Well it was an excellent bounce back day after feeling run down yesterday. We got up earlyish in attempt to beat the crowds at Teotihuacan and generally had success. To get there, we took an Uber up to the Autobus del Norte bus station. We've generally used Uber to get around quite a bit as it's cheap and pretty efficient. It took maybe 30 minutes or so in a decent amount of traffic. While they do have limited access roads, a lot are still at grade and aren't truly a "freeway". I suppose they are the smart ones in the end as all the U.S. cities are trying to get rid of their freeways through urban parts of town. From there, we took a bus that was generally non-stop to Teotihuacan although it did make a few stops on the way out of the city center and as we got into the town that the ruins were in. There's no sign on the road for any of these, so I assume there's maybe "zones" where they'll stop on demand and pick up/drop off as need be and then in the middle of the trip, they won't stop. Who knows. The Norte bus terminal was also huge. And tons of different vendors rather than a centralized ticked area. I didn't expect that, so Kate asked a security guard, who didn't seem too interested in talking to us, but pointed us in the right direction. In general though, people have been super helpful in pointing out where we need to go in similar situations.
It was roughly an hour on the bus to get to the ruins. It was super interesting to drive out of the city. It didn't take super long to get out of the old lake bed (although presumably Teotihuacan was also in the same lake, so maybe we just cut over a peninsula). There were definitely stretches of agriculture as we approached Teotihuacan, so I'd say it was out of the city by my definition.
The ruins were outstanding. Pretty cool to spend a couple of hours meandering around the giant pyramids and old city ruins. You can't climb them any more (probably for the best, but you could as recently as 2018), but gazing up at them is a sight to behold. Absolutely worth the trip out there.
Got back into town and had a late lunch at a cafe in our neighborhood. My appetite still isn't the best, but it was also the first full on meal I'd had, which was a good sign.
We chilled at the Airbnb for a while and took the Metro down to the Frida Kahlo museum for our 5:00 tickets. While we've definitely taken a lot of ubers, it's been nice to ride the subway a bit. First because it's basically free at 5 pesos a ride and also because it's good people watching and a good taste of city life.
It was again fairly easy to get down there and walk the neighborhood for a bit to get to the museum. It's a few miles south of us and definitely seems more relaxed, a little less dense, but still well-to-do. Colorful houses, well kept plants, tree-lined streets.
I'm not a big art guy, but it was great taking in the Frida Museum as well. She was multi-talented in modes of art she produced and so iconic. Ultra famous in her lifetime. She was connected with artists all over the world, random Marxist exiles from Russian, event the Rockefellers. Her house was cool to meander through too. The museum did a good job leaving a lot of the rooms intact like they were when she lived there.
Post museum, we went back up to the subway and traveled toward the city center. The "Nivel Sky Bar" is in their oldest/one of their biggest skyscrapers in the city and the most "central" in the city (presumably before they put up height restrictions like other cities).
The drinks were a little expensive for Mexico, but I believe cheaper than going to the observation floor only 4 floors higher and the views were amazing (drinks were good too). It was so cool to watch the sun set on the valley and see the lights of the city come on. Another great perspective of the sheer size of the metro area.
Dinner was a little over a mile away at Darosa. We walked the large prominade across the street from Alameda Central was bustling we people, street performers and vendors. Most of the streets are lively, but this one had great energy and was fun to talk through.
Darosa was opened by a friend of Kate's cousin Scott. We actually met the owner, which was pretty cool to make the connection. It was a higher end Italian place and great food. Definitely smaller portions, but the bill in the end was still less than $50.
Finished up the night at a local Gelato place back in our neighborhood. Despite the setback of getting here and the overnight illness, it's been a great stay in Mexico City. Looking forward to heading to Guanajuato tomorrow.
Random jottings:
- A lot of Mexicans love to sweep. Every morning, there are people sweeping out in front of their store. And in general, the streets are quite clean. Gotta be tidy, I suppose.
-Another sizable chunk of Mexicans drive around selling Tamales or other foods in their cars/trucks and blast what they are selling over a loud speaker. Possibly as enduring as the sweepers, but also more annoying. Of perhaps the oddest/biggest offense was some guy driving closer to our airbnb at ~10:30 at night selling them. First off, too late for such noise (for Midwesterners anyway), but also, who's sitting in their house just waiting for the impulse buy of Tamales at 10:30 at night? Then again, those guys probably know more of their market than me. What's funny is that it's definitely a recorded voice and it seems to be the same from different trucks and different parts of the city. There is a male and a female version, but if a truck has the male voice, to me, it seems like the same male voice as another truck in another part of the city. How the heck does that become a commercial entity?
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