The Pokiest Little Puppy in Polanco

So, today is mother’s day in Mexico. You might think, ok, whatever, but actually, one of my friends was telling me that in places in Europe, nearly every friday or monday or weekend has some kind of religious holiday in May (actually, I think Saori was telling me too) but interestingly, Mexico, one of the most Catholic countries (90%+) doesn’t celebrate those holidays. Instead, childrens day and mothers day are mostly paid holidays. I still had to go to work, although my roommate, who is a teacher, didn’t.

It’s the day when all the good sons and daughters take their mom out for dinner or lunch and so the city becomes a congested mess as far as traffic is concerned, and all the restaurants and florists put out giant signs trumpeting their mother’s day specials.

It’s an important day for my boss as well, since she’s several months pregnant at this point with her first child. Anyway, I couldn’t help but notice that everyone in the office left before 2 today, a full two and a half hours earlier than usual. I was going to ask some people if they wanted to go grab some lunch, but everyone seemed to be either on their way out permanently, or working on getting to that point.

I asked my friend Jose what his plans were for lunch and I think in the conversation, I inadvertantly either invited myself to lunch with his brother in Polanco, or accepted an invitation to join them.

So, I closed my computer and headed out with Jose. It was a beautiful afternoon to walk, so we walked through Chapultapec park to Polanco. His brother Charlie lives in an old apartment building overlooking a roundabout in Polanco, actually right across the roundabout from the La Parilla Suiza where I stopped for lunch my first week here in the city.

The apartment is actually quite large, over 200 square meters, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, an outdoor patio, a long balcony running the length of the apartment, and large public spaces. It was nicely decorated as well. Charlie lives there with his girlfriend and a few other roommates who were all pretty chill, including an American from Boston.

Anyway, Charlie has a puppy, Lucas, the pokeiest little English bulldog puppy I’ve ever seen. Actually not tiny either, probably twice the weight of suki and only three months old. Charlie carried Lucas across the street where we ate a late lunch/early dinner at Lucky Luciano’s NY pizza kitchen.

We split a few pies, all pretty good, and the puppy sat the table with us and the waiter brought out water and a plastic tray so the puppy could eat too.

Mexico City and Polanco in particular is crazy for tiny dogs. We were constantly stopped by people who asked about the dog, how old it was, what its name was, where Charlie got him. The dog got them into many long conversations with total strangers, many of them walking their own tiny dogs.

Actually, Lucas apparently doesnt like to walk much. I was amazed at how lethargic this 3 month old puppy was. It just didn’t want to walk at all. Charlie was constantly calling it and whistling for it, and he was rewarded with a kind of strange, slow waddle of the puppy, almost as though it had some joint issues, or never learned to walk correctly in the first place. At the apartment, it spent most of its time sleeping.

After the pizzas, Charlie asked me if I wanted to walk around Polanco, and I said, oh, no thanks, I’m not really interested seeing new places with locals.

Yo dice “claro que si!", claro que si.

So we took Lucas for a walk. A very slow walk. It was more like a mosey. Actually, it was great practice for me to force myself to slow down, because too often I’ll walk too fast in my explorations of the city. It’s partly because I cover wide swaths of area in a single trip because metro stations of different lines are far apart, and because nothing makes you look like a tourist like walking slowly and gawking. But you do see a lot more into the texture and what’s actually happening where you are that way, so I should slow down a bit.

Anyway, I got to see a side of Polanco that I’d missed before. I’ve seen the pedestrian-hostile museum area and the gleaming towers and Presidente Mayersk avenue with its Hugo Boss, Hermes, Porche dealerships, and Tiffany & Co. (Sorry, Zara, I don’t think you belong here.)

But Charlie took me for a walk through the street behind Mayersk, the one that goes along Parque Abraham Lincoln, and its its where the residents of Polanco really go out and live. It’s a lovely area of lush trees, beautiful and trendy cafes, incredibly expensive restaurants, boutiques, and bars. Lots of foreigners, lots of people in nice clothes and ray bans and lots of little dogs, and narry a taco stand in sight. This side of Polanco is lovely and I can see T Cody’s comparison of it to Buenos Aires. It’s a great place to live if you’re in the money. I could see myself coming back to vacation in Mexico City some years in the future, staying a boutique designer hotel in Polanco or Condesa.

Anyway, we picked up some Modelos at the circle K on a street corner (circle K is everywhere here), and took it back to the apartment. We opened up the sliding glass doors to the patio and all hung out in the living room, the two American girls chatting at the table, Charlie and his amor enjoying each other’s company on the couch, and Jose and I talking and drinking.

Charlie made us deguinos (sp?), which is one of the famous local drinks from his local town of Colima. Colima is a half hour from the pacific ocean not too far from Guadalajara, and its very hot and humid. The drink is a blended mixture of salt, unrefined sugar, lime juice, and masa, the Mexican corn meal made from white hominy, all blended with crushed ice. It’s kind of intense- the lime and salt and sweetness can be overpowering in a way thats very different from, say, a cherry limeade.

So passed the evening, drinking deguinos, way too much crappy Mexican beer (remember that the altitude drops an extra shot in every beer), enjoying the cool night air and view of the roundabout slowly turning to night.

Ended up taking off after 11, walked back to the Polanco station with Jose and rode back down to my local station. Downed a big glass of water, brushed my teeth, and hit the hay.