May and June were good months to be in Bahia de Kino, for lazy swimming in warm water, fiery sunsets over the Sea of Cortez, and soft moonlight glowing through waffle-clouds and palm trees. And there was much to do in Hermosillo – international artists and opera at the annual Festival del Pitic, the engaging music of Cámara Rock at Está Cabral, and challenging exhibitions at MUSAS, the city’s fine arts museum.
But then came July, and Kino Bay was heating up – well beyond the usual hot early-summer temperatures, to mid-summer insufferable – as it does every year in July, August, and September. It was time to pack our bags and head for the airport. Air travel can be very reasonable if you’re flying within Mexico, and not crossing that border into the US. Carolyn found us good tickets on Aeromexico to Mexico City (US$195.35 each, one-way) and that’s another reason we decided to head south this summer – to the high cool air of central Mexico.
This year we would not be flagging down the Costa bus in front of our house, as our friends, Peter and Frances, were heading back to their home near Patagonia, AZ on the same morning we were due to depart. They kindly dropped the three of us (my sister Elyse is joining us for another trip!) at the Hermosillo airport with plenty of time to catch our plane to Mexico City’s sprawling Benito Juarez airport.
We arrived hungry and stopped at an airport restaurant serving Spanish food. It was good, but they seemed disappointed when we didn’t order several bottles of wine to finish off the afternoon. We’ll save that for later.
We caught a secure taxi to duel with the intense city traffic, and we arrived soon enough at a very nice two-bedroom apartment that Carolyn had booked for a month at Calle Agricultura 39, in the Escandón section (Cost: about US$1300 per month, or $42/night). We’re just across a quiet street from a good mercado and a beautiful small park, where children’s voices fill the evening air. The book shelves are filled with works ranging from Tolstoy to Elmore Leonard, and a raft of movies to watch, if we have the time. And we’re only two blocks from those fine parks and great eateries in the tree-lined Condesa neighborhood.
The windows of our fifth-floor apartment look right out into tall green and sculptural jacaranda trees that line the park. Rich lavender jacaranda blossoms falling to the sidewalk are a signature element of parks throughout CDMX (Mexico City). There’s a street fair along two sides of the park, so Carolyn and Elyse quickly found jewelry stalls to investigate. There’s a community center in the park featuring tall ‘green walls’ of oxygen-producing plants. And an artist is creating a giant mural of Mexican symbolism along one side. It’s a painstaking process, and the mural advances slowly each day.
After unpacking our bags and checking out the park, a short rest was in order. And when we emerged into the twilight in search of dinner, we found it just two doors away at a fine little place called A-43.
Platters of good gnocchi and farfale bolognese were chased with ample glasses of Argentine red. On another evening we returned to taste their considerable skill with vegetables, a true mark of good cooking. And in a refreshing change from the ordinary, they don’t bother to set out pretentious stemware. The kind of wine we drink is just fine in juice glasses; it’s not so precious that the heat of our fingers could possibly ‘bruise’ it.
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“You’re going to Mexico City? In the summer? Are you crazy?”
Actually, those are questions we often get from people who may or may not have ever been to Mexico City, or spent time really exploring it. This is one of the world’s great cities, and it’s more affordable than many others. The city sits at 2240m (7350 ft), so summers are cool, if a bit rainy; but there’s less pollution, and people who fear to venture here are simply missing out.
So yeah, we often run contrary to the popular wisdom. And we’re now in Mexico City. In the summer.
We’ve wandered this city before, by taxi, Metro, bus, and on foot. And we’ve never felt particularly threatened. Our biggest problem will be deciding what to do first in this great city of the world.
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The decision is made: we’ll spend our first day introducing Elyse to the quiet streets, fine cafes, and edgy posters of the Condesa. This is our favorite part of the city, and we’ll begin at a fine creperie.
We’ll follow that with beautiful Parque México and its daily squads of dog-walkers. There was one sad xolouitzcuintle, the hairless black Aztec dog breed called ‘xolos’, having to endure a ‘time out.’
In the Condesa we can stop by one of several fine pastelerias and a gourmet wine shop to gather some ‘groceries’ before breaking for lunch at Café Matisse. And we’ll buy some fine delights at Tout Chocolat on our way back to the apartment for an afternoon nap.
We’ll return in the evening for some good music at a funky club called Groove, where they use big old TV sets for lounge tables. The drink menu features booze-related quotes from great philosophers, including Winston Churchill: “Liquor has given me more than it’s taken away.” And Victor Hugo: “God made no more than water, but mankind made wine.” (And yes, that's me photo-ing the food.)
So we start off the evening with drinks and then order up a good meal with a bottle of wine, followed with brandy. After the first set, we’re exhausted and feeling rosy and ready to leave. But Alexandra Tischendorf, the singer, comes to our table and says we should order a round of mescals and hear the last set. We finally get out of there about 1:30 a.m. and laughingly stumble our way back to our cosy beds.
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We awake later than usual on the following morning. Carolyn needs to tend to a few business matters, so Elyse and I take the subway to Coyoacán to visit Frida Kahlo’s beautiful Blue House, which Carolyn has visited twice before. The Viveros Metro station is one of the best ways to start a day in Coyoacán. The Viveros is the vast nursery where they grow the plants for Mexico City’s parks. It also serves as a green sward recreation area for runners, walkers, and those who just want to contemplate the day or watch the ridiculously acrobatic squirrels who inhabit these woods.
It’s late in the morning when we get to the Frida House, and the waiting line is far too long to deal with. (Frida’s a popular item now so we’ll return much earlier in a few days.) But from here it’s only about two blocks further to the Leon Trotsky house, an important stop in CDMX history. Trotsky was one of Lenin’s inner circle during the early idealistic days of the Russian Revolution, before the terror Stalin would inflict upon the nation. During Stalin’s rise to power, Trotsky was sent to Siberia and then escaped from Russia to various western nations before gaining political asylum in Mexico with the help of Diego Rivera. The Trotsky House, with its tranquil gardens, is where he moved after his friendship with Diego became strained, and where he was assassinated in 1940 by one of Stalin’s followers. By that time almost all of his family members had been purged by the Revolution. The Trotsky House is a powerful place to visit, and we topped off the experience, oddly enough, with a gourmet lunch served by a man with a red star on his cap.
The quiet streets of Coyoacán drew us onward, to the main plaza and beyond. We crossed the plaza to Calle Francisco Sosa, with its ancient mansions and quiet squares as our exit route to the Quevedo Metro station. Along the way we’d stop by a cantina participating in the new anti-drinking-straw campaign.
We’ll celebrate their fine effort with afternoon margaritas before continuing onward past the mansion where the actress, Dolores del Rio, lived out her days. Her famous portrait by Diego Rivera is still on display at Rivera’s studio in San Ángel, and we’ll visit it soon.
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Another day dawns, and the time has come to visit a completely different, and very modern, part of the city. We’ll head for the exclusive Polanco section where Carlos Slim, often ranked as the ‘World’s Richest Man,’ built his personal museum to honor his deceased wife. We emerge from the Polanco Metro station into the world of exclusive shops lining broad Avenida Presidente Masaryk. Here the streets are named for poets and writers, and an Uber Eats guy delivers your lunch by bicycle. We stop for coffee at a place called (what else?!) the Snob Bistro.
Later, we’ll all have pedicures (my very first! no more bear feet!) at Der Foot Haus before dropping by the local Aston Martin dealer for a window-peak. (Somehow my camera went to black&white, but you get the idea.)
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Another day and we’re back to what many people consider the ‘real’ CDMX. We’ll be going downtown to the grand Museo Bellas Artes for the big Picasso-Rivera exhibit that’s been making it’s way from Los Angeles to Dallas and beyond. It’s one of several world-class art shows we’ll see during our time here in Mexico City. I’m sorry they permitted no photos for this event, but the famous murals, by Rivera, Siquieros, Orozco, Tamayo and others, plus the gorgeous architecture, are alone worth the effort to visit the Bellas Artes. Here you can see Rivera's re-creation of the famous mural destroyed by Nelson Rockfeller because Rivera wouldn't remove Lenin's protrait. (Lenin's prominent in this one.)
And just across busy Ave. Lázaro Cárdenas stands the famous Casa de los Azulejos that graces the face of every Sanborn’s menu in the country. This is the original Sanborn’s, and the old lunch counter is a fine place to stop for a plate of enchiladas. The old guys who gather here give the place a special character.
We step outside Sanborn’s onto the busy Calle Madero pedestrian way, and on the other side we notice an intriguing art installation called “La ‘politica’ de limites.” It’s a forest of 3/4” PVC pipes with a quote on each one. It’s easy to lose yourself for a few minutes in this modern industrial forest, reading the words of others.
And lest you think all our fine dining is done at fancy (but still affordable!) bistros, we returned that evening to the apartment for brimming plates of delicious pasta alfredo and a bottle of Israeli wine we got at a deli in the Polanco (!). Who could have imagined that?
And that was just our first week. The time has passed quickly. There’s just so much to do in a city this grand. So we’ll leave it there for now and plan to issue other reports before we travel onward. — PRW
A Rough Chronology (so far):
Jul 5 — Arrival
Jul 6 — Walk thru Condesa; Parque Mexico; Lunch @ Matisse
Jul 7 — Subway; Coyoacán; Viveros; Frida-Trotsky; Plaza; Calle Fco. Sosa
Jul 8 — Mercado; Walkabout; Groove
Jul 9 — Crepes; more Condesa Walkabout
Jul 10 — Polanco
Jul 11 — Bellas Artes; Sanborn’s; PVC Art piece