Sunday in the park with Jorge … and Pedro and Pablo and María and Carmen and …

July 10th, 2012

Many neighborhoods in Mexico City are surprisingly quiet, even small-town in feeling. There are few places where you really get the idea that you are in a metropolis where more than 20 million people live. One of those places, reliably, is Sunday afternoon in Chapultepec Park, where you might believe everyone in town has showed up.

Chapultepec is full of treats that are so modestly-priced that nearly any father, or boyfriend, can be a hero for the day to his children or girlfriend.

Twenty pesos for two photos in a keychain.

Fifteen pesos for a sweetheart pillow.

I didn’t check how much it cost to get your face painted or to shake hands with Spidey … and with his pal Spidey. Could be traumatic for the kids who thought there was only one.

You got to love those disgusting fake teeth. Well, maybe you don’t. My ex-wife never thought it was funny when I would walk through the door wearing them.

Eat enough cotton candy and you won’t even need disgusting fake teeth.

If you have a few more pesos to spend you can rent one of these babies and paddle along the lake.

I always thought Mussolini would have admired this monument. Chapultepec Park really is lovely and is not nearly so crowded during the week. Even on Sundays, if you escape the beaten path, you can find spots that are much more pastoral than these photos would indicate.

Labels: Mexico City

  1. 12 Responses to “Sunday in the park with Jorge … and Pedro and Pablo and María and Carmen and …”

  2. By Don Cuevas on Jul 11, 2012

    Cool! Where can I buy some of those ugly teeth?

    Saludos,
    Don Cuevas

  3. By Elenita Duelo on Jul 11, 2012

    We love Chapultepec on Sundays! We live in San Miguel de Allende and when we go into the city (which we do often) My husband knows that is one of the things I like to do!

    We sure enjoy your Blog!
    Salidos,
    Elenita y Howard Arturo

  4. By Dave on Jul 11, 2012

    Thanks for the post. It was only April when we were there last, and it makes me miss it. Surprisingly lovely place in the big city. I missed seeing the teeth, though. Must be the Next Big Thing.

  5. By Anne Geyer on Jul 11, 2012

    Brings back many sweet memories. I used to live just a hop, skip and a jump from this part of the Bosque.

  6. By Michael W on Jul 12, 2012

    I went there a few times on weekends. I can still hear the vendors singing out “Cinco, cinco, cinco pesos.”

  7. By ana manwaring on Jul 12, 2012

    When I lived in DF my house was on a privada off Constituyentes. My bedroom looked into the 3rd seccion of Chaputapec Park. Pure bosques. It was lovely! There was no indication I was staying in a huge city– totally different from the tourist areas.

  8. By Jesse on Jul 12, 2012

    Nice photo-essay, David. Makes me want to be there. Though the last photo looks like the USO sequence set in “Apocalypse Now”. Guess everybody likes a phallic obelisk!

  9. By Judy on Jul 12, 2012

    I beg to differ. You always cracked me up with those teeth. But they were scary!
    Which reminds me that the same guys who sell the teeth probably also sell very realistic fake turds called cacas de Guadalajara. My mother once suggested I buy one as a present for an ex-boss who fired me. I didn’t, to my endless regret.

  10. By Oscar Nerman on Jul 16, 2012

    hmmm to be honest, your blog bores me, nothing new, besides why write in English? it’s funny because most people who read your blog are native Spanish speakers, to me it is very pathetic, an example, if I write a blog in Spanish and most of my readers do not speak Spanish, it’s silly not? … by the way good luck … Mexico deserves more interesting things

  11. By Gloria A. Perez on Jul 17, 2012

    What??!! no Slim´s “golden touch” on Chapultepec? hum…. (J.K.);D

  12. By bill cummins on Jul 21, 2012

    Oscar Nerman
    what a jerk.
    maybe it bores you because you are
    boring.

  13. By Anne Meyer on Jul 22, 2012

    Oscar Nerman, isn’t it possible that David Lida is writing this blog in English because he wants to share his impressions of DF with nonnative Spanish speakers? It is wonderful that so many native Spanish speakers read this blog, but perhaps he wants people like me, whose Spanish is extremely basic, to learn more about this fascinating city which has been subject to so many misconceptions in the English speaking world. I have little opportunity to travel, but after reading First Stop in the New World I started following this blog. Before that I had absolutely no desire to ever visit DF, but Mr. Lida’s writings persuaded me to spend a few days there at the beginning and end of two trips to Oaxaca, and I can’t wait to go back.

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