Yel Kaye – Travel Blog, Writing and Photography

It seems that most people – even those that love to travel – have no interest in visiting Mexico City.

This might be because most people’s vision of Mexico consists of two things: Either the white-sand beaches of packaged holiday dreams, or the dirty, dangerous Mexico City slums portrayed in movies like Amores Perros. Nothing in between.

Well, in a metropolis the size of Mexico City, there’s plenty of room for a lot of in between.

Mexico City is one of the world’s largest, and certainly the biggest I’ve ever visited. The metropolitan area has a population of over 21 million people. (About 8 million in the Distrito Federal, or federal district, but really the city spills over into the neighboring Mexico State.)

21 million people.

Now let’s see. Guatemala has a population of about 13 million. And as well as I got to know Guatemala, there is still far more that I haven’t seen.

Mexico City has far more people than the entire country of Guatemala! Even if I live here for a few years, how can I ever really know this city?

The fact of the matter is, nobody – not even native Chilangos – can entirely know this city. It really is a world unto itself.

That’s what makes this place so exciting, or what’s making me remember how much I love big cities. The possibilities here are endless. You really could find anything you want here.

I mean, think about it. Sure, a large percentage of the city might be poor and dangerous. But let’s say, for argument’s safe, that 10% of the city is nice and safe. That still leaves an area with 2.3 million people that I might like to live in. Or let’s say, hypothetically, that 3% of the city is very active in artistic pursuits. That’s 690,000 artists, musicians and writers to discover! Or – just to be funny – let’s assume that 99% of the world’s population is ugly, too old or too young. That’s ok, because Mexico City would still have 230,000 hotties to ogle! (By all the people I’ve been checking out on the streets, I’m thinking the proportion of beautiful people in this city is higher, however.)

Anyways, my point is that this is a place of possibility. And lots of doors are opening already.