Mexico City Weekend - November 2012

In November, Nancy and I spent a long weekend in Mexico City. Mexico City is perhaps not the normal weekend getaway you might think of but I thought this would be a good birthday present for Nancy’s 60th.   Leaving Sacramento on the Thursday evening we flew through the night to Mexico City arriving in a somewhat weary state just after 5:00 am on Friday morning.  Our hotel was the Gran Hotel Ciudad Mexico a wonderful place on the the main square (Zocalo) in the old part of town.  It was a work of art in itself - originally built as a department store in the late 1800’s and since remodeled as a hotel, the interior has an open area with a stained glass roof that is truly spectacular.  One of the guidebooks said it was by Tiffany, but apparently not, Tiffany style maybe but it was made by a Frenchman - Jacques Gruber who did a lot of that sort of thing.

Stained Glass Ceiling - Gran Hotel

We were lucky in getting an early check in (for a price) and were able to sleep for an hour or so before we took on the City.   We also got ‘upgraded’ to a room overlooking the square, the Zocalo - a nice upgrade until we realized that the square was the place for that evening’s Day of the Dead celebrations and so the square and our room were not the quietest of places.   Not to worry though we were so exhausted we could have slept through anything.

After a brief rest we set off to explore the city.  We decided the first destination would be the Aztec temples at Teotihuacan some 50 miles to the north of the city.   We negotiated a deal with a taxi driver to take us all the way to the pyramids, wait a couple of hours and then bring us back - that seemed to be the most practical and convenient for us and the driver threw in a couple of other stops on the way - the Plaza de Tres Culturas and the Basilica of Guadalupe.   The Plaza de Tres Culturas is so named because it has structures from the Pre-Colombian, Spanish Colonial and Independent Mexico periods - interesting but not all that remarkable.  

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of those Catholic holy sites where some apparition occurred to a peasant guy back in the 16th Century.  All very dubious stuff, but it now is a center for pilgrimage with an old colonial church and a nice new modern one.  Popes visit there regularly.  I find these wonderful old colonial churches just amazing and never tire of walking around them.  The Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th century really did a lot to boost tourism in these modern times.

Pyramids of Teotihuacan

From the Basilica we continued our way to Los Pyramides at Teotihuacan.  The pyramid site is quite extensive with two pyramids (Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon) and lots of associated streets and buildings.  While it is a fairly spectacular site I must say I wasn’t in awe of them in any way.  Yes, it was quite the construction project but after a climb up to the top of the largest pyramid (Pyramid of the Sun), I was ready to get back to Colonial Mexico City proper with its churches and fine buildings.

Zocalo at evening from the Cathedral Bell Tower

Back in Mexico City we dined on the rooftop of our hotel overlooking the main square, the Plaza de la Constitution, or Zocalo as it is called (Zocalo means base and after Mexican Independence, President Santa Anna wanted to build a monument in the square - they built the base but the monument never got finished and so ‘base’ became the name of the plaza).  November 1st and 2nd were the Days of the Dead so there was a lot of activity down on the square.  With the cathedral and all the fine colonial buildings surrounding the square, the huge Mexican Flag flying in the middle and thousands of people milling around, it was quite a sight.

Cathedral on the Zocalo

After our late lunch we wandered some more around the square and visited the Cathedral.   What an amazing structure the Cathedral is - the largest Cathedral in the Americas and just so elaborate and ornate inside.   The building was started in the late 16th Century and continued until the 1800’s.  Since the old part of town is built on an old lake bed, it is prone to subsidence. Many of the old buildings, including the cathedral are subsiding and leaning to one side.   It is very off putting to see some columns vertical and others leaning slightly.  Presumably if it survived the 1985 earthquake it should be stable enough for our visit.

We took a guided tour of the cathedral bell towers that proved to be very interesting.  It was nearly nightfall as we went up the bell towers and we had this amazing view of the activities in the square below.  Then there was a demonstration of bell ringing which was a treat for the ears.  We were standing beneath all these bells in the tower (perhaps 8 or 10 in total) and they were all ringing together - deafening but really impressive.   After that we were allowed out on to the cathedral roof - we just wandered around - not much in the way of health and safety concerns there - just don’t do anything stupid.

That evening we strolled around the streets of the old town.  Being the Day of the Dead there was a lot of activity, lots of people and lots of weird and wonderful costumes - like Halloween on steroids.  Again it was another chance to marvel at all the old wonderful buildings in this part of Mexico City.   One of the finest of these was the Casa de los Azulejos (the Blue Tile House) which is now a restaurant and department store combination.  A beautiful building on the outside, covered in blue tiles, and on the inside a nice Orozco mural.  We drank a cocktail in the bar while being entertained by a pianist and opera singer who were entertaining the crowds below from a balcony in the bar.

The Blue Tile House

Back at the hotel for the night the party in the Zocalo was going full swing, but we were far too tired to notice.

Saturday morning we awoke to an empty square and a nice blue sky and we did more walking around the old part of town.  We paid a visit to the Central Post Office, known as the Palacio de Correos de Mexico, and a Palace it certainly was.   We don’t make post offices like that any more.
 

Palacio de Correos de Mexico

From the Post Office we moved across the street to the equally impressive Palacio de Bellas Artes.  Another real treasure with a series of murals by Diego Rivera inside.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Next stop was a trip to the top of the Torre LatinAmericana, for a bird’s eye view of the city.  It was good to get some sense of the size and layout of the city but really all we got was a sense of the bad air quality as the city just disappeared into the haze.

The afternoon started with a visit to the Palacio National.   This building on the east side of the Zocalo houses the federal government.  It has an impressive frontage on the square but inside it is even more beautiful with courtyards, gardens, an art gallery, and more murals by Diego Rivera.  I do so like his stuff.

We had a nice lunch on a rooftop cafe behind the Cathedral and the Templo Mayor (the Aztec temple complex in the heart of the old town) then we moved out of the old district to our digs for our second night out in the El Cosme area.   That move was not quite so straightforward.  There was something called the Zombie Walk going on - something to do with Day of the Dead where they were parading along the streets in costume and all manner of gory makeup.   This kind of hindered our movement and when we got in the Metro station the line for tickets was so long we gave up and got in a taxi.  That was when we experienced Mexico City traffic at it’s worst.   For what seemed like ages we crawled along sometimes only one car moving through an intersection per light change.  It was very tedious and frustrating sitting in a taxi as the meter went up and we went nowhere.  

After what seemed like ages we finally got out of the crush and were safely delivered to our new digs, a B and B called El Patio 77.  A nice remodeling of an old building, quite small but very nicely done.   

That evening we walked to the La Reforma district (the main business and banking area) and found a delightful French restaurant for Nancy’s birthday dinner.  Just perfect.

On Sunday, our last day in the city, we went out to one of the suburban areas, Coyoacan, where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived, and where Trotsky spent the last years of his life.   We took the Metro from where we were staying out to Coyoacan.   The Metro is a great way to get around - at 3 pesos per trip it is affordable for everyone and everyone seems to use it. Even on Sunday morning the trains were frequent and very crowded.

In Coyoacan, Frida K’s house is now open to the public.  You can see lots of her art work and her studio and how she lived.   There is her wheelchair parked in front of her easel, her back brace, her crutches, and, of course, her ashes in a jar on a table.   The poor lady was quite tormented both mentally and physically during her life.  One of the interesting things was a shelf with two ceramic clocks - one with the hands at the time when she divorced Diego (he wasn’t the most faithful of husbands) and another with the hands on the time when she remarried him for the second time.

Frida Kahlo's Studio

Clocks marking the divorce and remarriage

A few blocks from Frida’s home was the refuge of Trotsky, which is also now a museum.  Alas Mr and Mrs Trotsky didn't have the same flair for interior decor or art as Frida and Diego did. The house was fortified with bricked up windows and what look like gun turrets on the corner. I guess the poor guy was pretty restricted in what he could do and where he could go in later years.  There were several attempts on his life before the last successful one with the ice axe to the back of the head and he lived in this house with his family, a few friends and his bodyguards.   Stalin and his cronies managed to get Trotsky and just about all his family members by the time they were done.

Trotsky's Bedroom - bullet hole in wall (they missed)

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Coyoacan, which is a beautiful little neighbourhood.  

Around 3:00 we set off back to the hotel to pick up our bags and take a taxi to the airport.  An uneventful flight back via Houston to Sacramento.   All in all a wonderful weekend.   Mexico City is a great city, and you really need more than a long weekend to see it.  Nevertheless, we did a lot and we had a great time.

There are more photos here on SmugMug.