6.5 horas. That's how long the Kid & I spent at the Museo Nacional de Antropología today. If the best way to learn a language is via immersion, today was a day to let him 'learn' rudimentary lessons in "el D.F." - gently, but yeah - in full-body immersion.
We began with breakfast - gratis at the hotel, a little feature which almost makes up for the lack of Internet access. Except they charged me anyway. Oh well. Then a walk down Cinco de Mayo, past Belles Artes, through the Alameda, and over to Paseo de la Reforma. From there, we took a pesero to Chapultepec Park. A definition I found for "pesero" today - "Pequeño autobús que no cumple con ninguna regla de seguridad." Well, yo no cumplo con ninguna regla de seguridad también. Or something like that.
Peseros are probably among the best artifacts to explain - to the degree that such an explanation is even possible - why I so love this place, but that's probably best saved for another post. We found ourselves on Reforma at Juarez - my favorite intersection - pointing at the street to signal the rattling steel deathtrap on wheels to shudder to a halting stop, receive our 3.5 pesos apiece (about $.30), and carry on toward what we hoped would not be our final destination.
The visit to the museum ... well, for the first time in four visits in the past year, I went through all of the rooms. The Kid insisted on it. We also have upwards of 500 digital photos to process. A couple of times I caught myself pleading with him to slow down, to take the time to study what he was photographing. Of course, each time I made the plea, he stopped and asked me to translate the descriptions of the artifacts. Had we kept that up, we'd still be there tonight. There's a lot of artifacts in that museum... lots. The descriptions aren't exactly brief, either.
Another pesero careened us back to El Angel de la Independencia - didn't brave traffic to cross over to see her today, but did note the relative accessibility of the monument compared to the US' Statue of Liberty. We continued on into the Zona Rosa, stopping at Cafebraria el Pendulo for a light dinner. That little bookstore/coffeehouse/restaurant is a close second - after the Basilica de Guadalupe - on my list of favorite places in Mexico City. The Kid enjoyed it as well, and added it to the list of places to visit again before we leave town this weekend.
Our trip back - el Metro! Since the Kid's just 10, we were able to get on one of the "Mujeres y Niños" cars from Insurgentes to Pino Suarez; Pino Suarez to Zocalo had no gender-segregated cars, but wasn't nearly as crowded, either. Having heard all sorts of stories about the Metro, I think he was a bit underwhelmed all in all, other than being impressed by the price - two pesos ($.18, maybe?) per passenger - to go anywhere on the system - anywhere at all.
So now we're back at the hotel. He watched an episode of Pokemon in Spanish (his gratitude will be duly conveyed to the Teacher when next they meet), I checked email & paid a few bills from the hotel lobby. Doing some photo cleanup now, and writing this post in TextEdit, so when I make a pilgrimage downstairs later tonight it'll be quick to post.
I don't think he quite gets it why this place is so important to me, but then again, he looked at me perplexed at lunch today and said "You really can speak Spanish when you want to, can't you." Um... well, yeah. Baby steps. Tomorrow - more immersion, more español, more Metro, and another pesero too, maybe. Today - today is enough for today.
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