life @ 13

immuseable

mexico city is a cool place. i've spent two days here getting lost and eating out of street stalls -- very cool. the central area of mexico city feels very modern and western compared to just about everywhere in central america. compared to the US (coasts?), each country exudes the folliwing characteristics:

guatemala: stuck in the 1850s, but the natives still make up half the population.
el salvador: trying to skip from the 1850s to 1980 with some success and lots of busses
nicaragua: stuck in the 1950s but quite content to be there
mexico city: stuck in the 1970s and seemingly trying to catch up with the rest of the west
belize: stuck on the north american continent, hoping for an earthquake that will help it break off and join a carribean island.

...at least that's what i was pondering today, for what it's worth.
today i took the subway to the "velodrome" stop, where there was a velodrome but nobody there, so i went to a park and watched some pickup basketball games and most of a soccer match until i fell asleep. then i remembered hearing from someone in the hostel that "this place that starts with xoc..." is a good place to hang out, with gardens and stuff. so i scraped up 2 pesos for a subway ride, then another 2 pesos for a train ride to the gardens, which apparently are only accessible by boat, which you had to pay for. since i just had an excellent lunch of two giant cheese-taco things, i was content to walk around the town, get lost, use the internet for a couple of hours, and make my way back to the city center.
tomorrow i'm going to finally get ready to leave. as much as i like this city i think after another day i'll have had my fill. that and i'm easily spending $25 a say, almost 3x as much as nicaragua. i'm going to ride 60k to toluca, crossing a pass to get out of the basin here. toluca is the higest city in central america at about 8700 feet, much to the dismay of my nose. but i think cycling here will be much more enjoyable, as the climate is much more temperate, and i have an extra two hours of sun.
i had to leave some bike parts behind in san jose (souvenirs for pablo at TACA) so i'm going to try and replace them. supposedly there are some cool bike shops in town. and maybe, just maybe i'll drop 75 cent for a couple new pair of socks.