Safety for Mexico City

So, you are going to visit Mexico City... and that is wonderful. But it is a big city, a huge city, and tourists usually stick out. Either because they do not know how to wade around the city and expect another country and culture to tailor to their own very specific needs or because they look like this:

So, in order to make the most of your visit, I have made a list of Safety Tips to make your stay a pleasant one. I am sure most of you already know this (if you have been to any big city in the world), but here we have, the basics:

Movement

• Only get in taxi cabs called from a taxi station (called sitios, they phone a taxi for you), never stop a taxi in the street.
• Negotiate ahead of time the fare (unless it is fixed or with a taxímetro), ask “cuánto sale para X”.
• Don´t leave the window down. Lock the doors when you are in the car/cab.
• Do not pull out maps in the street (even in the car/cab).
• Don’t walk in the streets at night (except in Coyoacán, and only in lighted areas).
• Don´t walk and talk on the phone.
• Ask the hotel if there are any dangerous streets near the hotel, avoid them.
• Avoid catcalls, ignore them.

Money

• Always carry about 20-50 dollars, if you get mugged give them that immediately, do not look at them.
• Never use an ATM on the street, use the ones inside stores or malls.
• Do not go into an ATM alone, if someone is there, wait outside. Once inside, lock the door. If you see anyone hanging out outside, do not enter. Leave your companion outside to watch out for you.
• Distribute cash among your pockets, do not keep it all in one place (or get a money belt/pouch).
• Do not carry huge amounts of cash.
• Do not pay with debit card or credit card, it might get cloned. Use cash. (except maybe the hotel)
• Pay with pesos, dollars will be taken at the lowest they were that month according to the banks. They will usually never give change in dollars.
• Tipping is expected with almost everything, think on average 10 pesos, on food 15-20%.

Passport

• Do not carry your passport on you, use the safety deposit box in the hotel. Carry a photocopy.

Yourself

• Do not use gold or jewelry, nothing shiny. If you are wearing a stone ring, turn the stone inside.
• If you take your rings out when you wash your hands, if someone uses the next sink, move the rings.
• Do not wear flashy clothes.
• Do not leave purse or backpack out of your sight (do not hang your purse/backpack on the seat, put it in the table).
• If you need help, do not ask a policeman, go to the nearest store and ask for help from the people working there.
• If a policeman says you did something and is going to fine you, ask for his/her badge and write it down. Then say you are calling the American Embassy, if they continue, call the embassy. Never go with him/her anywhere (s/he might not be a police officer).

Druglords

• Do not speak in public or in taxis positively or negatively about the insecurity, violence, criminal activity, etc. Someone might not agree.

TLDR: Don't flash your money around, don't act stupid, do not expect the police to help you. Enjoy yourself!

Madison Fountain

Madison Fountain

Myths of the Mayan Calendar

If you are here it is probably because you are using non-Mayan iconography to talk about the Mayas and some of your very concerned friends (who certainly love you and don’t want to continue seeing you making an idiot of yourself) sent you here.

There are three important aspects of the Mayan Culture that you should know.

1. The Mayas are a culture in Latin America (south of Mexico, north of Guatemala and Belice, El Salvador and Honduras) which started in the year 500 b.C.  and continues up to now. And yes, the Mayas are still very much around today. Though because of the conquest (which happened around 1500) they  abandoned the great cities and lost most of the traditional scientific research. They did this because the Spaniards were keen on torturing, maiming, raping, enslaving people, pillaging cities and burning books.

A Maya City would have looked like this about 600 years ago

It would be the equivalent of some aliens coming and starting to probing and dismember the members of sororities and frat houses while burning all the libraries and replacing internet with 24 hours of infomercials. The culture in the USA might still survive after this, but the knowledge probably might be dispersed.

Mmm... Rat burgers

2. The Mayas were great astronomers and mathematicians, their calculations about orbits, meteor showers, Sun, Moon and Venus eclipses, and other cosmological phenomena are still more exact than the calendar we use in Western Civilization. And it so happens that the Mayas  “predicted” and end of a period to happen in the Winter Solstice 2012, and they talk about it here, in the Stelae 6:

Some interpretations here

3. This, however, is the Sun Stone, from the Aztec civilization. 

It was probably used as a table by an Aztec priest

It is not a calendar, though it does contains elements of the Aztec calendar, mythology, and cardinal points.

The Aztecs believed that if you stopped feeding human hearts to the gods, the Sun would stay underground during the night and never come out again.

So if you talk about the Mayan calendar like so:

It would be the same as googling Eiffel Tower and getting this: