Mexico’s Bicentenario celebration, marking 200 years of independence from Spain, is next week on the evening of Sept. 15.
It’s going to be the biggest party of the year. There’ll be concerts, music, and a bunch of people running around in fake mustaches and sombreros. I’ll personally be wearing a tri-colored headband and earrings, which I bought from a street vendor.
There’s one big downside to all this fun: the insane, soul-crushing traffic.
The city closed off a portion of Reforma earlier this week for “security reasons,” so every major thoroughfare nearby has turned into a parking lot. A few days ago I stared at the line of cars on the avenue near my house and remarked to Crayton: “This feels like Christmas.” (Christmas is another time of the year when traffic is particularly horrible.)
On top of all of that, there was a manifestación on Reforma today that shut down the area near the Angel.
The drivers this morning weren’t having it. At around 8:30 a.m., I captured a serenade of angry (and sometimes mournful) honks from my office window. Amazing how loud it was.
Please don’t stop listening when the track gets quiet — the drivers are just resting. They’ll start up again in a few seconds.