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.
I stumbled across your blog (not sure from where) but spent quite a bit of time reading your posts, so have subscribed to follow your stories. Love that I’ve jumped onboard in time for Mexico’s Bicentenario celebrations. I bet there’s going to be so many great posts coming out of this.
Looking forward to reading more.
Cheers!
Anna (from Australia)
Thanks Anna. Welcome to the blog — glad you’re enjoying it!
Car horns? Are you sure those weren’t Scottish bagpipers warming up? 😉
You know, you’ll miss the noise if you ever leave DF!
You mentioned that traffic is worse at Xmas….only if you leave the city, along with the hordes heading to beaches and whatnot! I love going out in DF at Xmas, because it’s so quiet and there’s so little traffic actually in the city.
In fact, apart from earlier this year when we had those mental rains that cleaned the sky, the only time you’re likely to see Izta and Popo from DF is at Xmas when there’s much less pollution from the cars and trucks.
It has been torture!
Ah, yes. When I was young, it took 3 hours to go grocery shopping from our house near Ajusco. I can only imagine what it’s like now. And the smog?! Peor.
All I can say that I’m looking forward to the celebrations this year in Los Angeles. Best of all is that September 15 falls on a Saturday so things will be very festive for sure!