"$1,706 for 4"

Hope that's pesos and not dollars!

Enjoying your report.

Things appear to have changed since our last visit -- rear exit from the palace, photos in the Casa Azul, and climbing permitted at the temple of Quetzalcoatl -- all prohibited only a few years ago.

Guess it's time for another visit.

The drink is "pulque."

FD

Great updates! Thank you so much for this ... it is making us look forward to our visit to DF in just two months!

Yes, totally pesos, not dollars -- so dinner was about 140 U.S. dollars for the four of us, including the vast amount of alcohol we tend to consume during our meal. Like I said, the use of the $ symbol scared the cr@p out of us at first!

SW -- that would have been interesting had your cousin been the pilot! Hmmmm, he looked a little bit like you in the eye area . . . (BTW, great meeting you and your husband -- you guys are fabulous!)

Fra -- yes, you have to go back, it HAS changed from what you experienced -- and thanks for the correct name of the drink!

Museum of Anthropology, Casa Azul, and Trotsky to follow!

Surfergirl--

Just awesome. I went with similar concerns as yourself, and indeed I fell in love with Mexico City back in 2005 for my first visit ever. I felt like a fool for having not wanted to go prior and also ignorant of so much history. I'm enjoying your recounting tremendously as I was spellbound by the energy, architecture and history in the Alameda, Zocalo, Templo Mayor, Paseo de La Reforma (Zona Rosa), Teotihuacan, Xochimilco and the Museo de Antropologia (to name seven LOL). Your report makes me want to go back!

Keep it coming!

Best wishes, Daniel

So apparently none of you had altitude issues, Surfergirl?

My husband developed altitude sickness in his late 40s after never having had a previous problem. It was at a scientific meeting at Copper Mtn, in CO. Since then, with each successive trip to any altitude, even as low as 5, 000 ft, the condition has gotten progressively worse and he now has to take Diamox--a drug that manages the condition, mostly, but has some potentially nasty side effects-- if he needs to travel to high altitudes, but it has pretty much eliminated pleasure trips to high locales. :(

It was so great meeting the 3 of you! What a fun evening!! You are the first Californians we have met aside from our daughter-in-law's family, so that was great too.

PS I will email my cousin's FB pic in his uniform so you can compare! That would be so funny!

Thank you guys for all your nice comments! I'm sorry I am not as concise as Ernest Hemingway, and I'm not being taken to task over it!

No altitude sickness, socialworker -- we all got sinus infections and a couple of bloody noses, but it didn't last long. And the nice thing about the time of year we went, we didn't have to suffer with all the pollution we heard about. It wasn't bad at all.

<b>Day 4 Agenda:</b> Chapultepec Park, Castle, Museum of Anthropology.

<b>Restaurants & Bars</b>: The truth about cotton candy for lunch; dinner at Hard Rock, more Kings Pub.

<b>Chapultepec Park:</b>
Metro $3.50 (about 10 cents)
Walked down Balderas to the Balderas Metro, stopping in the Ciudadela Plaza for a quick look. Took the Metro to Chapultepec where we got off to go to the park and visit the castle and Museum of Anthropology.

<b>Chapultepec Castle</b> is at the top of Chapultepec Hill in Chapultepec Park. The name Chapultepec means, per wiki "at the grasshopper's hill", which clears up why the metro station has a picture of a grasshopper, and the fountain up at the castle has a whole grasshopper theme with little grasshopper statues. Didn’t see or hear any grasshoppers in the whole of the park, but saw many grasshopper figures. Reminded me of all the cicada representations seen the south of France.

The hill where the castle is perched was a sacred place for Aztecs. The castle has served a variety of purposes, including the royal residence of the Mexican Emperor Maximilian I, as well as its current transformation as the National History Museum.

The castle is a short walk from the Metro, and to get up to the top you can walk the very short, not steep circular road to the top or take the little train to get there. The Castle is free to students with ID, over 60 with ID, and under 13. Otherwise, it’s 51 pesos each, and well worth it. Murals by various Mexican muralists adorn the walls of the ground floor, along with artifacts and clothing of the royals through the revolution. The second floor contains an outdoor balcony lined in shiny white and black checkered marble where you can peer into the royal rooms as you circle the castle’s balcony. From the balcony you get a great view of the city and the park surrounding the castle.

It's very well laid out with lots of information – mostly in Spanish

<b>Museum of Anthropology</b>.

In front of the museum, on the other side of the path in a large grassy area is a pole. Try to make it there in time for what I’m guessing is a daily ritual for the Mexican pole dancers, aka <b>Danza de los Voladores</b>. (On the second floor of the Museum, there is a great explanation in photos and script giving the background on this ceremony). The ceremony consists of a dance, then five men in brightly colored costumes climb a 30 meter pole. Then four of the five men are tied to ropes, and descend to the ground by going round and round the pole, upside down, to music. The fifth remains on top of the pole, playing a flute. I don’t know if this is done more than once a day, but when we were there, it happened between 1 and 3 p.m.

Make sure you have plenty of time to view this museum. It is massive, and we ended up going back the day we left, because we only had 2 hours the first trip, and had just made a small dent. It is well laid out by culture and time period, with lots of exhibits – real artifacts mixed with models. They created an entire piece of the Templo de quetzalcoati, but included actual pieces to the right of the model.

The exhibits are found, by period, on the ground floor of the building, that is built in sort of a horseshoe shape, with an outdoor fountain in the middle. Around the outer outside ring of the horseshoe, are outdoor exhibits and more models that are associated with the inside rooms. In addition, there is a second floor on either side of the horseshoe, also indoors, that houses an incredible recreation of life (ethnographic exhibit) covering a recent history of Mexican indigenous groups, replete with re-created huts, models dressed in period clothing, and depictions of various trades within the region represented.

While it’s best to approach the museum with a guide book, for a fee you can pick up a phone that explains certain exhibits in the language of your choice.

The exhibits are neatly arranged, and we found it was best starting on the right hand side and going around counter-clockwise to see how the cultures changed with time. At the top of the horseshoe, directly opposite from the entrance, is the Aztec exhibit, and includes the famous Aztec Calendar, known as the "Sun Stone."

The Maya room on the left side is pretty cool as well. I'd say that even people who aren't that into history museums would be converts if they saw this museum. It's that good. In fact, my son, who can probably stand about an hour in a history museum was so impressed, when we got back to the hotel, he signed up for an anthropology class for the Spring semester at Berkeley.

<b>Food</b>: "Lunch" was park food consisting of cotton candy and sweet corn and dinner at (I’ll admit), Hard Rock Café in Polanco. Note on Mexican cotton candy – as tasty as it is, and I love my cotton candy, I will warn you that the dye they use does not disintegrate in the digestive system. You get the picture. We walked from the Museum of Anthropology to the Hard Rock, since my husband insisted it was a “short walk”. It wasn’t. He wanted to go, and even though I have been “over” (for at least 15 years now) checking out every Hard Rock Café on the planet, there are times in a marriage when you just need to pick your battles. And this was one of those times where I was hungry, and an American cheeseburger seemed like a nice break. And it was. Right down the street was another Kings Pub, so a quick brew before returning to the hotel.

<b>Day 5 Agenda:</b> Casa Azul, Trotsky, and New Year’s Eve in the Zona Rosa

<b>Food</b>: Lunch at Bistrot Mosaic.

<b>Casa Azul</b>:
Metro to Viveros, then a long walk around the Viveros de Coyoacan Park to Frida Kahlo's house on Londres. It’s a hell of a walk down Londres to get there. Although the website said it would be open from 10 to 5:45, when we arrived around 1 p.m., we were told before entering that they planned to close the house at 1:45 p.m. due to it being New Years Eve. We pressed on. This was easily the most expensive visit of all the museums that we visited. And, as usual, no credit cards, all cash. So it cost around 65 pesos per person, but 45 pesos for students with valid i.d. and a whopping 60 pesos for a camera permit (without flash). The attendants were very mindful that one had a permit to take photos while in the home. We bought two permits. We were only hassled in the home – in the gardens no one seemed to bother us, although there were a number of attendants there keeping an eye on people.

The Casa Azul (blue house) gave us a lot of insight into how Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo lived. Her artwork is everywhere, from exhibits to the walls decorated in her unique style. Little teacups decorate the walls of the kitchen in such a way as to spell out Frida and Diego. There are photographs of the two throughout the house, including one showing Frida painting the portrait of her father -- a portrait that is found at the beginning of the exhibit. The work room where she painted looks like she and Diego still lived there and would be back to their work after a quick trip to the market: glass vials of paint and glitter sit on the table, along with easels. Frida’s famous bed has a canopy made of wood, with a mirror attached, so she could see her reflection when lying in bed. Her mother apparently did this to let Frida, who was periodically bedridden, paint pictures of herself. On the bed is Frida’s death mask, which creates an eerie, if not intriguing reflection.

We managed to plow through the house and the gardens in the 40 minutes we were allotted before the place closed down for the day, even though we would have liked to have lingered a bit longer had we had the time. It was a very, very personal look at the lives of these two.

The fact that we only had a short time at Casa Azul allowed us to head six blocks down residential streets in the area to <b>Trotsky’s House</b> – where he spent his final days with his second wife, Natalia, before being assassinated.

The main entrance to the home is bricked up, so entry is NOT on Viena, as noted in the guide books. It's actually on the other side, on Av. Rio Churubusco.

We visited this site as an afterthought, but it really should be put on everyone's "short list". The home was left almost exactly as the day Trotsky was assassinated there, preserved in time.

Trotsky’s ashes are entombed on the grounds, in the garden. Although we were concerned that this place might also close early, the two people running the show didn’t seem to be concerned about time or what day it was. And it was relatively empty of visitors, allowing us to move freely through the small barricaded home, small museum, gardens and guard’s quarters without being pushed to move on.

This place was especially well laid out, with explanations in both Spanish and English. There were free guides available, but with the very clear explanations of each room (what it was, what it exhibited, and what happened in the room) there was no need to seek the assistance of a guide.

<b>New Year's Eve</b>:
New Year's Eve in the DF is a bigger deal than L.A. (which doesn't exist in terms of putting on a show), and less of a big deal than New York City. I think that's because they switch it up every year as to ground zero. No ball dropping, but there are fireworks. And a stage. And music.

This year the festivities were held at El Ángel de la Independencia – a tall column with a gilded statue of a winged victory, located on the Paseo de la Reforma in the Zona Rosa. By noon, the stages were set up, the police had gathered on every street and every street corner surrounding the place, and a big clock was up counting down the hours, the minutes, and the seconds until midnight.

We walked all the way down the Paseo de La Reforma to the Angel. It was not packed at all. We found a spot at an outside heated drinking area of a bar and parked ourselves. This is about all I'm going to say on the subject, because I'm not a huge fan of being cold, outside, and feeling like I might be crushed on New Year's Eve. All I will say, on a positive note, is that the fireworks were nice, and I felt a lot happier back at Alameda Park going on the Ferris Wheel afterwards.

<b>Lunch at Bistrot Mosaic</b>: Following Trotsky's house, we snagged a cab to the Zona Rosa to check out the area for New Year's Eve. It was around 3:30 and we hadn't eaten all day. There, right at the Angel, was the Bistrot Mosaic. It had been raining, we were cold, and French onion soup in a French Bistrot sounded great. It was. We have had onion soup at the best bistrots in Paris, New York City, and Los Angeles, and without question, on all of our parts, the onion soup here was the best we've ever had. The quiche I had wasn't bad either. But nothing compared to the onion soup. This location of Bistrot Mosaic also has a French deli on the premises, so you can go in and get a take out meal!

<b>Agenda Days 6, 7 & 8</b>

The three blend into each other because day 6 was New Year's Day and not many museums were open. Accordingly, we spent New Year's Day walking: walking down all of the non-pedestrian-only streets, spending more time in the Zocalo area (Templo Mayor still not open), and soaking up the vibe. We also worked out the kinks in the very nice indoor pool and spa in the hotel.

Because many restaurants were not open, but the Sanborns in the House of Tiles was, we had lunch there. I'd say go for the atmosphere and the decor, not the food.

Sears Mexico City is close to the Hilton, and it does not compare to our hometown Sears. The presentation on about 9 floors was classy, and the quality of the goods and clothing were more comparable to a Macy's. The sales were on!

We dedicated day 7 to shopping, since we had put this off until the end. That way we had a general idea of prices of crafts, clothing, jewelry and souvenirs from all over town. The bulk of the day was spent at <b>Mercado la Ciudadel</b> at the corner of Balderas and Bucareli. It is a large, mostly covered market with stalls that featured a wide range of authentic crafts from all over Mexico. There are stalls featuring jewelry (mostly silver), crafts, pottery, ceramics, and clothing. There is not a lot of discounting (bargaining) here -- it seemed that knocking off 10% of the price listed on the object was the norm. However, the prices listed are very reasonable to begin with. Being a great fan of ceramics, including ceramic tile, I left heavily laden with vases and tiles.

There is a great little indoor/outdoor restaurant on Balderas directly across the street from the park adjacent to the market that serves tacos al pastor and other really good food, and takes credit cards. The local business workers seem to like this spot a lot for lunch.

Since our plane did not leave until the evening of the 8th day, we packed, left our bags at the hotel, and took the Metro back to the Museum of Anthropology to complete (almost!) those portions that we had missed on our last visit.

I just found this and stood up & applauded before I sat back down in order to tell you how great your report is!

Your infectious enthusiasm comes across beautifully. I think the best thing about your report is how you let us know what's worthwhile. For instance, I would have not been tempted by Trotsky's house. After reading your remarks, it's something I would put in my list of things to see.

I totally love how you plunged right in and enjoyed yourself, lack of Spanish be damned, & didn't expect anyone to cater to you. Also admire your respect for the history & culture of Mexico.

Anyway, thanks, & I'll certainly keep an eye out for any reports by surfergirl in the future.

Yay! Another new fan of DF! We love this city! Have been many times and STILL have more to see!
Enjoyed reading your report and glad to hear you had such a good time!

Surfergirl, re: your comment about the onion soup---funny how you find an amazingly delicious food/drink so identified with one country in the "wrong" place.....

For us, it is Margaritas. The ones we had in Paris (at Zuni Restaurant and at the Indiana Cafe) on two different trips, are the Margaritas by which we judge all others, and none has ever measured up! :)

Agreed, SW -- although I have never, ever found a baguette in the U.S. that came even close to what you find in Paris!

Thank you Bix. On Trotsky, there's even all the bullet holes in the walls left intact, as well as a partially used tube of toothpaste in the bathroom. One of the most fascinating places of frozen history I've ever seen!

We just got back from a week in Mexico City, and we used so much of your information! We were concentrating on Freda Kahlo and her life and art. We wouldn't have visited the Trotsky Museum if it hadn't been for your advice. And your comments about money and cabs helped us a lot along the way.

We loved Mexico City, although DH had problems with the altitude and wasn't able to do as much as he would have liked. We even got to see the Ballet Folkloria, which was outstanding.

We were there Easter Week, so it probably wasn't as crowded as usual. One of the interesting things for us was the red lights - drivers stop for them and then go on if there isn't any traffic coming!

I hope your son has enjoyed his Mexican anthro. class at Cal. It was one of my favorite classes there.

lilla -- so glad I could help -- I would have LOVED to have seen the Ballet Folkloria -- it's so "me" but DH has a phobia with anything with the word "ballet" in it. We did have a full plate though. Maybe next time!

Ahhh, cferrb, another Cal alumni, nice! As a poor relation Bruin, Cal alumni still impress me! Unfortunately son's schedule got conflicted this Spring, so he dropped it to pick it up next term!

In L.A. I got a second dose of Frida at the LACMA, since they've been doing this In Wonderland (as in Alice) women in surrealism, with a healthy dose of Frida paintings. Don't know if it's still on, but it was a fascinating exhibit and I probably could have spent a lot more than the couple of hours I spent there. Non-flash photos were fine, and hey, we didn't have to pay for the privilege!

Of course, art in Mexico City is, without question, a mind-blowing experience!

Too bad I did not see the bit about your DH's ballet phobia sooner, Surfergirl. I could have personally reassured him! I have seen them twice, once in Mexico and once in Boston and there is NO ballet, just folk dances. :)

I am sorry that when we went to LACMA that it was a bit of a quickie visit and we only saw the modern art wing. Just as you have a reason to go back to Mexico, we have a reason to go back to LA only in our case, Frida will be gone by then......

BTW we saw Ballet Folkorico at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico. Another reason to go is just to see the amazing venue that it is!!

Enjoyed your TR. Brought back memories of our trips to Mexico City, one of my favorite cities.