Building styles on the edge of the city tend to be either very old or very new, going from the hacienda economy and colonial villages to new social housing complexes. The edge of the city is almost always a work… 2. Building styles
Mexicans are a deeply spiritual people. Religious images are everywhere, in car parks, gas stations, along roads in grocery stores. Mexico is almost a religious entity instead of a political one, a patchwork of shrines and saints. The edge of… 1. Religion
I passed over the hills of Xochimilco determined to end this trip. I had decided to reach San Francisco Tecoxpa on the longest night of the year, the 21st of December. I had been walking for 51 days now and… 34. Destination: San Francisco Tecoxpa
I descended along the freeway to the Ajusco past the wooded fringe of the great Bosque del Agua, Forest of Water on the Southwest rim of Mexico City. I crossed the bridge over the bicycle path along the old railway… 33. The Garden of Rock: Ajusco
I descended from the Cerro del Judío among the houses built upwards into the woods. Water gushed downwards through concrete culverts separating neighborhoods. Trees dangled above the grey-walled houses. I walked through the labyrinth of staircases towards the hilly forest… 32. Chance encounters: Magdalena Contreras
There is nothing so uncomfortable to walk on as a toll highway. Cars, buses and trucks rush along your left-hand side, roaring down the pit of your back. Nothing but a white line separates you from 60 meters of sterile… 31. That’s modernity: Huixquilucan
At the beginning of my trip I tried to avoid walking at night, thinking it was more dangerous. At this stage in the game I was tired, my shoulder was hurting badly, I had no way of defending myself and… 30. Nightfall: Naucalpan
The rooster is resentful, said the old man as we sat on a dusty street on the outer edge of Naucalpan, among the hills and gullies on the foothills of the Sierra Alto. He looked out over the dirt and… 29. The way of the rooster: Naucalpan
Villa Nicolás Romero in the furthest reaches of Northwest Mexico City felt like its own little city among the hills. The municipality is built up of interlocking villages amidst creeks, pastures and trees. But the central village was one of… 28. Horseshoe and burning cross: Nicolás Romero
I rounded the long fingers of the reservoir, the Presa de Guadalupe, its deep waters flooding the hillsides. The lake was ringed with villas along a wide road of smooth, well maintained asphalt. Fences and walls separated the villas from… 27. Burning torch: Nicolás Romero