Category: Mexico

Couldn’t help myself, I availed myself of the $8 AUD Huevos Rancheros breakfast deal, that I happened upon yesterday at the café located next to the hotel. While knocking down the eggs on tortillas and good black coffee, I surfed the Internet for things to do today as I really had no set plans for today.

I decided to head over to the Mirador Torre Latino (Latin-American Tower) to try and get some shots of the city from the 44^th floor open viewing platform and then make the rest of the day up as I went along.

As the 182 metre (597 foot) tall 45 floor tower is a good ½ hour walk from my hotel, I decided head down there early to try and avoid any potential long queues and overcrowding. Imagine my disappointment upon arrival that they would not allow me to take my camera rig and was told that I “had to enter a commercial engagement with the building owner and that could take a couple of weeks and I could only occur on a day of the owners choosing”.

I advised the team member that I saw no camera/photography exceptions or restrictions either on their website or upon arrival and that I was leaving in the morning – didn’t make a difference. I’m like OK and start heading out the door, at which time they said I could use a mobile phone if I wanted to. I simply kept walking as it wasn’t like there was a shortage of interesting subject matter in the general vicinity.

As I stepped to the street I had a decision to make: head left to wander around the Zócalo again or turn left to explore Park Alameda Central and the historic buildings fronting onto the landmark green-space that was created in 1592. I was able to take in Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), Parroquia de San Juan de Dios (Church of San Juan de Dios) and the Iglesia de San Hipólito y San Casiano (Church of San Hipolito, built in 1521).

I kept meandering towards the southern side of town and ended up in the so-called Bohemian art/café/hipster and tree lined suburb of La Condessa. As you can image, coffee shops, cafés, eateries and galleries abound, but one of the major attractions is the so called “Lungs of Mexico City” – Parque Espana.

Speaking of “Lungs of Mexico City”, every Sunday the city closes a fair amount of the major thoroughfares, to all vehicular traffic, for most of the day, which allows all the “lycra lunatics” their time in the sun. A great initiative I reckon – closing the roads that is.

Feeling a bit peckish by now, I happened upon the Taqueria El Pescadito tucked away in a back street that was jam packed with locals. I decided to park up with ice cold Victoria cerveza and try their Taco de Camarón and Taco de Chile Relleno de Marlin, which were awesome. Didn’t care much for the Quesadillas Marlin as the filling was like a really dry tuna. Finding local places like this, that turn out to be a brilliant experience, is one of the best parts of travel …. IMHO.

It seems that after all this walking, my feet have embraced the local culture by advising me in no uncertain terms that a siesta was in my best interests, I walked the ½ hour back to hotel and whiled away the afternoon with a good book.

A couple I’d met at the hotel and I decided to dine together the Argentinian restaurant next door. We figured to meet at 8PM as the place closes at 10PM. We lob up at 7:45 only to be told that the kitchen has closed. All righty then. We ended up a few blocks away at the Comedor Lucerna, which was simply jumping.

As eating establishments go, it’s a great concept. It’s basically a warehouse space, filled with large 12-seater picnic table/bench furniture and surrounded by 6 different food outlets and a bar. The premise is you are seated and receive menus from each outlet, order what you so desire and then have it delivered to your table for consumption. The meals we had were great but the service was terrible all round.

It seemed that no one wanted to help the Gringo’s for whatever reason. It even became Fawlty Towers like when we asked to pay and leave. We received 5 different tickets, from 3 different wait staff performing perfectly choreographed “drop & dash” manoeuvres that facilitated us spending 20+ minutes to pay the bill(s).

Couldn’t help but laugh at another moment that I’m labelling “TIM” – This Is Mexico.

Today marks the second week on the road for me. It is also the third Saturday in three different cities – Townsville, Boise & Mexico as well as three different countries – Australia, United States & Mexico.

Now according to the mobile application – Polarsteps, I’ve managed to travel just on 22,375 kilometres (13,093 miles) so far and I’m pleased to say to (a) I’m experiencing something different each day and (b) I’m expanding my Spanish vocabulary, which now encompasses the most important word I’m beginning to use on a regular basis – Baño.

Whilst most of you who know me, would think that Cerveza (beer), Cantina (bar), Jardín de la Cerveza (beer garden) or Comiendo Casa (eating house) would rate fairly high ….. and you’d be correct, but after three days in Mexico I’ve come realize that “thunderbox”, “dunny” or “dropping the kids off at the pool” is either lost in translation or of zero significance to the local populace – but the word Baño, accompanied with 5 to 10 Pesos (36 to 73 cents Australian) allows you the use of clean amenities with a measured amount of “poo tickets“, should you need to be seated for the entire performance.

After yesterday’s effort, I decided to forgo any formal town tours and explore the city via the hop on/hop off TuriBus service. At 180 Pesos ($13.07 AUD) for the 9AM – 9PM service that has 20 minute intervals for open-top double decker buses. It’s one of the cheapest and most informative ways I’ve found to help get orientated in any city I’ve been to.

I took the Tour Official de la CDMX, which lasts 2½ hours if you do not get off, which is awesome value. Also included in the All Day Pass is the Chapultepec Polanco, the Sur Coyoacán & San Angel as well as the Basilica route as well.

I stopped off at Wingstop at the recommendation of a local – the wings were pretty ordinary, but the company was great. I got speaking to a couple of local on duty Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) officers (sometimes known as Federales), who ended up giving me a lift back to my hotel.

Tonight was spent sorting out all the paperwork and formalities associated with the start of any G Adventures trip. This will be my 9^th with them and I’m looking forward to having a ball over the next 14 days on their Classic Mexico Adventure.

After a bit of research, I settled on the Amigo Tours $65 USD Mexico City Super Saver: Coyoacán, Frida Kahlo Museum, Xochimilco & National University day trip.

We got picked up at 8:30 from the Hotel NH Reforma, transferred to our actual tour bus at the Palacio de Bellas Artes and then on to a toilet stop at Cafe El Jarocho in Coyoacán before walking over to the Parroquia San Juan Bautista (San Juan Bautista Catholic Church) that was founded in the 16^th century, which all took the best part of two hours.

We crossed the street to the Fuente de los Coyotes (Fountain of the Coyotes) after all, Coyoacán comes from Nahuatl Aztec language and literally means “place of coyotes”.

From there we wandered down to the supposedly world renowned Frida Kahlo Museum, that was literally encircled with queues of people stretching around the block. Fortunately for us Gringo’s on the Amigo’s tour, we only had to wait 15 minutes to get in.

I’d be the first to admit that when it comes to the arts, yogurt has got more culture to me and that Frida Kahlo de Rivera was more anonymous that wrong phone number to me, but I’m pleased to say that in the allotted hour we had in the museum I learnt that in her 47 years Frida contracted polio at birth, had a car accident causing debilitating chronic pain, joined the Communist Party, divorced her husband for snookering her sister ….. then remarried him, had her leg amputated, became addicted to pain killers and wasn’t able to celebrate her 50^th – all this is said to have drawn her to Mexican folk art and its elements of “fantasy, naivety, and fascination with violence and death” – go figure.

Late lunch was spent at Embarcadero Nuevo Nativitas Xochimilco in which we boarded one of the reported 2,500 Trajinera’s (flat bottomed boats), which run people around the Canals of Xochimilco. As there are no motors allowed, the colourfully decorated vessels are powered with a long wooden pole, similar to a punt. Goods and services like food, drink, souvenirs and Mariachi bands literally come to you on their own trajinera.

For mind, it felt like a cattle cruise where we went for a 20 minute ride up the canal, pulled up to get fed & watered and herded back to spend ½ and hour at the trinket stalls. I asked about stepping off at the Gardens, Island of the Dolls or the historic town. It was at this time that the guide seemed to lose all understanding of the English language for some reason.

Our final stop of the day was at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National University of Mexico) to take in one of the world’s largest mosaic murals that covers the 10 story tall UNAM Central Library that was created by Juan O’Gorman and took two years to complete.

While on the University campus, we took a few minutes to look out across the busy Avenue de los Insurgentes Sur to the Estadio Olímpico Universitario that’s better known as Mexico’s Olympic Stadium.

Our day finished back that the NH Reforma hotel around 6PM and during the walk home I had time to reflect on the day. As day trips went, we seemed to spend more time stuck in Mexico City’s notorious bumper to bumper traffic. To say I was disappointed with the trip would be an understatement with the major contributing factor being the lack of engagement by the guide. He simply did not know how to engage the group of Spanish and English speakers, which is what the bilingual speakers said they were struggling with as well.

Not to worry though – tomorrow is another day.

I’m thinking that today could just be the first designated day of my holidays as all my family, friends and governmental agency activities have been completed.

As usual, I was up at sparrow’s fart, completed the “4 S’s” (i.e. Shit, Shave, Shower & Shampooch) and was out the door around 5AM to take in how North Americas most populous city greeted the new day.

I was headed over to Museo Mexicano del Diseño to meet up with a local guide from Interpids’ Urban Adventure team for the ½ day Mexico City Original Markets & Street Food Tour. Yeah ….. I know I was 3 hours early, but I took the time to go for a wander around the Plaza de la Constitución and the surrounding Centro Historico area.

How else would I have worked out that at La Parroquia de Veracruz, a 10 ounce black coffee is 12 Pesos more than Happy Hour Coronas???

Around 9AM I was joined by our guide, two “Snap Frozen Yanks” fellas from Toronto and Ottawa, as well as a “Helliforinian” sheila living in the Bay Area around Oakland, who turned out to be a pretty good crew to go exploring with.

Our first food stop for the day was exploring the Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market, that was created in 1934 and deals primarily in clothing and fashion i.e the “rag trade”. We were introduced to Tamale’s, with me selecting the pork & green chilli, that was light, fluffy and full of flavour.

Then it was over to Mercado de Sonora, that was established in the 1950’s and is known primarily for its herbal medicines and items related to witchcraft, magic and the occult.

It was here that we were introduced to carnitas at Carnitas Paty, which were served with pork off-cut tacos, that I felt were pretty ordinary if the truth be told. It was also at this stop that we sampled several different mole’s and I have to say – I was both impressed not only with the variety, but also the rich depth of flavours.

Our third and final market was the El Mercado de Jamaica, again established in the 1950’s and predominantly a fresh flower as well as a fruit & veg market. It was across the road at Huaraches Ramoncita where we sampled Huarache, which also a Mexican
slang term for “old sandals” and a Cuitlacoche (pronounced QUEET-la-coh-chay and called corn smut in English speaking countries), which has a distinct earthy taste and not bad eating.

From there it was back to the hotel, for a quick shower and then out to the local bodega to grab a ½ carton of Dos Equis, a bag of ice and a packet of plastic bin liners to turn my hotel rubbish bin into a temporary esky, as there is no fridge in the room – sometimes you just have to improvise to improve the experience. 

All up today I covered 9.9 miles (16 k’s) on foot and as local orientation tours go, it was great. As local food tours go – a tamale, taco and some huarache doesn’t make a “Food Tour”. WithLocals has set the bar high in regards Walking Food Tours, as opposed to what I would define as a local orientation – that was interesting, factual and engaging.

BE WARNED: Could this be Bohemiem Rhapsody “Fitzy style“? Dinner tonight consisted of an Aussie, in Mexico, eating at an Italian joint – Trattoria Isabella, sipping on Bohemia Pilsner cervezas with 70’s funk & soul on the stereo ….. I personally don’t see anything wrong with that as it was a great feed.