On the third day in Mexico City, noa and i decided to start the day with a visit to the Chapultepec Castle. The Castle is roughly in the middle of Mexico City, in a huge forest. We were told the forest is about a third of the greenery in mexico city, and therefore is referred to as the lung of the city. it was really cool to be in such a big city and to forget about it because your surrounded by so many trees. very much like central park or stanley park.
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foreshadowing
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another reminder of how the city got formed 
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Now, two very interesting things about Museums in Mexico. 1, you may not bring water on premise. 2, many have no english. sooooooo, we sort of just walked around and looked at things, but had absolutely NO context on the place. that did not in fact come until we came with a friend of ours on another trip to the castle, and they were able to fill in the blanks about the history of the castle.
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sorry, it was so beautiful, I’m just going to post a bunch of photos from there
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and the very centre of the castle. i could of hung out here forever.
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So, now you have seen Chapultepec Castle. it is “one of only two Royal Castles in the Americas” according to everyone and wikipedia. this led to a fascinating discussion about what a castle is, and the difference between that and a fort. (forts are not a residence for nobility). the castle was established originally as a residence, then was a military academy. when the americans came down to battle the mexicans for california, arizona, new mexico and texas, they stormed all the way to Chapultepec and attacked. as it was an academy, it was only lightly defended, and eventually fell to the overwhelming us troops. in order to not allow the americans to take the flag, a group of boys wrapped themselves in the flag, and threw themselves to their death.
now, on the roof of one of the main lobby’s, there is this amazing mural. I thought it was amazing.
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and at the entrance to the park, there is this memorial to the boys. the main figure represents the state of mexico, holding a boy wrapped in a flag. and the large pillars are the memorials for the six boys
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eventually we left, walking up reforma, and we got to see the angel statue.
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Okay, from there we met up with our friend, and we left for Coyoacán! now, this is a very beautiful part of the city which is listed in all tour books, but is about 30-40 min drive from the central part of mexico city where we were staying. its got a nice colonial vibe to it and has some great attractions. apparently it was one of the first area’s settled by Cortes when he arrived, before he decided to rip down the big pyramid in the Zocalo. but what was attracting us for this trip was food. get ready to want to eat mexican food.
First off, the day we went WAS day of the dead. everybody and their dog was in Coyoacán. there were alter’s to the dead everywhere, and the place was covered in food stalls. so this trip was not a sight seeing trip.
We b-lined it to this food court that had perhaps 10 permanent stalls in it. we got in, and i was for sure the tallest and whitest guy there.
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we went and sat down at a quesadilla stall, where they grill them, instead of deep frying them. we ordered a bunch, and got some juices ordered from the stall next to us. i think mine was a mango and passion fruit juice. the tortilla’s are made to order, ingredients are added, and off to the grill!
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Holy moly, we got a poblano one, a huitlacoche, which is a corn mushroom, and so amazing!!!, and who knows what else.
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and then the food train didn’t stop.
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and we finished with churros filled with stuff
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by this point, we were waddling around. and good work, you made it past probably the best and most authentic food we had on our whole trip. what an experience. k, a few sights…..
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its a super cute neighbourhood. we did end up coming back when all of mexico city was not there, but i will never forget the experience of being there during a holiday.