We spent two weeks in Mexico City in February and just now I'm getting around to posting some details of what we did there. We were lucky enough to have a home exchange in the central part of the city, down by the Zocalo where all the high end hotels and restaurants are, as well as many incredible museums--all within easy walking distance.
The apartment we were staying in was on the sixth floor with a terrace that looked out over the sunset. We enjoyed a couple of dinners there with our friends Liz and Ritchie...when we weren't sampling the amazing restaurants in CDMX.
It was great to have this place to rest after days of exploring museums, markets, parks and places to eat.
The only problem was that the elevator was broken the entire two weeks we were there so we had to hoof it up six flights of stairs every time we came in. Let me tell you, at an altitude of over 7,000 feet you really are breathing hard by the time you get to the top.
Mexico City is huge as you can see from this photo taken from the top of the Latin American Trade Tower. But it's easy to get around with the metro, buses, and taxis, which are all really cheap.
This is the Palacio des Bellas Artes with its gorgeous tiled domes. This place is world famous and hosts art exhibits (sadly we missed the Matisse exhibit)... and theatrical performances. We went to see the Ballet Folklorico there, a very professional performance of dances from regions all over Mexico.Here's the famous Tiffany glass curtain on the stage.
One of the most famous and foodie markets in the city is the Mercado San Juan, just a short walk from our apartment. here you can buy just about anything you can think of to eat, including a variety of insects, which are apparently very popular in Mexico. We chose not to indulge, rather we selected some meats and cheeses on delicious bread.
We ran into insects later though when I ordered a salad at the patio restaurant of the Museum of Anthropology. The salad sounded delicious but it featured something called chapulines, which I couldn't translate. It turns out these are dried crickets and it wasn't until my forkful of salad was almost to my mouth that I recognized what I was eating--just in time to fling the thing to the ground and shriek. The waiter found it pretty funny that I couldn't eat the salad, but he humoured me by bringing a new salad without bugs. t seems that Mexico has the world's highest number of edible insects and they serve them everywhere. Maybe I can work up to actually trying one--but it's something that is definitely not on my bucket list.
Something I have wanted to try was Chiles Nogales, a classic Mexican dish of poblano peppers stuffed with ground turkey in a creamy walnut sauce garnished with pomegranate seeds. It was absolutely delicious. Mexico City has some incredibly good restaurants that serve elegant, classic Mexican food at very reasonable prices. Our friends Liz and Ritchie were really impressed with the cuisine they enjoyed there.They also enjoyed the handicraft markets, the craft museum, the parks and the statuary, and the variety of artistic benches--well we all did. A highlight once again was seeing the larger than life murals by Diego Rivera.
A couple of time we left the centro and want to Roma Norte and Condessa to walk around. These are upscale neighbourhoods, as evidenced by the dog walkers on the boulevards--and the well-stocked wine stores.
We didn't see any stray dogs in Mexico City. They were either hanging out with their owners or being taken for walks by professional dog walkers.
Wonderful shots!
ReplyDeleteVery beautiful, your dinner looks so good.
ReplyDeleteparsnip