House hunting

An entry way of a La Condesa home. So cute.

A Plaza in Coyoacan

We had a meeting on Friday after orientation was done with some ladies from an NGO that Doug will be working with here in Mexico City. We discussed many things including a place for us to live. There are two neighborhoods that were recommended for us. La Condesa and Coyoacan. La Condesa is located in the lowest lying part of Mexico City. As you may or may not know, Mexico City was built on top of a lake that has been filled in. So the ground can shift over time, especially in Condesa. Also the earthquakes are felt more in this part of the city. It's a beautiful area with parks and cafes and A LOT of 'For Rent' signs. Not all of these are on a website so the best way was to just walk. On Saturday we met a couple from the orientation that had already found an apartment in Condesa and they offered to walk around with us. We did this for 4 hours while chatting. There were many signs but we just took pictures of their info and had to get back to the apartment to call or email them. We have yet to buy phones here. It's expensive and we just have to find the right place to get a sim card or totally new phones. We stopped for a rest at a new pizza place in the neighborhood with a brickoven. It was yummy. Our pizza was a crust with cheese and garlic, no sauce and proschuto on top. Interesting but good. So Condesa really appealed to me for lots of reasons including a single woman from the program who has a 14 month old girl who lives close for playdates with sally, a girl's orphanage right across the street from our friend's place, local markets and it's quiet...but it's above our price range. The two that are in our price range is a studio apartment or a one bedroom. After our 4 hour walk around La Condesa we decided to brave the underground Metro to Coyoacan. To get to the stairs down to the Metro you had to walk through a packed plaza with kiosks of all sorts. A tent city like area with people, food, cell phones, clothes you name it. We passed through one isle where a teenage girl was on her laptop surfing facebook. It made the world seem so small to me. Like this girl in the middle of a shanty market, on her wi-fi surfing facebook. Hmm. The Metro was 6 pesos for the both of us to ride one way, this is about 40 cents in $US. Crazy cheap. We arrived at Coyoacan pretty quickly acutally. This trip we've been only taking taxis that have to sit in traffic. We didn't realize that the metro would fly like that! Of course it worried me a little being down under a sinking city in a train car flying 60mph with the windows open from the top. Ah! But like I said, we arrived quickly and unscathed. lol. The first impression I got of Coyoacon was dirty and much more poluted air than up in Codesa. But after we crossed over the highway and got into the village it stole my heart! Cobble stone roads leading to parks. Allie ways of all different color stucco homes with metal baloconies overlooking the streets, plants and flower boxes in every window. It was SO quiet you could hear your own breath. Quite a contrast from the center of the city wher our hotel is. We saw a lot of people coming from different directions all semi dressed up and walking with family and friends. They seemed to be heading towards a park with a large gate. Music was playing and there was food cooking. It was as if the whole community was meeting for a weekend fiesta. I wonder if it happens all the time? :) What a great place to live. It was like the Latino Truman show. Lol. We continued to walk around and found only a couple of for Rent signs. We were exhauted from walking all day and decided to call it quits. We got back on the Metro toward the centro historia. When we came out of the Metro we realized it was right across a park from our hotel. How easy! But the park that was quiet the day before was now a vibrant market with music, food, games and clothing to buy. We stopped and bought a water and walked out the other side to our hotel. We were just to tired to walk through and soak in everything. We rested for a half an hour or so, skyped with Sally and our family then went to a movie. What a long Saturday. Still no decisions yet on the house for us but we'll find it. Today is Sunday. The sky is finally blue and we are going to venture out into the city to see what's open. We are ready to go home and see our girl but until then I think some shopping is in order. hehe.