Coming to Mexico was a little scary to be honest. It was the first time I traveled all alone to a place where I knew no one, and couldn’t speak the language.
I landed in Mexico City at 7:30pm, and when I came out of the airport, it was already dark out. Thankfully my Uber came right away and whisked me into this unknown glittering city.
Since I was staying with a family, I drove straight to their house and was welcomed with open arms and big smiles. I felt at ease immediately, and all the dogs running around were delightful. At that point Luisa, my actual host was not there, but her mother and daughter were.
As it was already quite late in the evening, we just had some dinner and then they accompanied me on the walk to my little home five minutes away.
The next morning I started my daily routine for the coming weeks, I went to the house and took the two big dogs out for an hour, came back and had some breakfast and then I was off to explore the city.
I went to the Museo Jumex, a museum for contemporary art, and then continued to explore the surrounding areas. There was a huge mall across the street,
which I obviously had to check out, until it started pouring, so I once again took an Uber to the house, waited until the rain had subsided and then took the dogs out again. Faye, the daughter, ended up accompanying me on my walk, and we took all four dogs out for a lovely walk.
On the next day it was Sunday, so we went to the big market, but first we took the dogs to the groomer. The market was super fun, and I ate a lot of Mixiote, some of the best food I have ever had.
Then I started exploring the city and the subway and went to the historic center of the city, which is architecturally beautiful.
Since they were already preparing for the independence day, everything was fenced off and I couldn’t go in anywhere, but it was still nice to see. Then it unfortunately started pouring, which made sense because it was the rainy season, but still I wasn’t prepared and had to wait it out in a pharmacy until a guy sold me a semi working cape that I used to sprint back to the subway.
The following day we had to take the dogs back to the groomer, and while waiting for them to be finished we went to the library, which turned out to be the biggest library in Latin America, and had a huge whale skeleton hanging in the middle of it. This day was also when I realized how crazy the traffic is in CDMX (Mexico City) and that I would not even attempt driving here.
But it was also Nonnas Birthday, so we celebrated that at the house, and a lot of family members came to visit! We sang and there was lively conversation, which I did not understand as I don’t speak Spanish, but I still had tons of fun!
On the 5. Of September, the following day, I went to the Museo Nacional de Antropología, where I spent almost five hours looking at the huge amount of exhibits they displayed, and still didn’t manage to see everything. I did go to their cafe though, and the torta (sandwich) I had was absolutely amazing, but somehow the coffee I got there was absolutely disgusting, which was quite the disappointment.
After that I went home to take the dogs out, and they had gotten their new outfits at the groomer and were looking very cute.
Next day was Thursday, so market day again, and I ended up trying a lot of fruit, but was ultimately a little disappointed by the dragonfruit because I expected it to have a very strong and sweet taste due to its vibrant color but it did not taste like much at all, which I thought was terribly sad.
We then went to Costco, which I had never done before, and it ended up being one of my favorite “activities”. I was very amazed by the huge sizes of everything, and excitedly tried all the samples.
Afterwards I went to the new city center again to visit Museo Soumaya because I was so intrigued by the architecture. I really enjoyed the displayed art, but mostly loved the bathrooms, those were amazing. After I was done, I walked 30 minutes to the subway and bought a ticket just to realize it was rush hour and there was no way I would get into any of the coming subways. I waited for quite a while, but gave up at some point and reverted to getting an Uber back to the house.
The next day was a very chill day and apart from taking the dogs out I did not do a lot, but Faye joined me on my evening walk and showed me one of her favorite street snacks: cheetos with cheese and sauce, which is called Doriesquites and very weird but oddly good.
I once again went on an adventure the next day. I took the subway and went to Chapultepec park. Chapultepec Park is more than double the size of Central Park in NYC, so it’s huge.
I started off with walking by the lake and then going to the zoo, which is free. The zoo was really lovely and I just had a relaxing walk around. Then I went to explore the park further and found a carousel, which I watched for quite a while. Originally I also wanted to visit the castle, but decided to do that another day and made my way back to the house.
The next day was one of my favorites, we all went to a food stand, which is only there on Sundays and I absolutely loved the food. Then we went to buy a huge amount of vegetables, and went by a family member’s house to drop some off.
Once we were back, I made my way to Ex Fábrica, a street filled with graffiti and street art. There are also lots of cafés and shops, as well as some restaurants and bars. It was lovely being there for sunset and watching all the lights turn on. I had coffee and a pastry while waiting and then went to a gallery and a few shops.
An early morning was on the agenda the next day, as I was doing a tour to Xochimilco. I took the subway and got out at the station, just to find myself in the middle of a protest. I thankfully made it out of that and waited for the tour van to pick me up, but they couldn’t get through to me due to the protest. I did manage to get through to them finally and off we went.
Our first stop was a jewelers store, where we were shown how he makes his silver pieces. We roamed around the store a bit before getting back into the van and driving to Xochimilco. When we arrived there, we looked for our boat among the hundreds of colorful boats. Once we found it, we hopped across other boats to get to ours, and settled down on our chairs.
We started cruising around and smaller boats kept docking to ours, selling us drinks, corn on the cob or flower crowns. There even was a boat with a band on it.
At some point we made a stop where we could go into a greenhouse which also had animals. I made the mistake to pay to see the animals and immediately realized my mistake when I saw in what horrible conditions they were kept. Thankfully we didn’t stay very long and went back on the boat.
We turned around soon and made our way back down the river. After docking safely, we jumped back into the van, and drove to our buffet lunch.
As soon as we finished eating, we continued our tour and went to the university campus. The campus has some very nice murals and mosaics worth visiting, and since it was graduation season, there were lots of students and their families taking pictures, which was lovely to see.
When we had seen the whole campus, we once again piled back into the van and drove to Coyoacán, one of the oldest parts of the city, where we looked at the colorful houses and their beautiful courtyards. Then we walked to the market, and split up.
I teamed up with the only other person under 30, and we explored the market. She knew there was avocado ice cream being sold somewhere, and obviously I was hooked on that, so we went on a hunt for it. Turns out, it wasn’t actually in the market, but in the building across from it. Thankfully we figured that out, and found it. It was really really good ice cream and I still think about it months later.
When everyone had gathered again, we walked to Frida Kahlos house, which is a vibrant blue. Unfortunately it was closed, so this was the end of our tour. The tour guide was nice enough to drop me at a subway station, and back I went.
Being back, I was convinced to pour (quite a lot) of eggnog over my very nice lemon cake, which in my opinion ruined a perfectly fine lemon cake, but it was definitely an experience.
The next day started in the middle of the night for me, since I had to get up at 3am. It was worth it though, as I was going on a hot air balloon ride over the Teotihuacán ruins that day. Stressed like I am, I had ordered my Uber for 4am the day before. We were both early, resulting in me being at the pick up point an hour early, in the middle of the night. Thankfully there was a 7/11 nearby, and I was able to buy some orange juice and chocolate nuts, wich helped pass the time. Despite being this early, I almost missed the bus, since I simply could not see over the hedge. I did end up getting it, and then we drove for about an hour, while it was slowly getting light.
When I arrived at the office, I had to sign my life away, but at least there were hot beverages, since it was freezing cold.
Just in time for sunrise we made our way to the airfield, where we were able to watch the hot air balloons being set up. At 6:30 my balloon began to ascend into the sky, flying over the city and then the temple ruins. It was absolutely gorgeous, flying into the sunrise, with balloons decorating the sky and the ruins below us. It was a bit scary as well, being in a basket very high in the air, but I just tried not to think about that.
After 45 minutes of flying we landed, which was the most stressful part. We did it though, and as per tradition, we all had to toast to our successful flight with strawberry wine (drinking alcohol at 7 in the morning is definitely something).
After the balloon was safely stored in the trailer of the car, we were driven to the ruins and given a few hours to explore. The site is very spread out, and there is absolutely shade, so after around two hours of walking and climbing stairs under the burning sun, I decided to sit down and have some home made strawberry kiwi ice cream. Shortly after it was time for the last activity of the day, a tour about obsidian, tequila and agave (the plant tequila is made of). Obviously there was lots of tequila to try, and I was very impressed by the people drinking it on a near empty stomach. It turns out that the agave is actually a very interesting plant, with a lot more to offer than tequila. Obsidian is always interesting, and I was taught how to spot fake obsidian. After having gained all that knowledge, it was time to go back, which is exactly what I did.
On the following day it was time to get my nails taken off, which I found horribly sad, but it was inevitable. Thankfully my natural nails weren’t super short, so I wasn’t devastated. After I was done I went back to Chapultepec Park to visit the Castle, and after I managed to make the trek up there I realized that my phone was almost dead and I had forgotten the cord to charge it. Since I did not know how to get back without my phone I had to leave after just five minutes. After that I just spent time with the dogs and chilled.
I did not make the same mistake the next day, so I packed everything I could ever need. I went back to the historic center in hopes that I could visit or enter one of the buildings or monuments this time, but to no avail. After being sent around the huge square twice by police officers and soldiers that all told me that their colleague on the next corner would know how to get in I gave up and sat down in a cafe and read my book until it was time to leave. I had been invited to a classical concert in a high school that Arturo, a friend and colleague of Nonna, was singing in. I went, and it was great, albeit a bit awkward, since everyone in the audience knew each other, being school mates, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
The day after was independence day! It was very exciting, and Fayes school had their own block in the street parade, dancing and singing. It was a big event, and Nonna had gifted me a gorgeous traditional dress that I wore. When Faye and us got to the finish line we decided to make our way back along the parade and stopped to watch the performances. There was dancing, fighting and even people jumping through burning hoops.
Back home I learned how to make Tamales, which turned out to be harder than it looks, but worth it.
We had a lot of fun and ended up making sweet ones as well, with pineapple, and dyeing the dough green so we would be able to tell the difference between the hearty ones and the sweet ones. The tamales ended up looking a bit weird with the green dough, but they tasted good so we didn’t care too much.
My last day in CDMX was the next one. I once again made my way to Chapultepec Park to finally see the Castle. Thankfully this time nothing stood in my way, and I really enjoyed it. They have rooms with the original furniture, which transports you back in time.
After I looked at every exhibit, every room and enjoyed the view I made my way back to pack my backpack and then take the dogs out one last time. It was all very sad, since I had an amazing time and would’ve gladly stayed longer. We all agreed that I should simply come back as soon as possible.
The next morning I made my way to the airport at 5:30am and was in the air towards Cancun by 10.