One good thing about reliving Pedregal de Santo Domingo is visiting some of my favorite spots in the area.
It almost feels like I know this little area of the city like the back of my hand since I know where a lot of everything is.
Granted, it’s not an overly big area.
While many see it as not a very favorable place to live, it has its own little charm that has grown on me over my time around this area.
It might be hard for others to see the charm when they walk through the neighborhood for sure.
Still, there’s something about the vibe in the area that I like.
People come across as more friendly in the area and easier to relate to.
Plenty of activity outside so it doesn’t feel like a ghost town whatsoever.
As I walk through the crowds of the area today, I soon found myself revisiting an area anyhow that I used to visit a lot over a year ago.
A park called Paseo Aztecas Park.
Now, to be fair, Paseo Aztecas Park is technically not in Pedregal de Santo Domingo.
It is located just outside of that neighborhood sitting in Ajusco right next door.
It’s easy to visit as a simple walk of about 5 to 15 minutes will get you there depending on how close to the edge of Santo Domingo you live on.
Given how close it is and how much I like the park, I walked over.
In part to enjoy the afternoon sitting down to relax and also because I wanted to visit the Soriana across from it to break a 500 Mexican peso bill by buying some toilet paper.
As a side point, I’ve mentioned before how the 500 peso bill can be a pain in the ass to break and I was given a shit ton of them the last time I pulled from an ATM machine.
Now every week has been a journey to find out how to break the damn things into smaller bills.
A Walk Through Paseo Aztecas Park in CDMX
Anyway, I soon found myself at Paseo Aztecas Park as you can see here.
Now, to be fair, I didn’t document the entire park as it is basically a narrow stretch that goes in both directions at the point I arrived to.
However, the direction I went was often the walk I took anyhow as it led me to the Soriana.
Along the way, you’ll see various spots like areas for children to play in, numerous benches to sit down, some very basic exercise equipment, a basketball court and an open air gym where you always see grown men using the monkey bars and other stuff to do basic workouts.
Here’s photos of the entire walk until the part where you reach the Soriana.
Right before we got to that point though, I saw a pharmacy across the street.
For some odd reason, I’ve had bad luck trying to buy TRT in this area as all of the pharmacies I’ve checked out said they were out.
Is there a bodybuilder competition going on in the area?
Anyway, that pharmacy was also out and so I carried on.
A Quiet Place to Sit
Got to my favorite spot in the whole park as you can see here.
It’s not much to be honest.
In fact, most of the park might be seen as relatively not interesting compared to other parks that foreigners and locals love to visit in the city.
While the park itself is relatively normal without too much to offer, it does offer me a few things that I like a lot.
For one, the walk is peaceful and goes on for quite a bit.
Second, the area you saw above is a spot I like to sit down at for an hour or two at a time just to be by myself.
It serves well for that compared to other parks.
Primarily because you rarely have anyone else sit down in the same area so I can be alone in my thoughts and also because I have literally never had anyone beg me for money in the area.
That fact alone makes it a park I like a lot – no begging?
Great – I can sit in peace without someone getting angry if I don’t have spare change.
Meanwhile, you have some mechanic looking shop right behind me or whatever it is that half of the time plays really good reggeaeton viejo music.
Songs like these here.
So it usually comes with some good music thankfully.
Next, you got the Soriana across this spot where, if needed, you can always buy something to eat or drink if you happen to forget to bring something along.
And, on top of it all, you got traffic going both ways behind and in front of me.
Sometimes watching traffic is more interesting than people watching as drivers in Mexico City are sometimes reckless.
Who knows – maybe we’ll see a horrifying accident where some chick flies through the windshield and her left tit gets cut off?
Not that I wish that on anyone but it’d be one of those sights that makes for a good story back home.
“So you live in Mexico, huh? Is it safe?” asks an uncle.
“Yeah, I just saw a chick get her left tit cut off. It’s cool.” I reply.
In all seriousness, crazy driving can be interesting to watch to pass the time.
Here’s a few more photos of the surrounding area around me at this point in the park with a photo of a statue nearby.
Above all anyway, the park really has served as a good spot for me to contemplate life given this spot allows some relative separation from others and no homeless folks getting aggressive for money.
Which is one reason why it’s memorable to me.
Thinking in Peace
Funny enough, it was this spot well over a year ago where I decided to make a blog called Iberian America.
The spot itself didn’t inspire me to make a blog but simply give me the space to think about things and the idea crossed my mind for some reason.
Went back to my old apartment in Santo Domingo area and contemplated how to do it.
As usual, I always get stuck on the domain name.
While domain names matter less these days unless you plan to flip them, I still think a domain name is important.
It’s like the title of a book – got to get a good one, no?
So, after that afternoon, I went home and thought up domain names.
Tried everyone in the book.
“America Latina, Latin America, LAC, LATAM, etc.”
None worked.
Iberian America did work.
Close enough and I like it!
Outside of that example though, I think about other things also.
Sometimes I think about home.
Other times I think about details to expat life in Mexico.
And, other times, I don’t think at all and simply enjoy the view of crazy driving in front of me.
Just yesterday, I was at the same spot and saw a driver hit the breaks as some dude break checked him.
Then the driver who got break checked yelled out some shit in Spanish like “FUCK YOU PENDEJO!!!”
And, when you are traffic watching, sometimes thoughts come to your mind from that alone.
Like how cool would it be for me to be a crazy driver in Mexico?
I’ve always wanted to get in road rage in Mexico.
Not because I’m angry at any particular driver but I don’t like missing out on the fun.
And how could would it be for the gringo driver to be driving around crazy in Mexico City yelling out in his gringo accent to other drivers “PENDEJO!! PENDEJO!! MUEVETE!!!! MUEVETEEE!!!!”
Just the sight of an angry gringo cussing them out in a foreign accent in a high tense moment might confuse them.
Definitely a hobby I want to partake in.
But that’ll be a hobby for another day, I suppose.
At any rate, hope you enjoyed the view of this park.
Right after I got my toilet paper, I went back to my apartment in Pedregal de Santo Domingo.
Isn’t there a song about Santo Domingo that every hot Latina in a club knows?
Ven, báilalo, ay, ven, báilalo
Ven, gózalo, ay, ven, gózalo
Que la rumba está buena
Y contigo, morena
Pa' Santo Domingo es que me voy yo
Wait a second – they might be talking about a different Santo Domingo…
Close enough!
Anyway, if you got a comment, drop it below in the comment section.
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Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt