Ahoy,
This holiday break we went to Mexico City. It took me way too long to realize all the 'CDMX' everywhere was short for Ciudad de Mexico. I wanted to take the Metro to our hotel, which is all the way at the other end of the airport if you land internationally. It is only 5 pesos, which is about 25 cents. The train cars are older, and look like what we would consider vintage train cars here. It's pretty cute. They run very frequently. We got around a lot on the train - there is good coverage and frequent service, which might be more than I can say for LA.
We arrived to Condesa in the afternoon and just walked around the neighborhood. The neighborhood feels very European with a lot of sidewalk bistros, wide pedestrian boulevards, and lots of trees. At about 7000 ft elevation, I wasn't very hungry. Drinks are very cheap, beer and mezcal. We tried a lot of mezcal. And we had a lot of street tacos, which were mostly $1 each. They were all very good.
We went to a castle, of Chapultepec, the only castle in North America. It was so crowded; it was like waiting in a line the whole way through the castle. There was a lot of art. More art than I can tolerate. It was just endless! And then we walked through one of the main boulevards before making our way back to Condesa.
One of the days we took an Uber out to Teotihuacan. It was a pretty quick ride and efficient for 4 of us. I always waver between going with a tour guide or going on my own. I hate having to wait for the group and waiting to be released to explore with a limited amount of time. But sometimes guides do give good context. We were all pleased with the way we did it. It was a good use of our time and we were all on the same page for the most part. We made it back to the city earlier than we thought we would. A flooded the toilet at our friend's airbnb before we headed back out to Polanco. Personally, I think I could have done without visiting Polanco. It was so much like Beverly Hills.
We spent another day on the train to Xochimilco, remnants of old Aztec canals. Of the canals we've seen around the world, these were probably the least well maintained. It was so touristy, we tried to look for a spot where we could just watch the canal activities without participating. Afterwards, we took the train back to the Anthropology Museum, which A really wanted to see after reading it was one of the best in the world. No doubt that is true because it was giant. There is not enough time you could spend there to absorb all the information and knowledge.
Another day we took the train a short distance to Centro Historico. It was so crowded! There are so many people in CDMX. We tried to go to the library because it is an architectural marvel, but it was closed Dec 24-Jan 6. I also wanted to see the Chinatown. It was so interesting mostly for the fact that we saw no Chinese people - working or visiting. We were the only Chinese people. It is only 2 blocks, but still so interesting.
The old buildings in the historic center were fun to walk along without cars. There are a lot of street markets in there, but oh, so crowded!
There are so many parts of CDMX that we were walking along that just felt so much like LA. It is so easy to get to, the flights feel very domestic. And the people just feel so familiar compared to LA. We'd be happy to return. Who doesn't need to practice their Spanish every so often?
best,
jt
This holiday break we went to Mexico City. It took me way too long to realize all the 'CDMX' everywhere was short for Ciudad de Mexico. I wanted to take the Metro to our hotel, which is all the way at the other end of the airport if you land internationally. It is only 5 pesos, which is about 25 cents. The train cars are older, and look like what we would consider vintage train cars here. It's pretty cute. They run very frequently. We got around a lot on the train - there is good coverage and frequent service, which might be more than I can say for LA.
We arrived to Condesa in the afternoon and just walked around the neighborhood. The neighborhood feels very European with a lot of sidewalk bistros, wide pedestrian boulevards, and lots of trees. At about 7000 ft elevation, I wasn't very hungry. Drinks are very cheap, beer and mezcal. We tried a lot of mezcal. And we had a lot of street tacos, which were mostly $1 each. They were all very good.
We went to a castle, of Chapultepec, the only castle in North America. It was so crowded; it was like waiting in a line the whole way through the castle. There was a lot of art. More art than I can tolerate. It was just endless! And then we walked through one of the main boulevards before making our way back to Condesa.
One of the days we took an Uber out to Teotihuacan. It was a pretty quick ride and efficient for 4 of us. I always waver between going with a tour guide or going on my own. I hate having to wait for the group and waiting to be released to explore with a limited amount of time. But sometimes guides do give good context. We were all pleased with the way we did it. It was a good use of our time and we were all on the same page for the most part. We made it back to the city earlier than we thought we would. A flooded the toilet at our friend's airbnb before we headed back out to Polanco. Personally, I think I could have done without visiting Polanco. It was so much like Beverly Hills.
We spent another day on the train to Xochimilco, remnants of old Aztec canals. Of the canals we've seen around the world, these were probably the least well maintained. It was so touristy, we tried to look for a spot where we could just watch the canal activities without participating. Afterwards, we took the train back to the Anthropology Museum, which A really wanted to see after reading it was one of the best in the world. No doubt that is true because it was giant. There is not enough time you could spend there to absorb all the information and knowledge.
Another day we took the train a short distance to Centro Historico. It was so crowded! There are so many people in CDMX. We tried to go to the library because it is an architectural marvel, but it was closed Dec 24-Jan 6. I also wanted to see the Chinatown. It was so interesting mostly for the fact that we saw no Chinese people - working or visiting. We were the only Chinese people. It is only 2 blocks, but still so interesting.
The old buildings in the historic center were fun to walk along without cars. There are a lot of street markets in there, but oh, so crowded!
There are so many parts of CDMX that we were walking along that just felt so much like LA. It is so easy to get to, the flights feel very domestic. And the people just feel so familiar compared to LA. We'd be happy to return. Who doesn't need to practice their Spanish every so often?
best,
jt
