Last
week, work presented an opportunity to see a city that I never really thought
of for vacation but am certainly glad I was able to visit. While the trip had a few rough patches in the
beginning and looked like it could be a week stuck in the hotel, it turned out
to be a fair and balanced excursion.
Ironically,
the prior weekend Dorothy and I attended a wedding where the groom was
originally from Mexico City. After getting
a slew of tips and recommendations from him, I left for a four day, three night
trip to Mexico City on Monday morning and was there by the early afternoon (one
hour behind US EST). Upon arrival, I was
scheduled to have a driver pick up arranged by the hotel. We had to have missed one another multiple
times walking back and forth a 50 foot hallway.
After having the “Informacion” desk call the hotel for me, we managed to
finally run into each other in the terminal.
For
the record, my Spanish is essentially non-existent. After multiple years in high school and a
semester in college (ha), I really don’t remember too much of it at all. I can pick up words here and there when
someone is speaking it, but in terms of speaking it myself; no chance.
The Intercontinental Hotel
is/was quite impressive. Located in the
Polanco section of Mexico City, you find yourself within walking distance of
the park, the Anthropology Museum, and the President’s Castle. I’ve simply listed these items because those
are what we went to see during our time in the city; you can imagine / be sure
there is plenty more.
The
vast majority of Monday was spent holed up in the hotel room until I met a
co-worker for dinner at the restaurant in the hotel – Alfredo Di Roma. I wound up going with some type of “Hunters
Chicken” and that was delicious. With
dinner, that basically concluded our first day in Mexico City as it was back to
the room for preparations.
On
Tuesday, and every other morning of the week, we had breakfast in another hotel
restaurant – Frutas y Flores. They had a little bit of everything across
cultures and made it very easy to enjoy a quick, but filling breakfast (including
an omelette station).
After
our meetings, we decided that we had enough time to check out the Anthropology Museum
and walked over to take a look. I am not
a museum person at all, but there are a lot of interesting artifacts and paintings
throughout the exhibits. My friend from
the prior weekend’s wedding suggested we focus on the Mayan and Aztec
exhibits. Sadly, our Spanish is/was so
terrible that we could only find the Mayan exhibit and wound up taking pictures
in the Oaxaca exhibit. There may or may
not have been a convincing argument that the letter Z doesn’t exist in Spanish
and this “could have been” the Aztec exhibit made by yours truly. Since returning home I’ve come to realize
that I took a picture of the outside of the museum where the Aztec exhibit was
located. Naturally. One final note on the museum complex – they have
a beautiful “waterfall”-esque structure built in the middle called “El Paraguas”
– which is a huge concrete umbrella that sprays water down on the walkway. (Picture below)
We
left the museum to walk down “Presidente Masaryk” which is one of the main
streets in the Polanco section of Mexico City.
This is where you will find a number of restaurants and shops. You’ll see local cuisine and just about anything
else imaginable, including a “Melting Pot” and NY City Pizza Shop. After a short walk we found (see: walked
into) our restaurant – Dulce Patria. The food here was fantastic, but the
presentation was even better. The
appetizer that I particularly enjoyed was the “esquites”.
“We” are going to try that make that here at home. Both the dinner and desserts were good as
well, but the esquites won me over.
After
our final day of meetings, we walked through more of the park, took a wrong
turn, and eventually landed at the “Castillo de Chapultepec” – or the President’s
Castle. Unfortunately, we really didn’t
have time to go into the castles, as our driver was picking us up shortly back
at the hotel to take us downtown. So, in
the pictures below, you’ll only find what the outside of the castle looks
like. Sorry!
Our
driver picked us up and drove us to downtown Mexico City slowing down at some
of the more important highlights along the way – El Angel de la Independencia
and the Palace of Fine Arts, while also pointing out the US Embassy. Once we got to the square downtown, it felt
like I landed in Europe. That’s a
compliment by the way. The Parliament
building was beautiful, as were the surrounding cathedrals and museums.
We
made our way through the Parliament building and the exhibits within it. The murals on the walls are amazing. Before heading over and into the cathedral in
the square, we took a quick look at the ruins that are positioned between the
two buildings. The cathedral itself is
very impressive and you can see how the building has moved from the 1985 earthquake
that shook the city. (Read that Wiki
page, absolutely ridiculous amount of damage.)
Our
final dinner of the trip was downtown at Azul Historico. This restaurant is an outdoor patio in the
middle of a number of small, local shops.
There is a retractable roof for inclement weather, so no worries
there. This was a fitting end to our
trip and my digestive system as I was able to order the plainest item on the
menu – a piece of fish and white rice. Yes,
please! I completely messed up the tip
and put it in American dollars (or just recalculated it completely wrong in my
head, you decide) and had to go back in and ask them if I could fix that. I’m sure they thought I was trying to pull a
fast one or was some slime-ball American.
On our
way to the airport the next morning, our driver was kind enough to stop by the “Basilica of Our Lady of
Guadalupe” – an enormous complex of churches and national treasure
to Roman Catholics. People trek from all
over to see this town, particularly on 12/12 of each year. There are old and new churches and they each
have their own style and décor to them.
So
that was my trip to Mexico City. I obviously
missed a lot, but do feel like I got to see a good amount of the history and
culture of the city. I would love to go
back to see more in the future! Any
recommendations?
Pictures:
Viva Mexico!
Anthropology Museum:
Mayan exhibit:
El Paraguas:
President's Castle:
El Angel de la Independencia:
Palace of Fine Arts:
Cathedral in the main square:
Parliament building:
Murals within the Parliament:
La Basilica:
La Basilica:
