Bosque de Chapultepec Travel Guide

Chapultepec Park , or the Bosque de Chapultepec (Tues-Sun 5am-4.30pm; free) is a vast green area, some 400 hectares in all, dotted with trees, scattered with fine museums - among them the marvellous Museo Nacional de Antropología - boating lakes, gardens, playing fields and a zoo. Ultimately, it provides an escape from the pressures of the city for seemingly millions of Mexicans: on Sundays, when at least a visit is all but compulsory for locals and many of the museums are free, you can barely move for the throng. They call it, too, the lungs of the city, and like the lungs of most of the city's inhabitants its health leaves a lot to be desired, though it still manages to look pretty good and remains one of Mexico City's most enduring attractions. The most visited areas get a heavy pounding from the crowds and some areas are occasionally fenced off to allow the plants to recover their equilibrium. There has even been talk of sealing the whole place off for three years to give the grass a chance to grow back, but that is never likely to happen - public outrage at the very suggestion has seen to that. Nevertheless, the park itself and many of the museums are closed on Mondays.

The park is divided into three sections, the first and easternmost containing the bulk of the interest, including the Anthropology, Modern Art and Rufino Tamayo museums and the zoo. The second section is mostly aimed at kids with an amusement park, technology museum and natural history museum; while section three contains aquatic and marine parks.

The rocky outcrop of Chapultepec (the Hill of the Locust), which lends its name to the entire area, is mentioned in Toltec mythology, but first gained historical significance in the thirteenth century when it was no more than another island among the lakes and salt marshes of the valley. Here the Mexica, still a wandering, savage tribe, made their first home - a very temporary one before they were defeated and driven off by neighbouring cities, provoked beyond endurance. And here they returned once Tenochtitlán's power was established, channelling water from the springs into the city, and turning Chapultepec into a summer resort for the emperor, with plentiful hunting and fishing around a fortified palace. Several Aztec rulers had their portraits carved into the rock of the hill, though most were destroyed by the Spanish soon after the Conquest.