Recently, I began visiting various parts of Mexico City again.
This article covers my brief thoughts and a lot of photos of a neighborhood that I've spent about a year living in now: Pedregal de Santo Domingo.
Anyway, given the size of this neighborhood, I figured I'd explain specifically how I made my journey through it (according to my notes):
1. My main purpose was to document any important churches, street animals, street art, markets, parks, common practices (like people delivering water, gas, etc), any events if I happened to see any, etc.
2. I left my house that is closer to the south side of the neighborhood at around 7 AM to walk down Copal to arrive at Inglesia de Santo Cristo on Jilotzingo street.
3. Then I went all the way down Jilotzingo street to the left and then turned around all the way to the right end of the street before going north.
4. I ended up on Avenida Esquinapa and headed right from there (bought sunscreen at some local market along the way).
5. I think I made it to Avenida Aztecas heading right (which is in Ajusco).
6. I then turned around back left and then headed up north very soon after.
7. I found myself on Avenida Pedro Henriquez Ureña to the north and took a right to find myself at the section where that avenue crosses with Avenida Aztecas.
8. Then I turned back left and covered basically all of Avenida Pedro Henriquez Ureña.
9. At the end of that avenue, I was around where Copilco Metro is and asked some folks where "Copilco El Alto" is but got contradicting answers (only one person knew in hindsight after I looked at Google Maps when I got back home later. I never did find how to get to Copilco El Alto that day).
10. So I turned back around on Avenida Pedro Henriquez Ureña and found myself on Avenida Antonio Delfin Madrigal. I headed south from there.
11. Along that avenue, I turned left onto Avenida Esquinapa again and walked down it.
12. Along Avenida Esquinapa, I first turned north on Calle Amezquite to find Parque Amezquite.
13. After a brief time at Parque Amezquite, I turned south to get on Avenida Esquinapa again. Then I turned right to find the street that has a church called Parroquia de los Santos Fundadores Domingo de Guzman y Francisco.
14. After seeing that church, I got back onto Avenida Esquinapa and, after crossing past a few more streets, I headed north again on Calle Tepocatl to find Parque Ballantines.
15. After spending a brief time at that park, I headed south and decided to go onto multiple streets that I hadn't been onto before (completely random as to what I felt like walking down).
16. I'm pretty sure I headed south on Calle Tepocatl and found myself nearly getting robbed on Calle Aztahuacan as I wrote about here (might've been Calle Zolap to be fair but I'm not entirely sure. One of the two anyway).
17. Then I found myself soon on Calle Canacuate. I went all the way left eventually to get to Calle Canahutli. From there, I headed south to Calle Acatempa.
18. Then I went south to Ahuanusco. Then left to get to Calle Jumil.
19. On Calle Jumil, I went south to Zihuatlan (on a different day though). Then I went all the way to the right at the end of that street and went south using Calle Papalotl.
20. Then I was on Calle Nustepec. I went all the way to the left to find Calle Tajamanil. Then south using that street to find myself on Calle Ayojalpa.
21. From there, I just kept going south to Calle Chaucingo. I went all the way to the right on that street before turning around and turning south on Cda. Yahual because Google Maps had me believing I'd find a park at the end of it. I did not. I found a wall ending the street.
22. I turned around back onto Calle Chaucingo and turned a left to get onto Avenida Anacahuita. Then I headed north to get back onto Avenida Ahuanusco and that was it.
Anyway, let's get to the photos.
Enjoy!
A Walk Through Pedregal de Santo Domingo of Mexico City
I mentioned this on my blog before in this article here.
You got these little religious glass cases on random parts of the street where sometimes random people will stop in front of, do what looks like a mini Catholic prayer or whatever it is and carry on their day.
Say hello to my little friend!
Who is a good boy?!?
Example of what I wrote about here regarding how Mexicans will block certain sections of the street to "reserve" a parking space for themselves (even though it is technically not allowed).
Just a minor example of the religious scenery or references in the area from what I understand.
A mural dedicated to the neighborhood and how young it is (starting in 1971).
Coca cola loves some of its best clients in Mexico: poor people!
The trash collecting men of the neighborhood.
They sweep and clean the streets to the best of their ability and best of the amount of shits they give on a particular day.
Funny enough, there was a video that went viral recently of some local trying to offer them 10 pesos to collect his small bag of trash.
The trash collector laughed him off and walked away.
You are supposed to tip them if you hand them directly your trash.
What's odd though is that the large vehicles rolling by ringing their bells announcing their arrival to take your trash will gladly take 10 pesos of a tip.
What's also funny is how snobby Europeans say that it's only us folks from the US who tip when clearly that is not the case (and this area of Mexico is not THAT heavily influenced by the US to have adopted tipping because of the US. It is a thing here too).
Anyway, what's also funny is that you could just dump the small bag of trash on the street and, in theory, said small scale trash collector will MAYBE collect it.
Maybe.
Who knows.
But it is his job.
I never understood that: I won't take the trash unless you give me a tip but I might sweep it up if I find it on the street early in the morning.
Granted, they don't always do a good job cleaning the streets anyway but they try!
Well, "kinda" try.
They used to be better at cleaning Paseo Aztecas Park in nearby Ajusco but my recent visits involved the sight of some nasty ass trash all over the place.
Try they do!
....right?
Though you can't see through the windows of the last two buses very well, I can tell you that they were FULL.
Common down here.
Shoulder to shoulder.
No room left to get on unless you want to hang onto the door.
Or somehow push your way in.
Just normal people commuting to work anyhow.
One of the more popular churches in the neighborhood. This was the first one I visited.
In Mexico City, you sometimes see these little machines laying around for people to play with.
However, Pedregal de Santo Domingo is THE area of the city for these games compared to any other neighborhood I have lived in.
There might be other neighborhoods that can compete with Santo Domingo but I haven't seen them as of this writing in June 2022.
These machines in the photo above are in a pharmacy.
They are in many other buildings too.
Locals in this area (especially young men in their early 20s) love these.
A good Friday or Saturday night involves them hanging around to play these machines, smoke pot, have a beer or two and enjoy the moment.
Want chicken? Here you go!
"No tirar basura." Nice try lady. Will still happen.
Still, it shows how, even in poorer areas, you got folks sick of the trash and might take a stand against it.
An example of odd infrastructure and a building that looks designed to collapse.
If this building was designed in Roma Norte or Condesa where the impact of earthquakes is more strongly felt, I sure wouldn't want to be anywhere near it.
Just another example of poorer looking buildings.
Just another example of some religious looking spot to do your prayer or whatever.
You see this in Latin America sometimes: neighborhood members taking some stand in some collective group against whatever injustice (like concerns regarding rent, energy, etc).
Funny how they want to get rid of these images that restaurants or street food spots have to advertise their business in nicer parts of Mexico City like I wrote here.
Such action is not likely to be seen in places like Santo Domingo for a while.
You'll see other examples of such in this article.
Another one of these religious spots.
What looks like a church that I didn't see on Google maps?
Also, by this point, some random homeless dude noticed me taking pictures of everything.
He wanted my attention.
He gave me his sob story.
Needs to make a phone call!
I put in the number he wants to call on my burner phone but I didn't have minutes.
No call made.
He then began begging me for money.
Given I am a foreigner, he starts high on 100 pesos.
Immediately goes down to 20.
I give him 5 to help him use one of those street phones.
About 5 minutes later, I pass him again using one of them.
Guess he actually did need to call someone!
One of my first impressions of this neighborhood was how many roosters there are.
You'd hear them in the morning all the time!
Here's one.
Arrived to that avenue that is north of Santo Domingo.
Ended up making small talk with some random street food woman who seemed to be in her 50s.
Asked her about the name of the neighborhood north of where we were.
Small talk continued.
She then asked me if "I have a girlfriend?" and began talking about her daughter.
Forgot to ask for her daughter's number though. Seemed pretty odd to me how she was passively marketing her daughter to me.
She was a nice woman though. Selling pambazos and coffee.
Some cool looking church place or whatever it is.
Another example of reserving your parking space.
By the time I reached this avenue, I was no longer in Santo Domingo.
And it showed!
Some fancy gated community in this photo here.
And a mini shopping place in the photo before this one that had Starbucks and other foreign businesses.
Once you step outside of Santo Domingo to the north or to the east around Ajusco/Aztec Avenue, it's a world difference in development.
While it can be a world of difference when you step outside of Santo Domingo to the north, you only have to cross Avenue Pedro Henriquez Urena to easily find some sketchy looking areas on the other side of the avenue.
While most of the area to the north of Santo Domingo does look better, you do have certain sections like this area here that look sketchier also.
Example of some government agency in Mexico that, from my understanding, helps homes at risk and poorer folks in general. The INVI. I think that's what they do anyway.
Political propaganda just like all the AMLO stuff you see.
Around this point, I was trying to find a place called "Copilco El Alto" but almost nobody knew where it was.
In hindsight, a lady who sold me a pambazo around this spot outside Copilco Metro DID give me the right answer but I disregarded it because everyone else was giving different answers with a certain answer being more common but wrong.
I will take photos of "Copilco El Alto" soon but, by this point in my walk, I was looking for it then and failed to find it in the moment.
Now I know where it is and how to get to it.
Back in Santo Domingo!
Gas!
More religion.
More religion.
Some local market.
The agua man as I wrote about here.
In this neighborhood, you have random dudes selling wooden stuff they made on the street.
On the street I live on in Santo Domingo, there's a dude with his same stack of wooden furniture that he sells by the corner every Sunday.
Not sure if these dudes work together, are part of some company or work solo.
Still, if you want a good deal on some household stuff, they're some of the best you'll find in the area.
A local market selling vegetables.
Street food.
That same "street food art" that some local governments in Mexico City want to get rid of as I wrote here.
Gas!
One of the more popular churches in the area. The second one I visited.
An example of all of the Volkswagen Beetles in the neighborhood as I wrote about here.
Another small market selling fruits and vegetables.
Another example of one of the few parks in the neighborhood.
No trash! No littering!
.......Just how well do the locals respect the sign?
Not at all!
"Fuck yo bitch ass sign" say the local borrachos at 2 AM in the morning.
At this point, I left the park and went down a relatively sketchier looking street compared to the rest of the ones I saw.
Almost got robbed by some gang members as I wrote here.
This is where I almost got robbed.
A church I pass by all the time to get to my gym.
On a street I know all too well.
Anything to Add?
And that's it!
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Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt