I'm going to Mexico for a while, what's there to do?

Drink and party.

Sent you my phones by PM, Craven.

Brief list of things to see and do:

Museum of Anthopology
Teotihuacan
Templo Mayor
The murals at Palacio Nacional, Bellas Artes, etcetera.
Ciudad Universitaria (with the murals, too)
The Castle at Chapultepec
Coyoacán (+ the houses of Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky)
Garibaldi square and mariachis
Lucha Libre fights
Lots of places for drinking, fine eating, etc.
Oh, yes, and the Soccer playoffs

...And dinner with fbaezer, I'll pick up the tab.

fb, I recall there are pyramids a cab drive away, or is that Teotihuacan? It's been a while since I was there.

Oh, and you could see my cousins, but I think the female ones are all married.

All those times I went to Mexico in the sixties and seventies, I knew zip about architecture, though I did enjoy the ebullience of the buildings in Mexico, DF, and elsewhere.

Now one of the first things I'd to if I got to Mexico City again, besides try to meet FB, would be to see if I could see any of the work by Luis Barragan...
I'd been to the San Angel area, but not the Pedregal.
Here's some links -
http://www.pritzkerprize.com/barragan/barraganpg.htm
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/barragan1.html
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1136


Garibaldi Square, I remember it well, a very trying blind date..

I heard they have this show where a woman bangs a donkey. That sounds like it could be worth a look.

I thought that was in TJ...

I don't know if you like or hate bullfights, but I saw Dominguin there...

It was great hanging out in San Diego, I'll be sure to look you up there!

I'm curious about casinos and poker there. If I can find a spot to play I'd be able to stay longer. Do you know if poker is regularly played at any convenient casinos there?

No casinos here, man.
In any case, limited stuff.

And Jespah, yes, Teotihuacan is the piramids.

Craven, I don't want to sound paranoid, but please try not to get kidnapped. We need you!!!

I'll be ok.

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I'm landing on Tuesday and will be in town till the 13th.

Excuse me I don't mean to interrupt, I just wanted you to know your sig
lines crack me up. I don't get jokes usually, but yours are funny.
Have fun in Mexico.

Pffft. My first day with a rental car here and I already get shaken down by the cops (same thing happened in my first day with a car in Costa Rica).

I pull an admittedly illegal u-turn on Insurgentes in the middle of the night (not a car in sight) after unsuccessfully trying to find one of the one-way side-streets that would allow me to legally turn around. I'd gone several kilometers trying to do it right before giving up and flipping a bitch on the deserted street.

I also tried to do the whole getting caught thing right, unsuccessfully. As soon as the cops were telling me just how very very serious my infraction was I knew they were trying to get money out of me. I tried, as I always do, to call their bluff and accept the normal legal consequences even if they may be a bit more expensive. They kept telling me that I'm in big trouble and I kept asking them for my ticket. They told me that in Mexico you must go to the police station to pay your ticket immediately. I suspect it's not true and even if it is, I figure they'd continue to hold me there hoping I'd cough up cash for a while longer.

As in all cases (this is the fifth time it's happened to me in latin countries in the last 6 months) the cops were polite but clearly stalling for me to offer money. I kept trying to call their bluffs telling them that I understand that I will receive a ticket for my illegal u-turn and so be it.

The cops told me to follow them to the police station, at which point I decided my morals weren't worth the hassle at 4 in the morning and gave them $20 and was on my way.

Ok, I'm batting 3/5 (2 bribes, 1 ticket, let go twice after calling the bluffs down all the way) in avoiding bribes, but a part of me is actually kind of glad that it's all this easy.

I wish you could pay police $20 to get off violations here.

Thing is, the ticket wouldn't have been much more (probably $50 bucks) so I'd rather just get the ticket.

The one time I successfully got a ticket (for not carrying my passport) it was for $4.

You must get a lot of violations then.

That sounds like a standard technique, make you think that your violatioln is very serious and then try to save you the trouble of going to the police station by taking money from you on the spot. It's happened to me more than once. And when driving my 23 foot RV through Mexico City, indeed once on Insurgentes, they assumed I was wealthy and once tried to collect $800 US on the spot. Once I paid $50 or so and later in Tampico nothing following the strategy you used: they let me go when I insisted on going to the delagacion.
But I know a number of D.F.ers who have had the police take them to an ATM machine for serious money. Cuidado.
My wife, a Chilanga (an expat from Mexico City).is afraid to visit Mexico City. I would like to know what's fbaezer's assessment of the present situation.

On cop's bribes (mordidas).
It's actually a contest of patience. The more patient one wins. If you insist long enough that they give you a ticket, they let you go with a warning (or, seldom, issue the ticket).
They always menace you to take the car to the delegación. If you know the law, you know it what situation they can do it. The thing is, a new set of rules applies since May 1st, with bad points to accumulate and lose your license. So, until we learn the new rules, it's their land to raid.
Craven was treated like a Mexican -that left turn on Insurgentes is a huge no-no-. I think the cops saw him as a Brazilian (he speaks Spanish with a slight Brazilian accent), and saw JL Nobody as a Gringo. They were pretending too much.

I think the warnings on Mexico City violence are wildly exaggerated. In 40+ years living here I've never been mugged, and for years I walked home after midnight. I've taken hundreds of cabs, rode on the public transport, etc. Once I was pickpocketed (1992) and my apartment was partially burglarized while we weren't home (1999).
I don't personally know any person that was kidnapped.
But I remember the first time I went to New York City, in the seventies. I was afraid to walk a couple of blocks late at night, the media and the talk of the streets said it was too dangerous. Newyorker friends laughed at me.


Craven went to the football game América-Colo Colo.
It is like if I went to Sao Paolo and rushed the first day into a Palmeiras game.