MEXICO CITY (AP) — Boarding the Mexico City Metro once meant squeezing in with dozens of vendors hawking everything from anti-bacterial gel and Jolly Ranchers to a global CD selection. They hawked their wares with painfully loud speakers carried on their backs, sometimes alongside bizarre “street” performances: Shirtless, homeless men being walked on as they lay on a bed of broken glass; off-key singers so bad they ought to have been paid to stop.

It wasn’t a subway ride. It was an adventure.