mexico city at 2am: when the crows start nesting in your head

i just rolled out of bed and immediately felt like a walking mistake. the ceiling fan above me was doing the cha cha, and outside, some kind of bird was throwing cocaine at a streetlamp. weird, right?

here’s the weather right now: 18.88 degrees, which is exactly the temperature where my brain starts reorganizing itself into a 1990s mix tape. feels like 18.39, but that’s just my thermostat being a drama queen. i checked and it’s…there right now, like a bouquet of existential dread. hope you like that kind of thing.

last night, i heard someone on a public bus muttering about ‘those neighborhoods where the police just…disappear for a day.’ i didn’t ask for details, but i sent them a yelp review under a fake name saying the place ‘has soul.’ got a star back. maybe they believe me?

the neighbors? if you get bored, the city’s just a short drive away. i mean, literally. i’m sitting in a concrete slab that’s basically the size of a small country. next week, i’m gonna park my soul here and see if it gets a sunburn. it’s 881 meters above sea level, so maybe it’ll float away with me. who knows?

someone told me that the food court here is run by a guy who used to be a ghost hunter. i don’t trust him. i also heard that the coffee shop near zócalo sells beans that taste like regret. update: i tried it. my sense of taste is now a good friend.

here’s a map of the chaos:

i need images. let me click some random unsr supernatant: [img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1570874839030-fdd385fbcd72?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&w=1080&q=80" alt="beige castle during night time" width="100%"] [img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1623002866514-4ebad37868fd?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&w=1080&q=80" alt="white and brown concrete building" width="100%"] [img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1597626369155-be4d32952b97?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&w=1080&q=80" alt="man in white long sleeve shirt and black pants standing near green trees and beige concrete" width="100%"]

reviews are the worst. i overheard a barista say that the new taqueria downtown is actually just a front for a cult. i refused to believe him until i found a review from 2017 quoting a tourist who said the salsa was ‘hauntingly good.’ maybe it’s true? either way, i’m not buying it.

i swear, if you ask a local what’s happening here, they’ll just say ‘it’s mexico city, dude. it’s always happening.’ but i like that. i like the noise. i like the way the air smells like both rain and possibility. and also maybe mildew. who knows.

links? why not: tripadvisor mexico city map yelp local board a random art exhibit. i’ll write more later. probably.

p.s. the temperature is a theme. it’s 18.88, it’s 18.39, it’s my heart rate. did i mention it’s 18.88? i like the symmetry. it’s like life, but with more decimal places.