Fantasies about nuns aside, I’ll admit that there is not much that could be considered “macha” about the Cathedral Metropolitana. However, on a hot day I’ve always found that the quiet dimness of the cathedral provides a cool sanctuary from the bustling traffic and bright sunlight of the Zócalo. Assuming you are not one to be put off by displays of Catholic devotion, the Cathedral Metropolitana offers many grand and gilded altars and chapels as well as fabulous people-watching. Monks and nuns from all over Latin American come to visit the Cathedral (as well as the Virgin of Guadalupe Basilica in the north of the city), and I, for one, find the variations in their styles of clothing to be fascinating.
In February we discovered that the Cathedral offers a tour of its bell towers that allows you to climb around on the roof of the cathedral. To begin the tour you must climb up a narrow spiral staircase, so this is not an activity for claustrophobics or those with limited physical mobility. Once at the top, a guide recounts (in Spanish) the history of the various bell towers as well as facts about the individual bells, each of which has a special name and special occasions on which it is rung. Apparently in the nineteenth century someone was accidentally killed while ringing one of the bells and the bell was not rung for a year as punishment.
As someone who is not fluent in Spanish, I find that tours like this are a great opportunity to practice my listening skills, to see how well I can understand the spoken Spanish of a stranger in a low-stress situation.
Even if you don’t speak a word of Spanish, the bell tour is still worth while because of the splendid view of the Zócalo it provides. At just twenty pesos, the tour is a much cheaper way to view the Zócalo than having food or drinks at one of the expensive restaurants located at the tops of hotels along the west side of the La Plaza de la Constitución.
Buy tickets for the bell tour at a desk to the right of the main doors to the cathedral. Tours leave approximately every half hour, and as of February 2008, tickets cost twenty pesos.