Mexico City trip, Feb. 2-9, 2010

We're just back from a wonderful week in Mexico City (DF or daya effe for those in the local know) and thoroughly enjoyed everything about it -- even the nosebleeds!! We'd been warned that day 3 in DF brings with it "boogers the size of Nebraska and nosebleeds" and sure enough, we succumbed, but it didn't keep us down. We had an immense itinerary of things to do and see and managed to accomplish most of them, leaving for another trip some of what we didn't have the time or energy to get seen or done. Below is a quick and dirty description of our trip.
We arrived in a rain storm and checked into our hotel, the Sheraton Maria Isabel, serendipitously located right by the golden angel that is the Independencia monument on Reforma Avenue. The hotel is also across the street from the Zona Rosa and in front of Lerma where lots of restaurants lurk. Eva didn't like the first rooms we were assigned so we grabbed lunch at the deli downstairs while the concierges tried to find something more suitable for Ms. Carrillo and they soon did. The same rooms only 7 floor higher and minus the view of the giant AC units right out the windows!! We unopacked a bit and then spent that afternoon at a perfectly divine museum called Museo Artes Popular, MAP. We were greeted on the street outside by much larger than lifesize alabrijas made of papier mache and there were more inside, to Sandy's delight. However, the three story museum holds many more treasures of typical crafts like trees of life in every style imaginable and more modern works.
Thursday was also rainy, so we opted for a day in the Anthropological Museum. This is a stunning space filled to the brim with anthropological and ethnological goodies, but just trying to get through the first floor of anthropological relics proved adeaquate for us. Grouped by cultures, there are amazing wonders recreated and found, which really makes one appreciate the culture in this region all over again. There is a roof that appears to be an inverted pyramid floating around a large decorated metal cylinder that held the rain at bay.
Friday, the sun came out and we hailed Alfonso to take us to Xochimilco. This is an area of canals which keeps alive what Mexico City was like when Cortez arrived. You rent a boat and float around paying mariachi and marimba/xylophones to seranade you, or not, and buying food and drink of all sorts, or not. On festival days and holidays, the place is packed, but we were there early on a weekend and had the place almost to ourselves. And we were four gringos who got taken advantage of -- they charged us 900 pesos for what should have cost 250 pesos and we were so dumbstuck that we just paid the man. Then on to the Dolores Olmedo musuem where Diego Rivera lived and worked after Frida Kahlo died and where one of the largest private collections of his work resides. Unfortunately, theworks by Frida were in Europe but we saw so many works by Diego and his pre-Columbian collections, that we were sated. A gorgeous estate with peacocks running wild, sleeping in trees, and making lots of noise. Not having quite enough peacocks for one day, we asked Alfonso to recommend a wonderful place for lunch -- and he did, the Antigua Hacienda de Tlalpan. Here we found not only delicious food and a beautiful setting (a las Mananitas in Cuernavaca) but also regular, albino, and beige (!!) peacocks strutting their stuff. Finally, a stop at Frida's blue house which looks nothing like the movie set. The garden and courtyard are large and open and there were calla lillies in bloom. An interesting exhibit of photos she'd taken and owned was inside a second building.
Saturday, Alfonso took us to colonia San Angel to Parque Jacinto for an art fair, recommended by Paul Ziegler. We all loved this and bought many things. There are three areas we saw filled with artists and artisans, plus shops along the squares. Spent the day here wandering and discussing and purchasing and finally, having lunch at an outdoor cafe and then heading back to our hotel. Eva and Sandy bought beautiful wooden spoons, copper sculptured egrets, two small fanciful paintings, a rebozo or table dressing, earrings, and some pen and ink drawings from Xalitla -- this last we'd been aching to own since we first saw examples at Hotel San Angel here in Merida and the Pineda Covalin scarf and shoes using these designs.
Sunday, we saw the Zocalo, Cathedral, Templo Mayor excavation, and Palacio Nacional which house Diego's murals. The zocalo is a huge, immense, open plaza. One one side is the cathedral. Next to it, is the Palacio, a mammoth 3 story building with spectacular murals along half of one story along the courtyard and a stairwell. The murals are almost indescribably alive and passionate and colorful, describing different events and people in Mexican history. We ate lunch at a 6th story open-air restaurant overlooking the zocalo, palacio, and cathedral and enhanced further by two snow-topped volcanoes in the background.
Monday, all the museums are closed so we opted for a double-decker bus tour around much of the city. On a perfect sunny day, we saw alot and managed to get through much of Chapultapec park that we'd never have seen otherwise.
And Tuesday we headed back to Merida, with a little oops at the airport -- Eva and Sandy missed their plane despite being at the airport an hour ahead of schedule. Clifford and Grant tried to call us but Eva's cell phone was off, so we sat near the wrong gate and then were not allowed to get on the plane once we finally figured that out. We got on a later plane and got home just fine, sadder and wiser.
Pictures are at http://picasaweb.google.com/necshs1/MEXICOCITYTRIPFeb2010#.