La Cúspide: Way cooler than any U.S. mall

Last weekend, Crayton and I took a 20-minute cab ride to La Cúspide, a huge mall — locally known as a “sky mall,” but that reminds me too much of the airplane catalog — in Lomas Verdes, a Mexico City suburb. We’d planned to visit Idea, an Ikea knockoff store. And we did that. But wandering around the mall afterward was much cooler.

I felt like I was in a European-themed Vegas casino. The mall had a long, wide boardwalk, where couples strolled and packs of teenage girls looked for packs of teenage boys. At the edge of the boardwalk, all of Mexico City unfurled like a picnic blanket. (See photo above.) I swear we could probably see our house from there — and they had telescopes in case you wanted to check. Fountains sprayed water delicately into the air and people sipped coffee at “sidewalk” cafes.

I kept waiting to see roaming street musicians or caricaturists, but alas, no.

Of course there was a Chili’s.

The place was totally surreal, actually. And it’s the second Mexico City mall I’ve been impressed by. The first was Antara in Polanco.

If you’re wondering, Lesley, why are you spending all your time at malls? It’s because I have an apartment to decorate. And uh… one time I needed shorts suitable for climbing pyramids.