DAY 6 - Mexico City: Day Trip to Teotihuacan
The next morning we got up early to make our way to Teotihuacan, it's about 1 hour outside of Mexico City. The advice is to go early in the morning because it's a large open space and it can get very hot later on in the day. So we went to the bus terminal again and this time I had time to take a photo of the inside - when we went to San Miguel we were in such a hurry I didn't have time to take any photos.
The bus to Teotihuacan is not as fancy as the one we had to San Miguel, but it's ok and tickets were much cheaper, comparatively. You can also join day tours that may pick you up from your hotel directly - but those usually mean spending a whole day on a tour and they'll take you to places and expect you to buy their products.
When we arrived there, we saw lots of groups of students, I'm guessing this is a popular field trip destination. It's nice to see that locals also come here and this is not just a tourist site. (This is where I found info about how to get to Teotihuacan without joining a tour group.)
We walked down the Avenue of the Dead, which is the main "road" through this ancient city. Along this avenue are many temples/pyramids - Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, Temple of the Feathered Serpent and other things. At the end of the avenue is the Pyramid of the Moon, this is the one we chose to climb up - as it's at the end and you look down from the pyramid at the whole city.
We got up there and had our snack of canned tuna with bread, baby carrots and water. Doesn't sound very good, but it tasted really good. We were very hungry and tired by then, and I don't know how long we'd been in Teotihuacan by that time but the scorching sun was already heating us up.
above image: view from top of the Pyramid of the Mood
We finished our food and made our way down from the pyramid, which is steep and scary! There are chains to hold on to, but I say, take your time going down - some people even stop and take photos on those steps. We then went to walk in this tomb which was the only space that provided a cool space, you could walk inside stone chambers.... but no where to sit, so after walking through we decided to leave and find somewhere for a real meal. As we were leaving, there were some souvenir stores lining the walkway towards the exit. I popped in while Anne went to the washroom, and looked at postcards, but I also found Pineapple Popsicles! These were sooooo good! They were real pineapple juice and so sweet and cold! I don't think I have a photo of them, but they were so good that I still remember them without a photo to jog my memory.
After leaving the main Teotihuacan site, we somehow found a restaurant and went there for a taco and salad. Not the best food I recall, but I think I was more thirsty than hungry at this point. After a rest here we went to a museum where we could cool off a bit, and then made our way to the bus stop to get back to Mexico City.
When we arrived in Mexico City, I was surprised at how early in afternoon it still was. I thought the day trip to Teotihuacan would take all day until we came back for dinner, but I think we got back around 4pm, so after freshening up in the hotel, I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood and walked to the nearby Lucha Libre arena - just to see how far it is, as I wanted to attend a match if time allowed.
After my walk, we made our way to dinner, we went to visit a nearby "market" that is almost like the one in Los Angeles (Grand Central Market), or Vancouver's Granville Island food court inside the public market, where there are different food stalls inside a market - but there isn't a lot of seating, mostly people just sit or stand by the food stall to eat. It isn't very busy there and many stalls were not open, but we picked two that looked good and had a taste of traditional Pozole at one stall, and some modern Mexican dishes at the next stall. We ended the night with some Mexican chocolates from one of the stalls, which we brought back to the hotel and savoured over the next few days. :D
DAY 7 - Mexico City (Alebrijes and Quintonil)
Today we went to an Alebrijes workshop, this is the first time I've joined a Airbnb experience. Before the workshop, we got there a bit earlier and walked around the Coyoacan neighbourhood and also had breakfast - tacos seemed to be the most common food, you can have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Our Alebrijes workshop is inside a store that sells lots of hand-crafts, but there's a large section on alebrijes. These are brightly coloured mythical/fantasy creatures usually made out of wood or papier-mache. The history of this craft is not that long, they were first crafted in 1936 by Pedro Linares who made pinatas, masks and other things made using a technique similar to papier-mache.
For our workshop, we got figures that were made out of wood and already had a base coat, we could add on more designs or change it up entirely. We also looked at other alebrijes in the store for inspiration. You can make any pattern you like, common ones are circles with a dot in them, or arrow patterns, diamond patterns etc. However, I wanted something that reminded me of this trip and I saw that some of the alebrijes had these flowers on them. When I asked what that was, the teacher told us it's the Jacarandas - those purple flowering trees seen all over Mexico in Spring. So I decided to include that on my alebrije. The wings have a full jacaranda flower on each one, and then on the feet, I drew the petals after the flower falls down from the tree, just like how the ground under jacaranda trees are covered in purple sprinkle.
After we were done, we quickly got changed and went to our next destination - Quintonil. This was recommended by Anne's friend, to try something a little more modern and refined. This is just one of the examples of the wide variety of foods/cuisines in Mexico City, and it's also one of the things I like about this city. I think it'll be a good way for foreigners to enjoy Mexico without having to live entirely only on tacos. The area that Quintonil is located in is what I would call the downtown shopping area? We went down the main street in our Uber and you can see all the luxury brands and stores on both sides of the street, also it seems like there was some kind of spring festival so there were lots of sculptures or decorations made with fresh flowers. I just kept 'oohing' and 'ahing' over everything. Lots of people were out on the streets taking photos as well.
So back to Quintonil, we were seated inside and because it is fine dining, the atmosphere inside is definitely different from other places we ate at, but at the same time, not too stiff, we could still be relaxed and enjoy ourselves. I think there was a set menu so we didn't have to choose anything, just enjoyed each course as it came. All the food was pretty good, but in some ways, it tasted quite different from the Mexican food we had had so far (and that's just lots of different tacos, but they kind of all taste the same to me), almost didn't seem like Mexican food - I think the flavours reminded me more of fancy western restaurant. The ingredients, however, are local and it was interesting to try some of the foods I've never even heard of......
What did we do after this, Anne? I think we went back to the hotel (cuz it started raining?) and did we call it a night? I don't have any more photos from this day after this meal.....
DAY 8 - Mexico City (National Palace, House of Tiles, Palacio Postal, Museum of Anthropology, Lucha Libre)
We got up and went out for breakfast - hot chocolate and churros! Across from our hotel there's a place called El Moro, but I don't know why we didn't go there, instead we walked and walked to another location to try that El Moro. You'll see from the photo that the food we had was GOOD!
After our experience with the hot chocolate and churro in San Miguel, we ordered churro without the sweet condense milk (churro con leche?) and also had one of their Tortas for breakfast as well. This was my favourite sandwich the whole trip I think (but I think this was the only time we had Tortas as well).
I've been watching a dog training TV show and it is hard to get all the dogs to behave so well together.
Afterwards we took a quick walk in the park that was next to the restaurant and then took an Uber to the National Palace to see Diego Rivera's murals. This is next to the Zocalo we visited on our first day in Mexico City, and when we got there there was already a long line to enter. There were also lots of people holding posters protesting outside, not quite sure what it was about, but at least it was peaceful protesting. Admission to the National Palace is free, but you have to show and leave a piece of photo ID at the door and pick it up when you leave.
Other than Diego Rivera's murals there are also other murals lining the hallways, you can also visit the buildings and look at the architecture. Quite different from the busy and noisy Zocalo just on the other side of a tall stone wall.
After visiting the National Palace, we walked down the main street and passed by The House of Tiles, we hadn't gotten this far or missed it entirely when we had walked down the same street the first day we arrived in Mexico City. The House of Tiles was originally a palace built in the 18th century, now it is a restaurant. The reason why it is so famous is not only because it's old, but because the building is covered in tiles from Puebla. We went in, I think, looking for a place to eat, so we got a table in the restaurant and ordered food. You don't have to sit down for food to go into the building, there's also a souvenir store on the ground floor and other food options like a cafe on the top floor. Also I think many people go in and just wander around and take photos.
I ordered a fajita, thinking about the yummy one I had in San Diego many years ago, but this one was not that great... the beef didn't taste good and it was quite cool by the time they served this to me. So if you go into the House of Tiles, I would say, don't eat at the restaurant, or if you decide to sit down in the restaurant, just go for a drink only. However, it's definitely worth walking around and admiring the architecture and tiles.
After that we continued along the street towards the Latin America Tower (Torres Latinoamericana) - but that wasn't our destination. We were making our way to the post office to mail my postcards. And what a surprise - Mexico City has a beautiful post office! Palacio Postal, this is the main post office, and the interior is very ornate and beautiful. Really, it looks more like a palace than a place to sort mail. This is also one of the few buildings that have survived several earthquakes, continually operating for more than a hundred years.
This post office was so stunning that I totally forgot about the building across the road - Palacio de Bellas Artes. This building is also well known for its beautiful facade and stained glass dome. I only took a quick photo of it and that was it. I had done research before this trip and supposedly you can go into the building across from the Palacio de Bellas Artes and go up to a cafe inside Sears to view the building from a higher viewpoint. We didn't do that, but I was already so impressed by the post office that it's ok.
After this we made our way back to the hotel to rest, but since there was still time and I felt like I could keep going, I let Anne rest in the hotel and I decided to go to the Museum of Anthropology! When I was researching about Mexico City, the Museum of Anthropology often popped up as one of the best (if not the best) museums in Mexico City. I'm so glad I went because it really is an impressive museum and one of the best museums I've visited. It's located in Chapultepec Park (didn't get the chance to walk there, but it's a huge green park in the city), the museum's building itself is very new and modern, and there are TONS of exhibits. I was there for about 2 hours and I didn't get to see everything, I was walking through the museum really fast to try to see as much as I could.
Outside of the museum entrance, there are some vendors and then behind that there's a grassy lawn where you can watch the Dance of the Voladores (Danza de los Voladores). The "dance" is a traditional ritual meant to appease the gods and end drought. The dance here had 4 men climb up a very tall pole and then they tied the rope around their waist and launched themselves off into the air. They "fly" around the pole as their make their way down while flute-playing and drum-banging. This is a free performance at intervals throughout the day from 10am-7pm, every day.
Afterwards, I went back to the hotel to meet up with Anne and we had a simple dinner of cup noodles and then went to get tickets for Lucha Libre! When you think of Mexico, you'll think of Lucha Libre, this is a national sport and I heard that it's not expensive to attend these (unlike other cities where you might have to pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket for something like a basketball game). It's also one of the best ways to surround yourself with locals and get a taste of the atmosphere.
Lucha Libre (literally means 'free fight') became a popular entertainment sport in the 1900s, but at the time they didn't have masks and secret identities for the "athletes". Lucha Libre is like professional wrestling but with high-flying aerial and acrobatic moves. After soccer, it's Mexico's most popular sport and attending a match at Arena Mexico, the sport's birthplace and Mecca, is an essential Mexico City experience.
At the time when I was finding out information about these matches, the Arena Mexico hosted matches every Tues, Fri and Sunday, and tickets can be purchased from ticketmaster.com.mx. Tickets are only available a week in advance. You can also check out cmll.com for more information. I think we tried to look at tickets online, but couldn't figure it out. So we went to the Arena just before the match started and I think that actually added to the whole experience of attending a lucha libre event.
You will see the streets full of vendors (remember I came here 2 nights ago just to check out the area and it was quiet then with very little activity or people around) selling Lucha Libre masks and merchandise. You also have people trying to sell tickets on the street and in general just throngs of people moving around. We went to the ticket booth to buy tickets, and got the cheapest tickets available, but even then we were happy with the view we got. Inside the arena, there's the concession stand just like any other arena, there were also areas where you could take photos with Luche Libre "athletes" (is that what I call them?).
When we wanted to go to our seats, an arena staff brought us to our seats, but we had to pay him a tip! That was a bit interesting as we didn't know about this so I think we had a few minutes of awkwardness where he was trying to communicate to us in a roundabout way that we need to tip him. When we got seated most of the arena wasn't full, but later on it began to fill up. Seated next to us was a family, one of their young boys, in his lucha libre mask, sat next to us and he (and almost everyone else in the arena) was always yelling and cheering. It was very fun to watch and listen!
and each time a new match/set of lucha libre fighters come on, there's a fancy entrance.
What a long day we had today! But it was great fun, just writing about it makes me want to go back to Mexico City again!
DAY 9 - Mexico City (Frida Kahlo's house)
The day we visit Frida Kahlo's house! This is probably one of the most famous attractions in Mexico City, so tickets need to be purchased online ahead of time and there's always a line up to get in even with advance tickets. I think we got tickets to be the first in, so we arrived a bit earlier than anticipated and went around the local market to see what's inside. We came back to the market after we were done at Frida's house.
Frida Kahlo's House is also known as "The Blue House" because of the colour it's painted in, such a beautiful blue. When we were finally able to enter, we not only had to show our tickets, but if you wanted to take photos inside the compound you have to pay a photo permit of 30 pesos. The house/museum shows all the rooms she and Diego used, as well as some of her own artworks and dresses that she designed and wore.
After the visit, we went back to the local market for food. We ordered enchiladas and another dish that had mole. I had been looking forward to trying mole because my manager had told me about it and said she loved it. I've also heard some people say it's not good. But at this moment, I can't remember if I liked it or not..... I'm guessing since I don't recall hating it or loving it, it must be just ok, just a sauce......
Outside of the local market there was a weekend arts market, they had lots of artworks and handicrafts displayed by local artists. We also walked and walked and somehow ended up back in the neighbourhood where we painted the alebrijes. We also stumbled into a courtyard with a very small but pretty church.
For dinner we went back to the area where all the high-end luxury shops were and the flower displays on the street. We met up with Anne's friends and had dinner at one of the local restaurants.
DAY 10 - Mexico City to Vancouver
This is the last day, and we didn't have any plans other than to meet up with Anne's friend's family and have a taco breakfast with them. I think these were the best tacos I had the whole trip, in terms of the meat and the other ingredients inside the taco. I find the taco/tortilla shells in Mexico quite thick..... I wonder what they use to make it? If they can make them less thick then I think they would be better.
After this I made my way by Uber to the airport for my flight home...... Hasta Luego Mexico!
above image, right: I like how the papayas are displaying standing up.
below image, left: street food stall, but they also butcher the meat on the spot as well!
below image, right: it's so hot, the dog tries to sleep in the shade but it's not enough to cover all of him.
Thanks Anne for sharing some of your photos here and inviting me to travel with you, I hope I didn't scare you with my intense trip planning and jam-packed itineraries. Hope we'll get to do another trip together in the near future!
At the end of writing these two blog posts, I feel that my memory is not so bad, the photos did help to jog my memory and I was able to remember a lot more than I thought I would. Gives me a little hope that I'll be able to write about the other trips in 2019 that followed after this trip. Coming up are trips about friends who came to visit me in Vancouver and also a trip to Japan in Sep 2019!
