Mexico City - Globeblogging

Antigua; Courtyards and Cobblestones

Day 6; Mexico City to Antigua, Guatemala

I am so terribly excited to get to Antigua. I picked our hotel specifically because you can see one of the volcanoes erupting from the rooftop terrace! We’ll be there for three nights, before we move to another hotel in Antigua for the start of the tour and another two nights. The hotel used by the tour had mixed reviews. I had elected to choose our own hotel for the additional nights. Besides…Volcanoes! And I hear the coffee is amazing!

But first…more flying!

Back to Mexico City airport

The hotel called a taxi for us, slightly more expensive than the one we’d taken there from the airport. We’d considered an Uber but ruled it out given all the ones we had taken had been small vehicles, and we weren’t confident of getting one with space for our luggage. The guaranteed larger vehicles cost more than a taxi.

Our transfer to the airport was smooth and we found our check in counter after a long walk through the airport terminal. The attendant asked for my immigration form, which I had been handed upon entry into Mexico. My heart accelerated as panic kicked in. I was certain it hadn’t been given back to me. I located it safely in my document wallet next to my passport where organised me had placed it.

After offloading the bags we continued through the terminal, stopping off to use a bathroom. Now I wouldn’t normally go into details of such ablutions, but what happened in that bathroom has scarred me for years to come.

There were two cubicles. A step elevated the toilet in the right cubicle from the floor. Bizarrely this was for disabled use. Go figure. I hung my bags on the hook on the back of the door. Ruth immediately left the other cubicle, saying ‘I think that one is blocked’ to someone.

The toilet bowls in this part of the world aren’t the same as in Australia, the bowl is more elongated and the water level is much higher.

So I heard a flush from the next cubicle, and the unmistakeable sound of water flowing into an already full bowl, and then running over. I looked down at a rapidly spreading pool of water flowing under the door between the cubicles, bringing with it human waste of various form. ‘Oh my god’ I uttered with revulsion, thankful for the step upon which my feet rested and the hook that held my bags.

The entire cubicle was flooded a short time later. My saving grace, and that of the people soon to share a plane with me, was it had not yet gone under the door. From my step I was able to stretch to get my bags and put them over my shoulders, open the door and leap over the water to the safety of the dry tiles beyond.

We fled.

The rest of the visit to Mexico airport was uneventful, with patchy wi-fi (for me anyway) we waited for our plane. There isn’t a lot of choice for airlines so we flew Interjet, a local Mexican airline. While it was certainly a no-frills flight, I found I had more space than I had on our American Airlines flight to Mexico.

First glimpses of Guatemala

With impressive efficiency we are walking out of Guatemala City airport within thirty minutes of our plane landing. Our transfer driver is standing on the other side of a fence holding a sign with my name. We load on up and are on our way to get our first look at Guatemala.

The evidence of western influence abounds, advertisements for Pepsi (they like their sugary soda drinks here) and fast food chains on the side of the road, and on the road itself. It seems a higher proportion of the cars here are in better condition than in Mexico City, or are higher end vehicles. Toyota’s seem prevalent and motorbikes also appear highly common.

It took a little under an hour to get to Antigua and the change in the road once we enter the town was immediate. The streets were entirely cobblestone. We bump along at a much slower pace until we pull up to our hotel. The driver gets out and rings the bell.

Like most places here we soon find out, the exterior door of the Hotel Candelaria where we will spend our first three nights remains locked.

Courtyards and cobblestones

The main courtyard of our charming hotel

The doors open to the interior of the hotel, a reception area beside an interior courtyard filled with plants and a flowing fountain. The building was a square shape, built around the courtyard, and concealed by an exterior of plain stone walls. The two floors above are the same design. Railings fringe the edge of the hallways the rooms open onto, and there is open sky above the centre courtyard. The final set of railings lines a rooftop terrace. Our room is on the ground floor, with two double beds and a bathroom. It also has a wardrobe, dressing table and chair along the wall. A set of double doors opens onto a corner courtyard with another room on the other side.

I bound up the stairs to the rooftop while Ruth takes the opportunity to lie down.

From the rooftop terrace I can see three volcanoes that look over the town. I learn they are Agua, Acatenango and Fuego. Fuego sits beside Acatenango and is still active, periodically shooting small eruptions of smoke and molten stones into the sky. While I watch it sends up another plume of smoke. In the daylight I can’t see whether molten rock went with it.

My first view of Volcan Agua from the hotel roof

By the time we venture out in search of food darkness has set in. The hotel recommends a location to look for dinner since the hotel doesn’t serve it. Outside the safety of the hotel walls the streets of Antigua were dark. I was uneasy in a new place. The most well-lit option was in the direction recommended by the hotel attendant. Before too long we came to the Hotel San Domingo complete with a lovely rooftop terrace. I enjoyed a tasty bit of steak and a Pina Colada or two. Not knowing the area we happily headed back to our rooms and bed.

Chasing the tour bus to Frida and a blue house

Day 5: The Frida Kahlo house and New Years Eve in Mexico

The Frida Kahlo house was top of Ruth’s list for Mexico City, but we had been unable to get tickets online. The hotel told us that we could go and lineup anyway, but there would be no guarantee of getting in.

So we were looking at tours again, despite our experience at Teotihuacan.

I had spent the previous morning on my phone searching for tours that included the Frida house. I found a full day one which sounded ok and booked it for today, our final day in Mexico City. Pickup was 9am from the Palace of Fine Arts, about a 5min walk from our hotel. We were there at 8.45am.

We waited.

And we waited.

A few minutes after 9am no guide wearing the tour company shirt had made an appearance. I dug out the number and started ringing. Or trying to at least, all I got were tones. Ruth had no luck from her phone either.

Eventually I took another look at the information and found the same number listed again. This time it had two additional digits. I tried it and what do you know it started ringing! Buyer beware if booking this tour through Viator.

What followed was a frustrating 20 minutes of trying to make myself understood. I discovered that we’d been waiting in the wrong location for the bus which had of course now gone. I tried to establish where the tour would be at what time so we could attempt to join it. Finally I managed to ascertain we could meet at the Frida Kahlo house, figuring that we could get in and if we ditched the tour after that then at least we’d got there.

Ruth called an Uber and we were on our way. The person I had been speaking with wasn’t clear on the time our group would be there. I expected to find them inside, leaving us limited time if we chose to continue with the tour. Instead we were instructed to locate someone in the line. It transpired that we were looking for the driver of the bus and the tour group would be following. The driver was waiting to collect the tickets and told us we could wait across the street. We weren’t game to let him out of our sight!

I didn’t know much of the story of Frida, and it wasn’t on my list of things to do, so when the guide told us we had just over an hour inside I felt it would be plenty of time for me. While the art and the stories were interesting, I enjoyed the gardens more than the art. Scattered throughout the gardens were signposts containing quotes from Frida or her husband Diego Rivera, also a famous artist. They told what was clearly a great love story. Frida certainly had to overcome many challenges in her life. Ruth felt she went through a little faster than she otherwise would have but we both felt we had enough time.

We rejoined the tour for the activities that hadn’t really interested us. Floating on barges down a canal at Xochimilco had looked ok on the website, but the reality was it was so crowded we may as well have been playing dodgem barge. Boats floated alongside us cooking our lunch for a price I would have paid in a quality restaurant. It was certainly not to that standard. For the second time in two days I wondered if I would be ending up with food poisoning from the experience. A Mariachi band hopped on our boat to play a few songs.

We were given half an hour to wander stores with more of the same merchandise we’d already seen, and did a walking tour of the Mexico University – described as Mexico’s Harvard but I think they might be aiming a tad high on the scale – before we thankfully were dropped off ahead of schedule.

And then it was New Years Eve! Nineteen hours after it was at home.

It was almost an obligation to experience New Years Eve in a foreign city so we dressed up and went searching for the party. However when we got to the main square it was far less busy than it had been previous nights which didn’t fit what Edgar had told us. We asked a young girl and was told there would be fireworks later.

We left in search of dinner, ending up at a place not far away that was blasting Latin music and spruiking on the street below. It was packed out so the service was incredibly slow, though our waiter was lovely and clearly run off his feet. On Edgar’s recommendations of foods we must try I ordered the Chicken Mole, a sauce made up of 50 odd ingredients including chocolate. I didn’t dislike it but it was certainly a very different flavour, I think it may be an acquired taste.

We stopped by the still empty square before we decided to return to our hotel for a drink and ascertain if we were missing something.

Yep. The party was nowhere near us.

The concierge described it as a twenty-five minute walk. But it was closer to forty. We could hear the music from ages away, taunting us as being just out of reach as it floated to us on the breeze. We finally got there at 11.30pm.

They had closed an entire street. A Latin band played on a stage at the end and people packed the street watching the stage and screens. As we walked through the throng to get closer people were dancing salsa where they had the space. A cold wind blew across the crowd without dampening their spirits an iota. All around me voices conversed rapidly in Spanish but everyone knew the words when the countdown started, hurling them out into the night followed by deafening cheers and applause. The fireworks commenced with a bang to a chorus of more cheers as everyone gaped into the air and sang out ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at the appropriate moments. It was all over in just over 5 minutes. It was nothing on a Sydney display but still pretty cool to watch.

We were exhausted from our long walk and being on the go all day. Since our flight to Guatemala is in the morning we decided it was time to call it a night. We walked away from the celebrations and attempted to call an Uber, four drivers accepted and then canceled before we gave up and just walked back anyway.

Mexico City, its been rad. Next stop: Antigua!

Chapultepec; The Castle of Mexico City

Day 4: Chapultepec Castle

Serendipity: A fortunate accident

I had a solid 8hrs unbroken sleep last night. With no locked in times for activities we’d permitted ourselves a much needed sleep in. Our plan was to head to Chapultepec Castle and explore another part of the city.

It was a couple of stops on the metro, so we asked our hotel the best way of getting there. We were emphatically told we would be a clear target on the metro and an Uber was best.

And so it was Ruth and I had our first experience as users of Uber, and it was a slightly confusing one. Our driver didn’t look like his photo at all, but he nodded when we said the name. He said something in Spanish, I asked if he spoke English and he said no. We assumed he was confirming our destination and I repeated it, while Ruth whispered ‘why doesn’t he know where we’re going?’ I found out later I was mispronouncing the name so this may have led to some of the confusion! We were reassured that we were traveling in the right direction when Ruth checked google maps.

Seems his confusion was genuine as he pulled over somewhere that wasn’t Chapultepec Castle and said something, we went to get out of the car and he started driving again and did another lap of where we had just gone. Eventually he pulled over again and we were able to convey that we would get out.

He had dropped us near some sort of military installation and a number of guards were looking at us with interest while Ruth tried to find our location on google maps. One approached us, obviously concerned with our presence there. I asked him if he spoke English (an often uttered phrase I am finding) and it sounded to me like he said ‘no I don’t speak English’ in English, so I thought he was being a smartarse and continued in speedy English.

Blank look number 1. Some phrase in Spanish.

Ok, really no speaka English.

‘Chapultepec Castle?’

Blank look number 2. Ummmm…

‘Donde es Chapultepec Castillo?’ I say, rather proud of myself at this point.

Blank look number 3. A moment, then comprehension dawns, ‘aaaah’

He proceeds to speak quickly in Spanish illustrated with pointing gestures. I replicate his gestures to confirm and he says ‘Si’

‘Muchos Gracias’

Communication here is comprised of incomplete sentences or the odd Spanish word and some gestures. I have learned how to ask for the bill after a couple of days of miming writing on our hands.

We set off on foot and walked past some kind of military installation, evident by the men patrolling with guns, and after this find the entryway to another green oasis in the city. While I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to find myself walking through there at night it was a nice stroll during the day.

I was super excited to see squirrels, much to Ruth’s amusement. They remind me of my time in the UK as a child.

In a lovely shaded little grove speakers played soft music and forest noises, and people lay back on sloped park benches enjoying their moments of tranquility.

Just beyond we could see the castle rising out of the trees on the hill above us and we had finally found it! A climb up the hill and 70 pesos later we were in the grounds.

Given the Spanish influence in the city it shouldn’t have felt strange to be in a place so clearly European. By far the strangest thing was a building so opulent and grand, with Mexico City visible from the grounds and balconies. We could also see a lake with boats from the balcony and after leaving the castle decided to head there to take a look.

It transpired that the castle was the venue for the ballet advertised in town. A courtyard stage had the seating for the evening show set up before it. We enquired at the gate as to whether there were any tickets available for the evenings performance, once again using words and incomplete sentences. The man in the ticket booth confirmed what the website had shown, that it was sold out.

At the bottom of Chapultepec Hill every part of the paths leading through the park was occupied by a stall selling something, for as far as you can see. Ruth finally got the Churro she’d been dying to try, and my hunger drove me to try one also, despite not actually liking the ones I have tried back home. Turns out I don’t like them in Mexico either.

Upon stumbling into the food area we had menus thrust in our faces the moment we entered, not realising that the whole stretch of the frontage was different food stands and we’d just been neatly lassooed by the ones who happened to snaffle the prime location at the entry. My meal had me wondering if I would be suffering from food poisoning later.

When we found the lake the boats turned out to be paddle-boats. Since it was a lovely sunny afternoon, 60 pesos later I was awkwardly positioned in a seat that had me virtually lying down. We definitely did not skip leg day!

We had planned to check out the Anthropology museum which was nearby, but we decided to hit the shops and instead found a landmark (stopping to pose with an angel wings sculpture on the way) and called for an Uber to collect us, having a much smoother interaction than the morning although he also spoke no English.

The change room mirrors were below my eye level. Apparently I am not Mexican sized.

Since we couldn’t go to the ballet, Ruth wanted to check out a rooftop bar she had read about which looked over the main square. While I waited for our cocktails Ruth went out onto the balcony to try and rustle us up some chairs.

When I finally emerged onto the balcony Ruth was deep in conversation with a local couple who turned out to be seriously lovely people. We had a drink with them then went our separate ways to go in search of dinner. While we were waiting to pay our drinks bill they came back in and asked if we would join them for dinner so they could show us the real Mexican experience.

What followed was a night full of laughs and great conversation that is a highlight of our trip so far. Apparently there is Mexican food, and then there is Mexican food. Like saying pizza is Italian. Edgar and Andra took us to a restaurant called Azul. It was so busy our table was an hours wait so we went to the rooftop bar above it called Down Town to wait.

Down Town is apparently where all the VIPs go, it sounded perhaps like the Ivy in Sydney. Edgar pointed out a media star to us, a name which meant nothing to us of course! We ordered an appetiser while we waited – if you ever go there do yourself a favour and get the shrimp tacos. Just wow!

So then we had our real Mexican culinary experience. While the food we’d been eating was really tasty it was more of your street/cafe food. Azul was a nice restaurant, and the distinction was evident. Meals were still cheap by our measure at about $12 US a main. The menu featured specialties local to the different parts of Mexico and the food was divine!

Andra and Edgar were wonderful company. Ruth and I were able to ask the many questions we had about life in Mexico. Edgar confirmed my mothers fears that Mexico is actually quite a dangerous place. It was quite safe at this time due to the extra police presence for Christmas and New Year. It was Edgar that told us we had inadvertently stumbled into the black market. Edgar didn’t think his English was very good and relished the chance to practice! Meanwhile my mispronunciation of Chapultepec relaying the story of our day had him roaring with laughter as he corrected me! For future reference it is Cha-pull-tepeck.

It was nearly midnight when we returned to our hotel, elated at having had such an amazing and totally unplanned evening and making new friends.

For more recommendations for Mexico City take a look at 5 reasons we love Mexico City.

Wandering Mexico City, and the black market

Day 2: Mexico City

I think I was asleep almost as soon as I turned out the light and I awoke full of beans and ready to explore Mexico City. Given local time was 11pm at night though it didn’t seem like the wisest idea. The king bed we’re sharing is amazingly comfortable and staying in bed isn’t a bad alternative.

Outside the sanctuary of our room the morning proved to be colder than expected. The chill air from the front door washed by me in the courtyard as I ate breakfast. It drove me to seek warmer clothes and reminded me that despite the warmer days, it is winter here.

Breakfast in the courtyard of Hotel Historico Centrales

A chatty NZ tourist had mentioned to us last night that Mexico City didn’t really get moving until after 10am and when we ventured forth this proved to be the case. The street looked like an average street.

By the time we emerged from the Temple of St Francis of Asissi the street resembled the busyness we had encountered before. It was worse than a Sydney peak hour – all day. We had no real plans for the day other than to explore the city and wandered the garden of sculptures by Salvador Dali next door to the temple before we rejoined the crowd.

There are police at every major intersection, despite the existence of perfectly clear traffic signals. Their whistles overlap the strange trilling of the flashing green pedestrian crossing man. At the first hint of either the crowds surge forward like a singularly focused hive-mind leaving you no option but to move with the flow. You barely have space to put your heel in front of the other toe and it takes swift manoeuvres to extract yourself from the stream.

We took a walk around the Fine Arts Palace, currently showing a traditional Mexican folk ballet for which we’re hoping to get tickets and strolled through the markets behind it. Some unique gifts tempted me, until I moved to the next stall and found the same merchandise repeatedly appeared, indicating its true mass produced origins.

At the metro station we scratched our heads and pondered how the fares worked, a puzzle for another day, before meandering through Alameda Central Park, a green oasis in the middle of Mexico City’s bustle.

In search of the Cathedral of the Assumption, written to have exceptional views of the city, we walked to the other side of the Historic district. Unfortunately both bell towers were closed to the public for renovations and we had to be satisfied with wandering the spacious interior instead.

A man on the street attempted to sell me a Spanish newspaper. I shook my head and said ‘no Espanol’ with a smile, which he returned and said brightly ‘welcome to Mexico!’ The streets are full of voices calling out in Spanish. People thrust cards and pamphlets as you go past trying to lure you into their restaurants or stores. I politely decline most, but one made me double-take as I realised he was selling freshly squeezed orange juice. He responded fifteen pesos to my ‘Cuanto questas?’ I nodded ‘Si’ and was handed a large cup of fresh juice for less than $1 US.

The efforts I made to learn some basic Spanish are coming in useful. I have uttered ‘Cuanto questas’ often today. Though being a gringo with limited Spanish has the advantage of being genuinely blank when bombarded by people selling something! It is unfortunate the lack of English translations on the labels in many of the museums limited my experience.

I am again reminded of Manila, which occurs to me makes sense as both were Spanish colonies. Much of the architecture reminds me of a roman influence also, perhaps it is the prevalence of the catholic cathedrals. The number of street performers, especially at night, is also reminiscent of my time in the Philippines.

On the other side of the Cathedral of the Assumption, we find a stretch something like a stormwater drain with beautifully painted walls and stalls lining the sides of the street. While we seem to be walking away from the main hub of the city there are still plenty of people around, but we turned back because we wanted to get to the tower in the other direction. When I describe this spot to locals Ruth and I met a few days later they told us with wide eyes we had been in the black market – where anything you could imagine is sold and quite a dangerous part of town. Whoops!

We thought this part of town was so pretty with the painted walls, we found out a couple of days later it was the black market!

They seem to have a museum for everything here; Cultures, Photography, Caricatures, Economics, Art, and Remembrance and Tolerance to name a few. We ventured into a number of them. A young girl with impeccable English interviewed us for her school project at the old palace of the Archbishop. Her father beamed with pride while filming her, not understanding most of what we said. Then our aching feet sent us in search of the Latin America Tower for its 360 degree views of the city.

Mexico City is immense, which you realise when you’re looking down from the birds eye view. As far as my eye could see in all directions there was the city. Parts of it were clouded with what I assumed was smog, but I later learned was actually fine volcanic ash.

We searched for somewhere different for dinner, looking for the key indicators of local presence to measure standards. I ordered a cheese empanada and nachos. The nachos barely resembled those served up in western society. A salty goodness of crunchy chips topped with a couple of liquid sauces, diced fresh tomato and onion and jalapenos. The empanada was out of this world! We also had a couple of cocktails each – best Pina Colada I ever had – all for less than 300pesos each! All up I’ve gone through a smidge over half of the 2000 pesos I withdrew yesterday. Half went on the taxi, tower entry, deposit on the power adapter from the hotel and a new pair of sunglasses after mine broke this morning!

Tomorrow we venture to Teotihuacan – one of the largest pyramids outside of Egypt – recommended as must see by my boss. I anticipate a pretty good sleep given today’s seven odd hours of walking!

You can check out other amazing things to do in Mexico City in 12 reasons to visit Mexico City.

When in Mexico, order from a menu you can’t read

Day 1: Off to Mexico City!

4.30am isn’t pretty, regardless of the reason why you’re meeting it. Except perhaps if it’s still being up from the night before. In which case it’s probably a precursor to a splitting headache at some point in the forseeable future.

Dad picked me up at 6am to catch the train into Sydney. Getting up at 4.30 gave me enough time to get ready, have a sit down breakfast and coffee (plunger since my espresso machine decided to die three days ago – the second one that’s died right before a trip) clean up and put the dishwasher and washing machine on. However, it didn’t allow me time to undertake my habitual checks that I had everything. I am instead reassuring myself that I laid out everything requiring packing, checked it and packed everything laid out. If I have forgotten anything its well beyond too late now!

In an annoying hiccup the switching of my Telstra SIM to my Covermore global SIM seems to have erased the ability of the google play music app to read my music. After some examination I did locate all my music, but can only play it track by track, which will get annoying really fast. Still, after the internet and computer dramas that had me hurling choice words at my service provider yesterday, if that’s all that goes wrong I’ll cop it.

It is now 3.15am back home in Oz, but I’m still counting it as day one as I’m still in transit and it’s 8.16am on the same date as I left.

The flight over was uneventful, I watched four movies with intermittent and fruitless attempts at sleep between. I’ve never been able to sleep on a plane, and I’ve been flying for as long as I can remember. I can’t drown out the constant drone of the engines. So in an hour I’ll have been awake for twenty-four straight, and I’m feeling it. If LAX had a flat couch for me to lie I suspect I would be out for the count!

Our 6am landing in LA meant the airport was virtually empty when we arrived, and our experience was nothing like the grilling I had been bracing for. Of course the downside is the amount of time we now have to kill before flying to Mexico City!

And then there was the flight to Mexico. I did manage to grab a smidge of sleep I think, probably due more to my brains lack of ability to stay awake than a conscious effort on my part. The flight was full and incredibly cramped for space and I was more than eager to disembark and stretch out my locked knees.

To our surprise our journey through the airport was smooth, and I was quite chuffed when I was directed to an aisle and understood the Spanish number I had been given. The guy at the counter spoke to me in Spanish but switched to English effortlessly when I asked if he spoke it.’Tu Hablas Englis?’ is going to come in very useful.

My boss had given me the heads up to purchase the taxi fare before leaving Mexico City airport to ensure we were on an authorised taxi instead of a scam. It seemed strange walking up to an airport counter and asking for the taxi fare to our hotel, but the cashier nodded and gave us a ticket. At the set rate it cost us 225 pesos. That’s a little over ten USD for what was about a twenty minute ride. Our driver spoke no English. We each made some attempts at conversation but soon gave up with friendly giggles when his Spanish was way beyond my limited capabilities.

The service at the Historico Central hotel was an impeccable standard and it is quaint and comfortable, and centrally located in the historic district of Mexico City. Surprisingly I had hit my second, or maybe fourth wind by the time we reached the hotel and I was keen to venture out for some exploration. Mexico City reminds me very much of Manila, it has a similar look and feel, with a splash of the street entertainers that are commonplace in Boracay. There is plenty more to see yet!

Keen to try the local experience we walked into a busy taco place and pondered a menu written in Spanish upon which we were lucky if we could recognise a few words. And the waiter spoke no English. In the end we just pointed to two items and hoped for the best.

Doesn’t that green dish look tasty! It wasn’t!

The experience was totally different to what you would expect back home, where you would generally be handed a hard shell full of whatever you’ve asked for. We were instead presented with five soft tortilla’s each, slightly floury in texture, and the two plates full of our chosen fillings.

An assortment of trimmings and sauces were placed on the table between us to be added as we chose. A couple of the sauces were eye-wateringly spicy. This resulted in large gulps of the delicious but no doubt filled with sugar Sangria soft drink we’d ordered. I’d recognised it on the menu and believed it to be actual Sangria. We still had no idea what one of our fillings was, but it tasted strange and we weren’t overly keen on it. The other however, was a chorizo filling and was exceptionally tasty, and we enthusiastically loaded up our tortilla’s and added the sauces we’d confirmed as safe for our non-Mexican palates. We both had our fill plus a drink for the grand total of 186 pesos plus tip!

But for now its nearly 8pm and I’ve not properly slept in about thirty-six hours so time for a shower and bed!

You can check out other things to explore in Mexico City with 3 days in Mexico City.

Tag: Mexico City