The jet plane signals the start of its descent into Mexico City, or D.F. As Districto Federal is often abbreviated, with a change of the pitch at which its engines are humming. A very considerate gesture, because if you failed to pay attention you could miss a fly-over view that is, in one word, spectacular.
I have no way of knowing what you, dear reader, have experienced, but as a lifelong Dutchie my first-hand experience with cities caps out at Amsterdam's roughly one million inhabitants (800,000 in 2011, according to a UN census). In the Netherlands, Amsterdam is considered a 'big city', and living there can give one a feeling of relative anonimity when compared to smaller cities. I remember when I lived in Utrecht, and could not venture into the city center without seeing at least 3 familiar faces.
This is definitely not the case in Amsterdam, where having an unplanned run-in with someone familiar is a legitimate reason to spend half an hour on a street corner or in a café, extensively catching up with one another. Mexico City houses an estimated 8.8 million inhabitants. Imagine a city of this size, in which the time people spend catching up is proportionate to the likelihood of running into one another. No wonder people in D. F., and other large cities, confine their social life to their neighbourhoods - without such confines people would have 3 day parties to celebrate catching up!
Meanwhile, on the plane, the guy seated between me and the window is feverishly snapping pictures of an unbelievable panorama. The city spans so much space it is hard to comprehend- for 20 minutes the plane ride offers passengers a continuous stream of vistas on the full range of the city's scale. The amount of detail that can be seen is stupefying. It is difficult to compare a bird's eye view of a city of this size to anything, but perhaps toying with the scale of the universe (http://htwins.net/scale2/) can offer a (poor) impression of what makes staring out of the window so awesome.
As my neighbour snaps away, I resign myself to a second row view of the action. Discussing the experience with a friend later that night, we find ourselves drawing an excellent conclusion: The next time I fly in, I will have to bring a camera and book that window seat. Most importantly, though: I will have to arrive at night.
