We recently returned from a year end trip to Mexico City, or CDMX (Cuidad de México). I’m not sure what rock I’ve been sleeping under but I was astonished at myself for not having put the city on my radar sooner. With its vibrant historic center, dynamic food scene and rich cultural heritage, we had a great time walking around its different neighborhoods, exploring its many museums and venturing further a field. After spending two weeks there, we concluded that if we ever needed a big city fix, especially during winter, this thriving metropolis would be the place to go. Not only was there a lot to see, eat and do, but at an altitude of 7,200 feet above sea level (which I didn’t realize), it has a temperate climate. While San Francisco and the rest of California was getting battered with rains, it was perfectly cool and dry in Mexico City. And to top it all off, it was only a 4-hour flight from SFO – much faster than trying to get to New York City.
Our hotel, the Sheraton Mexico City Maria Isabel, was located on the Paseo de la Reforma in Zona Rosa, which made it central to other neighborhoods and a great base for exploring, especially by foot. We were right next to the Angel of Independence. During the day people perched on it steps for photos, and at night the memorial was beautifully lit up. There was also an eye-catching mural that we could see from our room, it’s butterfly theme so appropriate given we would be visiting the monarch butterfly reserve in a week’s time.
On New Year’s Eve day we walked around the Centro Histórico, taking in the sights and sounds around Zócalo, the city’s main plaza. On New Year’s Day, we walked in the opposite direction along Paseo de la Reforma towards the Bosque de Chapultepec, a very large park that has a lake, several museums and pathways.
Once inside, we followed the footpath past the Altar a la Patria, and up the hill to the Castillo, which I thought was free on Sundays, but then learned that was only for locals. For foreigners the entrance fee was MXN 90 (which is really not much compared to how much we pay for museums in San Francisco).
We spent several hours walking around the exhibits in the National Museum of History, thinking that the museum building was also the castle, but then we realized the castle was actually the building next door (somehow hidden from our original line of sight). We spent another hour exploring the castle, happy that we had found it, otherwise we would have missed seeing all the interior rooms, the wonderful views down Paseo de la Reforma, the charming rooftop garden and the lovely stained glass windows featuring goddesses.
Two other museums that we carved out time to visit were the National Museum of Anthropology, a must see for its large collection of Mexican artifacts and the Soumaya Museum, which houses the private collection of Carlos Slim, Mexico’s wealthiest man, and is free to visit.
The day we visited the National Museum of Anthropology we approached it just in time to see the start of a danza de los voladores (flying men). Four men climbed to the top of a pole, tied themselves in with rope, wrapped the rope around the pole, and then flew off, swinging around upside down while one man played the pipes. It was crazy to watch. The same scene features in one of Diego Rivera’s murals found in the National Palace.
The museum is spread out over multiple rooms that cover different periods in Mesoamerican history. The Teotihuacán exhibit was interesting, and elucidated what we had seen when we went there. Ideally we would have gone to the museum first before visiting the site. The Mexica room was filled with fabulous artifacts, including the giant Aztec sun stone. We took a break to have lunch in its cafe, the Sala Gastronómica, that served classic Mexica dishes, and all told we probably could have used more time at the museum.
We planned our trip to the Soumaya on the same day we had lunch reservations at Pujol, since the two are both in the Polanco neighborhood. The museum is stunning, clad in silver tiles.The highlight for me was the top floor with its large collection of Rodin sculptures. The rest of the floors showcase a collector with eclectic tastes, from coins to decorative arts, and time periods spanning the 14th century to present.
We also ventured out from Mexico City by bus, which was easy to do, safe and comfortable, taking a day trip to Teotihuacán that was an adventure back in time, and going even further the following weekend to Macheros, a small town near the border with Michoacán, to see the magical monarch butterflies that overwinter in Mexico.
Aside from those attractions, the rest of our time was planned around lunch and dinner, where lunch usually meant finding a taqueria to see whose al pastor we liked the best, and dinner was an opportunity to further explore the neighborhoods surrounding our hotel.
Our two weeks went by pretty quickly, and before we knew it, we were on our flight back to San Francisco, leaving Mexico at 6:00 A.M, and touching down in SFO at 9:00 A.M., just in time to start the work day.
Coda
It’s great that we finally made it to Mexico City and got to discover what an amazing city it is. We only scratched the surface, visiting a fraction of the museums that dot the city and trying only a sampler of the many restaurants and bars that make CDMX a destination for foodies. There’s definitely more reason to come back another time.