Nonstop Mexico City

I’ve traveled to Mexico City before, a few times over the last decade. So I had already visited some of the big travel musts, like the Anthropology Museum and the Pyramids of Teotihuacan. I’ve been living in Guadalajara for more than three years now and I didn’t have to time until this Thanksgiving break to make the trip to CDMX, Ciudad de México, or Distrito Federal, DF, as we no longer call it. This trip was a combo: three nights with two friends and fellow FM4 volunteers Ale and Nimsi, and three nights as a solo traveler.

Here’s my list of the favorite things that we, or I, enjoyed while in Mexico City.

Hostel DF Suites

I love to meet fellow travelers. I appreciate a hostel with great common areas where people come together to share meals, to have a drink on the patio, to swap stories, to convivir. At our hostel, we had our private room but also took advantage of the communal terrace area and breakfast room. Plus the rooms were clean, the coffee strong and the staff helpful.

2. Museum of Memory and Tolerance

Our first museum was the Museum of Memory and Tolerance with a guided tour of their two permanent exhibits. This museum first aims to educate visitors about genocide, particularly the Holocaust, but also the atrocities that occured in Armenia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and the current situation in Darfur. Beyond this, the museum focuses on tolerance and challenges visitors to self reflect and explore stereotypes, discrimination, and human rights.

3. Plaza de las tres culturas

Our visit to the Plaza de las tres culturas was three fold; the archeological ruins, the plaza and the UNAM memorial and museum. First we wandered the Aztec ruins with a temple said to be 700 years old. The seventeenth century church, Templo de Santiago, overlooks the ruins and the plaza. Next, we went to the Plaza situated in front of some large modern apartment buildings. The Plaza de las tres culturas was the site of the massacre of protesting students on October 2nd, 1968, just ten days before the start of the Olympic games in Mexico. These games are probably more known in the US for the black power salute rather than the massacre. An estimated 300 – 400 young adults were killed and disappeared that night. The government has been slow to recognize this atrocity and this October marked its fifty year anniversary. The plaza was mostly empty when we visited. A tall, concrete memorial honors the victims and a lone guitarist played on its steps with a fist full of flowers and a sign in Spanish that said, “Want to know what happened here? Ask me.”

4. Casa Azul – Frida’s house

A visit to Mexico City would not be complete without taking in the art of Frida Kahlo, probably one of the world’s most recognized female painters. She resided in the Casa Azul with her husband and muralist, Diego Rivera, from 1929 to 1954. Her house and her art told the story of her unpleasant childhood, the effects of contracting polio, her terrible streetcar accident and her long bedrest, her complicated relationship with Diego Rivera and her legacy as an artist. Also on display were many of her original dresses, mostly of the Tehuana indigenous style for both their comfort and convenience over her back braces and for the symbolism of the power and leadership of women in the Mexican culture. The grounds around the Casa Azul are beautiful and when we visited there was also an enormous Day of the Dead altar displaying photos of Frida, candles, marigolds, fruits,candies, bread and tequila. We took many photos, joking that Frida would have appreciated a good “selfie.”

5. Coyoacán

After visiting Frida’s house, we also visited her neighborhood, Coyoacán. We wandered through a busy market with fruit and veggie stands, food vendors cooking up tacos, stacks of chilis and spices, and stalls with all sorts of toys, piñatas, and household items. We grabbed coffee to go at El Jarocho, a local classic. The two large plaza areas were filled with families, musicians and magicians while a wedding party poured out of the Catholic church. We ate dinner out near the plazas and then lost ourselves in a book store before calling it a night.

6. Via Recreativa and the Museum of Modern Art

On Sundays in Mexico City large stretches of road are shut down for the Via Recreativa. People bike, blade, scooter, run and walk down Avenida Reforma and other main thoroughfares. The streets are filled with activities and little markets. While walking to the Museum of Modern Art, we took part in the Via. On the way, we stopped at an encampment of families and other supports of the Ayotzinapa 43. They are demanding the government locate the missing teachers that disappeared in 2014. Eventually we arrived at at the Museum of Modern Art. On Sundays most museums are free. Nimsi was most excited about the Remedios Varo exhibit, a Spanish painter in the surrealist style. I enjoyed the “The Mirror of Venus” exhibit filled with women painters showing females transforming our patriarchal society.

7. Chapultepec Castle

The Chapultepec Castle sits on top of the hill in the wooded forest in the “Central Park” of Mexico City. It was the royal residence of Emperor Maximilian and Princess Carlota in the 1860s, and later became the home for the current president, and now is the National History Museum. Because of the free Sundays, the park was bustling with families and vendors. Inside the castle, we saw murals depicting the history and exhibits chronicling the important time periods. One set of paintings explained the specific descriptions of the caste system during the colonials times [Spanish + Indian = Mestizo, Mestizo + Spanish = Castiza, Spanish + Black = Mulata, Spanish + Mulata = Morisca, and so on]. The castle also included Porfirio Diaz’s fancy carriage. The views from outside the castle overlook the widespread city.

8. Bookstores!

I love books and can spend forever just browsing the stands or sipping café and reading. Mexico City has a more of a culture of reading than other parts of Mexico or Latin America. Book stores are frequent in the downtown neighborhoods and street vendors often sell new and used books. We visited the bookstore and cafe, El Pendulo, in the Condesa neighborhood. A few days later, I took a much needed break at the Porrua book store. The back of the store has a cafe that opened up to the Chapultepec Lake. I ate a late breakfast, drank coffee, read and journaled about my time in Mexico City. It was a rare moment of peace within this huge, bustling city. For such a huge, bustling city, it was a very relaxing moment.

9. Palacio de Bellas Artes

The Palacio de Bellas Artes is an iconic fine arts theater in center of Mexico City. We bought last minute cheap tickets in the nosebleeds just to make it inside the famous landmark. With dresses and heels on, we attended Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” performed in Italian with Spanish subtitles. The plot involved the quirky, twisted stories of lovers with some cross dressing and a surprise parental reveal. This was my first opera and I was blown away with the symphony, the opera voices, the shifting scenery on stage, and fancy costumes. Just being in the audience was a treat!

10. Walking Tour

I love a good free walking tour when I’m new in town. Even though I’ve been to Mexico City before and I’m familiar with its history, I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. Our guide started with the founding of Tenochtitlan, the ancient city on top of a lake located in what is now downtown Mexico City. The Cathedral, National Palace and the Zocalo all sit on this former lakebed. She explained the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, the development of the blackmarket and the start of famous muralist, Diego Rivera. She showed us the legacy of Porfirio Diaz;a controversial dictator, he nonetheless invested in architecture, the arts, and the economy. He was popular among the wealthy elite and foreign investors. He was not, however, appreciated by the poor or rural Mexicans and was eventually outed in the Mexican Revolution in 1910. To balance out the political history on the tour, she also took us to a bakery, La ideal, where they produce 30,000 baked goods a day and you can order a 110 kilo cake for your next event.

11. Palacio Nacional

The Palacio Nacional houses the epic murals of Diego Rivera. His murals cover the entire stairwell and three walls and portrays Mexican history from ancient times through the 1930s. He depicted the struggle of the Mexican people, from the experience of the indigenous people, to the colonization of the Spanish, the Revolution and overthrow of dictator Porfirio Diaz. All around the second level of the courtyard were other incredible murals depicting the experience of the people in Mexico. Outside the main building, I took in the botanical gardens. All for free entry, good deal.

12. Templo Mayor

The Templo Mayor include the archeological remains of the Mexica people and their ancient city of Tenochtitlan. Located right next to the Zocalo, the Cathedral and the Palacio Nacional, the ruins have been preserved and turned into an impressive museum. I saw the two spired temple honoring Huitzilopochtli, god of war and Tlaloc, god of rain and agriculture. Construction started in the year 1325 and a new layer was added for each new ruler. The seventh and final layer was destroyed when Hernan Cortes and his men arrived in 1519. A few years later construction began on the Catholic Cathedral over the site. Today visitors can walk on protected paths through the ruins and learn more about the Mexicas, Tenochtitlan and the Templo Mayor in large museum connected to the site.

13. Street Food

Mexico City is known for its amazing food, especially street food. There are taco stands on every corner serving delicious chorizo, pastor and asada. Now, did you know that in Mexico City, quesadillas don’t automatically come with cheese? So, if you want cheese, make sure to ask for your quesadilla with queso. We also tried tlacoyos, a classic Mexico city street food from pre hispanic times. A thick corn tortilla is served with the refried beans inside the dough pocket. I had mine with cheese and meat. The girls opted for flor de calabaza, or squash flower, and huitlacoche, an edible fungus that grows on corn. Lastly, after much debate, we determined the difference between esquites and elotes. Both involve corn, mayo, cheese and chili powder; however esquites are served in a cup and elotes are still on the cob.

14. Lucha libre

One night, I went out with all folks at the hostel to the Lucha Libre, a highly entertaining evening of ridiculous Mexican fighting. Before walking to the arena, the visitors and hostel staff consumed copious amounts of tequila together on the patio. The wrestlers did their show filled with fake drop kicks, body slams, and exaggerated falls. Honestly, I felt that this lucha was quite tame compared to other fights I’ve seen in Guadalajara. Maybe the fighters were still recovering from the long holiday weekend.

15. Seeing old friends

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work, volunteer, and become friends with a few amazing people from Mexico City. In between all the museums and landmarks, I was able to spend some time with them. Eleven years ago, I volunteered in an indigenous community in Puebla and during that summer became good friends with my co facilitator, Yssel. Despite rarely seeing each other, we picked up right where we left off and spent many hours at a small cantina in the historic downtown. We reflected about our time in the community, getting older and wiser, dating, and our current interests and passions. Later, I also met up for coffee with Mauricio and Jessica, old friends from the Casa YMCA, a home for migrant youth on the border. It was cool to see how those shared experiences have impacted each of our lives today.