Day 7: Meeting an Old Friend and an Extravagant Night Out

In the afternoon I met with an old friend from high school, Daniel, who I had ran many miles with back in the day. He was in Mexico City to complete a priesthood program that he said would take at least a year. Both Daniel's parents are from Mexico, but this was his first time ever in the country. His mind must be racing!

We watched some freestyle jump ropers in the square near the store where Daniel's friend was doing some shopping. The street artists included me in one of their demonstrations where they gather a bunch of volunteers from the crowd and jump over us in a line. I was made the crux of many of their good-natured jokes as I was obviously the only non-Latin-American in attendance 👱

Afterwards Daniel, myself, and his friend got lunch at a nearby restaurant before saying our adioses.

It's great to see you again, Daniel!

I then set out to the Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino, an art museum in the suburbs of Mexico City containing Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo paintings. But after just a few metro stops I found out from their website that the Frida Kahlo paintings were on loan, which caused me to lose my motivation to make the two-hour roundtrip out to the museum.

Returning to the hostel, I met up once again with the two Australian girls that had been included in our group from last night. They were meeting their university friend Rodrigo, who lives in Mexico City and who they hadn't seen in 10 years!

Rodrigo works in the Mexican film industry and to describe his personality you only need to quote him from that night: "Your thirties are just your twenties with money."

We all met at La Capital, a nice restaurant in the upscale area of Condesa.

After we ordered drinks, Rodrigo would order dishes on the menu for us and we would share them potluck style. Two hours of dining later, we split the bill evenly and went out to a jazz club, Casa Franca.

Casa Franca looks like it occupies what was once a colonial apartment. It has various small rooms with furniture arranged in an intimate setting. Two bars sandwich a performance room, which also acts as the upstairs entrance to the entire establishment.

The mezcal flowed freely that night until around 2am when the Australian girls and I took an Uber back to the hostel.

Salud!

Day 6: Teotihuacan

In the morning I went with the two British girls I had dined with last night, Charlotte and her sister Lexi, to the Teotihuacan Pyramids. There are two pyramids, the larger one being the Pyramid of the Sun, and the smaller one the Pyramid of the Moon. After taking a local bus to Terminal Central de Autobuses del Norte, we took another bus an hour northwest to Teotihuacan.

A poorly representative photo of the sprawl of Mexico City on the way to Teotihuacan

The steps leading up the Pyramid of the Sun are steep, but you reach the top surprisingly quickly, that is, if you take adequate breaks after each section of stairs. Weather was nearly perfect when we went -- overcast, but not hot. To the southwest, the edge of Mexico City's sprawl could be seen. In other directions, small towns lazed in the desert. We took bucketloads of photos and a snack break before climbing back down.

Charlotte, Lexi, and I with the Pyramid of the Moon in the background

After climbing Pyramid of the Moon (halfway up was as far as was allowed), we exited through Puerta 3 and caught the bus back to Mexico City after snacking on some fruit cups from a nearby vendor. The bus back to Centro Historico from the main bus station was so full it felt like there was a queue just to get off the bus. You would need to get up from your seat a few stops early so that you could shuffle back a few people, one stop at a time, before arriving at the exit doors hopefully by the time your stop came up.

Later that night myself, the British girls, and the Australian girl from the previous night and her friend who had just arrived that day went out to dinner. The place we originally had in mind didn't have space for our group but we found a building nearby that had a ground floor bar, and about a dozen different restaurants and bars in a loft and covered balcony area upstairs. I would later find out it was actually a hostel.

The place was really neat, with many large, picnic bench style tables for sitting at, and you had your choice of many different varieties of food.

One side of the upstairs loft area

We turned in relatively early at 11 because the British girls had an early bus the next morning.

Day 5: Chapultepec Castle

In the afternoon I set off by myself on the metro to Bosque de Chapultepec, one of the largest city parks in the western hemisphere and certainly the largest in Mexico City.

My tentative plan was to first visit Chapultepec Castle then the National Museum of Anthropology as well as see what the park itself has to offer. The vegetation and meandering paths of the park are a welcome respite from the city and the temperature was noticeably cooler. A sloping path brings you to Chapultepec Castle.

The combination of the breeze and views of the city from the top puts you in a contemplative mood. Wandering the castle grounds you stumble upon surprisingly bold artwork and warmly quaint architecture.

The ceiling mural of the previous photo

After seeing the castle I decided to skip the National Museum of Anthropology because rain was in the near forecast and I really wasn't that interested in looking at artifacts of Mesoamerican culture.

Back at the hostel, I met my Australian bunkmate and joined her and her two British friends out for dinner. The three of them were good company and a good time was had by all (Except for maybe Ashley, the Australian, after we accused her of not being able to read 😂). Upon returning to the hostel I ran into another American whom I had met that morning. He had liked the hostel we were currently staying at so much that he canceled the AirBnb that he had booked for the next week and with the money he saved from the cancellation attended a 4-hour tasting room at one of the best restaurants in Mexico City and the world, Pujol. What an experience to hear about!

He, myself, and a Dutch/Lebanese girl that was soon to be starting her masters at a university here in Mexico City chatted in the common room late into the night until retiring ourselves to the dorms.

Day 4: Palacio de Bellas Artes, Biblioteca Vasconselos, and Zinco Jazz Club

I had spent enough time with my symptoms at this point to be near certain that I had some sort of parasitic worm infection -- either from something I ate, or most likely from naively drinking the tap water regularly at the beginning of my trip. I picked up some Mebendazole from the nearby pharmacy, a low-risk medication that is commonly used to treat such diseases. After dosing up, I walked to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, known for its opulent architecture and for housing works by some of Mexico's greatest muralists.

One of the most stunning works there is Man Controller of the Universe, a massive mural by Diego Rivera. Originally titled Man at the Crossroads and commissioned by the Rockefeller Center, there was a furor in the press after it was unveiled that the mural contained a portrait of Lenin. Rivera was sacked by The Rockefeller Center and the mural destroyed. Rivera eventually returned to Mexico to complete the mural under a new title.

My appetite had come back with a vengeance at this point and I picked up a juice and a sim card as I meandered south of Alemada Central. Lacking ideas of where to go next, I took the metro back to the hostel. After a refreshing shower, I took an Uber to an interesting looking library, Biblioteca Vasconselos.

I have to admit part of the reason I was intrigued to see this library was their Sala de Música, a room full of instruments that library users can use.

The floating shelves of Biblioteca Vasconcelos

I spoke with the man at the front desk of the music room and he told me it was necessary to get a library card before playing on the pianos. My reaction: Why not? So after speaking with the lady at the front desk I was directed to the Credenciados room where I spoke with a few people, filled out a form, had my photo taken, and voilà! I had a Mexico City library card.

My crowning achievement thus far as a foreign language learner

I returned to La Sala de Música to put my card in the queue with all the other library uses. The library was only open another hour, and my name didn't come up before 10 minutes to closing and they started to shut the room down. The man at the desk had some pity on me and said I could play just a tantito, so I did get to exercise my fingers for about five minutes.

Leaving the library, I entered the adjacent Forum Buenavista Centro Comercial, a joint train station / shopping mall. Exhausted from so much cultural immersion, I made dinner of a McDonald's big mac combo meal before taking the metro back to Centro Historical.

My day wasn't over yet, though. I had found a jazz club near my hostel, Zinco Jazz Club, that was having a performance by Las Swing Sisters that night.

Doors opened at 9 PM and the performance ran from 10:30 to midnight.

After a full day of activities, I walked the half kilometer back to the hostel without incident and swiftly succumbed to sleep.

Day 3: Polanco

I was low on energy and didn't have much of an appetite so I spent the morning at the hostel. In the afternoon I decided to go out for a walk.

Not wanting to return to the hostel for the rest of the day, but not feeling well enough for anything too adventurous, I took the metro to one of Mexico City's most upscale barrios, Polanco.

Piano stairs at Polanco metro station! They sounded a bit out of tune to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

After buying an umbrella from one of the metro station hawkers, I set out by foot along a rainy Avenida Horacio.

I stopped at a cathedral, Parroquia de San Agustín, and the shopping mall El Palacio de Hierro Polanco. After resting in the food court, utilizing the free wifi to look for nearby attractions, I decided to just turn in for the night, taking the metro back to the hostel.