My parents were here last week.
This is the most expensively I’ve ever touristed in Mexico City.
And it’s pretty fun.
In some ways, I feel like they should be writing this week’s entry. To say we ate well might be the biggest understatement I’ve ever made. You may just bombarded with a giant wall of food photos.
First and foremost, it’s been almost a decade since I’ve gone full tourist in Mexico City. Generally I’ve been working while here. And in some ways, I feel like we ended with a list of things we’ll do next time, but for the week they were here, we did it up. The other thing to note, is that apparently when you are familiar with an area, you kinda fail at taking the meta picture of the thing and just take the new detail you noticed.
We had an action packed week starting down in San Angel, a rather upscale and lovely neighborhood in the southwest of Mexico City that has a robust weekend market. It’s also home to the 2 casas of Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera.
After a rest back north, we trekked south again to Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul. If you haven’t seen the movie, this is indeed her childhood home that she & Diego Rivera later lived in. She spent most of her life in this house in the historic center of Coyoacan. The museum is really lovely, not too big, and focused on her life, which invariably includes her art, but it’s definitely a biographical museum.
Coyoacan’s centro is stunning. Might be all the things one pictures of quaint charm in Mexico. Removed from the bustle of the city, it features cobblestone streets, colonial style homes, uneven sidewalks, and bouganvillea. It boasts ancient ties as a Tepanec village on the southern shores of Lake Texcoco (back when there was a lake) and a major center of trade. Under the Spanish it was the first capital of New Spain from 1521-1523, then an independent village. The area became incorporated into the Federal District in 1857 and in the mid 20th century the expansion of Mexico City reached this area. Long thought of as a bohemian artist’s heaven, it continues its reputation to this day. Coyoacan does it up for the weekends with street vendors packed in along the edges of all major streets leading from the central plazas. It’s bright and colorful and noisy.
That evening’s feast was back up in Roma Norte at Tigre Silencioso. Where, I suspect due to rain, we were stuffed into a table in a dark corner on their patio and all demonstrated our age by whipping out the flashlights on our phones. We dined on brie & spinach stuffed empanadas, a lovely cauliflower with nuts, pork belly carnitas tacos & a truly spectacular dessert of peanut ice cream, dark chocolate cookie, a dacquoise and some other layer I can’t remember. I apologize for the lack of photos.
Monday we got up bright and early for our tour of Teotihuacan. This is a ruins site about 45 minutes outside of the city. No one knows who built Teotihuacan originally, but it’s estimated to have been established around 100 BC and housed up to 125,000 people and was the largest city in the western hemisphere before the 1400s. Over the subsequent years, it was used by many different indiginous peoples, in fact its name and the names of all the streets and buildings within are in Nahautl, the Aztec language. Major excavation started under President Porifirio Diaz who wanted it completed in time for the first centennial of Mexican independence in 1910. As things fell behind, the archeological team resorted to using dynamite which it’s believe significantly compromised the integrity of the ruins. Massive restoration and reconstruction have followed. Did I mention mom found a fabulous hat?
Tuesday we had a bit of a sleep in and then wandered over to the Anthropology Museum where I had heard they had free English tours. After what I can only describe as an entirely Mexican experience around time and the certainty of things and a brief walk about in the north end of Chapultepec park, we abandoned all hope of a guide and just went in the musuem. So, the thing about the anthropology musuem, it’s big and densely packed with information. I think we made it maybe 1/4 of the way through. And then we have the evening at Quintonil.
Quintonil is a 2 star restaurant in the Polanco (aka fancy) area of Mexico City. The environment is minimalist, not quite too dark, and like a modern take on the 70s. I’m reasonably confident that we had 6 wait staff for our party of three. And then you sit back and they just bring you food. You know you are in for 9 courses, but the rest is mystery.
Every dish was exquisite. I did not photoshop. That is what they looks like. I think the tartlet might be about life size, it had the most delicate crust. Each dish came with an explanation, a tie to Mexico, and suggestions on how best to consume it. I spent a fair amount of time telling my parents that while a common dish in Mexico this was in no way respresentative of said item, but was just a whole different thing. Such as the chileatole that we started with and I was just too excited to take a photo. It was stunningly delicious, but like no chileatole I’ve ever seen.
Pipian verde is one of my favorite moles. Again this was incredible (and that green! and the other green!) but unrecognizable as a pipian verde. The cornbread dessert was heavenly. And I think they just enjoy bringing out the bugs. They were unbelievably concientious of mom’s shellfish allergy and had prepared equally beautiful alternatives at every point. Mom got full and kept making us finish hers. Dad and I, though I suspect not a whit less full, powered through admirably. I have to say, I’m not really sure what must happen at a 3 star restaurant. Everything we ate was intellectually intelligble, but then the taste that happens, the insanely perfect balance and texture. Most things I can imagine making, these I cannot. Perfect really was the word, even for things that weren’t as up my alley, they were perfect for what they were. And at the end, each guest is presented with their menu (yes, mom’s had been adjusted for her shellfish free menu).
And that was only Tuesday.
Wednesday we took a tour of centro, which offered a lovely take on an area I’ve been to a lot and done the free walking tours. I did not take as many pictures as a proper tourist, having really exhausted all possible angles of the National Cathedral on previous visits. In typical Spanish fashion, the center of Mexico City was built on top of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Adjacent to the National Cathedral sits the remains of Templo Mayor, which is an ongoing archeological site, and a museum to the site. We also explored the post office (Palacio Postal), the Secretary of Education building which is covered in Diego Rivera murals, and the Temple of Santo Domingo de Guzman, which is a remarkably beautiful church. I’m noticing that I have size preferences when it comes to churches, and frankly the Mexican National Cathedral is just too big for me.
At this point, I have to massively hand to my parents, who have tolerated me forcing us to walk 5+ miles a day in reasonably warm temperatures. While not 100%, mom definitely felt better than she had been, if she had altitude issues they were limited to a marginal headache, which is a heck of an improvement from many of her travels. And on Thursday she was ready for a rest, so dad & I trekked out alone.
Here is where my most massive picture failures begin. I did an excellent job at Palacio de Bellas Artes as you can see below (click on photos for larger view). Bellas Artes is an incredible building from around the turn of the century. It’s home to the Folklore Ballet and an art museum mostly featuring famous muralists of Mexico. If you aren’t familiar with the significance of muralism in Mexico, it’s worth a google. The tradition and the defiantly political nature of it are still highly relevant.
Then I completely fell on my photographic face at the Monument of the Revolution and did not take any pictures of the exterior of the building. This was first time I’d been in and I was excited to learn more about the Mexican Revolution. You buy entry and follow a yellow line that leads you down into the guts of the building where we saw an art exhibition focused around changing ideas of violence with see through guns. It was dark, narrow, mazelike and interrupted by what I assume is the standing exhibit on the construction of the monument. Mirrors hung over head reflecting the guns and making one feel vaguely targeted. We then reclimbed the stairs and were directly to the elevator to the top of the monument.
The inside of the dome of the monument is green and open to the air. You follow a stairway down and slightly squeeze through a column to reach an outdoor deck area that wraps round the building. The city is vast and tall, so while it definitely offers a view, it’s not as dramatic as one might think. From there you follow A LOT of stairs back down along the way pausing to stare at more invisible guns and read initially fun and eventually a little tiresome placards titled “Did you know?” with information regarding the monument. The answer, invariably, is “No. I did not”.
You are then released into a courtyard having not seen a whit of history of the Revolution. We wandered back over to the entry to collect my bag, use the bathrooms, and check out the gift shop. It was then we discovered, hidden in the very back behind the centrally focused elevator, the entrance to the separate Museum of the Revolution. As we were running short on time, we left it for another trip.
Grabbed mom, deposited dad and we were off to La Ciudadela, the artisan market. The building takes up a block and features stand after stand. Quality varies wildly, prices often do not. You will get lost despite aisle designations. A bunch is repeat and clearly at least to some extent mass produced, but then there are a few absolute treasures. Dinner Thursday was at Voraz, which is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine with divine arrachera and a huge and tender chamorro (pork leg).
Friday was our last real day for activities and we used it for the parks! In the morning we wandered around Parque Mexico in the Condesa neighborhood. This is one of my favorite parks, being more manageable in size than Chapultepec and more tropical in feel. It offers a bit of sanctuary. We then walked over to Molina “el Pujol” which is the maiz based cafe of the famed chef of Pujol. It’s a short and sweet menu brilliantly executed. In the afternoon we meandered through Chapultepec to the Castillo, which is also the National History Museum. As a museum I find it a tad on the uninspired side, but the building is lovely, as are the views, all of which I failed to capture. That evening we went to Rosetta, which has been a go to and I don’t know if it’s just because of the caliber of food we were eating all week or if it was an off night, but it felt less amazing than usual.
Mom & Dad left mid morning on Saturday and I did normal things, like bought groceries and cleaned my apartment. I think Mexico City won dad over. Mom enjoyed it too, but I think she knew she would and I rather suspect Dad expected to find a big, noisy, dirty city and nothing to admire and while Mexico City, definitely is that, it’s so much more. And I do believe he saw that.
I think I feel about guilty that I’m still sad even when people come to visit, people who I know would like nothing better than to cure my sad. Sometimes being happy makes me sad. Sometimes I’m crying for a lost me. In my memory, I really liked me at the beginning of you. I loved my apartment, I loved my haircut. I was enjoying being single, on my own. I made enough money to do want I wanted, had stability, believed in myself, had peace for the most part. Now sometimes I just see parts of her and wonder how to resurface them.
Sunday, Leo and I went for an epic 10 mile walk to investigate the Poliforum Siqueiros in Napoles and then through del Valle into Navarte to investigate some tacos. Poliforum Siqueiros is a decagon shaped building designed in the 1960s by David Alfaro Siqueiros, a hugely influential muralist. It serves a cultural space and art museum, although at this time (and I believe for quite some time), the inside is closed for renovation. It features the largest mural in the world, La Marcha de la Humanidad.
The mural continues inside the building, which I couldn’t enter, and extends to the walls around the building, which were protected and therefore not visible. I can’t wait to go back when it’s open. It was mindblowing just looking up at this work.
I think we’ve had abundant food pictures this week, so I leave you with a tired me and Leo pausing in a park on our walkabout. The jacarandas are beginning to shed their flowers.
Year One Project 
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