We arrived in Mexico City early evening, customs was a nightmare with a huge and slow moving queue. However once we were through things moved quickly – we prepaid for our taxi at the ‘Official Taxi” stand (320 pesos – A$24) for the ride to Casa Pepe, our hostel for 3 nights. The taxi was a new car and worked like a charm. We very quickly came to realise that Mexico (City) is a modern, sophisticated country submerged in a developing country. Casa Pepe was lovely. We had a huge suite on the 3rd floor, with a balcony overlooking a bustling intersection in Centro Historico. It was magic. The hostel had a trendy bar on the roof with a very enthusiastic DJ which / whom we enjoyed for a couple of hours before going to bed and trying to sleep through the bar noise.
The brekkie at Pepe was on the roof and not too bad. We decided to do a walking tour but within 5 minutes Deryn suddenly ‘lost’ her phone and so unfortunately we had to head home to find it. The pitch of our tour guide’s voice and the over use of ‘like’ forced us to bale. We did our own tour and enjoyed the delights of Centro Historico: the Zocoalo – the square made famous by James Bond’s Spectre; The Cathedral just off the square and also the Templo Mayor ruins (we didn’t pay to get the closer look).
We then went to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, (free on Sundays). Outside it abides by Neoclassical/ Art Nouveau architectural stylings, whereas the interior is pure Art Deco. Now home to some famous murals – including some by Diego Rivera, husband of Frida. You may have noticed that the first couple of sentences were a cut and paste. Walking around we came across some cool street art, fantastic street side tacos – $3 for 3 tacos and plenty of people selling things. Everyone is selling – we hadn’t seen anything like it since Quito. Around 5 we headed back to the Pepe roof bar expecting our hour of free margaritas – not so, it was on from 7 to 8 and quite possibly in another bar. Anyway to console ourselves we ordered a 1.5l jug of margarita with a saucy sounding local tequila. It was ambitious but we conquered it easily.
Next day was shopping day at a mall that required conquering the underground and then a 30min walk through a very affluent part of Mexico City. Some of the houses were spectacular – but with loads of security. The mall had every top end brand imaginable, not really what we were after but I managed to get some jeans, sneakers, undies and some sunnies but unfortunately Dits left empty handed. We Uber’d home – again very cheap and efficient. We spent another couple of hours wandering around the town, enjoying the sights, smells and sounds. We had dinner at a dodgy local place but where bombarded by a some hard techno coming from nearby. After dinner we tracked the source – my goodness, there are some hard core people in Mexico City. They would scare the bejesus out of 90% of Aussies and Kiwis. It was basically an outdoor bar in an alley way. A bit to hardcore for us so we snuck away to watch a nice movie in bed.
We got up early to head to a local market to buy some spicy sauce and tequila to take back to Aus with us. On the way we passed through the chicken market – millions of chickens must pass through the area every week. It was then off to Aus for an action packed 2 weeks but so We are glad that we are coming back to this exciting, spicy place.
Well it’s now 2 weeks later. Deryn had booked us in for 2 nights at the Guest House Aldama in the Coyoacán part of town. Aldama was a family home (5 generations) in which we had an en-suite room. Like so many if the house in the area – you walked through a small door which opened into a massive courtyard and a substantial house(s) around it. The first night we headed out for an early dinner and then crashed. Jetlag flying from west to east is so much worse than the other way – all to do with flying against the spin off the earth apparently.
It was a tough night sleep but we forced ourselves to get up early so we could get to the Frida Kayla’s home – The Blue House – before it opened. We got there at 9.50 and had about 12 people ahead of us in the queue. We were then told that there was potentially a 40 min wait as the pre-booked tickets and groups had priority. Thankfully we did not leave and we were inside by 10.20. It was magic. What an incredible woman. They had one of her quotes painted in each room – my favourite was
“Perhaps they expect me to wail and moan about ‘how much I suffer’ living with a man like Diego. I don’t think the banks of a river suffer by letting it flow”.
We spent the rest of day (split by a 2 hour kip) exploring the area. Initially I thought I preferred Centro Historico but by the end of the day I had switched. Coyoacán was a lot more residential and consequently had far more street stalls and more village type feel. More like Manly than Darling Harbour. We grabbed a couple of mescals with lime and worm salt – a smokier version of good tequila – before heading home for another early night.
The next day we tried to do the free bike tour but the bikes were no longer located at the two spots we found the day before. Very odd. The main square, Parque Centenario was being prepared for some bicentenary celebrations so it was getting filled with tarpaulins, seats and heaps of cops. We had some more mescal and then grabbed another delicious meal in a local bar. We head to Puerto Escondido tomorrow, a bit sad to be leaving Mexico City, but who knows, we may be back as we spend 6 weeks travelling around this massive country.
