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 Travel & Outdoors | March 2007 
Mexico's Version of the Empire State Building
 Laurence Iliff - Dallas Morning News
| The towering Torre Latinoamericana offers an unparalleled panoramic view of the heart of the Mexican capital. (Erich Schlegel/McClatchy-Tribune)
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Mexico City — On a clear day, on the 44th floor of the Latin American Tower, you can see forever. Or at least to the volcanoes surrounding this sprawling city.
On a less clear day, you can see the Zocalo (plaza); the historic downtown; the main east-west thoroughfare, Paseo de la Reforma; and the brown air that you're breathing. Hey, it's Mexico City, and that air is exponentially less harmful than it used to be. (The dizzying lead is long gone, thanks to better gasoline.)
The Torre Latinoamericana, named for the insurance company it was built in 1956 to house, was long the tallest building in Mexico. Now, it's third, after the Torre Mayor and the Pemex skyscraper that's home to the state-run oil company.
In this case, third place is the charm for visitors.
The Latin American Tower offers an unparalleled, 360-degree view of the heart of the Mexican capital. Consider it Mexico's Empire State Building.
The observation deck recently was remodeled, gaining a snack bar and observation areas. The views are stunning of the metropolitan area that is home to about 18 million people. (That's no typo, and a conservative estimate at that.)
I don't remember the details of the first time I got on an elevator to check out the view. It may have been 15 to 20 years ago. But I do remember that I felt no need to return or take visitors there.
Maybe it was the cyclone fencing, in less than optimum condition. Maybe it was the terrible smog at the time.
But I'm glad I went back in mid-February.
Take a camera, ham it up, have a map to see from above what you already have seen from below, or to plan a walkabout of where you intend to go. For about $4.50, you get a bracelet that allows you to return as many times as you want during a day. About 360,000 people visited last year, 15 percent of them foreigners.
Everyone I saw was grinning ear-to-ear from the spectacle of the bustling metropolis below. Mexico City is "short" in terms of building height, and the view is mostly unimpeded.
The tower's biggest claim to fame, after its history as Mexico's first skyscraper, is that it survived an earthquake in 1957 and a bigger one in 1985, when lesser buildings crumbled around it.
A flexible foundation has allowed it to sway but not to fall in downtown's soft soil, which once was dominated by Venice-like lakes.
You can learn all of this in the building's museum on one level of the observation deck.
Go. It's a great deal, and you won't get a view like this even from an airplane.
If you go: Open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Contact: www.torrelatino.com (in Spanish). |
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