on the fourth day in the city, we met up with fiona, who’s wedding we were there to attend!  we met up for breakfast, then she showed us around a cute part of the city, and then spent the day running errands for the wedding, which included such fun things as buying alcohol and visiting an awesome local market that actually has good things to buy in it.

breakfeast

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the house fiona’s grandparents owned, now a restaurant

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Then we went to the zocalo to eat a late lunch and have some drinks!

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cool rooftop patio

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now see the top of these trees?

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super cool restaurant where we ate

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mixed mescal drinks.  so good

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living wall indoors

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It was a great day spent with fiona, and it was wonderful to get to spend that time with her alone before everyone else arrived in order to catch up with whats going on in life.  and she showed us some of her favourite spots, which was a delight to share with her.

the next day noa and i were on our own again, so we went and explored some more.  the nice thing about having so much time to explore a city is that you don’t have to rush and do things every day.  we were able to relax, go out on a nice leisurely pace, and just explore.

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then we stumbled across our idea of heaven

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The Monument to the Revolution.  notice the tents a the bottom?  there a teacher strike, and they were all camped out there.  funny thing is all the tarps were held down by ropes which criss crossed the paths at about my chest height, so i was ducking and bobbing all over the place trying to get through it.

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the yellow horse

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the post office

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overal it was another pleasant day walking around and an end to our fifth day in mexico city.

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.

now that we are home, its time to start getting through these mexico city posts!

So we arrived in mexico city around noon a full week before most of the other wedding guests.  This gave us a lot of time to explore the city, and bum around. the first two days were somewhat of a blur.  the day we arrived, we went and had some lunch, and then tried to stay awake, but ended up napping around 7 until we decided it was indeed time for bed.  but we slept through the night, and that was pretty much the end of the jet lag for noa.  not so much myself.

I did get a few photos of us walking to lunch, which was towards a fish taco restaurant recommended to us.

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I was struck by how green the city is.  i don’t know why, it is at 7300ft.

so we went for some food at this great fish taco place. empenada, tuna sashimi on a tortilla, and fish taco’s pastor style

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if i ever have a chariot, this is what I’m going to get to pull it

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the next day we took a walk towards the historic downtown area

the palace of fine arts

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day of the dead displays in the main square, called the Zocalo

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the main church on the Zocalo (also known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City), which is sinking so it has been reinforced with underground concrete to keep it level

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people dressing up to please crowds

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the ancient city of  Tenochtitlan.

okay, I’m going to lay some history on you now.  as the story goes, the aztec’s were a people who’s god told them to wander until they saw the sign of where they should build their city. That sign was an eagle, eating a snake, siting on a cactus.  so off the people went, and wandered all around mexico.  finally they climbed a mountain range, and saw a lake in a big valley.  and in that lake was an island.  and on that island was a cactus.  and guess what was sitting on that cactus.  a damn eagle eating a snake.  That island later became the main square of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, where the aztec’s main temples stood.  you can see them in the middle of the image below.  So as the city grew, what the aztec’s did was create these super fertile islands, by planting trees in a rough square, then planting lily pads, and bring in a bunch of organic mater to place on those.  in effect, they build themselves islands all around which they then used to grow their crops. (there is still an area called Xochimilco which we go to later in the trip that still has these islands)  In effect,  Tenochtitlan was like modern day venice, with waterways everywhere.  and its because of this that they were the first people who were able to grow enough food to support their massive growth.  all the people before the Aztec collapsed because they could never grow enough food to supply their population.  at its peak, there was a daily market with 70,000 people attending every day.  thats just who was shopping and selling at the market!

and this is what the ancient city of Tenochtitlan supposedly looked like.

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The point of that story was to tell you that modern day mexico city is basically on a historic lake.  it grew so much in size, that eventually there was no more water left, and now the whole city is sitting on a dry lake bed that, while the water table is being continuously drawn down by consumption, is sinking.  this is an often reoccurring theme when in mexico city, because nothing is even, roads are wavy and bumpy, and sidewalks are often tilted and uneven also.  I’m sure ill be talking about it some more.

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backside of the church

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noa and I stopping for a snack

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duck tacos!

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amazing mango margarita with a sweet and salty rim

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amazing stain glass all over mexico city

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there are riot police all over downtown area.  they just hang out

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the making of a day of the dead alter

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