Mexico City Metro Ride!

I mentioned that I wanted to write a bit about my experience in the Mexico City metro on Wednesday. So here goes…

Mexico City’s metro is world class. It moves more than 4.5 million people every day quickly and with limited noise and bustle. Total metro stations, both of the subway and elevated kind, now number over 200, with several new lines built in the last couple of years, and one strategic line connecting previously isolated part of the city just opened several months ago. It is better than Chicago, and faster than D.C., two other metro lines I’m that I’m familiar with.  And is it incomparably more economical.  You can ride all day, through unlimited transfer stops, for 3 pesos.  That’s about 25 cents.

 
I met a good friend of my, Juan Piza, at 4 p.m. at one of Mexico City’s biggest Christian bookstores, Vision, and we talked about the ins and outs of forming a Mexican non-profit, called an asociación civil.  Later, Jorge joined us, an accountant from the church who is helping us with the paperwork process.  I was in good spirits for the meeting, having avoided a nearby BurgerKing (what was I thinking?) in deference to a tiny taco restaurant barely bigger than a walk-in closet, but with tasty suadero andtripa tacos (see pic below).  Mmmm.
 
The meeting went very well.  At around 6:30 p.m. I said goodbye to Juan and Jorge and began my journey home, boarding the blue line at Allende, and riding it two stops to Piño Suarez.  That’s where the fun began.
 
Piño Suarez is a transfer stop connecting to the pink line, that runs right through the heart of the city.  In the space of 7 stops (from Balderas to San Lázaro), the pink line intersects with 5 other major north/south routes.  The amount of human traffic in these metro stops is incredibly dense.

I remembered a lesson I had previously learned watching one unfortunate rider, as he was repeatedly swept in and out of the car, caught up between those wanting out, and those wanting in.  At the Candelaria stop, four people managed to exit our packed car, but somehow 9 more crammed their way in!  I was beginning to wonder if during lurch in the train, I might crack a rib!

Finally by the time my stop came, I was able to move a bit more freely, and exited the subway on my way to a bus that would take me most of the remaining 20 miles to Ixtapaluca.  Much more could be said about such a mass of humanity.  But one thing is certain…each person in that metro has an eternal soul, and is on their way to an eternal destination.