A three-day affair with Mexico City

(Over the last few days, a couple of friends have suggested me to pen down my trips more often, similar to what I did for the Masai Mara trip two years ago. So, after a three-day travel in and around Mexico City, I thought, well, I owe this to those few readers who have kindly read and encouraged me to keep writing travelogues time and again. And so, here is the story of that three-day affair.)

Feb 7, 10:40pm:

You guessed it right! Once again, I am going to follow the Professor Shanku routine of maintaining a diary and will jot down the stories as it happens. My flight left in the afternoon today and it was a pretty boring journey, until I got a glimpse of millions of glittering lights of the 11th largest city in the world. Unfortunately, an aisle seat and a passionate couple beside me came in the way of clicking a picture through the window, but I do hope to get one on my way back. The immigration process and getting a cab after that went real smooth. Soon, I was cruising through the streets of Mexico City. Much to the surprise of me, the traffic was nowhere close to the crazy stories I heard before. Most likely, the area my AirBnB is in (it is very close to Polanco) is one of the better places in terms of traffic or maybe this hour of the day happens to be quieter. I will find out more tomorrow. Right now, the tired eyes are calling me to bed and I need to wake up early tomorrow for an exciting day ahead!

Feb 8, 8:45am:

The day started early for me, as I managed to get ready and leave by 7:15am. The first idea was to walk around and get a feel of the city. Within this one hour itself, I found uncanny similarity to any big city from India and it was certainly a relief, after living a huge part of last five years in Chicago and New York. A section of the people of Mexico City, much like Mumbai or Kolkata, wake up early and there are a lot of cars on the street. However, proper breakfast places do not open before 9, and people rely on street vendors for morning coffee and bread - a glaring resemblance to daily life in India. I also chose to get coffee from someone who seemed really popular to the passers by. It was decent coffee, but the problem came afterwards. It was hard to find a streetside dumpster. However, unlike my good old home country, the streets appeared to be clean and deprived of the weird custom of throwing away trash beside the road. Eventually, I had to walk to my first destination of the day, the Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Museum of Anthropology). Meanwhile, I’ve got a glimpse of the Wings of Mexico sculpture. Ah it seems that the museum is about to open, will resume writing later.

Wings of Mexico sculpture on Paseo de la Reforma

Paseo de la Reforma is a beautifully decorated street in Mexico City

Feb 8, 2:30p:

A hectic museum day so far! But now I’m excited to try great food at Quintonil, one of the top fifty restaurants in the world. And food, even the prospect of it, makes one happy, makes one relaxed. So I thought I’d write the experience until now.

As I mentioned in the last entry, Museo Nacional de Antropologia was the first destination. It certainly blew my mind. I started the visit in the room called introduction to anthropology and that room alone can be overwhelming to many people. The whole museum has 22 rooms in two floors and each one has something unique to offer. In order to keep up with the rest of the plan and to make the best use of my three day affair with the city, I chose to prioritize and explored a few rooms in detail but glanced over the rest in quick strolls. The rooms which describe the migration of Asian into the Americas and the room with stuff from Teotihuacan were probably the best ones for me. The Mayan display and the indigenous tribe rooms were very good as well. I wish I could spend the whole day there. Also, some displays have information written only in Spanish and my limited knowledge came to no help in those cases. Nonetheless, the visit was nothing short of extraordinary and here are some pictures from the museum.

Fossils of mammoth from ancient age

Ancient painting

Replica of temple from Teotihuacan

Next up was the Chapultepec castle. I had to choose between Los Pinos and the castle and coincidentally I heard cannon fires from the castle direction. The decision was made right there. As I neared the castle area, more and more soldiers and guards, all dressed up in fancy outfits, started to be visible.

Guards in procession at the Chapultepec Castle

The castle itself had plenty to offer! Impeccable displays of personal artifacts, magnificent paintings and well decorated floors, ceilings and balconies adorned the castle. The view of the city from the top was extraordinary as well. Without further ado, let me now show some pictures. (Also, I think the food is about to arrive)

A beautiful staircase with fabulous paintings on the wall and in the ceiling

Magnificent painting at the castle

View of the castle

Feb 8, 6:45p:

This will be very short, just to keep updated with the day. Quintonil turned out to be one of the best restaurants I have ever tried, and it was totally affordable too. They welcomed me with complimentary tacos and cactus-beet salad, and then I tried their crab tostada, charred avocado tartare and pork in chile pasado. Here are some pictures.

Drinks

Crab tostada

Pork in chile pasado

Charred avocado tartare

Following that sumptuous and satisfactory meal at Quintonil, the body was asking for something relaxing and so I took an Uber to Condesa district. It is situated about 3 km away from Polanco and is known for being a hip and happening side of the city.  First I spent some time in Parque Mexico, and enjoyed taking photos of local people, playful kids and a couple of memorials. Then, I walked over to Mercado Roma, a market with plenty of small shops together. A michelada soothed my mind as I sat there and clicked some pictures of the shops around. And now, I’m sipping from a cup of hot tea at El Pentulo, one of world's famous bookstores. This is on the way to my final destination of the day, El Tizoncito, a joint known for its tacos. Not feeling particularly hungry, but I still want to taste their tacos and who knows when I’d come to this part again!

Picture from Mercado Roma, a lively market at Condesa

Feb 9, 8:45am:

Time to put my first entry of Saturday! But, Before talking about today, let me take a step back and discuss a sad thing from yesterday night. While I was sitting in El Tizoncito, this happened..

View this post on Instagram

I was eating at a taco place in Mexico City. Suddenly this kid comes to me and says something. At first, I couldn’t understand her Spanish but then slowly I managed to decipher - she was begging for one taco. One simple taco. I don’t know if she had eaten anything since morning, and I don’t even know if the same thing will repeat once again tomorrow. But this was sad. It was even worse that other people around understood her but rather chose to turn a blind eye. It only showed that some things are beyond the boundaries of countries or continents. Since I arrived at Mexico City, I’ve found many similarities with India but this was by far most striking and most frightening. Hopefully one day we will be able to make the world a better place for these children.

A post shared by Soudeep Deb (@soudeepd) on Feb 8, 2019 at 5:53pm PST

What followed was even more interesting - as always, no serious post on social media can go unpunished. So, I had to encounter some social media policing on how I should not post these pictures and not let people know about such situations. The thought of a banter and the utter stupidity of defending myself seemed exhausting in itself and so I gave up quickly. But I wish people would learn to take things as it is and not bring forth weird ways to look at serious issues in life.

Anyway, right now I’m having breakfast at El Cardinal. An old friend who grew up in Mexico City suggested this to me yesterday and this place being minutes away from my first destination of the day, Palacio Nacional, was the obvious choice. Oh, this was not supposed to be my first destination though. My initial plan was to take the bus to Teotihuacan but some unfortunate problem at the AirBnB stood in the way. So, I’ve postponed it to tomorrow and I’m going to explore the Zocalo area today. This is the center of the city and is rich in history. Hope to see a lot of interesting things throughout the day.

Feb 9, 5pm:

Another hectic yet wonderful day spent at the heart of the city. As mentioned earlier, started the day at the Palacio Nacional. This used to be the presidential house, but has been converted to a museum since. At one part of the building, personal belongings and memorabilia related to the administration of Benito Juarez are kept, and then on the other, there is a museum which can boast of some extraordinary artifacts from the age of Montezuma II.

View of the palace from inside

A staircase leading to magnificent murals

After spending about 2.5 hours in the palace, I started walking around the center. Ruins of Tenochtitlan are nearby, so is the Santo Domingo plaza. Oh, forgot to mention, I actually visited the cathedral first in the morning. It is a couple of minutes away from the palace and since it was on the way, I decided to pay a visit. The cathedral certainly boasts of fantastic decorations inside and is huge in its grandeur.

View inside the cathedral

Then, around 1pm, I came to the palace Bellas Artes. This particular palace hosts a lot of murals and they were fabulous. However it seems much smaller as compared to the other museums I’ve visited so far. One interesting thing is that there are a small section dedicated to the Olympics 1968 that was hosted in Mexico City. Before entering the palace, I also visited the grand post office, which sits just on the other side of the road.

Bellas Artes

For the afternoon, I decided to come to Coyoacan and spend the rest of the day here. My idea was to arrive by 2:30pm, visit Frida Kahlo museum for about two hours and explore the happening areas for the rest of the evening. However, little did I know that the Frida Kahlo museum is possibly the most visited place in the whole city. Once arrived, I found a long queue outside and then realized that all tickets are sold out for the day and for tomorrow as well.

So, I walked towards the Coyoacan market. The whole area from the market to the center of Coyoacan is extremely happening. It’s filled with street performers, artists, and thousands of local people and tourists. Already two hours have passed and a couple of acrobatic performances, live music, interesting arts and local food have been on my itinerary so far. Right now, I’m having a juice called Hawai. Plan is to spend some more time here and then go for dinner at Los Danzantes before heading back to Polanco.

Snacks, Vegetables, Stationary items - all come side-by-side in Coyoacan Market

A brilliant artist who paints, makes sculptures and sells them in the streets of Coyoacan

Coyoacan's main central attraction - the statue of Coyotes

Feb 10, 8am:

Where did I leave it yesterday? Ah right, the Coyoacan market! So, after spending some more time around that neighborhood I felt kind of tired and skipped dinner to go back to the AirBnB and slept off. That was a wise decision, now that I think about it. I needed to be recharged for this morning. Now, I’m on a bus to Teotihuacan, which is rich in history. It was the largest urban center of Mesoamerica before the Aztecs. I was reading a blog and it appears that a lot of walking and stairs-climbing are on the cards today, should I want to get the most out of this trip (hell yeah, I do). So, that sleep was much needed. In the morning, I got ready very quickly and took an Uber to the bus terminal to catch the 7:20am bus. It should take about 20 minutes more to reach the destination. Before boarding the bus though, I had coffee with a local morning snack called broca. It was good! Anyway, I’ll probably get back to the diary on my way back to Mexico City. Hope to have a good time at Teotihuacan, one of the world's most celebrated heritage sites.

Feb 10, 12:30pm:

As promised, I’m back. It was a spectacular day overall. I will not bore you with more than necessary details about the site. First, I went up the Pyramid of the Sun. It was about 250 stairs but it was not so taxing, since the sun was not above the head yet. This used to be the main temple for the people in the valley. As you reach the top, fabulous scenes on all four sides emerge in front of you. The picture below shows the south side, where you can see the Pyramid of the Moon.  That in fact, was the next stop.

Pyramid of the Sun front view

View from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, note the moon pyramid

After spending some time at the top, I climbed down and slowly traded my way to the moon pyramid. This is a smaller structure, but is placed very strategically, at the beginning of the Main Street, the avenue of the dead. You can climb only halfway to the pyramid, but that is perhaps a relief since the steps are steeper and you’re already a bit tired. One exciting thing about the moon pyramid is that you can see the whole site from its top.

That's me at the top of Moon Pyramid, with the Pyramid of the Sun on the background

Next was the palace of the butterflies which is very close to the moon temple. Here, you can see ornate murals and paintings around the walls. The ruins of ancient rooms are also there to give you an idea of how intricate and efficient the planning of the city was.

Example of a mural inside the Palace of the Butterflies

Following these three main attractions, I also went to see the mural museum, which is a few minutes walk from the exit. It was a nice experience and gave more insights on the ancient civilization. But, by now, I was famished and needed more water as well. So I came back to the main complex, bought water and snacks and hopped on to the next bus soon. Hope to reach Mexico City by 1:30, and my plan is to go to Los Girasoles for lunch and subsequently visit MUNAL.

Feb 10, 5:15pm:

Whole plan got messed up as there was a miscommunication, and I had to go back to my AirBnB and check out. So, I cancelled MUNAL plan (figured out timing would be a problem) and focused on food. Right after checking out, I went to Entremar, a seafood restaurant in Polanco area, and had amazing octopus and seabass dishes, along with mezcal margarita.

Seabass entree made with green and red sauces

Mezcal margarita

Tostada made with octopus and black beans

From there, went straight to La Ciudadela, a vibrant market for local souvenirs. I had some requests from a couple of friends and also got little something for parents and nephews. As the clock was nearing 4:30pm, I made my way to Torre Latinoamericana. This is a 50-floor building at the heart of the town, and is one of the first skyscrapers in the North America. Moreover, it is built on seismic land and that makes it an architectural marvel. I’m writing this entry on top of this tower, while sipping good cappuccino and enjoying astounding view on four sides. I’ll probably stay here until sunset and then will take a cab to the airport. It’s hard to believe that the three day affair has come to an end. Perhaps that’s what life is. Every good thing comes to an end sooner than you’d hope for.

This is going to be the end of this diary, and until next time I go on such an exquisite trip, let me bid goodbye with these magnificent views of Mexico City from the top of the tower.

South view, a fantastic sunset was visible

East view, Eje Central Lazaro Cardenas

North view, Zocalo center and Palacio Nacional are visible

West view, Bellas Artes glows at night

(All pictures were taken with Nikon D5300 and iPhone XS, and it's unfortunate that this website diminishes quality. For more photos, you can follow my Instagram feed)