Mexico City(Part 2)…
So, the next day in Mexico City I went to Six Flags Mexico. Honestly, it is not something I would have chosen for myself, but the friend that I was visiting thought that it would be something fun to do. So we made our way to the huge amusement park, after riding the subway and light train and two changes of taxi, we arrived in the park. I thought it was interesting that it took us about 10 minutes to find a place to buy tickets, there were lots of ticket windows, just none that were open.
We eventually found our way in, they were offering a two-for-one deal if you bring in a box of “Bang” brand juice to donate, so we went and found a box of juice, then returned to enter the park.
We started out with a river raft ride, I should have known better when I saw the signs that said that this ride would make us “empapado”. Let me tell you about “empapado”, I have always heard this word used as “damp” or “sweaty”, like after a run. So I am thinking, no problem, a few splashes of water is no big deal. I had my camera, wallet, and cell-phone with me, but I figured I would be ok.
Now, let me explain about river-raft physics: The rafts hold six people, you sit around on a big circular bench, so the weight is technically spread around evenly and the raft sits flat in the water. Technically. I am almost 200 pounds, so when loaded onto this raft with five average sized Mexicans, the raft tended to sort of droop in the water on my side. I also am over six feet tall, so much of my body sticks up past the edge of the raft. So, the raft’s rotation is completely random, usually with the even weight displacement the raft spins normally while the raft travels down the rapids and everyone gets a little splash of water every now and then. It seems that with the lopsided raft, the lower weight always rides on the downriver side, therefore making a nice plow for every rapid and wave that we met.
After the first 100 gallons of water splashed over the edge onto me I decided I had to do something about the phone and camera, so I removed them from my pockets and wrapped them tightly in my shirt, hoping that they would stay dry. I got out of that ride, dripping wet. Everything I was wearing was soaked to the skin. Damp! Ha! Luckily, the wrapping the camera and phone in the shirt seemed to work out. Unfortunately, I got to enjoy the rest of the day “damp”.
Next, we decided to do the “Superman” themed roller coaster, which had quite a large line and was a very impressive loop of big red-yellow-and-blue steel tubes. So, we waited for about half an hour and finally got on the ride. It quickly zoomed high above the Mexico City skyline and even more quickly, dropped like a rock and did a cute little half spin on its rails leaving us upside down. After the first dip and turn I was already thinking terrible little things like “I am gonna die”, “I want off this thing”, “I wonder when the last scheduled maintenance was”, etc.
Fortunately for me and my readers, I made it off this ride alive, but thinking that I might have to rethink the amusement park thing. I thought about it for a little while, decided I had to change my attitude about the whole thing and made a conscious decision to have a good time. At that time I also happened to walk by a plaque talking about how Six Flags Mexico had been awarded the 2007 world amusement park of the year award. This made me feel a little better, you probably can’t get an award like that by killing tourists.
In front of the Batman roller coaster...
The rest of the rides were rather uneventful, lots of screaming and all that. I was able to have fun for the rest of the park, I finally dried off, everything went well. A day of roller coasters and the like really can be fun, I guess, but I am not sure if I ever have to do it again. The last thing we did was a nice ride on the ferris-wheel to watch the sunsetting over Mexico City, this was much more my speed.
