CDMX - Museo de Arte Popular and Museo Mural Diego Rivera

We started the day with souvernir-shopping. The Mercado de Artisanias La Ciudadela is north of Roma Norte and has several artisan shops and workshops selling artifacts in the style of Oaxaca and other parts of Mexico. Several things are just cheap souvenirs, se saw shop owners diligently sitting and removing made-in-china labels from small souvenirs. But there is also real art mixed together with the cheap stuff. Those things are beutiful and expensive. From the market we headed to the Museo de Arte Popular, which was recommended to us by two Canadian ladies from our tour in Xochimilco. And damn they were right! It is worth every minute spent in it. The building is also interesting, it has an internal courtyard and the exhibition rooms are around it scattered over 4 floors.

From the museum we walked to the Diego River's famous mural museum. Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (“Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central”). Rivera painted it in 1947 for the Versalles dining room of the Hotel del Prado, across from the Alameda. The mural is basically his giant visual “dream” of Mexico: more than a hundred figures from roughly 400 years of Mexican history all gathered in one park scene. Its rescue story is part of why the museum exists. In 1960, the mural was moved from the restaurant to the hotel lobby and mounted on a metal support structure. That turned out to save it: when the 1985 Mexico City earthquake almost destroyed the Hotel del Prado, the original restaurant was in ruins, but the mural could still be rescued. In December 1986, it was carefully protected, moved to its current site, and the museum was then built around it; the Museo Mural Diego Rivera opened in 1988.

For lunch we returned to the taqueria Califa de Leon, which is probably the cheapest Michelin-star restaurant of the workd, the beef-fillet tacos are fantastic. As tasty and juicy it is, I'm not sure about the trend of Michelin to give stars to restaurants without proper service and seating. You basically need to take your plate and drink and go to the neighbor shop and ask to sit there. Then at the end you need to tip them something for it. It's a little weird but for the taste it's totally worth it! Just ignore the fact that they have a star and you'll enjoy it very much. Finally we did some grocery and souvenir shopping in a proper supermarket in Polanco.

Teotihuacán

Teotihuacán is an ancient Mesoamerican city near CDMX, It's famous for its pyramids and precolumbian architecture. It's one of the must-dos if you're in Mexico City. The Teotihuacan culture was hundreds of years before the Aztec culture became dominant in Mesoamerica. 600 BCE the area was covered with villages, with population that was not so significant. However from 100 BCE to 750 CE, Teotihuacan evolved into a huge urban and administrative center with cultural influences throughout the broader Mesoamerica region. The two most significant buildings: Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were built 1-4th century CE. The peak of the Teotihuacan culture was 350-650 CE when the city's population reached the 125000. In 450 CE the city covered an area of 30sqkm. We started the day early (relatively to our practices) and ended up being at the site around 10am. We figured that taking a Didi saves a really time in this case so we opted for this luxury both ways. Climbing is only possible up to half ways on the Pyramid of the Moon, but this is enough to give a fantastatic bird-eye view on what used to be the huge city.

Downtown houses:

The Feathered Serpant god and he green bird:

We optimized for sun and heat and decided the visit the museum at the very end. The collection includes interesting artifacts of the Teotihuacan culture and things related to burial of the dead.

Back in Mexico City!

Today we took the bus from Cuernavaca to CDMX. The trip was smooth, the bus was most comfortable. From Tasqueña station we took a Didi car to Roma Norte, one of the best neighborhoods of the city. Lots of expats and tourists live or stay here. Fancy shops and restaurants. The highlight of the day was Restaurant Rosetta, a 1-Michelin-Star restaurant which served us late-lunch-early-dinner (linner). A true one-of-a-kind experience which I'll remember for a long time.

Afterwards we picked up some pastries at the Rosetta Bakery right down the street:

More Cuernavaca

We decided to skip the archeological site of Xochicalco, and stayed in Cuernavaca instead. After a nice breakfast in a neighborhood cage, the first thing we did was to visit the Robert Brady museum. The guy was an artist and lived over 20 years in this house which he decorated with his 1200-piece art collection together with his own art. The house itself is also very impressive with an internal courtyard and a pool. But the way he designed his environment, fit colors, art to the inherent architecture of the building was the most interesting part.

Next we visited Jardin Borda, which is just around the corner. The garden with its pools was built in the 18th century. A quite getaway from the noisy streets of the city.

A small exhibit on the side was dedicated to Yolanda Quijano, who I never heard of. Quijano is a 96-year-old Mexican painter and sculptor, who was influenced by magican realism. Her motto "Everything is magic. Life without magic is not life.” was really expressed in her art on several levels: