Bicicletas y calles

Top: bikers heading toward the Zocalo
Bottom: Scouts at the entrance to Chapultepec Park

Oct. 3

Shopping is an experience here. Wal-Mart, of course, has several stores in the city. The Mercado de San Juan, a very nice market that sells all kinds of meat, fish, and vegetables, is a few blocks away. For artesanía, we go to La Ciudadela or the Fonart stores that sell a variety of hand-crafted items. There are several mom-and-pop variety stores, Seven-Eleven (just called Seven here) and its Mexican version, the OXXO. We also have Waldo's, a store that sells cheap miscellaneous small stuff, similar to Marden's or Bob's, and shops that sell trinkets for just three pesos or just seven pesos. But if you want a bigger item, you have to go to the street that specializes in that product. There are streets with stores that sell mostly shoes, others that sell lighting fixtures, one near us that specializes in bathroom stuff, another that sells things for the kitchen, another for computers. Musical instruments can be found on - fans of Joan Manuel Serrat's version of Antonio Machado's "Guitarra del Mesón" will appreciate the appropriateness of this - calle Mesones.

When we decided to buy bicycles to join the Sunday rides and vary our workout routines, we went to the street that has dozens of bicycle shops, calle San Pablo. But this street has a double specialty. The oldest profession is quite obviously a part of the scene on San Pablo; one or more prostitutes stand in front of each of the little shops! In contrast to the usual hawking that goes on to solicit business, they are silent, merely standing on their clear plastic stiletto heels, provocatively dressed, waiting for customers.

Most of the shops sell the same bikes, for the same price, most manufactured here in Mexico, some advertising "Italian technology", with prices ranging from around $70 to $1000, most in the $100 range. Two Mexican brands are the BR and the Benotto. I bought a BR, and Bill got a Benotto, the Italian tech one, for around $250 total; our friend Cece got one for $70. We were so exhausted by the cacophony of calle San Pablo that we left without buying chains, so they're now stored in Rocinante (the Tahoe). Bill already rode his down the Reforma to Chapultepec on Tuesday, when we were at school, although our students were not (the Oct. 2 demonstrations).