Mexico City

October 2015

I was really excited to arrive in Mexico City after 8 amazing nights in Cuba eating and partying, but also a little apprehensive. In Cuba we had met some Israeli girls who had been in Mexico City prior to Cuba and had felt so unsafe they went to Cuba early, this in addition to articles I had read about Mexico City being one of the most dangerous cities in the world had me a tad worried. As we pulled up to our beautiful 1920s art deco apartment for the week I relaxed and could see that we were in for a special city.

Hilary and I had hired a room in a locals apartment from Airbnb and were greet by our host (and a plate of donuts). As it turns out he was very busy at work for the week and we essentially got an entire apartment to ourselves for $40 a night. After shoving some donuts in to our face we set out for a vegan taco place we had found on four square, we lined up with locals and chowed down on delicious fresh tacos with spicy picante sauce. The next day we visited a local coffee shop that introduced us to horchata (a sweet rice milk) with coffee on ice and walked to the Anthropology museum (picking up some shrimp tacos on the way) and wandered through the beautifully trendy suburb of Roma Norte we were staying in.

The following morning we walked for several hours to get to the Zocalo and view the Templo Mayor. Unfortunately as we both had shorts on we couldn’t enter the churches, so instead ate more tacos and wandered around a beautiful nearby park to find a Diego Rivera mural.

Next up was a visit to the ruins of Teotihuacan, a huge complex of Mayan ruins an hour out of Mexico city. We wandered around the massive pyramids for hours, as well as scrambling to the top. The archaeological site  and pyramids was impressive but also exhausting due to the intense heat.

One of my main draws to Mexico city was to visit the home and museums of one of my favourite artists Frida kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera. We caught the train out to Coyoacan to the beautiful Casa Azul, Frida’s childhood home and where she retired with her husband later in life. The house was filled with both her and Diego’s art as well as preserved in the way it was left when first Frida and then Diego passed away. For lunch we nommed on some fresh ceviche on tostadas and headed off to attend the Lucha Libre or Mexican wrestling. Although I am not a huge fan of sport in general I find it interesting to attend local sport games. Lucha Libre is like american wrestling (WWF) but with capes and masks added. It was entirely fake and incredibly entertaining.

Finally on to our last day in Mexico city we journeyed out to the Museo Dolores, a wealthy socialite who had befriended Frida and Diego and after their death had turned her beautiful estate in to a museum of Frida and Diego’s art. In the afternoon we wandered around the beautiful and wealthy neighbourhood San Angel before grabbing a quick drink at a gorgeous local bar.

Mexico city is one of my favourite cities I have ever visited, it was entirely chaotic in the same way Bangkok is. The food in Mexico City was so outrageously delicious, I will definitely visit again.