A day of fitness in Mexico City

Palm Sunday is apparently special in the Reforma district of Mexico City. Beyond the fact that it was a holy day and the scores of folks walking around town with their Jesus statues and palm fronds, it was also apparently fitness day. The road – one of the main thoroughfares in town – was closed to vehicular traffic. There was a running race on one part of it while the rest was open exclusively to bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The city government had booths set up along the road with free bicycle rentals and a number of other entrepreneurs had set up temporary shops selling gear and offering bike repairs.

In addition to the bikes on the road, there were a couple aerobics stands set up along the road. Open for public participation, they had music booming, instructors up on stage guiding the participants and hundreds of participants, some more into the experience than others. Ranging from young kids simply bouncing along to the beat to at least one guy who was perhaps having way too much fun improvising his own dance steps to the rest of the crowd simply doing their best to keep up, the aerobics setups were almost as big a hit as the cyclists.

And then there were the three of us. Fitness was not at all on our minds as we walked along the road trying to decide what to do for the ~2.5 hours we had on the ground before it was time to head back to the airport during our brief stay in Mexico City. Sure, we got some exercise during our walk, and we did consider waiting in line to get bikes, but we gave up on that due to the limited time available. Instead we undertook one of my favorite pastimes: dining on street meat. More on that to come…