Mexico City 2 : Pedro Infante and Mexican soccer

One of the seemingly inescapable, if dubious, pleasures of traveling and staying in a decent hotel is the sampling of cable TV offerings in the hotel room during breaks in the  sightseeing routine. In our case it was the same country (Mexico) but different channels, a welcome change as our cable package at home is very basic, in fact it’s called Basic Cable.

Anyway three of our favorites were the Tour de France on ESPN (though not particularly germane to our discussion here); Mexico playing in the U17 world soccer championships; and catching a Pedro Infante movie, on Galavision, I think it was. In many ways the Mexican soccer team winning the world U-17 title was the best story. My knowledge of soccer (or fútbol as they call it here and just about everywhere except in the USA) is about a step lower than my knowledge of rugby, which is almost zero, but that didn’t prevent me from rooting for the home team and thrilling to their success, whether it was the film Invictus or in this case the Mexican team playing on the world stage, albeit with the advantage of home field. In particular Mexico’s improbable come from behind victory in the semifinals against Germany, scoring two seemingly impossible goals in the closing minutes, made the finals win over Uruguay mostly anti-climactic as it was more or less inevitable. Anyway the city and country in general went nuts over the wins and there were parades and celebrations.

Way to go, Mexico!

Another very different type of [guilty] pleasure is watching Mexican golden age movies, and I was fortunate to catch a Pedro Infante movie, one of his last, the immensely enjoyable if eminently lightweight Palbo y Carolina. Who cares if the film was quintessential 1950s fluff about mistaken identity and other goings on? There were the usual Infante songs along with a fetching co-star that I’d never heard of named Irasema Dilián to more than make up for plot and sensibility shortcomings.

Mexico City 1 : Arrival

Out first visit ever was a pleasant one, even memorable at times. Since Mexico City must be one of the most written about and photographed places in the world it’s a challenge to find something original to say about it. Thus I’ll do my best to post thoughts on topics and places which aren't so well covered in the literature. But first to begin at the beginning -- we stayed at the Hotel Marlowe in the Centro/Reforma District on Calle Independencia, about 2 blocks from the historic Alameda Park and the Palacio de Bellas Artes. 

Even the art is classy at the Marlowe

The Marlowe gets glowing reviews in the travel sources and indeed it lived up to its billing. Location is first class; the restaurant is great if a tad expensive; the only criticism is that it’s not very close to the metro stops, but then again not really very far away either. Its cleanness and superior management & upkeep combine to give the impression of a mini-Hilton for a third of the price. With the Expedia package we got for a 16-day stay it was a bargain indeed.

However . . . . a budget hotel is still a budget hotel, and the Marlowe, for all it’s great features, lacks some of the basic amenities of the best budget and mid-range hotels in the states; there's no clock radio, free breakfast, refrigerator, microwave, envelopes, writing paper, pencils, coffee maker, or pool. But on the other hand the complimentary apples in the lobby in the afternoons were a nice touch. 

The Pastelria Ideal just down the street.

Do we know this place?

Marlowe also gets high marks for the helpful and knowledgable though not overly personable staff, and for the superior maid service.* And despite the lack of air conditioning, the city’s San Francisco/Seattle-like climate, along with the fan, kept things comfortably cool in our room, although it did tend to get a bit stuffy during the day. Overall I’d rate the Marlowe about 4 stars out of five.

Street performers are popular

A view of the world

* Oops! almost forgot -- watch out for the laundry service, available upon request at the front desk. Our bill was $523 MX pesos, about $45US at the time, for a very modest batch of laundry which would have cost us at most about $10US in our home city of Mazatlán.