Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 21

This is becoming fairly formulaic but we got up at our normal un-gringo time for breakfast (10:50am). Today was NYE - and we were going to be spending in Mexico City (yay!). On Reforma Ave - right outside our hotel - the government had been setting up Mexico City's big NYs celebrations. They had been closing off a lane by lane over the last couple of days - and by today - most of the lanes had been closed with most traffic diverted off Reforma Ave. There were big screen TVs being set up as well as big marquees. We had sorted of been rather lucky with our location - not only that it was super close to all of the gay nightlife in Mexico City - but it was also just a stones throw away from the major NYs festivities.

We caught a metro out to the Coyoacan area which appeared to be very sin tourists (well... most of Mexico City seemed to be rather sin Gringos and overseas tourists - with the majority of tourists being local ones which reminded me of China a bit). In fact - I think we were the only "gringos" for about an hour until we reached the Frida Kahlo museum. On our way from the metro stop to the Frida Museum- we checked out an ABC (another bloody church) and a neeocye little piazza. Everything felt a little more richer here than other parts of Mexico City. All houses were fairly fortress like (eg: massive walls, security cameras, armed guards) - maybe it was the drug baron district, and everything was fairly leafy north-shore-y.

As I hinted out before - there were in fact gringos at the Frida Museum. The Frida Museum (or Museo Frida Kahlo) was the bright blue house where Frida lived for a lot of her life (and died there too). Another occupant of the house was her on-again-off-again lover Diego Rivera. The museum is a mixed bag of art work (by Frida and Diego) as well as artifacts from the house and furniture and stuff. Another famous part-time occupant of the house was Trotsky (of communist Russian fame or infamy?).

Speaking of communists... we then checked out the "Trotsky Museum" - which like the Frida Museum - was the house that Trotsky lived in for his last few years (before getting "capped"). Like other Mexican museums - everything was "En Espanol" - and the museum didn't really cover much of Trotsky's life in Russia - rather it covered his demise in Mexico. Trotsky himself was a russian red revolutionist (Ant can critique my crappy history lesson later) but he was part of the Lenin posse and when Lenin died - I think there was a power struggle or something with Stalin which led Trotsky to like leave Russia and go into exile (like Princess Ulladulla and Master Yoda in Star Wars or something - jedi style beetches). Anyone - after globetrotting around the world - he was granted exile in Mexico in the 40s and there were a couple of attempts on his life. On the second - he was "popped" off (with an Ice Axe to the head - very Sharon Stone Basic Instinct). The museum bit was a little small - but the house was really interesting and was basically left as the way he was living in it back in the 40s. Trotsky was on-again / off-again friends with the on-again/off-again lovers Frida and Diego (which sort of explains why Diego's art is a little on the communistic propaganda side of things - or should that be socialist realism for all of you art buffs). Well - I know who killed Trotsky - it was Ramon Mercader aka Professor Plum in the Study with the Ice Pick...

We continued our trek around the suburbs sin gringos and had lunch at another "Asian-bakery" style Mexican bakery - where nothing was quite what it seemed..... We eat our bounties in a nearby park (with completely no gringos in sight). I thought we were going to be raped by a pack of marauding small rabbies dogs whose owner had let them all of the leash and they were all a bit crazy).

After our near death experience with the pack of small rabbies dogs - we headed to a nearby military museum - only to find out that the place was shutting early on NYE (3pm). It had seemed like a lot of stuff was shutting early today - the Frida Museum had shut at 1pm - and we sort of came to the conclusion that maybe we should head back home to the hotel to rest before our big NYEs.

Back at the hotel - I did my final gyme session for the year (thank god most of the hotels have gyms - apart from the Luxor - which was going to cost us $10USD to use the gyme once - rip offf...!). We headed out to the streets around 9ish and the crowds weren't really happening along the Reforma Ave. The police had completely closed off all traffic and had this "facade" of security with metal detectors (most of them were switched off or the police were occupied elsewhere) and fences everywhere... But there were so many holes to their security (not to mention that you could plant a bomb before they installed the security measures- or you could just come through to the Reforma on the side of our hotel - where police were just letting people through the fence without being metal detected...

They had a big stage in the middle of the reforma playing all of your favourite latin american bands and performers.... cough. For all of the effort that the city has put together the NYE bash at Reforma - the crowds were a tad disappointing (considering there are 22 m or so people living here!!).

Anyway - we had dinner at "El Dragono" - a Chinese restaurant - which was the only Chinese restaurant in the free world (or not so free world) which didn't have any boiled rice... And it could also be the only Chinese restaurant to serve its short/wonton soups with massive amounts of soy sauce... More Confusion than Confucius. We had to make do with just having Oyster Beef and Chilli Chicken sin rice. The guy who worked there (a Mexican) had spoken some of the best english we had heard all trip (including the States). We sort of befriended each other - and he was wanting to go home to be with his family for NYE - and he gave us a free corona. Yay...

After El Dragono - we headed back to Reforma to check out if the crowds were getting bigger. They were - but still felt a little disappointingly small. We headed to the gay bar in Mexico City where everyone knows your name - Papi Fun Bar - which was packed. We had a couple of drinks but our friends from the other night were meeting up with relatives on NYEs so it was sin friends. The music was a little strange that evening. There was a lot more latino music than the previous night (the previous night it was non-stop beyonce and britney). They also had some cheap plasticy necklaces and ballons - which the bar staff where handing out to customers (sin Ant and Nick - sob!). We were still at the Papi Fun Bar at midnight - where there were a couple of party poppers popped and we saw the Mexico City fireworks live on TV. After midnight - the DJ (who really wasn't a proper DJ - just someone picking songs off winamp on a laptop) played only latino music - which was the straw that broke the camel's back.

We headed off to another club (Londres something) with the German couple. This was more of a club club - with a 100 peso cover charge and a free sugary horrible red mystery drink. There were a couple of shows - including a drag show - where the drag queen jumped off the stage and into the DJ booth - giving what was the best mix that we had heard all trip (which wasn't too much of a stretch). Anyhows - the story gets a little blue from here (my mother reads this)... Let's just say that this NYEs is going down in history as one of the best and wackiest NYEs ever (more so than the Brazillian threesome offers). Until next time.... U know u love me. Xo Xo