Weekending in Mexico City

Mexico City is like the bad kid at school that no one believes grew up to be what everyone wanted him to be – clean cut, successful, friendly, reliable. Its reputation as dirty and dangerous seems to be hard to shake, but it was really difficult for us to see why. The city that no longer wants anyone to refer to it as “DF” (the push for “CDMX” is strong) might be feeling the same way. We spent two long weekends here, about a month apart from each other, and reveled in the capital of the country both times.

FOOD

First and foremost, Mexico City is about food. When chatting with anyone about – fine, I’ll bite – “CDMX”, the first comment is always, isn’t it a great city? After wholeheartedly concurring that it is, the next topic is always which amazing restaurants you should visit. We considered hopping onto one of the many food tours you can find in the city, but wound up going it alone based on various recommendations.

Our first stop was Taquería Tlaquepaque, a hole-in-the-wall torta shop a few blocks from our hotel in the historic district where you can get al pastor anything. Al pastor is the pride of this city, and the sandwiches were heavenly. The street food and taco places in Mexico City are an essential part of the culinary scene. One day we grabbed bikes and took a self-guided taco tour in the Condesa neighborhood, stopping at El Pescadito Taqueria for delicious fish tacos and a generous salsa bar, El Tizoncito which stakes an early claim in the al pastor taco game, and El Califa, home of the Gringa (which is a sort-of quesadilla), a chain outpost but highly recommended by a friend. We loved them all! To wash it all down, we also visited Centenario 107 (very close to the Museo Frida Kahlo) for craft beer and delicious guacamole.

In between the ongoing banquet of street food, we managed to make it to a few proper restaurants as well. Our favorites were Alba Cocina Local, where we absolutely feasted on the best ceviche salads we’ve ever tasted and chatted with the chef, Alex, while an adorable puppy visited from a neighboring table. Another delicious dinner was ate at Fonda Fina, a little more well-known on the culinary circuit, with tasty cocktails and food that lives up to the hype.

There’s also quite a few markets that feature outstanding options as well. We visited two of them. The first was Antojitos Mexicanos Market in the Coyoacán neighborhood of Frida Kahlo’s and Diego Rivera’s Blue House. We followed instructions we had read to order quesadillas from stall #14 and horchata from the juice shop in the back right corner. (Note to self – order small drinks next time – the large horchatas were basically buckets.) Both were the absolute right thing to do. We had to practically roll ourselves out of there. Another day, we hit up Mercado Roma, sampling small plates from various vendors including El Guero Pibil for tacos, Ummo pizza, and of course, the well-known El Churro Moro (good, but not as good as the churro stand in Sayulita, Nayarit, although extra points for fantastic branding!).

FIGHT

I’ve long wanted to check out Lucha Libre and was excited to make it happen when we finally arrived in the city. There’s various arenas that host the matches on different days of the week, but the most popular seems to be Arena Mexico on Fridays and Sundays. It’s possible to find a Ticketmaster location and buy tickets in advance, but the events are unlikely to sell out so we just arrived about 30 minutes early and bought at the window. It’s pretty crowded and noisy at the ticket booths, and our Spanish is decidedly not great, so we weren’t sure exactly what level of seat we were purchasing when we paid. Next up was merch –there’s about a hundred million vendors outside the arena with AMAZING gear, and it was hard to choose. After a long debate we each decided on a mask and headed inside.

The arena is not huge, so none of the seats are too far away, but it seemed that we wound up with cheap, cheap seats because our view was a bit obscured by fencing. No matter, nothing was going to distract from the action. Oh, except for the concessions. The sheer hugeness of the concessions. Want chips? You’re getting a family size bag of Doritos. Soda? Glug a two liter. After gawking at the vendors walking around, it was showtime. We put on our luchador masks and cheered and roared and booed along with everyone around us. The wrestlers put on a fantastic show – high energy, fun storylines, and some pyrotechnics. We even got a little Americana thrown in when a dumpy-looking Donald Trump joined forces with Russia and China, enlivening the crowd to boo and curse even louder. All in all, it was a terrific experience.

FOUNDATION

Mexico City is a museum city. There’s tons and tons of good ones and not near enough time to check them all out. We made it to five: the photography museum, the Diego Rivera Mural Museum (not to be confused with the Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli or the Museo Estudio Diego Rivera), Museo Frida Kahlo, the National Museum of Anthropology, and Chapultepec Castle. We also quickly hit up the Metropolitan Cathedral and walk-by viewed some of the ruins of Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Aztecs.

The photography museum and the Diego Rivera Mural museum were easy to get in and out of and really enjoyable. Museo Frida Kahlo (The Blue House) is notoriously crowded, so it’s recommended to make a reservation. But be careful – the calendar is not very intuitive, and it’s easy to book for the wrong day (as I did!). Tickets are not refundable, so double check the date before you purchase. We had to wait in the pre-purchased ticket line for about 15 minutes when we arrived, and then it took less than an hour to explore the house and grounds, and it was a great venue.

The Anthropology Museum is huge! We saw about half of it before succumbing to rumbling stomachs and heading off in search of yet more food. The highlights include: a super-impressive Aztec sunstone; the Statue of Xochipilli, which the museum showcases with an extended exhibit on the plantlife rendered on him, while others focus more on the hallucinogenic quality of his pose and botanicals; and El Paraguas, the architectural water feature installation, which unfortunately was under renovation during our visit.

Chapultepec Castle is the only royal castle in the Americas and is deservedly extremely popular. Hit up this guy any day aside from a Saturday or Sunday if you can help it as the line to get in winds down through Chapultepec Park on the weekends. The views are outstanding, and the interiors and art displays are fantastic as well.

There’s also a ton of galleries throughout the city, several of which we had full intentions to visit, but never made it. Saving those for the next visit, I guess.

REFORMA

Paseo de la Reforma is the main avenue that runs diagonally through the city and connects the Centro Histórico and Chapultepec Park. The avenue was built as Mexico City’s answer to Paris’s Champs Elysees by Emperor Maximilian to link the city center to his home in the park, Chapultepec Castle. On Sundays the avenue is closed to car traffic and pleasantly plump with bikers, rollerbladers, and pedestrians.

After downloading the Ecobici app, we easily rented bikes from a share station and joined the other cyclers lazily riding under the trees and around the statues that dot the thoroughfare. As we cruised along, it was easy to feel a part of this bright and lively city rather than a visitor.

All images TM & © 2017 Josh Meister Photo and Shari Margolin (unless otherwise stated). Please don’t steal or “borrow” – just be cool, be cool.