Distance covered since San Francisco 3900 km
As our connection is not very good, we haven’t been able to illustrate that article with a lot of pitures but you can see our last abum following the link 
Article written by Emilie
We stayed almost two weeks in the Mexican federal capital. The city has even more facets than its several names : la Ciudad de México is also el Districo Federal or simply el D.F or México as it is called by the Mexicans.
Those two weeks were rich in discoveries : new friends, interesting cultural sites and creative sustainable initiatives. Mexico city is famous for its museums and we took advantage of our time in the city to learn more about Mexican history and culture with the national museum of history in Chapultepec’s castle where you also have a good view of the city. The famous anthropological museum is also a great way to get deeper into Mexican culture.
Walks into the historical Center lead you to the Zocalo surrounded by the main Cathedral, el Palacio National and some very busy and well-known pastry shop. Art is also present in less touristic buildings such as the secretary of Education where Diego Riviera expressed his ideas about Mexico and its people throughout his frescos. If you want to go out of the city’s core, you find Teotihuacan North and South you can plunge into Frida and Diego life, visiting their Casa Azul in Coyoacán.
Yes D.F. is perfect if you want to do cultural staff but thanks to our hosts we have been able to discover the lively neighbourhood of Roma, spend a Friday’s evening at the “ Arena de Mexico” for some lucha libre crazy fights, or just take time to chill out watching a movie on a rainy Saturday’s after-noon (yes rain happens sometimes and at that moment it is good to have a cozy place with new friends when you have been travelling for three months
Don’t worry, we haven’t been forgetting about our journey’s reason : documenting sustainable projects and Mexico city is full of them ! Meeting people we heard about a lot of projects going on, we have been focusing on three of them …
How to be brief about what Bicitekas, one of the main cyclists organization there, is doing … Let’s try to summarize what we learnt with our main guides, Ernesto and Agustin, and during the time we stayed at Casa Bicitekas.
Starting with a bike ride (which is still running every Wednesday for 13 years), the organization opened 1,5 year ago the Casa Bicitekas which is a small version of a bike kitchen. You can come there to use tools, speak about bike, look at the small library and more than that share time with people (the idea is to create a community and not only to be bike fashion). Bicitekas is also working on an advocacy and educational level by publishing for instance “El Manual del ciclista urbano” and“Por mi Ciuadad en bicicleta : experiencas de ciclistatas en la ciuadad de Mexico” (you can download for free the second book on their website, not only good stories but also cool pictures We have been able to share our journey with the bikers of the city, throughout a talk and the presentation of some pictures too.
The citizen network is really strong in Mexico City (and more generally in Mexico). Bicitekas has been involved for instance with an urban activist group willing to democratize the public space called Camina, Haz Ciudad. One of our hosts introduced us to their last public intervention : painting a bike lane to make politicians faced their responsibilities.
Thanks to the Mercado El Cien, we have been able to learn more about fair-trade produces and organic food in a 29 million inhabitant city. The market is taken place every other Sunday in the Roma’s neighbourhood. The producers are coming from 100 miles or less. Not only can you find veggies but also meat, fish, some Mexican-German pastries and bred, some household produces… If you are there around 11.30 pm, you can take part in a workshop (it was about organic chocolate when we were there … ). As we are very serious detectives we have been willing to visit one of the producers… Our investigation led us at Juan Rojas Jiménez’s place in Xochimilco, the south part of Mexico city. This young organic producer has been relieving his father and is also involved in the preservation of the canals’ water quality. The whole area used to be a lack back in the Aztecs’ times…
The Sembradores urbanos ( or urban sowers) have been developing their non-profit to promote urban agriculture for 5 years.
They have currently two main sites. In the urban agriculture centre, you will find at least 5 ways to garden in a small space (what about a vertical garden where you can grow plenty of veggies:). The whole space has been thought to follow the principles of permaculture : the roof’s water is collected, you will find three types of composts, and the gardening’s sets are made from recycling materials… In their urban garden, situated on Reforma, one of the main avenue of the city, you can participate in workshops about urban and ecofriendly gardening. The three musketeers have a lot of projects in mind to develop their activities
Leaving Mexico city, we are taking the road again and for our last stretch. The final destination of that second riding part, which started in San Francisco, will be Oaxaca. The project will carry on. After that riding-part, we will fill up the Sustainable Tool-Kit with the projects that crossed our way. We thank all the people who have been helping us throughout their donations:)
Stay tuned for our last month of ride !
Emilie
Version Francaise
