This strange new world of slow travel has us enjoying the amazing privilege of just rolling with whatever we feel like doing. In our second week here in Mexico City we decided to actually do more of the touristy things that we’d heard about.
This week we took a hot air balloon ride over the pyramids at Teotihuacan, went for a walk around the square at Zocalo, went to see the Frida Kahlo Museum and visited the stunning Anthropology Museum.
All of these were worthwhile things to do, but the balloon ride was top notch.
Zócalo Square
Zócalo Square, also known as Constitution Plaza is a huge square in central Mexico City. We’re staying in Polanco and it’s about 40 minutes by Uber to get there from here. We decided to take the metro and walk to get there which took a little longer, but was much cheaper.
The metro ride was cheap and efficient. We rode the orange line and connected to the blue at Tacuba. Cost was 7 pesos each.
Arriving by metro lands you under the square. Coming from underground to both the full sun and wide open square make the breathtaking Catedral Metropolitana that much more impressive. We didn’t really plan this out with a lot of detail and mostly we were testing our ability to use the local metro for city travel. So when we got to the square we were kind of winging it to figure out what to do. We ended up just walking around a bit, but also spending a little time in the Museo Nacional de las Culturas. We found it quite ironic that the museum had large exhibitions for Japan, China and Türkiye since those are all places we intend to go this year. There was also a large exhibition for Cyprus which was probably the biggest surprise since it’s such a small place, and so far away.
After the museum we took a walk along the extremely crowded path towards the Palacio de Bellas Artes. It was pretty hot that day, and the crowds were not really all that much fun but the Palacio is an amazing building to see. After a quick look around we hopped back on the metro and headed home to Polanco.
Frida Kahlo Museum
I will admit that I didn’t know much about Frida but the museum is often mentioned as a must see spot in CDMX so since we were here we decided to go. It also got us to visit a new neighborhood, Coyoacán. This was one of the farther destinations from our place. Uber would have been over an hour, and the metro slightly longer. We opted for the train. This time we took the orange line to the #12 gold line transferring at Mixcoac. This was a new one for us and it was interesting to see that the gold line train is a totally different type of train car than the orange. I assume that the orange line is older because both the station and the trains on the gold line seemed much more modern. The ride was uneventful and pretty easy for us foreigners to figure out with the help of google maps.
The Frida museum is interesting in that it’s not just a display of her work, but it’s actually inside of the home that she spent most of her life, and where she died. So you get to see some of her works up close, but also get a bit of a history lesson. It’s about 250 pesos ($15) to enter, and you need to purchase your tickets ahead of time. It’s always busy.
The area around the museum is walkable and quiet. There are a few restaurants around too. We ate at Cochinita Country Coyoacán and opted for a couple of traditional Yucatan dishes including Relleno Negro and Pollo en Escabeche. It was relaxing to sit outside and enjoy the afternoon with some tasty food.
Anthropology Museum
What an incredibly cool building. The museum is not far from our place in Polanco so we enjoyed the walk over. The museum costs 100 pesos to enter (about 5 dollars). Once inside the large open square in the center of the campus is dominated by an enormous waterfall that is quite something to see.
Through pure dumb luck we happened to arrive just as some local performance artists were putting on a show where they swing around on ropes playing music. It was kind of like a mini cirque du soleil show in front of the museum.
The museum has artifacts from different parts of what is now Mexico but from pre hispanic times. The museum is large and has a lot of pieces so we really just scratched the surface. I was mostly fascinated by the San Lorenzo Colossal Heads in the Gulf Coast Cultures hall.
Tips about the museum. There is an app for navigating which has English and Spanish descriptions of some exhibits, a map and suggested pieces not to be missed. That’s the good news, the bad news is that the app is extremely poorly conceived. For example, If you choose the 1 hour tour, it gives you a list of things to see. But the suggested exhibits in the list don’t give you a clue as to how to find them. Or anything about them. You have to navigate to another part of the app to view what is in each room and I guess you just keep tapping on rooms to find out which room has that exhibit. Once you know the room, you’d think that the room section would tell you how to find that room in the museum, but you would be wrong. From there you have to navigate out to the map of the museum to find where the room is. It’s just an extremely frustrating user experience.
One thing that I had heard about this museum was that we should make sure to eat at the restaurant inside. I wasn’t expecting much because, why would a museum restaurant be anything special… but boy was I wrong.
Sala Gastronómica is a top notch eatery. Their tasting menu with mezcal pairings is a worthwhile destination on its own rite. Our waiter was passionate and very knowledgeable about the mezcals that were paired with the entrees. I was very impressed by how much the liquor’s favor profiles varied based on where it was grown and how it was distilled. It’s definitely a must visit if you’re in CDMX. The tasting, which Chrissy and I shared, costs about 2000 pesos (a little over 100 dollars). Don’t miss it, but make sure you have some time because it consists of something like 8 courses and takes a bit of time. Plan for 2+ hours.
Pirámides de Teotihuacan
I’ve never been in a hot air balloon before this, and that for sure was a part of what made it so amazing. But being surrounded by the mountains, the morning sunrise, and all of the other balloons was quite a memorable experience. It was amazing to be able to fly over the Pirámide del Sol. It was an epic way to visit and worth every penny. I think that it was around 150 dollars per person which included pickup and return to our Airbnb, the balloon ride itself, breakfast and a mezcal tasting. The cost to visit the Pyramids on foot was an additional 100 pesos per person (about 5 dollars).
The mezcal tasting and history lesson was cool, and the balloon ride was amazing. The breakfast was nothing special and probably some of the least interesting food we’ve had here. Either way, it was fun to go outside of the city for the first time and floating over the pyramids was absolutely amazing.
Slow travel is the way to go. It’s so nice to not be trying to cram everything into just a few days. Taking our time and visiting things at a slower pace is quite an enjoyable thing to do.
