19 Weeks, 2 Days: Loving CDMX And Coyoacan Where I Was Born – Hanging Out With Rockstars (Not Literally) – Vacation is Over, Sad

19 Weeks, 2 Days.

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Last day of vacation. CDMX has been a wild and entertaining ride. I do not want to go back to border crossing life reality.

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I’ve been so distracted that thinking about mom all the time has diminished. I almost lost count again… it’s weird. Life still feels weird.

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This city has a lot of people.

A lot of fucking people.

I’ve probably covered 2% of it, but for the most part, people sweep their sidewalks and the city is cleaner than I imagined…

I stayed my first night with a writer friend who stayed with me in Tijuana before.

She’s an awesome freelance writer covering the city’s LGBT scene, marihuana, and an expert reggaetonera with articles on the High Times, Remezcla, 48Hills, and more. She took me to an art gallery by Siqueiros with a performance of a trans campesino poetry reading, dancing, and juice making.
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I took WAY too many pictures like always.

Quote from my own Instagram.

Cat was indeed great. But she had to fly the following day to Guadalajara.

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After that, my second host. Tamara Vallarta. Yes. The Tamara Vallarta of the Netflix series Tijuana. If you read my blog, you know that I talk to her since they filmed outside my house. We finally met. And she toured me around her area… Next to her area… THE PLACE I WAS BORN AT! Coyoacan.

Crazy. I don’t know shit about that place. I enjoyed it. A lot.

Turisteando con Tamara.
Coyoacan is where I was born. I don’t know this place at all, I just know my birth certificate declares I was born here.
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The great @tamaravallarta lives in the area. She was my second host. She had to deal with me and my desire to barhop (ended up in a dive bar pulqueria that the dude didn’t accept my 5 pesos tip on a 25 pesos liter of pulque…). I had to deal with THEATER that she loves. But hey, they had beer and the play was actually a good psycho thriller.
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The pics I am in were shot by Tamara. She almost fell with my camera inside a fountain…

Quoted from my own Instagram again. I post my adventures there. Blogging is weird. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Tumblr. WordPress. Reddit. Imgur. Choose the void you want to throw your thoughts and pictures to. It doesn’t matter in the end. And it’s a lot of work. A lot of fucking work. Fucking social media.

I still need to post more shit on Instagram. And I want to make nice Imgur albums of my adventures. I’m missing some Querétaro shots.

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But no.

I go back to a mountain of work.

I go back to my map project finally getting published.

I go back to the DMV and car registration.

And pay the fucking rent.

And pay some debt.

And pay. Pay. Pay.

Work work work work.

I do not want to go back.

The border seems to be in a bigger mess than usual right now. Fuck. I do not want to go back to the borderlife.

But how else am I going to make a living?

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Tour guide #3.

My friend Sánchez. Haven’t seen him in years. It’s nice to know that after so many years, he is still a great friend. We still talk, mostly in the NFL fantasy group, and soon on more videogame groups. I’ve spent the last few nights at his place.

THANKS, SÁNCHEZ!

As a thank you as well, I’ve tried to pay for most our outings, but it has been a lot and he insists on paying in some. Still… THANKS, SÁNCHEZ!

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He has a two bedroom apartment near Metro Balderas which is downtown CDMX. He lives by his lonesome, so he has a nice guest bedroom for me. A comfortable one too. Or maybe it’s because every night we spent the last few hours drinking beer and playing Smash Bros.

The weekend we spent eating and drinking. And eating and drinking. And hanging out with Tamara as well.

Oh… and I met up with Poncho.

Poncho?

Well… he is known now as “Alfonso Dosal.” Last time I saw him was… well on TV. On the Netflix series “Narcos” (he plays one of the Arellano Felix brothers). It has been a decade since last I saw him.

I met him well… fucking years ago because he was my neighbor and we went to the same school. His little sister was one of my good friends back then and we used to carpool to school. And with Poncho… our mutual friend Xrosty made us hang out often enough. And do stupid shit.

So… I was a stupid teen with him. And he is still the same. Except, you know… now he has a wife and kids and he is of decent fame actor in Mexico. It matter not.

We walked to a pizza place near his place and drank a bunch of craft beer. Sánchez and Tamara joined us there. Then we went back to Poncho’s apartment and finished a bottle of gin as he kept refilling our glasses with gin and tonics. I played SNES classic with his kid. His wife made us quesadillas. We hung out for hours with Sánchez (Tamara left to the theater as always). We were just Nuevo Continente kids (that’s the school we went too).

It was a great evening.

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The next evening with Sánchez was great as well.

And the next evening as well.

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Things have become a blur as we walked miles throughout the city and stepping into whatever looks nice. AND THIS CITY IS FUCKING HUGE!

And it has SOOO MANY PEOPLE!

That’s me and Sánchez at Plaza de la República, a huge monument in downtown. Classic CDMX.

Except that Sunday was nice and cloudy and the best weather so far. Today is nice weather as well.

Fucking Monday that feels like Sunday after so much vacation. Fuck, I do not want to go back.

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On Saturday I saw my primo Patto who I used to hang out with in Tequisquiapan YEARS AGO! He had 45 dogs and over 100 cats back then and other animals. Shit was wild…

He has been living in the city for the longest now. His house is nice, but it also houses his wife, three kids, in-laws, 5 dogs, 9 cats, and some birds.

Less pets than before. But more kids and people. I never saw him with kids before.

He is ALSO a great artist who has worked with famous people as well…

So I’ve been hanging with rockstars in CDMX. I like it.

I could live here…

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I would come back here more often, and not go back to Querétaro…

There’s not much for me to do over there anymore. And honestly, I really liked CDMX.

If I get some photo gigs here, that would be great. It would be a great excuse to come back more often…

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And about living here.

I probably could…

But their seafood is not that great and the craft beer scene is surprisingly small for being one of the world’s biggest cities. There’s some scene… but it’s the BAJA SCENE! A lot of the beers are getting imported from over there…

ANDDDD

There’s A LOT OF FUCKING PEOPLE. Which I like but also hate. There are just WAY TOO MANY FUCKING PEOPLE!

Still… I think I could live here. Where I was born. Strange.

Such a huge city… It’s hard to even fathom the size of it and the people in it.

I really hope to come back. I’ve been photographing the shit out of it. It’s so much different than Tijuana in so many ways.

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And Tijuana… well… I don’t miss you. I don’t.

But back to reality I go. Tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.

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THANKS THANKS THANKS THANKS THANKS THANKS to Cat, Tamara, Poncho (and family), Borrego/Doroteo (and family), and special thanks to SÁNCHEZ por que se la ha rifado el vato on my short visit to Mexico City.

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