carl170

Just came back from 5 days in Mexico City. What a great time! Great culture, food, museums and history. Somehow it didn't get on my radar list until recently. Last year, we were diverted here on a previous trip to Panama and thought it would be a good place to visit on its own sometime later. We finally got the chance this May. We wanted to travel before the rainy season started in June and got a good airfare.

carl170

We arrived in Mexico City about an hour late, there were thunderstorms in Texas in our flight path. No problems getting through immigration and customs. We were able to find the authorized taxis, pay for one and get to our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites Centro Historico. The hotel was nice, we had a corner suite. We bought some water from the hotel shop. Unpacked and went to bed.

The next day, we were up early to get started. We planned a walking tour of the old city based off the guidebook map. We started at the Palacio National. We had to go through security to get in, but then it was easy to walk around. We saw the Diego Rivera murals showcasing Mexican History. The main mural was interesting, the smaller murals showed village life before Columbus and then the arrival of the Spanish. We wandered around looking for one of the sinking buildings, the ex-convento Santa Teresa, now an art space. We walked around the Cathedral and the side chapels. We then visited the Templo Mayor. We walked through the excavations and ended at the museum. It was difficult to tell what of the exhibits were real land which were reproductions. We had lunch at El Cardenal, which was recommended and very popular. We got too much food though, but it was very good. We had pasta with octopus and a grilled veal tacos with guacamole.

After lunch, we continued on the walking tour. We went up the Torre Latinoamericana. It was hazy so we couldn’t see much, but we weren’t sure if we’d be back in the neighborhood. We walked by the Palacio de Bellas Artes. We walked through the Alameda park and to the Museo Mural Diego Rivera. This was another great mural with artistic and historical figures from Mexico. The walk continued through Chinatown and some markets, down a pedestrian zone, calle Regina. Then back to the hotel for a nap.

We arranged for a driver to take us to Pujol. It took about a half hour. We could only get reservations for 9:30, but we were lucky to get in. Dinner at Pujol was quite something. We started out with variations of Mexican street food, including roasted corn, escamole (ant eggs, the Mexican caviar), ceviche. Second course was a green mole and a sweetbread and liver dish. Third course was octopus and a potato tamal. Next course was and egg infladita and a fresh fish. Then was a special mole madre, mole nuevo. This was amazing, a two year old aged mole surrounding a fresh mole, served with plain tortillas. I wish we could have taken some back with us. Dessert was churros with chocolate sauce. The restaurant got us a taxi back to our hotel.

Stewbear

Enjoying your trip
Continue Por Favor!

tripplanner001

Which guidebook did you use for the walk? We're headed there in two weeks.

carl170

The walk was from Lonely Planet.

tripplanner001

Thank you Carl.

carl170

We spent most of the next day at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. We took the Metro over to Auditorio station, at one end of Chapultepec Park and walked to the museum. The museum was quite impressive. The pre-columbian civilizations were organized in chronological order with the Mexica (Aztec) at the far end. We started with the pre-historic area, then the Teotihuacan and Toltec rooms. The Mexica exhibit was the most extensive, the ritual human sacrifice of these cultures was very different. It amazing how some of the artifacts were found. The great sun stone had been in the Cathedral for many years before the museum opened. On the other side were the Oaxaca, Gulf Coast (Olmecs), and Maya exhibits. These were also interesting, on an earlier trip we went to Playa del Carmen and the Maya ruins at Coba and Tulum. We had lunch in the museum restaurant. After, we continues walking through the park to the Metro at Chapultepec station and back to the hotel. This was our first day riding the metro, it was easy to get around but very crowded.

Tonight we had dinner at la Casa de Sirenas. This was on the third floor of a building behind the Cathedral. We could look into the Cathedral garden and also the ruins of the Templo Mayor. There was a big concert in the Zocalo as part of an international Feria de las Culturas Amigas. The festival had taken over the Zocalo the whole time we were here, but we never had time to walk through it. We could hear the concert from where we were. As we walked back to the hotel, on one of the side streets there were people performing an Indian dance.

cybor

Enjoying this. We live on the east side of Mx and hope to get to Mexico city this fall.

tripplanner001

The street vibe is reminding me of Peru. We encountered lots of music, dancing, and street festivals when we were there last year.

Leely2

Great report, I am going to Mexico City next month. This is very helpful. Please continue.

Hey, cybor! Buenos dias!

carl170

I forgot to mention the bar on the ground floor of La Casa de Sirenas. Several types of tequila and mezcal, which we tried for the first time. The bartender showed us how to sip it with orange slices and salt.

Sunday was our day to relax a little. We slept in and had breakfast at Garabino’s next to the hotel. A nice change from the hotel breakfast. We rode the metro out to Coyocan. We walked towards the Museo Frida Khalo, there were loud popping noises which we thought were coming from the highway. Turns out it was firecrackers from a procession for Pentecost . People were dancing, there was music and a figure of Jesus being carried through the street. We got to the museum and were trying to figure out where to go, a crowd of people were in front of it. We found a huge line that wrapped around the block. We decided that it would be too crowded so we didn’t wait. Around the corner was the Leon Trotsky house, where he lived and was assassinated. There was hardly anyone here. After touring the house, we went to the Centro Coyocan shopping mall. We had lunch at the counter at El Palacio del Hierro.

Tonight’s dinner was at Azul Historico. One of the other Azul restaurants was recommended, but this one we could walk to. They didn’t take reservations Friday or Saturday, so we had reservations for tonight. Azul Historico was inside a renovated building called the Downtown complex. There were some small craft shops scattered around. The restaurant was in the central atrium. We tried two of the Oaxacan dishes and two from the guest chef’s menu. We had the Pescado Tikin Xic and another type of mole sauce.

Leely2

What did you think of the food at Azul Historico?

Thanks for continuing your report.

carl170

We thought the food was very good. Pujol was the best restaurant we went to, but Azul Historico was the next best and the location and decor were great.

carl170

I read here a suggestion that we save Teotihuacan for our last day so that we would be more acclimated to the altitude, also many sites were closed on Monday so we arranged for a driver to take us to the ruins of Teotihuacan.

It was about an hour drive out of town, we did pass the Square of the Three Cultures, which sounded interesting in the guidebook, but we didn’t have time to stop. We got to the Archeological Park and went in the south side entrance. The first thing we did was buy hats and water. It was very warm and the sun was strong. We went to the Templo de Quetzalcoatl. It was good that we had gone the the Anthropological Museum previously so we knew some of the history behind the site. We wandered round the ruins, went to the small museum at the site, a nice cool break. Then we climbed up to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. This was the highlight of the morning, looking over the whole valley. It is amazing that this is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world, (after the Great Pyramid in Egypt and another ruined one in Mexico). We couldn’t go to the Pyramid of the Moon as it was cordoned off for an official ceremony. We wandered through the Temple of the Jaguars and the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl. The murals and carvings here were really interesting. We left the park and met our driver on this side so we didn’t have to backtrack to where we came in from. We then drove to the Museo del los Murales Teotihuacanos. This was a nice collection of murals from around the area. A nice break because it was air conditioned and there was no one there. We stopped at a co-operativo for lunch. We got a demonstration of the various uses of the agave plant, including using the spine as needle and thread. We bought a few souvenirs and were on our way.

Our next stop was the Basilica of the Virgin de Guadalupe. We went to the new church, there is a moving walkway to see the famous icon of the Virgin. The old church was across the plaza, you can see how the ground under it has been sinking. We didn’t climb up the hill to the shrine at the top, but went to the Pocito Chapel where the well was where San Juan Diego saw the vision. The shrine on top of the hill commemorated a different miracle, when roses appeared there during winter.

Back at the hotel to pack. We had dinner at Fisher’s inside the hotel. Dinner was good, but we picked up something (not necessarily there) that made us very sick. Fortunately it was our last day, so we didn't miss any part of our trip. All in all a great time.

tripplanner001

Just wrapped up my own trip to Mexico City, where I shared similar experiences with yours. We also had a wonderful day at Teotihuacan but did not make it to Basilica afterward even though it was on our agenda; next time!

travelinhobo

Very under the radar. Which is good for those of us who live there. But that aside, there are a million things to do (okay, I'm only up to about 700 on my upcoming guide book) that most people, both tourists and locals, don't even know about. 3 days aren't enough, 1 week isn't enough and 2 months aren't enough. Mexican stats say that only about 20% of the visitors are non-native Spanish speakers. I predict that within the next 2-5 years the city will see a surge in tourism as they've upgraded/renovated at least a dozen areas in the city, crime is down and people need a new place to discover.

tripplanner001

Travelinhobo, you're right about the city being under the radar. I expected to see more American and European tourists but no. The only place I came across English-speaking tourists were at the Frida Kahlo Museum and at the Palace of Fine Arts. I'll say more when I try to get my own report up this weekend.

travelinhobo

Mexico City breaks every big, cosmopolitan city rule. Including the fact that it isn't cosmopolitan! There are foreigners who live there (expats for work, only a few who are retired or choose to live there like me), however they mostly keep to themselves or among themselves in areas like Condesa, Roma & Coyoacan. The higher end expats live in areas like Santa Fe, Lomas, and maybe Polanco. But there really aren't many of them for the size of the city. Rumor has it that there's a large Korean population living in Tepito (the most "dangerous" area of the city), there are supposed to be around 6,000 Japanese living there (a Japanese student told me that), but as for Europeans, very few. They go to work, go home, and on the weekends go to a coffee house near their apt. They don't integrate into the city, they don't play tourist (for the most part), they don't get to know the city. Outside of the very touristy areas, you won't hear English on the street (not that you hear it a lot like you would in Istanbul, Bangkok, etc.). This of course is unknowingly quite fine for the half of the city who has xenophobia or don't like foreigners/Americans. I'm now in Ensenada (near the border with San Diego) and it's a world of difference here as far as quantity of foreigners AND the number of Mexicans who CAN and WANT TO speak English.