen, I'm interested in the university system. Don't rush to answer, maybe at the end if you remember.

The biggest neighborhood in the whole city is partially at GAM. Colonia San Juan de Aragón (the other part is at neighboring State of Mexico)- This would be a typical house of the area:



San Juan de Aragón has its own park and zoo:





And San Juan de Aragón also hosts the Mormon Temple; weird looking IMHO, as all mormon temples.

With this we finish the visit to Gustavo A. Madero (GAM).

Next delegación, Venustiano Carranza, east of the city, dark green on the map:

The most interesting things in Venustiano Carranza are near downtown, and not many. And they are markets, east of La Merced.

First, the cute Mercado de Jamaica. Mexico City's big flower market, an off-the-tourist-track attraction:







The sheer amount of color in the place—dazzling.

... And the Mercado de Sonora, specialized in "esoteric" stuff.

Also at Venustiano Carranza, not far from Centro Histórico, we find the Legislative Palace (that is, the house of Federal Chamber of Representatives):

We are still just northeast of Centro Histórico.

This is the National Archive.


The building was originally the Penitentiary of Lecumberri, popularly known as "The Black Palace".
You may notice it was a prison from this aereal view:





It's changed in the inside (and, I've been there, there are no bad vibes):

I don't think I'll be able to post until next year.

Happy 2013!

I'll continue with Delegación Venustiano Carranza.

As I said before, it's not very interesting.
This is one of the many poor neighborhoods in the zone, Colonia Arenal:



Working class Colonia Moctezuma, during a flood:

An important part of Venustiano Carranza is a series of habitational units, built in the 50s and 60s, known as "Jardín Balbuena".

Peñón de los Baños, next to the Airport, is a barrio that on every May 5th re-enacts the Battle of Puebla, when the Mexicans defeated the French (Cinco de Mayo).
It does get tough. I know a person who lost two fingers while lighting a cannon during those festivities:

Mexico City's international airport is at Delegación Venustiano Carranza:



With this we finish the visit to V.C. (as you can tell, there not much you can see near Mexico City's airport).

Still following. . . .

Now we'll visit Iztacalco, also at the east side of the city. On dark blue in the map.
It's the smallest Delegación (county) in the city.

Iztacalco boasts that it's older than Tenochtitlan, but nothing of prehispanic times has prevailed. The center of Iztacalco, the Barrio, is cute, though:



After a hail storm:



Iztacalco was a place to go pic-nic in the early XX Century, the canals from the remaining lake ended there.