Bosque Magico

A view from an overpass near the park. The funky looking buildings are part of the children's museum I think.

Some South Park inspired mural on a children's school closeby. Soon after this we tried crossing another bridge only to be stopped by two armed soldiers. It turns out the bridge wasn't a public accessible one as it led to the president's residence that is inside the park. Again, not wanting to get shot or deported I didn't bring the camera out.

A weird billboard for eggs in fancy dress. The chickens seem impressed anyway. After a short detour alongside some motorways and under a subway where the smell of urine coupled with the heat made the aroma particularly enticing to the nose, we found ourselves back in the park and under the shade of its many trees.

A squirrel in the park. In the UK we only have grey, here there were grey, black and I swear I saw a red one too.

How many squirrels can you see in this shot? Now, how many ninjas can you see? The two women were particularly popular with the rodents. I'm wondering if they were looking for dinner and baiting the squirrels for that purpose.

They were everywhere, and a couple of them came over to us in the off chance we would offer them food. We never had any though.

This one is drinking water from a leaking tap, ninja style!

A small enclave of shops and eateries in the centre of the park.

Now that's a clever use of plastic, turning the bottles into a bin.

Some statue arrangement on the outer edge of the park.

A strange piece of art, of which there was quite a lot around the city.

Crossing over another overpass. The two guys on the island between the lanes would run out in front of the traffic (when stopped dummy!) and entertain the drivers for cash. We'd seen quite a bit of this on our travels around Mexico City and they ranged from jugglers to tumblers to the typical window washers. These guys would take it in turns to jump up and down on their hands.

As you can see here. I wonder if competition is introduced when the circus comes to town or if these guys go looking for work there?

More skyscrapers

I took this only because there wasn't much stencil activity going on in Mexico City and this was the only piece I saw that day. It looks like Chopper, that Australian psycho guy, but then I wonder why would that feature here in Mexico.

A pagoda in the Japanese garden part of the park. We weren't allowed in as it had closed, this was taken through the outer fence.

Animal topiary

This is the razor sharp tower, home to the Mexican division of Gillette. The building consists of two towers for extra performance, and I think there is an additional building around the back.

After a short walk (I say "short", others might say "bloody hell Malcolm, where the hell are you dragging me. We've been walking for flipping hours and my feet hurt and I have blisters the size of my feet") we arrived at the Anthropological Museum. The museum only had an hour left of opening time and I was in two minds about wanting to go in, but Jeppe convinced me otherwise and I'm glad he did. The place was amazing and the highlight of the day.

The place gives a very good background of the tribes that lived in Mexico from the Mayans to the Aztecs to the Olmecs and include some amazing pieces of art from those periods. What made it particularly special was that they'd designed the grounds of the museum to look like a little jungle so as you walked through you'd come across statues and temples exactly as they would have been originally.



Having seen this sort of stuff at theme parks and in Tomb Raider games it was great to see the original pieces first hand.


Indiana Jeppe emerges from one of the temples.

Bow down before the Gods!


This is an Olmec head. It looks like a boxer I can't quite put my finger on (because we weren't allowed to touch it).


The roof really is only being supported by that pillar. Incredible!

Inside the museum were some amazing pieces of Mexican stuff (how technical does that sound?)




This shows how the temples consisted of layers with other temples within the outer one.

This is the most important relic in Mexican history; The Stone of the Sun. Originally believed to be a representation of the Aztec calendar it was discovered to be a ceremonial Frisbee thrown by giants who stood over 20ft tall...or perhaps that's just the output of my stupid imagination. It takes centre stage in the main hall.






Liking how the colour has been preserved on this one.



Some rich colours here too. As you walked around the exhibits they just seemed to get better and better and a couple of the pieces were actually taking my breath away.


I think this was my favourite piece of all of them. I thought the gargoyle type heads were stunning and the retention colour in such an old piece superb.

The museum was brilliant and I definitely recommend it to fans of Tom Raider.

Back outside the museum, this piece looks like those arty speakers that are sold for a small fortune, or the bad guys from Day of the Tentacle, for those who remember that.

Beware of the elephant, a creature indigenous to the urban Mexican landscape. In the UK we have foxes, in Mexico it is the elephant you may find searching through your rubbish in the early hours. Actually it's a sign for the nearby zoo, which probably has pachyderms in it.

Crossing yet another overpass. The reforma road cuts through the park and we were following it back to the hotel.

The park has a castle within it from which you're supposed to get a nice view up the Reforma avenue. However it was closed when we got to it having sacrificed the trip to this for the museum, which I believe to have been the right choice anyway.


The entrance to the castle is protected by 2 stone lions who shoot laser beams at anyone who tries to enter the park when its closed. Or am I confusing that with the sphinxes (sphinixi?) in Neverending story.

Lazy copper on Segway

A nice art-deco ish looking building that reminded me of the MI5 headquarters in London, although that one is greenish in colour.

Most of the traffic coppers in Mexico City were female. I think they should make a Mexican version of CHiPs. I'd watch it!

Traffic cop with a death wish in the middle of the traffic blowing her whistle whilst her friend looks on.

This is the statue of La Diana Cazadora and when I did a search in Wikipedia all that came up was a page for a female Mexican wrestler. Now I don't quite think the city would put up a statue in honour of a 20-year old wrestler. I mean, I don't think America has one of Hulk Hogan and he's a much bigger superstar. I'm therefore assuming the wrestler has taken her name in honour of some older women who did something notable in Mexican history probably with a bow and arrow, and it is her who is honoured in this statue.

The Angel of Independance, indicating we were nearly at the hotel.

Another stopped traffic vendor, this one was sponsored though and was selling cigarettes and the like.

This had been our busiest day so far with two parks and a 5-mile walk around the city sightseeing, but it was a good way to end Mexico City. With the exception of not seeing any Lucha-Libre and Bullfighting, which I'd like to have seen but which weren't on in the days we were there, I had seen everything I'd wanted to.

The next day we'd be saying "adios" to Mexico City for a very brief and intense day in Guadalajara

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