Even after a couple of weeks in this great city there’s still so much left to do for the rest of our month-long stay – a major Andy Warhol exhibit, a pictorial visit to Venice, Teotihuacán. There’s a lot to do.
In order to keep our budget on track, we’re located near Metro and MetroBus stops for quick access to cheap and efficient transportation. Mexico City lies in a huge bowl in the mountains at an elevation of around 7000 ft above sea level. They have to deal with their own pollution, unlike NYC, Miami, Washington, DC, Paris, London, Istanbul, and other major cities that can just let it all drift downwind. The steps they’ve taken in CDMX to improve air quality and efficiency – from their efficient Metro and MetroBús systems to their free public bike program – can serve as an example for much of the world.
In 2015 Mexico City’s remarkable SCT Metro (subway) system moved 1.623 billion passengers (about 4.5 million passengers a day). It’s estimated that one Metro train replaces about 1,275 car trips per day. Signs encourage people to get off at an earlier station and walk, as a weight reduction method – and to reduce crowding, we suspect! During rush hours the first few train cars are reserved for women and children only.
The system is more than 140 miles long, with 195 stations, and it survived the massive (8.1 Richter scale) earthquake in 1985 – it was partially closed to avoid electrocution hazards and to clear surface debris, but the Metro structure was not damaged.
We’ve ridden on many subway systems, and the CDMX system is a good one. In fact, it’s better than the long-neglected NYC subway system we rode last year.
In addition, the rapid, frequent, and clean Metrobús system moves almost another million passengers daily on dedicated surface routes. The new Reforma Metrobús line, due to open in 2018, will feature state-of-the-art Alexander Dennis Enviro500 buses.
The Metro and MetroBús systems are essential elements of the city’s economy. Low fares (5 pesos, about $0.28US) encourage ridership, getting huge numbers of workers to their jobs each day. There are lower fares for students, the elderly, etc. We tap our rechargeable cards to the sensor, it deducts 5 pesos, and we’re through the gate.
In addition there are dedicated and protected bike lanes on many major streets and a free bike-use program. Plus there are about 140,000 pink and white CDMX taxis cruising the streets. And fares are cheap.
With all the options offered here there’s little reason to fight traffic with your own car in Mexico City.
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The upscale Polanco neighborhood is home to the Museo Jumex and the adjacent futuristic Soumaya – Carlos Slim’s personal museum, named for his deceased wife. This is the exclusive part of town where Carlos Slim, often ranked as the ‘World’s Richest Man,’ still lives and where he chose to build his Museo Soumaya, as an homage to his deceased wife. It looms ahead as we walk along the old Cuernavaca train tracks from the San Joaquin station, the closest Metro stop.
The Soumaya is a head-turning piece of architecture. In a world of tall rectangular glass boxes, this sleek twister is often called ‘The Blender.’ It’s just next to the Jumex Museum, known as the ‘Cheese Grater,’ for its serrated roof.
Lavish ‘Marilyn’ posters beckon, and Andy Warhol was always crazy-exciting; so we chose the Warhol ‘Estrella Oscura’ (‘Dark Star’) exhibit at the Jumex for our museum visit of the day. Andy doesn’t disappoint us.
The only thing disappointing is : “No Photos” past the entry hall off the elevator to the top floor. So I grab a few snaps in the entryway, featuring Warhol’s “Cow” wallpaper, and stash the camera.
The exhibits cover so much of his work, from early attempts to find his artistic voice, and his “Most Wanted” series of criminals, to his own later full-fledged celebrity; several “Marilyns” are here,
plus “Elvis,” “Jackie,” and “Liz,” and that famous “Mao” painting that’s posted on bus stops around the city. And they don’t gloss over his dogged determination to become famous. For Andy, the branding became an obsession. You can see lots more of Andy here.
With this exhibit Andy Warhol has taken over the entire building, so we head down the Museum’s crazy-fun stairway to another whole floor of Andy. And along the way we pause at a large open balcony for sweeping views of the ’neighbors.’
And then we’re down another floor to “The Silver Factory,” a fun chunk of the display, where we’re bombarded by aluminum balloons nudged along by fans – and finally, we’re allowed to take pictures. In the 1960s Warhol was building these aluminum pillows at his “Factory” in NYC and floating them out an upper window as a kind of ‘participatory art.’ We’re not allowed to push the pillows around, but only stand there as they gently collide into us. It’s a hoot.
Click here for more about Andy. Also check out the movie “Factory Girl” about Edie Sedgwick and her time with Warhol.
After another rewarding ‘museum day’ in CDMX, we escape back to the leafy streets of the Condesa to a fine eatery on shady Avenida Amsterdam. Afterward, we’ll walk back to the apartment through verdant Parque México. It’s a great way to end the day.
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On a quiet Sunday morning we board the Metro and head for the Alameda. We emerge from the art deco ‘Paris Metro’ style entry right beside the gorgeous Palacio de Bellas Artes for a performance by the Ballet Folklórico. It’s a rousing spectacle and well worth attending. The beautiful architecture, gorgeous interior, and stained glass ceiling are a bonus.
After the Ballet, the Alameda is the perfect tree-lined park for a Sunday stroll among classical sculptures. Plus, there’s a new installation called “Timo Entre la Gente” (Timo Among the People), a little round character that the kids (and most of the rest of us) want to take our pictures with.
There’s time for coffee and a snack at the Juan Valdéz Café, while hundreds of people ride their bikes – and unicycles! – down the broad Paseo de la Reforma, which is closed to car traffic on Sundays.
We amble onward to the nearby Jardín del Arte for the Sunday show, but the garden is currently being rebuilt. So the show is on the sidewalk just outside the park itself. We saw plenty of pieces we could easily live with, if we had the money. And the wall space.
But in the center of Reforma there’s a sign that slaps us out of a nice Sunday reverie and into the tragic present. It’s at the base of a small monument to the 43 students from a teachers college in Guerrero who were disappeared (as in murdered and their bodies destroyed) by the Mayor of Iguala, his wife and their drug gang accomplices. The sign reads: ¡Because you took them away alive, we want them back alive!’
There’s also an encampment further up Reforma with school ID pictures of every victim, to keep the memory of these students alive. They were so bright, young and hopeful, and they should now be among the leaders and educators of their country. Instead, signs demanding an end to such “impunidad” are all too common here and in many other parts of the nation.
For all the charms of Mexico, it’s impossible to forget the great crimes that have been committed here. This is a relentless and brutal land at times, a land described by Malcolm Lowry in a letter as, “the most Christ-awful place in the world in which to be in any sort of distress, a sort of Moloch that feasts on suffering souls.” Yet it can also be, perversely, about redemption. We have seen that happen too. Still, we remind ourselves that we are among the lucky to be not personally harmed by such criminal tragedies – in our own country and abroad.
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It’s another day, and we make our way back to the leafy streets of Polanco, the wealthy area where it’s sometimes too easy to forget the crimes of the powerful. And this time we’ll be visiting Carlos Slim’s privately-funded museum, the shimmering Soumaya.
A visit to the Soumaya is best begun with a trip up the elevator to the fifth floor (you’ll have to walk up to the sixth floor), followed by a slow stroll down the connecting ramp that spirals around the building. The sixth floor holds an impressive array of sculpture ranging from numerous large works by Rodin (the largest collection outside France) to a batch of amusing small pieces of wry commentary by Daumier.
The fifth floor houses someone’s passionate love affair with Venice. It’s an extensive collection of gorgeous paintings sure to inspire the romantic side in most of us, and it may well be the next best thing to actually visiting Venice. It even includes a few surprising pieces (among the least beautiful, by my taste) by youthful artists such as Dalí and Di Chirico who would later become radicals opposed to such ‘fluff.’ But it’s hard not to love just wandering through this floor admiring the work of the masters.
The fourth floor holds an impressive array of the best of modern European artists. Pretty much everybody is here: Rubens, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Degas, Van Gogh – all the usual suspects. But there’s a surprising twist: I had no idea Khalil Gibran was an accomplished portrait artist. There are several of his fine works on display.
And the important artists of Mexico are well represented among Slim’s personal collection of more than 60,000 notable works. This collection is designed to educate Mexicans about their rich artistic heritage; and the works go far beyond Rivera, Orozco, and Tamayo, to Villalpando, Cabrera and Páez, among many others.
Regardless of the fine works on display within, the bold exterior of the Soumaya makes a strong architectural statement, while the museum’s ‘free admission’ policy provides access for average Mexicans and students to an impressive collection of art. And the place is very popular. While the entryway seems ridiculously tiny, the lobby is cavernously ungainly, and some of the sloping interior walls can be vertigo-inducing, the Soumaya provides important access for the many to the greater world of art, including a full-sized, accurate (to 0.01%), and Vatican-approved, copy of Michelangelo’s ‘Pietá.’
It was a lot to see, and we got back to the apartment very hungry for some more great food served up by A43, that good little restaurant just two doors away from our digs.
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Even after all that, there’s still so much left to do in Mexico City. We make time for a walk through the gorgeous back streets of San Ángel.
We’ll stop to see the colorful exhibit of traditional clothing at the Museo del Carmen, and then spend time exploring the extensive grounds of this old monastery.
And the challenging Museo Carrillo Gil is just close by, where they’re showing a collection of painful works by Orozco depicting the Revolution, plus a wild ‘pan-activist’ known as Xul Solar, who invented his own games and language.
And Diego Rivera’s art-filled workshop is just a bit beyond that, where his famous portrait of Dolores del Rio still stands surrounded by his many other works. There’s the famous bridge to cross, the one that still connects his place to Frida’s. And Juan O’Donahue’s place is next to theirs.
As we leave San Ángel I spot a couple of guys sitting below a poster for “Humor in the Mexican Cinema.” They (and I) get a good laugh out of that famous quote from Mexico’s beloved Cantinflas: “Do we act like gentlemen, or as we are?”
We’ll take the MetroBús back to the Condesa and have dinner at Groove, as another good jazz combo plays into the evening. It’s become a bit of a go-to hangout for us.
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Over the following days we’ll make time to wander through the funky-good Roma neighborhood, with its delis, restaurants, and public art. And we’ll find a wonderful community garden tucked away in the margins of the verdant Jardín Ramón Lopez Velarde.
We’ll linger for a while in quiet Plaza Luis Cabrera to admire the gorgeous fountain, and the giant sculpture of a head lying there.
And we’ll pass a statue of Cantinflas, perhaps the most beloved of Mexico’s comedians. It pays to wander in the Roma area.
We pass a display of ‘Haiku art’ and other urban art pieces on our way to the Casa Lamm to check out what’s hanging on the walls these days. There’s usually something of interest, and their lush courtyard is always worth a stop
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Metro Line 3 takes us to the southern edge of town and MUAC (Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo), the handsome modernist museum at UNAM. It’s a soaring space with displays ranging from challenging radical artists to interactive instruments. And there’s an elegant lunch cafe looking out into the gardens.
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On this trip we’ll spend some time in the warren of streets around the Zócalo, the main square, the place where so much happens in this big city. And we’ll make time for lunch nearby at the venerable old Café de Tacuba.
The Museo Franz Mayer is near the gorgeous Bellas Artes, just across the street from the Alameda. The featured exhibit displayed the exquisite works of Japan. A collection of excellent renderings were showing in the Architectural area. And the lavish silver and antique collections of Franz Mayer remain on permanent display.
The ornate National Museum is only a block away, and its excellent and extensive collections always deserve a visit to see the history of Mexico, expressed by its finest artists. There's a large collection of huge religion-based canvases, but I was drawn back to revisit those scenes of wonderful bacchanalia I remembered from previous visits. I guess we each worship our own gods….
So later we'll stop at one of those great little sidewalk cafés in the Condesa and raise our glasses to all this city has to offer.
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As our days grow short, we sign on to a tour bus bound for the crowded Virgen de Guadalupe shrine, and then onward to the massive ruins at Teotihuacán. Carolyn and I have already been there but Elyse hasn’t; it’s an impressive site to visit, and not one to miss, even for a second time. We also hang out a lot with an engaging young Austrian guy named Marton, who billy-goats up the pyramids a lot better than we do! We’ll plan to visit with Marton again in a year or two, but next time in Vienna.
We get back to CDMX in the late afternoon, and the tour bus drops us at the corner of Insurgentes and Sonora. From there it’s only a block or so to Parque México and all that the Condesa has to offer. Tonight we’re heading for a place we’ve passed a few times before and want to check out before we leave town — a jazz and blues club that happens to be named Parque México. It was a fine way to invest one of our last evenings in this great world-class city.
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And even after a month in Mexico City, there are still things we didn’t get done. But that will have to wait for a return visit. This is a challenging and rewarding city that’s constantly renewing itself. There’s so much repair and improvement work currently underway here, from the massive new Norman Foster-designed airport project, to multiple high-rise buildings, to several kilometers of gorgeous new sidewalks on Ave. Insurgentes, that the place will surely be very different when we return.
We’ve enjoyed our wanders through the many interesting streets and neighborhoods in this intriguing city. And being able to book a nice apartment in the modest Escandón neighborhood with plenty of fine and affordable restaurants nearby has once again made Mexico City an obvious choice for a budget-conscious sojourn.
• Find our 2015 CDMX eLogs here:
But frankly, we’re ready for a more relaxed pace. The next stop for us will be one of our favorite places in this country – or the world, for that matter. We’ll be going to beautiful Guanajuato. So please watch for our next blog, and come along with us. — PRW
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Our Month in CDMX; a Rough Chronology:
Jul 5; Arrival
Jul 6; Walk thru Condesa; Parque Mexico; Lunch @ Matisse
Jul 7; Subway; Coyoacán; Viveros; Frida-Trotsky; Plaza; Fco. Sosa
Jul 8: Mercado; Walkabout; Groove
Jul 9: Crepes; Condesa Walkabout
Jul 10: Polanco
Jul 11: Bellas Artes; Sanborn’s; Art piece
Jul 12: Péndulo, Lunch
WEEK 2:
Jul 13: Casa Frida
Jul 14: Xochimilco; Dolores Olmedo
Jul 15: Santo; Anthro Museum; Porrúa; Museo Tamayo
Jul 16 (Sun): Museo de Arte Moderno
Jul 17: Rest Day, at last!
Jul 18; Cafe Tacuba
Jul 19; Museo Jumex, Andy Warhol, City Market
WEEK 3:
Jul 20; Hang out day, Café El Ilusionista,
Jul 21; Museo del Carmen, Museo Carrillo Gil
Jul 23; Ballet Folklórico, Alameda, Jardín del Arte, Juan Valdez Café
Jul 24; Hang out day
Jul 25; Museo Soumaya
Jul 26; San Ángel, Diego’s Studio, Groove
Jul 27; Roma, Casa Lamm, MUCA Roma
WEEK 4:
Jul 28; Franz Mayer
Jul 29; UNAM, Condesa
Jul 30; Zócalo, San Ildefonso murals
Jul 31; Hang out day
Aug 1; Nat’l Museum, Rivera mural museum
Aug 2; Hang out day (Prep for departure)
Aug 3; Teotihuacán, Guadalupe shrine, El Parque México-jazz
Aug 4; Brunch at El Péndulo
Aug 5; Depart for Guanajuato