Mexico City

México City, CDMX, is its own state. With around 21 million people it boasts some of the worst traffic in North America if not worldwide but we were excited to be immersed.

In the calm Puebla bus station we gathered our nerve, boarded yet another clean and comfortable bus and headed for “El Angel Telepuerta” bus station near our neighborhood of La Condesa.

Having heard there was some local backlash to the increasing costs related to tourism and the digital nomad trend we were cautious about our choice for accommodation in CDMX. We settled on the neighborhood of La Condesa with a heightened awareness to the possibility of receiving a “cold shoulder” but we experienced quite the opposite. We made a point of speaking what little Spanish we know as much as possible. A common courtesy in greetings of hola or Buenos Dias is always a good place to start. From the attentive and pleasant door personnel at our accommodation to the restaurant staff we encountered, the people were kind and helpful. La Condesa was the right choice for us – safe, close to many of the interesting must see sights, convenient for transit subway lines and lovely tree covered streets. But -“please don’t over tip!” 10% max outside of Mexico City and max 15% in the city.  Destinations such as PV can be up to 20% but it’s hard on Mexican tourists who get shunned because they don’t tip as high as the many international tourist types. It’s hard to please everyone but everyone seems to get along just fine.

Check!  Disembarking and getting an Uber to the apartment building was easy. The room we rented for 2 weeks was quiet, near a good grocery store, and well equipped with comfy bed, two bathrooms and a kitchen that meant we could have a home cooked oasis as a reprieve from the vibrancy of the largest city in North America. On travel days we generally have a relaxed routine of check in, get set up with food and coffee for morning, ending with with a neighborhood orientation walk. 

Our first day out was a Monday when all the museums are closed and the nearby enormous Chapultepec park also had locked gates. So we grabbed an Uber and headed to Alameda Central Park, the oldest park in the Americas at 434 years!  This began our stroll into the central core of Mexico City. One of our stops was in the Museo Mural Diego Rivera which displays a very famous mural by renowned artist Diego Rivera that was nearly destroyed in a catastrophic magnitude 8 earthquake hitting CDMX in 1985. The scope of mortality left in the wake of the quake could never be fully confirmed such was the carnage that caught this city by complete surprise. Records only state that between 5000 and 45,000 perished, 30,000 were injured and the cost in lost buildings and infrastructure topped $5 Billion in 1985 US dollars. The historic Diego painting called Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central from 1947 was painted on the walls of a prominent hotel called Hotel del Prado which was significantly damaged in the earthquake. As a result of extensive damage the hotel was demolished but the mural was saved and restored. Considered one of Rivera’s greatest works it is an impressive site with many stories to tell.

This neoclassical statue of former president Benito Juarez seems to guard the park from the intimidating encroachment of never-ending city towers. 

At the most eastern side we came to the Palacio des Belles Artes, an enormous theatre with a stunning art deco interior. The internal museum that houses multiple murals was closed. 

Across the street we happened on “the smallest China Town in North America”. After 2 months of Mexican food we had a nice Asian lunch. 

Continuing along we reached a heavy iron fenced open space in front of the Cathedral where scaffolding was being dismantled one piece at a time. We did a quick google search on why the heavy barriers and found out Shakira had performed a free concert the night before with a mere 400,000 in attendance. We both regretted and rejoiced at not being there in such a massive crowd scene.

Mexico City, built on a lake, is sinking. It was very evident inside the huge cathedral with the slanted floors heaving and dipping and marks on the marble walls showing some sort of level measurements to compare with the years that are gone or still to come. We couldn’t help thinking of the weight of the stone columns and cupolas that pressured the floors and the crypts.  Just outside and behind the front door of the cathedral is the archeological dig of Aztec city, Tenochtitlán.

We continued our walk until we arrived at a less touristy and quite edgy part of the landscape near the le Merced market. More on that later. 

Back to the oasis, sip a beer on the roof, dinner and a movie, early to bed. A routine that seemed to work for us. 

On the next day, Tuesday, we still wanted to get to know our corner of the city so we decided to walk to Chapultepec Park where the Museum of History in Chapultepec Castle and the renowned Museum of Anthropology were located. 

Chapultepec Park is massive (over 1700 acres) and works as a fresh air lung for the city. Originally the park’s lakes were connected to other parts of the city through an aqueduct system which has a few intact but no longer used remains. 

Walking along the pathway we came across a “Canadian Totem” installed in 1960. The artists were none other than revered carvers Mungo Martin, Henry and Tony Hunt.  

We continued on to a gate that had a ticket booth and a long winding road up a hill to the castle. 

Once again we felt like we were pulled out of Mexico and dropped into Europe and a Parisian castle above the gilded monuments, bank towers and 5 star hotels, that decorate the Avenue Paseo de la Reforma, AKA the Champs-Élysée of Mexico. 

Next morning, March 4, we headed for Freda Kahlo’s Casa Azul. There were lines with posts telling of the next entry time. I asked if the hoards of people in the line had pre purchased tickets. Yup. Uh oh. I had no idea Casa Azul was the Louvre and Uffizi of Mexico. I searched to buy tickets on the website and got two on the 9th! Excellent! Next day I realized the hastily bought tickets were in April and had just become a donation because they have a no refund or changes policy. But with 25000 visitors per month… my bad!!

So Uber at our fingertips, we decided to see the Museum of Anthropology. This is also accessed through Chapultepec Park. Before arriving at the museum we followed the sound of a whistle and drumming to the indigenous flyers performance. 

Our main interest in the huge Museum of Anthropology was the Teotihuacán exhibit. We had been through so many museums with the stories of pre and post Hispanic contact that we were just dialing in the details on the great Aztec city that we would visit in the days to come.

After 3 hours and only halfway around our brains were swimming with the information overload so we headed home.

We booked a tour to Teotihuacan and while on my “Get Your Guide” app I saw a tour to the Xochimilco canal boats that included Freda Kahlo Casa Azul. Dammit we were going there!! Paid! More about that day later.

Scrolling through the tours there was a tour of La Merced market with a local who grew up as the child of one of the merchants. I read all the tour info, found reviews and info on other site.  I then dove down to the directions to get there and saw an Merced metro stop on the same line that went past our apartment. I also heard from another grad of our program who did a tour through Merced. We were skipping the price of a tour and going! We figured out we only needed one preloaded transit card and could scan it twice for both of us to ride. At 5 pesos (40¢) per ride we headed underground. The Merced subway spits you out deep into the largest market in the city. It was busy and we got lost immediately.

We wandered for an hour, stopped at a vendor who had chairs along a table that ended with her prep at a hot comal. We shared a delicious hand formed blue corn “huarache” with zucchini flowers, epazote, Oaxaca cheese and spicy salsa that was made and served in a molcajete. 

We got through with our micro amount of Spanish and continued our tour. The absence of obvious tourists and the feeling that we had stepped outside of the comfort of a tourism backdrop heightened our senses. This was Mexican Mexico. When we surfaced on a busy street outside the walls the edginess of this market was visceral and we went back inside looking for the subway. 

Hindsight- We were glad we went but would recommend a tour rather than self guided!! Reading the Wikipedia about Merced confirmed the gut feeling we had. Merced is known for its market shops but also for prostitution and the disappearance of young children in the trade. Vendors sell street side illegally as they are not supposed to crowd onto the busy street. 

Next day we went to the San Juan market touted as the place the professionals do their shopping plus it sold exotics! From creepy crawly critters to tiger tacos to iguana stew, probably the least appetizing was chocolate covered tarantula or pickled scorpion. The market was bright, organized and friendly. No edgy invisible dark side lurked in our consciousness so we bought powdered chapulínes (cricket) salt mix for rimming your tequila-Caesar and pulque gummies for a more spiritual hit. No rattlesnake tacos for us as it really didn’t grab us! 

Just down the block and close to another easy metro stop was the Mercado de Artisanias La Cuidadela. This beautiful market houses all the gifts you ever want to buy for yourself and your loved ones. Artisans here were hawking woven blankets, jewelry, Talavera pottery, candies, mezcal, tequila, piñatas, T-shirts, embroidery and color! Vibrant color!

One of our favorite free apps is Atlas Obscura.  It has never let us down in multiple countries. It lead us to see the Museo de Arte Popular where the lobby housed a fully beaded Volkswagen Beetle. Lots of other fantastic folk art too. 

Time to eat. We headed for El Huequito renowned for their excellent al pastor. It was the best we had tasted so far. 

March 8 is International Women’s Day and in Mexico City where protests are commonplace the “8M” march is an annual event that closes to traffic the normally busy Paseo de la Reforma to the Zocalo Centro beside the Cathedral.

Hundreds of thousands of women, girls and supportive men don Jacaranda-purple clothing and chant for equal rights, strict consequences for femicide and an end to sexual abuse. Windows along the route were boarded up. Huge steel walls were erected around statues and public ornaments.

Women police officers had festive purple ribbons in their hair while 200 male and female riot police were ready with their shields and teargas to stop any violent outbursts. It was powerful. However, the machismo in the culture and the law is strong and change isn’t coming fast.

The vibrancy of CDMX entices you in to reveal it’s many attractions and the subway conveniently bypasses much of the gridlock topside on clogged and stinky streets. Great food and beverage is everywhere so starve you won’t. Our two week stay covered a lot of ground so relating it to you will take 2 episodes for this fantastic city. We are working on Part 2 so stay tuned it’s worth a brief wait.