Thursday, March 20, 2014

things that grow / March 2014 Mexico City

First morning in a park. I'm in the turquoise Tshirt and sunglasses, which have not yet been stolen. There's a friendly dog in a striped, knitted jacket nosing around the fountain, and through the trees the backdrop of a fresco Madonna whose building is for sale. 04455-5402-4597.  


The flowering jacaranda trees against the sky and the art deco buildings.


Though I liked the fallen jacaranda blossoms almost as much as the ones in the air. Every evening the twig brooms were busy, sweeping them into huge purple tissue-paper mounds.


 The sun and the warmth have trees sprouting out of the most unlikely places.


Can anyone tell me what this tree with red flowers is? What kind of fruit it grows?


For sure, there's fruit. This is Mexico. The vendor wasn't holding a knife. It was more of a domestic, home-use machete.


Even on a rooftop terrace over the city, there's greenery. That in the background is the excavation of an Aztec temple, the Templo Mayor, which was discovered in 1978 when some city workers--subway people from one source, electric company from another--came up against a wall they recognized was no ordinary wall. Work is ongoing. Skeleton-studded blocks, stone carvings, etc.


And if there isn't enough growing already, why not pot a few plants on top of an old van in the street?


We always had to watch where we were walking, because the same lovely proliferation of trees made for cracked and heaved sidewalks. Not every tree root likes to be buried under asphalt. Do you blame them?


Thank you to R who let me use his photos.
   

2 comments:

  1. I feel I should have been wearing sunscreen for this tour... whew! Not used to the heat here in Ontario. What wonders you uncovered. Trees growing from buildings and cars! It all looks so lovely and casual; what I especially enjoy is that there are not hordes of tourists in every picture. Am assuming they weren't there...which makes it all the more wonderful... My favourite is the carpet of jacaranda. I can imagine those tissue paper piles. Thank you for this. Much needed on this snowy first day of spring.

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    1. To one who's taken me along on many great trips, thank you, Carin!
      We actually saw few tourists--as in white or speaking Japanese or carrying a French guidebook. I think tourists tend to head to the coast. I'm not sure Mexico City is even much interested in encouraging tourism. The Tourist Office is currently closed. So we were informed by a man in a uniform who accosted us in a park and asked if we needed information. He said he was an "ambulatory representative" of the Tourist Office and that there were several people like himself scattered throughout the city. Was it a scam? If so, I don't know what was in it for him.

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