Central library of the UNAM university in Mexico City
Loud, dirty, cultural, green, educated, grand: Mexico City is so much and then even more. A metropolis that is hard to describe and hard to pin down. But walk with me an entire day the unusual walk along the Avenida Insurgentes Sur – the main artery of the city and probably the least likely place a tourist would go – and you will be rewarded with a crash course of the Mexican capital.
Yes, there is of course also an Avenida Insurgentes Norte. Both avenues together stretch 28.8 kilometres from north to south. But even for a superfit, athletic and very cute guy at 46 that would be too much walking in one day. So I started at subway station Insurgentes, on the car-crash junction that is called Glorieta de los Insurgentes, where north and south collide. And decided to travel towards the sun…
Parque Mexico
Even finding your way from Glorieta to the Avenida is tricky, because of the strange lay-out of the junction. But once you have placed yourself on the avenue, an endless straight row of impressive modern skyscrapers awaits you. Designed to wow you by their scale and expensive materials, they look as if not made by humans. Parque Mexico in Condesa area
The human element is what a lot of architects tend to forget in their grand ambitions. But Mexican life is all built on filling in on the empty, cold spaces left by modern architecture. Everywhere in the country you will find portable kiosks, food cars and trucks, where people have a quick bite or lunch. It’s not different along the office blocks of Insurgentes.
And the great thing is that, if you make the effort of making a 200 metre detour, you can actually find beautiful residential neighborhoods. This is the area where Roma, the beautiful film by Cuaron, was made. And a bit further south you can find the Parque Mexico, also known as Parque San Martin.
The area, officially known as Colonia Hipodromo but more commonly referred to as Condesa, is a trip down memory lane. Here you can find colonial villas. Leafy cafes where Starbucks took over. And the park itself, with lots of art deco elements, is an unlikely refuge in a city that is continuously in overdrive mode. Just a pity it is at the start of this off-the-beaten track walk.
Polyforum Siqueiros exterior in Mexico City
World Trade Center and Polyforum Siqueiros
If you do it, do it big. This definitely applies to the three huge Mexican muralists that you can encounter everywhere in the country. The Polyforum, a strange construction of a building, immediately captures the attention because of the colorful paintings on the outside. It turns out to be the work of David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of the big three. Inside there is even more of his work to see, though that was hidden from my view because of reconstruction work in the first half of 2019.
The Polyforum is just in front of the World Trade Center, one of the many office buildings that seems to come from a different planet. Originally conceived in the sixties as a hotel but never finished, in the eighties it was reimagined as a business center. The circular shape on the roof looks as alien as the building seems unapproachable and unpenetrable.
Estadio Azul / Plaza de toros mexico
The location of this stadium (actually plural) is a football’s supporter wet dream. Slightly off Insurgentes, in the middle of a residential neighborhood, the Estadio Azul looks small and unassuming from the outside.
Once through the turnstiles though, it turns out 80% of this bowl has been dug out below street level. 33,000 seats were regularly occupied when local heroes Cruz Azul were still playing here until 2018. Now the stadium is apparently awaiting demolition and the football club moved to the much bigger Azteca stadium.
Unfortunately not torn down is the neighboring Plaza de Toros, where 41k locals can watch a bull-fight. The concrete, entirely round structure is impressive. It sometimes hosts concerts as well, but as this was not the case during my stay I obviously skipped the bull-fights.
Parque Hundido
A great retreat, not far from both stadiums, is the Parque Hundido. It started as part of a forest more than hundred years ago, when this was still not Mexico City. Those days have long gone. Nowadays it is a rather pleasant, lively and huge green space with a flower clock.
Estadio Azul in Mexico City
Flower clock in Parque Hundido in Mexico City
Modern office architecture on Avenida Insurgentes Sur, Mexico City
Torre Manacar
Now, the quicker and more intelligent way of course to do this trip would have been to take the Mexico City Metrobus system along Insurgentes. These red buses, with their own dedicated lanes, started in 2006 to relieve the pressure on the subway system. They are wildly popular and usually wildly overcrowded as well.
Taking the bus would have also meant that you just get a quick glimpse of the sometimes actually quite good architecture of new office skyscrapers. One of the most baffling is the Torre Manacar, an overhanging skyscraper that almost seems to fall forward at the top. Opened in 2017, it makes you wonder how something that seems to defy the laws of gravity could actually resist the not so uncommon earthquakes in this area.
Teatro Insurgentes in Mexico City
Teatro Insurgentes
One of the many great aspects of Latin American life is the big theatre tradition. It has always been a bedrock of critical societal thinking, and therefore takes a pivotal place in Mexican lives as well.
Just over halfway Insurgentes Sur the colorful facade of the Teatro Insurgentes is a stark reminder of this. It is probably the most famous Mexican one and an institute that definitely still ruffles the feathers of authority.
Museum Arte Carrillo Gil
Whereas the size of Avenida Insurgentes is designed to impress, some of its most beautiful surprises are an antidote to that. Another small detour brings art lovers to the cute Museum Arte Carrillo Gil, with its unusual modernist architecture and the gently-sloped walkways connecting the different levels.
The permanent exhibition is the main attraction, and it is an atypical introduction to the Big Three. Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco were asked to make some paintings (instead of their usual huge murals) for an exhibition in Chile. But after the putsch there the event was cancelled and the artworks ended up in the Carrillo Gil.
There is no way not to be touched by these vivid works of art. The powerful colorful language of Siqueiros, the dark inclinations of Orozco and the imaginative quality of Rivera’s work are on full display. It is a good preparation for bigger things to come with these three 🙂
Siqueiros painting in Carrillo Gil museum in Mexico City
Painting by Orozco in the Carrillo Gil museum in Mexico City
San Angel village
Don’t turn back to the main artery yet. Follow the Avenida Revolucion, running parallel to Insurgentes, for a short while to end up in another world. In San Angel, formerly a suburbian village, you can still find cobblestones as if we were at the start of the twentieth century.
Modern life also permeats this area, of course, especially the crazy traffic. But on saturdays there is a great street market, which is actually a tourist attraction as well. And the entire area, which takes you back to the colonial days, is one of the epicentres of Mexican cuisine. In that case bring a big purse with you as well though.
Cobblestone streets in San Angel neighborhood in Mexico City
Olympic Stadium in Mexico City
Central library of the UNAM university in Mexico City
University City
The grand finale of this crash course for CDMX. And a destination in its own right, with some smart planning enough for an entire day as well on this huge site.
The obvious, undisputed, heavyweight champion here is the iconic Olympic Stadium. The main site for the historic 1968 Olympics and Bob Beamon’s world record longjump, that stood for 23 years. The uncovered concrete bowl has been constructed dug into the hills, giving it some beautiful curves. It is still the home of the Pumas de UNAM, the rather successful football club of the university.
After crossing a tunnel that must resemble some dystopian nightmare at night, you get to the much bigger eastern section. This is where the actual Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) is located. And the first highlight, the central library (biblioteca) with its colorful (probably Aztec) illustrations on the outside.
There is much more to see. One of the more interesting of several museums is the MUCA (Museo Universitario de Artes y Ciencias), but venture around the area and you can also see Olympic swimming pools, another stadium and many more exhibitions.
Wow. The legs hurt, the skin is almost red by now. But what an incredible amount of impressions, gathered during this seemingly endless walk. From the urban chaos of Glorieta to the colonial village of Condesa, the modern architecture of Torre Manacar or the art of the three great muralists. Too much almost one one day.
Not too far away from here is the Casa Azul, the former house of Frida Kahlo, and another project of Diego Rivera. But leave that for another day. The fastest way home is to subway Universidad, on the eastern edge of the area. Not recommendable at night by the way in the weekends…
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