After a three-hour flight from Mexico, we are sitting at the Phoenix, Arizona airport waiting for our connecting flight to San Francisco.
We bid good-bye to Mexico after a five-day stay in the capital. This city is overwhelming, tiring, amazing, and fascinating at the same time. It's very difficult to decsribe it because it is so different from other metropolis.
First of all with enormous noise. And this is not only the traffic noise, however, the horns hit your ears. From each store comes out knocking down music and it is impossible to comprehend how those staff people and nearby residents can put up with it. Almost all shopkeepers and street vendors (there are hundreds of thousands of them) loudly call for buying their products. In the metro those vendors of CDs, toys, and other cheap gadgets, play their music and roar aloud to outshout the roaring train.
A side remark: The metro in the capital is very well organized, reaches most of the neighbourhoods, among others the airport,
and it is very clean and safe. Why it is safe, I will tell you below.
As a farewell, we went to Palacio Nacional (The National Palace). Apart from historical rooms from the Spanish reign, there are the murals of Diego Riviera's - one of the greatest painters of the art. (To those interested: He was married to Frida Khalo)
It's time to write why one can feel safe in Mexico. Well, in the city there are dozens of police forces which are backed by the military at strategic places. Everywhere, but everywhere, there are present guards armed to the teeth. At each corner there are four traffic policemen "managing" the traffic. On the street frequently move patrols with four policemen ready to shoot from the pick-ups. Each police car flashes with colourful lights.
This all doesn't concern an average tourist. Until some time. The policemen in the streets are nice, smiling and helpful. It begins to be unpleasant when you want to enter any institution, important museum or even a church. You become a potential threat. There a real check-up begins, similar to the one at the airports. But those armed law inforcement forces do not make good impression. Too bad. You may decide not to travel, not to fly, not to sightsee, not to annoy...
Militarization of the state and the presence of the police at every turn (in defence of democracy) do not conftibute to the charm of the country, but it doesn't take away its authentic beauty.
We think that you shouldn't be taken aback and come to Mexico where the tourist safety is greater than in some European countries.
