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Round trip around the confines of Iztapalapa on the longest cable car in Latin America

2021-08-15T03:28:27.911Z


The recently inaugurated 10.6-kilometer line in Mexico City estimates it will carry 90,000 passengers in one of the most popular areas of the capital.


The future has come to Iztapalapa, thinks María del Carmen Montero.

The newly opened cablebus reminds him of

The Jetsons

, that cartoon series he used to watch with his daughter.

The characters lived in houses suspended in the air and traveled in flying capsules.

Now she has just climbed into a cabin for the first time.

"Things of the future," she says incredulously.

"How could we imagine that we would have something like that?"

He takes out his cell phone to immortalize the moment and he will no longer keep it: in the mist rise the volcanoes of the Sierra de Santa Catarina and, at their feet, thousands of motley and sloping houses that are his neighborhood.

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It is still early and the cold hits more in the heights. Montero, wearing a jacket, fleece and scarf, returns from his night shift as a security guard at a government office. Truck, subway, minibus and another minibus: two and a half hours a day to get to work. Now, at least, the dreaded minibus will be spared. “The combi is a trap. You do not know who you are traveling with ”, assures this 55-year-old woman, and begins to list assaults experienced or heard.

For seven pesos, Line 2 of the cablebus wants to be a solution to insulation. Travel times have been cut in half, from an hour and a quarter to 36 minutes, says the Government of Mexico City. It has seven stations and the capacity to transport 90,000 passengers a day. Cabins fly over red dots of poverty and density. The largest city hall in the capital, Iztapalapa is home to 1.8 million people and 35% are poor. Its eastern end, the one that crosses the cablebus, is the most remote. Roosters are still heard in this part of town.

Montero's daughter has told him not to climb, but she is not afraid of heights: "I have always wanted to travel to the moon."

It tries to recognize the places that it flies over, a crown of roofs with hanging clothes and water tanks.

"Notice that when I have flown by plane I have tried to locate my house," he says.

But with so much 'selfie' and the lack of habit, he suddenly fears that he has gone out of season.

He runs off at the next stop.

Hopefully, you can still make it to a show over breakfast on time.

María del Carmen Montero, a resident of Iztapalapa, takes a 'selfie' inside the cabin.Quetzalli Nicte Ha.

Mexico City is late for the cable car craze. La Paz, in Bolivia, and Medellín, in Colombia, began to conquer their heights more than a decade ago and already have a network of several lines. Despite the delay, the Mexican capital has just made a big foray into it. The 10.6 kilometers make Line 2 the longest in Latin America, according to the local government. Added to it is another 9.2 kilometers in the north of the city, also a pending area, which was inaugurated a month ago. A total of 6,000 million pesos invested, about 300 million dollars.

The cablebus is welcome, but insufficient to meet the demand, says Bernardo Baranda, director of the Institute of Policies for Transportation and Development.

“They are not systems of that much capacity, compared to the subway.

Integration must be ensured;

be careful that it is not just a fad, that it is not only invested in one system, but in all, "he explains.

"Most of the trips are still made on buses that are often not in good condition."

Food stalls where there used to be a hole

In Torres de Buenavista, the station where Montero got off, there are outbreaks of change or despair, depending on how you look at it. Freshly painted facades in bright colors, a pediment for children, and new flooring. The authorities want the stations to open opportunities in these forgotten colonies. With the economic sting that the pandemic has left, its inhabitants do not need to be urged: several food stalls seek to capture the attention of the traveler in what was once a rubble dump. There are 1,475 new businesses thanks to the work, according to the Government.

Rodrigo Carbellido has been installed in front of the station for a year and a half. The packing company for which he worked closed due to the pandemic and decided to start selling fruit juices to bricklayers. Now they have switched to tamales because the price of oranges has tripled due to inflation. "It's calm; the masons ate more. People still don't know it's open or they are scared, ”says this 58-year-old neighbor, under an umbrella. Although his tamales are not sold as much as he would like, he is going to stay there for lack of alternatives.

Back in the cabin, the cablebus heads out into more rugged territory. The homes climb the hills of the Sierra de Santa Catarina, a protected ecological area, and even dare to climb the slopes of the extinct 2,820-meter volcano Tetlalmanche. It is not surprising that 13% of city hall buildings still lack piped water, compared to an average of 9% in the city.

Julia Segovia, a 77-year-old traditional healer, and Adolfo Roldán, a disciple, head to a temazcal, a pre-Hispanic steam bath. They gaze at the concrete expanses and the conversation turns philosophical. "The damage of man, who has not known how to love mother earth," reflects Segovia, dressed in traditional embroidery. “What a marvel of technology, but it also allows you to see the flaws. I don't see green areas, the buildings are bad… ”, agrees Roldán. "That we continue to grow and grow without stopping has its consequences." Both get off in front of a field with nopales and agave.

The booths are filled with onlookers and workers in freshly polished shoes.

"Let's see if it suits me," says Daniel Méndez, a waiter in Interlomas, a rich neighborhood three hours from his house.

Maybe I can save half an hour.

Unaware of these calculations, Patricia López, 47, and her niece Camila do not lose any detail of the Iztapalapa on the rooftops, suddenly in full view of the whole world: “How many colors! If we had a house like this, I would also paint it So, what is that cable? Look, a little pink pig on the roof! Can you buy me one, please? ”.

"He has been wanting to become a tourist all week," explains Patricia.

Two neighbors practice boxing in a park near one of the cable bus stations.

Quetzalli Nicte Ha.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-08-15

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