CDMX - 3: a lazy day

Sometimes we need those lazy days, you cannot just run run run. So we had breakfast at a nearby cafe, dropped laundry in a lavanderia. We went to the Museum of Anthropology, in which one could spend a week. It's an incredible museum of archeological artifacts, telling an anthropological story of the people who lived in the area of current time Mexico. Olmecs (1500–400 BCE), Maya (from 300 BCE), Teotihuacan, Toltec and Aztec (1325-1521 CE) cultures. Very impressive moder building. The entrances to different parts of the museum are from the inner courtyard.

This is the famous Aztec Sun Stone:

After the museum we were exhausted, we were just meandering in the park having a snack.

We ended up in Zócalo, the main square of CDMX where we visited the catherdal and the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico. You can guess which one is which:

A chandelier of the size of our living room:

Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo):

CDMX - 2

Today I used real (not Uber) public transprotation for the first time. I got an MI card at the subway station and we rode the subway to Coyoacan to see Frida Khalo's museum and house, the Casa Azul where she lived most of her life. We met a frustrated Californian who got scammed by buying a fake ticket and he was not let in, but actually he took it quite easy.

Just a short walk away, Trotsky’s house is preserved as the place where he lived in exile in 1939–1940 and where he was assassinated in 1940. I didn't take photos there, but did read some intersting stories about how he and his whole family were slowly killed by Stalin's mercenaries. Since we were in the vicinity of the Coyoacan Market we went there for lunch. It turns out Oaxaca also has a variation of mole, so I ate Emoladas Oaxacanas with chicken:

From Coyoacan Market we took an Uber to see the MUAC, museum for modern art hosted on the university campus. One of the exhibits was the work and collection of Marta Palau, who escaped Franco to CDMX. To be honest I was more impressed by her collection than by her own art.

Other exhibits were very political, to which I lacked the background.

Xochimilco

Little I knew. The entire area of CDMX was a giant lake just a couple of hundreds of years ago. Some areas of the lake was dried out throughout history by inhabitants. Xochimilco is the last living remnant of the lake-and-wetland system that once covered the Valley of Mexico, and the reason it feels so different from the rest of CDMX is because it still functions like a wetland. Ecologically, Xochimilco is a shallow freshwater wetland with reed beds, aquatic plants, and canals that act like long, narrow lagoons. It’s also the home of the axolotl (ajolote), a critically endangered amphibian that has become an icon of Mexico. Birdlife is another big part of the story: the canals and remaining wet areas support a wide range of resident and migratory birds. The chinampas are rectangular, human-made farm plots built up from lake mud and organic matter, separated by canals. Traditionally, farmers renew the soil by dredging nutrient-rich sediment from the canal bottom, which keeps the plots productive year after year. This is why chinampas are often described as an ancient, highly efficient form of wetland agriculture. They can grow vegetables, herbs, maize-based milpa crops, amaranth and flowers right inside the city, with the canal system providing constant moisture. So why do I know all this, no I didn't become a a Mexican farmer, but we were told all this by our guide who took us with his canoes. We booked the AirBNB experience last minute, but it was really worth the time. We arrived at the embarcadero right on time (dispite the heavy traffic). Renata and I were sharing one canoe with 2 seats. We floated through the extremely beutiful and quiet canal system. At our destination we were given the lecture with the above information and more, we planted beet, had lunch and went back to our embarcadero. Sunny, relaxing and also educational day.

Finally, please meet Esmeralda and Oliver, our beets we planted.

CDMX - day 1

Home-made breakfast, Uber to Biblioteca Vasconcelos. This is a unique place, it's an architectural landmark, a gigantic building, and weird way of books, art and modern design in quite an unsual way.

From the library we walked to a Michellin star holding tacos restaurant El Califa de Leon.

Never saw a standing place with a star before. But Taquería El Califa de León has a star since 2024. Amazing tacos with beefsteak and filet. This is also officially the cheapest Michelin star restaurant I ever ate in. Moments of great happiness. Today I discovered that Mexican pigeons are half or quarter of the size of the pigeons we have in Europe and the Middle East. They are cute, they are pigeons, they are really small. Where was I. Yes. After lunch we headed to Plaza Garibaldi, which is probably more popular during the evening when music is playing, but we got the visual part of it at least.

Shakira was about to play at the Zolaco same day in the evening, so the police started closures and security measures including checking bags. Her concert was financed by Corona, the beer. This resulted in thousands of people in the city center wearing yellow paper corwns. Quite an phenomenon. But anyways we checked out the Post Office and Museum, the Palacio Postal. The beautiful building was inagurated in 1907 and is serving as an active post office even today. Exhibitions cover the history of the postal services in mexico, and stamp printing.

Next: The Central Bank of Mexico Building. The Banco de México building in the historic center was originally constructed between 1903 and 1905, not as a central bank, but for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. It was later adapted to become the headquarters of Mexico’s central bank after Banco de México was founded in 1925. The building, understandably, has very strict security, but it's free to visit. The vault was empty, too bad. The two exhibitions hosted in the building are about the history of money and about the central bank's role. Very impressive building.

Here is a trick about the Palacio de Bellas Artes. There is an excellent viewpoint from SEARS just opposite of the building. Go up to the 8th floor, queue up for the cafe, sit down. Since they are really slow, get up, look at the building from the balcony, and casually walk out since no-one came to take the order. This is what we did. We didn't really plan it like this, but we both timed out.