At another small espresso bar I encounter a secret bathroom. It is like a portal to Narnia, with a door inexplicably opening into another door, opening into a hallway with a door at the end of it.

I also meet two Canadians: Gabriel and Amanda. Amanda has just moved to Oaxaca. Gabriel is here on business.

There is no designated “tourist district” or corral in Mexico City, and perhaps no real “downtown”. Visitors, expats, and locals disseminate throughout the city’s centro in equal measure. The effect is a strange one: a city at once both foreign and familiar.