Ciudad de Mexico...
as it's known here. We have un poquito de espanol after the last few days with our primos mexicanos, so hopefully we can put it to some use here in the capital. Will be a big change from the quiet towns found in the north, and to say we were excited about seeing somewhere a bit more lively would be an understatement:
First up, we got the bus to our hostel - Suites DF Hostel - which was a pretty nice place, but unfortunately was located on an extremely busy road...cars were whizzing past late at night, or street food vendors were opening up early for the morning, but either way sleep was hard to come by. And given you pay for somewhere to sleep when you book a hostel, it wasn't really fulfilling the most basic requirement. Next, something muy importante - Stu had needed a haircut for quite a while, obviously unwilling to pay in either Australia or Hawaii:
Look at those sideburns:
And the demolition job was over - time to celebrate in Blom Cafe - a vegan cafe where Stu opted for a coffee,
While Dani went all out, getting a mushroom pibil that was quite a bit better than the food we'd had up north. First impressions indicated we'd eat quite well here:
And that proved correct, as after an evening of chilling out we were up and out the next day - scoping out some carnitas tacos Stu had wanted to get his hands on in Los Tacos Azules:
A pretty basic set up, but genuinely one of the best lunches Stu has ever had, and all for the princely sum of less than €1.50 for two large tacos. Definitely worth stopping by.
And given we had a few days here, we still wanted to get to grips with our general area - which seemed to be just outside La Condesa and Roma - the two best areas in the city as far as our eyes could tell.
And as we were walking down one of the main avenues and the rain started to fall, we took shelter in Pulqueria los Insurgentes, a rooftop bar which specialises in pulque, a very sweet fermented alcoholic drink made from agave ( -> tequila/mezcal) plants, apparently making a comeback after spending years in decline. Dani went for the margarita - we think the better option. That was enough for one more night, but having spent enough time getting to grips with the place, day three would be our first of ticking off some real tourist hot spots:
First though, lunch ^. We opted for una torta de pollo at a shop we picked at random after our morning trip on the subway, and we were then able to confirm what we had started to think after our first couple of days here: the food is class, in general. It's pretty difficult to go wrong when you can pick something at random and for it to be better than nearly anything you'd get at home (and for 1/3 the price, minimum).
Once we were sated, we ventured further on to our main objective for the day:
Make our way through Bosque de Chapultepec, and arrive at Castillo de Chapultepec - housing the National Museum of History.
Which gave a pretty comprehensive run through of Mexican/Native American history from pre-hispanic/European times, to the modern day. Pretty interesting, as the map above indicates. The history of Mexico is pretty....colourful. Definitely worth a Wikipedia binge. One museum of history was enough for us though, as we decided henceforth we'd make ourselves acquainted with some of the more modern aspects of the city (fuelled by tacos, and cakes, throughout):
It was a Wednesday, so tickets were only ~€1.40 each to see Guasón (Joker) - en inglés and everything. We got what we paid for in this instance, as it was possibly the smallest screen we'd ever seen, but the film was decent enough.
Los locales seemed to appreciate it anyway ^. Next on our list was to revisit La Condesa - probably the area we were most enamoured with. Plenty of greenery, loads of cafes and beautiful places to chill out.
And having a solid craft beer bar Drunkendog didn't do anything to hurt our impressions of the place.
Very easy to spend an evening, or couple of days, killing a few hours at a number of the bars/restaurants/cafes here. We didn't have the time for that though, as we'd more cultural experiences to undertake: next up, Luche Libre
Organised by our hostel, with masks and mezcal supplied:
We made our way to the stadium, which is not what we expected. Stu had a vague idea of it being this low-key, small, traditional act - but it turned out to be full scale WWE-style entertainment. And first up, was a battle royale between the little people on the roster. What had we signed ourselves up for.
Bit of craic anyway, we guess? The entire thing was questionable. Not quite sure what we'd partaken in, but we put it down to a cultural experience, and moved on. Our time was running out anyway, with just one more day before we'd to undertake another pretty big journey to the south of the country. Given how massive of a city it is, we'd forgive ourselves if we missed out on a part of it - namely the historic centre, and we almost did given nobody else turned up for the free walking tour on our last morning. Thankfully (or not) our guide decided to go ahead with the tour, and we got a glimpse of a couple of things we hadn't seen yet, some more delicious tacos al pastor, but ultimately nothing better than in La Condesa or Roma.
However afterwards we decided to stop by Mercado de San Juan, a large marketplace we'd been told about on our first day but put off going to up until our very last. We decided we'd regret not checking it out - and we made the right call, as we instantly saw what all the fuss was about - the place was hopping. The most enthusiastic barista known to man greeted us for a coffee at Triana - and by the end of the night gave us two more shots of espresso on the house, on top of the coffees we bought - which most definitely didn't help us get any semblance of sleep in our already loud hostel.
Now re-energised by all the caffeine, we wandered around to see what else was offered here - with vendors shouting about the lion and crocodile meat they had for sale. Insects too, where a German couple offered to buy us anything we wanted, as long as they got to watch us attempt to eat it:
We didn't take them up on the offer, instead walking back to the more conventional parts of the market, and opting for the tapas+wine restaurant for our evening meal.
And we were felt vindicated in our choice as it turned out to be an incredible way to spend our last evening. A little up and down in parts, but overall an amazing city to get to see - particularly La Condesa, where either of us would happily spend quite a bit of time given the chance. Given how massive it is, we probably missed out on quite a few things, but we were happy with what we did get to see. And we were also looking forward to hopefully getting a good nights sleep soon - though most likely not possible given we were getting a night bus next. They're most definitely one thing we won't miss about this year. Feeling generally uplifted though from what Mexico City showed us, we were looking forward to seeing what our next Mexican city has to offer.
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
as it's known here. We have un poquito de espanol after the last few days with our primos mexicanos, so hopefully we can put it to some use here in the capital. Will be a big change from the quiet towns found in the north, and to say we were excited about seeing somewhere a bit more lively would be an understatement:
First up, we got the bus to our hostel - Suites DF Hostel - which was a pretty nice place, but unfortunately was located on an extremely busy road...cars were whizzing past late at night, or street food vendors were opening up early for the morning, but either way sleep was hard to come by. And given you pay for somewhere to sleep when you book a hostel, it wasn't really fulfilling the most basic requirement. Next, something muy importante - Stu had needed a haircut for quite a while, obviously unwilling to pay in either Australia or Hawaii:
Look at those sideburns:
And the demolition job was over - time to celebrate in Blom Cafe - a vegan cafe where Stu opted for a coffee,
While Dani went all out, getting a mushroom pibil that was quite a bit better than the food we'd had up north. First impressions indicated we'd eat quite well here:
And that proved correct, as after an evening of chilling out we were up and out the next day - scoping out some carnitas tacos Stu had wanted to get his hands on in Los Tacos Azules:
A pretty basic set up, but genuinely one of the best lunches Stu has ever had, and all for the princely sum of less than €1.50 for two large tacos. Definitely worth stopping by.
And given we had a few days here, we still wanted to get to grips with our general area - which seemed to be just outside La Condesa and Roma - the two best areas in the city as far as our eyes could tell.
And as we were walking down one of the main avenues and the rain started to fall, we took shelter in Pulqueria los Insurgentes, a rooftop bar which specialises in pulque, a very sweet fermented alcoholic drink made from agave ( -> tequila/mezcal) plants, apparently making a comeback after spending years in decline. Dani went for the margarita - we think the better option. That was enough for one more night, but having spent enough time getting to grips with the place, day three would be our first of ticking off some real tourist hot spots:
First though, lunch ^. We opted for una torta de pollo at a shop we picked at random after our morning trip on the subway, and we were then able to confirm what we had started to think after our first couple of days here: the food is class, in general. It's pretty difficult to go wrong when you can pick something at random and for it to be better than nearly anything you'd get at home (and for 1/3 the price, minimum).
Once we were sated, we ventured further on to our main objective for the day:
Make our way through Bosque de Chapultepec, and arrive at Castillo de Chapultepec - housing the National Museum of History.
Which gave a pretty comprehensive run through of Mexican/Native American history from pre-hispanic/European times, to the modern day. Pretty interesting, as the map above indicates. The history of Mexico is pretty....colourful. Definitely worth a Wikipedia binge. One museum of history was enough for us though, as we decided henceforth we'd make ourselves acquainted with some of the more modern aspects of the city (fuelled by tacos, and cakes, throughout):
We'd plenty planned for the next few afternoons/evenings - first to tick off the list was to go to a nearby cinema:
It was a Wednesday, so tickets were only ~€1.40 each to see Guasón (Joker) - en inglés and everything. We got what we paid for in this instance, as it was possibly the smallest screen we'd ever seen, but the film was decent enough.
Los locales seemed to appreciate it anyway ^. Next on our list was to revisit La Condesa - probably the area we were most enamoured with. Plenty of greenery, loads of cafes and beautiful places to chill out.
And having a solid craft beer bar Drunkendog didn't do anything to hurt our impressions of the place.
Very easy to spend an evening, or couple of days, killing a few hours at a number of the bars/restaurants/cafes here. We didn't have the time for that though, as we'd more cultural experiences to undertake: next up, Luche Libre
Organised by our hostel, with masks and mezcal supplied:
We made our way to the stadium, which is not what we expected. Stu had a vague idea of it being this low-key, small, traditional act - but it turned out to be full scale WWE-style entertainment. And first up, was a battle royale between the little people on the roster. What had we signed ourselves up for.
Bit of craic anyway, we guess? The entire thing was questionable. Not quite sure what we'd partaken in, but we put it down to a cultural experience, and moved on. Our time was running out anyway, with just one more day before we'd to undertake another pretty big journey to the south of the country. Given how massive of a city it is, we'd forgive ourselves if we missed out on a part of it - namely the historic centre, and we almost did given nobody else turned up for the free walking tour on our last morning. Thankfully (or not) our guide decided to go ahead with the tour, and we got a glimpse of a couple of things we hadn't seen yet, some more delicious tacos al pastor, but ultimately nothing better than in La Condesa or Roma.
However afterwards we decided to stop by Mercado de San Juan, a large marketplace we'd been told about on our first day but put off going to up until our very last. We decided we'd regret not checking it out - and we made the right call, as we instantly saw what all the fuss was about - the place was hopping. The most enthusiastic barista known to man greeted us for a coffee at Triana - and by the end of the night gave us two more shots of espresso on the house, on top of the coffees we bought - which most definitely didn't help us get any semblance of sleep in our already loud hostel.
Now re-energised by all the caffeine, we wandered around to see what else was offered here - with vendors shouting about the lion and crocodile meat they had for sale. Insects too, where a German couple offered to buy us anything we wanted, as long as they got to watch us attempt to eat it:
We didn't take them up on the offer, instead walking back to the more conventional parts of the market, and opting for the tapas+wine restaurant for our evening meal.
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
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