Mexico City – Marion's Blog

Last day in Mexico City and a flight to Puerto Escondido

Our flight from Mexico City to the coastal town of Puerto Escondido is tonight at 8:30. So we had the whole day to do a bit more exploring. Check out time was noon so we spent the morning at the hotel before we checked out and stored our bags.

This morning the Mexico City fire department had a parade. We had a great view of the parade from the window of our room.

First we went to a Diego Rivera Museum built especially to house the Rivera mural – Dream of a Sunday afternoon at Alameda Central. The mural was originally commissioned for and housed in a luxurious Mexico City Hotel. The 8.1 earthquake in September 1985 destroyed the building but the mural was not destroyed. It was relocated to its current building. There was a good English description of the mural and a key to who all the people in the mural were.

Just outside the museum there were several hundred people selling and exchanging trading cards. I saw lots of Pokémon albums.

We walked back to our hotel and walked through a few museums on the way. I think my favorite was the old post office building across from Bellas Artes.

Around 4:00 we had an early dinner at the same restaurant we had dinner at a few days ago, Cafe Tacuba. It was just as good today as it was the first time.

Then we went back to the hotel, retrieved our bags, and took an Uber to the airport.

At the airport the woman at security decided that my circular knitting needles and small tube of lotion (123 gms) were a threat! So we had to go back out and check my bag for a $50 fee. I was not happy.

We have had a wonderful time in Mexico City but I am ready for a rest! And it will be nice to have clean air again. We only had a couple of days of our time in Mexico City that didn’t have bad air quality. It will be in the 80s in Puerto Escondido which will be nice too.

Museo de La Ciudad de Mexico and Palácio Nacional – Mexico City Day 10

We started out today by visiting the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico. They had a photographic exhibition called Patrimonio through the lense of Santiago Arau. Santiago Arau is a Mexican photographer who works primarily with drones. His photographs and accompanying prose gave me a totally new and fascinating perspective on Mexico City. It was perhaps the best photography exhibition I have ever seen.

Did you know “the city is surrounded by — and built on top of — some seventy volcanoes”.

And did you realize that Mexico City had a population of 350,000 in 1900 and now the population is about 23 million!

Our hotel room in the Zócalo Central Hotel looks out over the Zócalo and the Palacio Nacional. The Palacio Nacional was our second stop. We spent about an hour looking at their art displays and rooms highlighting other countries.

They even had an exhibit about the northern Nordic Sami people.

Across the street from the Palacio Nacional we went through the Antiguo Palacio del Arzobispado. (The palace of Mexicos first Archbishop, built in the1530s) in one of the stairwells is a mural of Mexican heroes

See Rockefeller and Morgan. I’m not entirely sure of the message.

For dinner we had a wonderful meal at the rooftop restaurant in our hotel.

Later we went to a 10:00 Jazz show at Zinco Jazz Club in a bank basement venue nearby. The show was a Billie Holiday tribute and it was great!

Museo Franz Mayer and Museo del Estanquillo – Mexico City Day 8

We could see the Zocalo and the Cathedral from our table at breakfast this morning

Today we visited the Museo de Franz Mayer. The museum houses the collection of Fran’s Mayer, a German born financier. It isn’t a big museum but there were three exhibits that made it special.

First was a temporary exhibit done in collaboration with the Getty museum, exploring different narratives of the conquest of Mexico. Most documents paint the conquistadors as heroic but there are other contemporaneous documents that were critical of the conquest. Examples of both were displayed.

A 1534 map of Tenochtitlan by Herman Cortés

A book from 1514 about the Cruelties of the Mexican conquest

I loved the Franz Mayer library.

In a small adjacent room they had a special scanner and a woman who was scanning an old book.

There was also an exhibit about the trade between the Philippines and Mexico between 1565 and 1815. It was something I knew nothing about. It was fascinating.

The slide says “Between 1565 and 1815, the longest and most enduring trade route in history took place: it crossed the Pacific Ocean and connected the kingdom of New Spain [today Mexico] with the Philippine Islands. Both territories belonged to the Hispanic Empire.”

Next we went to the Museo de Estanquillo. The exhibit was about clothing and style through the years in Mexico

It has been interesting to a big team of people set up a stage and chairs in the Zocalo outside our window. Apparently it is for some kind of big awards ceremony which we think will be tomorrow. We figured that there are about 20,000 chairs.

We ate dinner at a restaurant at the top of the Gran Hotel.

Belles Artes and Artisan’s Market – Mexico City Day 7

This morning we enjoyed a marvelous breakfast buffet in the rooftop restaurant at our hotel.

After breakfast we walked to the Palácio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts). We looked through the art exhibits and took an architecture and history tour. The construction of the building was interrupted by the Mexican revolution (1910-1920). As a result the architecture of the exterior is classical and the interior is beautiful Art Deco.

Next we visited the nearby Artisanal Market. It was fun to browse. We bought a few souvenirs.

For dinner we went to Café De Tacuba. We had the best meal of the trip. They serve authentic Mexican regional food. It was excellent. And a wonderful quintet sang us a love song!

Polanco to Historic Center – Mexico City Day 6

Today we checked out of our hotel in Polanco and moved to a hotel in the historic Center. Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived so we went out for a walk.

We went into the cathedral and watched part of a mass.

We walked around the ruins of the Templo Mayor. It was first built around 1325 and then destroyed by the Spanish to build the cathedral.

Then we had lunch at our hotel. Snacks (sandwiches, beer, wine, etc.) are included in the price of our room.

We were able to get into our room by 2:00. We have a fantastic view of the Zócalo with the cathedral on the north side and the Palácio Nacional on the east side. Behind the Palácio Nacional we can see the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuarl volcanoes. When Duke lived in Mexico City in 1981-2 he says he never saw the volcanoes because the smog was so bad.

The cathedral and zocalo from our room as the sun was going down

We ate dinner at a rooftop restaurant not far from our hotel.

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