Mexico City

Between traditional Cuajimalpa and the newer zones, we find a couple of colonias. Navidad (lower-middle class) and San José de los Cedros (working class):

Then, nearing the center of the city, come colonias for the upper-middle and the rich. Lomas de Bezares, Vista Hermosa and Bosques de las Lomas:

...And relatively near these posh neighborhoods, stands Santa Fe, where big corporations have their offices.

This building is called by the people "Los Pantalones" (The Pants).



And this one is "El Servilletero" (The Napkin Holder):

Two important private universities have a campus at Santa Fe.

Universidad Iberoamericana (Jesuits) has its main campus:





And ITESM (popularly known as "Tec de Monterrey") has one of its three city campuses at Santa Fe:

https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield
A picture of Mexico city from space.

We move from the extreme west of the city to the extreme east, Delegación Tláhuac.



Since there are no subway stations in Cuajimalpa, we go by car. We manage to do it outside rush hour. We drive for two hours.

Here, an aerial picture of Tláhuac, dominated by the extinct Xico volcano:

Tláhuac was a rural place when I was a child. It grew from the 70s to the 90s until a prohibition for new -and farther away- housing developments stood.

This is the parish at the town of Tláhuac:



And this is the old municipal building:



Lake Reyes, next to the town of Tláhuac:

An image of San Juan Ixtayopan (Tláhuac):



The town of Santa Catarina Yecahuizótl (Tláhuac)



Tláhuac Avenue, at Colonia Selene:



Tláhuac is full of working class and poor neighborhoods such as this one.

Another Tláhuac scene:

The most interesting place in Tláhuac is a town named Mixquic, where ancient indian traditions persist.

Mixquic is famous for its Day of the Death ceremonies.

This image is from last year:







Mictlantecuhtli, Aztec god of the afterlife, also presides the rites. He's properly adorned with Cempazúchitl flowers (Flower of the Dead).



The town of Mixquic:



Inside the church:



On the Day of the Dead, it takes about 3 hours and a half to get from downtown Mexico City to Mixquic, on its sotuheastern tip, bacause of the ingoing traffic.

Other images of Mixquic:





This channel takes you to Xochimilco, another borough-

My daughter went to one of UNAM's high schools, CCH Sur, situated next to the University's main campus, at Mexico City's south.

She lives a bit west of downtown, and made a 50 minute ride, at 6:10 a.m (by subway and bus) to make it to school.
A schoolmate friend of hers, with the apt Náhuatl last name of Xocotoxtle, lives in Mixquic, at the southeast end of the city. The kid had to wake up at 4:30 a.m, and leave his house at 5:20 in order to arrive on time.
Xocotoxtle had no computer at home, so he had to go to an Internet-cafe in his town to make most of his homeworks. But he did finish with decent grades and studies now chemistry (I think).

One of the great things about UNAM is that students with such different backgrounds get to know each other, work together and befriend.

The farm or fields in the centre of volcano in Tláhuac, are they owned by one family or many? I'm just amazed people would live there. I think I'd be terrified on a pretty regular basis. I know it's extinct and all, but jeepers, it's the idea of it...

It's an ejido, a colective form of posession of arable land.
By the way, there's a vulcano just like Xico in Hawaii, with a city around it.

Very good question, I had never thought about that.

Diamon Head with Honolulu (Waikiki) that surrounds it - more or less.

Yes, and it's the same type of vulcano.

Do people live in the crater in Hawaii?