A Last-Minute Trip to Mexico City

July 27, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Mexico

We called Mexico City our bonus trip for the year. Jason was between jobs for a few weeks, so we booked a last-minute trip to take advantage of his time off. We both had vaguely wanted to go, but we didn’t actually know much about the city, so we were excited to experience it.

A metal wall with barbed wire along the top, with each segment painted with a mural and trees and a scooter in front. — Art and murals everywhere you look (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two people riding a motorcycle past a row of tents selling food. — A typical scene of vendors with a mural in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

People standing around a food stall, making and buying food. — Street fruit (photo/Jason Rafal)

A building with a large mural of a woman's head and shoulders, with stained glass on most of the windows. — They went all-out on building decoration (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mexico City is in a bizarre location. The lore says that when the Aztecs were looking for the right place to build their capital city, a prophecy said that wherever they saw an eagle with a snake in its mouth land on a cactus, they should build there. They ended up seeing the sign on an island in the middle of a swampy high-mountain lake, which was kind of terrible luck, but true to the prophecy, they started building the city of Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City.

Now home to a staggering 21 million people, the city feels special in both climate and history. It’s at almost 7400 feet elevation, so it takes a lot more effort to move, but unlike the high mountain desert where I grew up, the city is lush and green from the swamp it’s built on and the remarkably consistent climate (there’s a rainy season and a dry season, but the highs top out between 65 and 85 degrees year round). The city is full of beautiful parks with massive trees, and beautiful architecture from many different eras. There are benches everywhere for people to just hang out and enjoy the parks, which is lovely, and they were certainly being used.

A man pushing a loaded hand cart and a woman walking in front of a fountain with a statue of David in the center. — The David statue in Plaza Río de Janeiro (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large sign that says "CDMX" in front of a lake with large apartment buildings in the background. — CDMX against a cloudy sky (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of a park with a lake on one side, giant panda statue on the other, large buildings in the distance, and a scruffy bird flying through the foreground. — The bird makes this look so otherworldly (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two adults and a child climbing up the bottom of a large tree. — An ambitious endeavor (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brightly-lit two-level carousel in a forested park. — A beautiful carousel in Chapultepec Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we were wandering around Chapultepec Park, a thunderstorm quickly rolled in, and we took shelter under the covered storage units that the street vendors used for their wares. It rained hard for about 20 minutes, but there was beautiful light peaking through the storm.

Three metal garage doors with murals painted on them - one with butterflies, one with a sea turtle, and one with a cactus. — There was a mural on every storage unit door (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across toward a sheltered row of garage doors with murals on them, with a climbing structure in the foreground. — Waiting out the rain (I’m in front of the axolotl) (photo/Jason Rafal)

People hiding under a picnic table, with cups of juice still on top of the table. — Another method for hiding from the rain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three pillars with eagles on them and a statue with two people in the middle. — The dramatic Altar a la Patria (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had heard this was the case, but the food in Mexico City is amazing. There’s everything from street food, to traditional Mexican restaurants, to fine dining creative fusion. One of our favorite restaurants we tried was Mexican-Middle Eastern-African fusion.

A man ordering at the counter of a beautiful bakery. — The amazing Panaderia Rosetta (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cross section of a layered fruit tart. — We have no idea how they cut this…or maybe you’re forced to eat the whole thing? (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elaborate tower of food starting with a corn cake, then stewed meat, a green sauce, and mint piled on top. — One of the beautiful and delicious dishes at Masala y Maiz (photo/Jason Rafal)

The city also has amazing museums. We first went to the anthropology museum, which is in a beautiful complex and has a variety of artifacts and information spanning from the beginning of humanity through the development of the area. There were a lot of outdoor exhibits, which I loved, but the highlight was probably the rather graphic and detailed dioramas.

View through the courtyard of the anthropology museum, with a pond, buildings on each side, and a covered giant fountain in the center. — The courtyard at the Museo Nacional de Antropología (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path toward a stone building with palm trees on both sides and a stone wall on the right. — The outdoor parts of this museum were some of my favorites (photo/Jason Rafal)

A diorama of a sabertooth tiger pinning down a human and preparing to bite down on its head. — The dioramas were quite dramatic (photo/Jason Rafal)

A diorama of humans taking the organs out of a dead human. — …they were also a bit gory (photo/Jason Rafal)

A carved statue of a person with fangs staring upward. — I think this is Tlāloc, Aztec god of rain (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also visited the Templo Mayor, which was the main temple of the city and had been demolished when the Spanish started tearing everything down and rebuilding. It’s now an excavation site that you can walk through, and there are also indoor exhibits of items that have been found (there were lots of skulls and art pieces).

Rows of carved stone skulls on a wall. — So. Many. Skulls. (photo/Jason Rafal)

An assortment of skulls, stone carvings, and other artifacts. — One of the time capsule-like exhibits (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tree with bark like an asparagus stalk and branches with small, spiky leaves at the top. — A very cool tree in the ruins (photo/Jason Rafal)

Chapultepec Castle is on a hill in the massive Chapultepec Park, and the views are wonderful. Built around 1800, the site and the castle had various uses over the years. It’s now a museum where many of the rooms are set up for viewing, and visitors can also ascend the grand staircases to walk in the beautiful gardens and decks on top of the castle.

Looking down a long room with a black and white checkered floor, elaborately designed ceiling, and floor-to-ceiling stained glass depicting columns and women on one side. — This stained glass was crazy (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tower in the middle of a garden. — The beautiful rooftop gardens at the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

A statue of a lion with one paw resting on top of the other and its head resting on top. — A mopey guardian lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

A painting of a person falling toward the earth with abstract horses and a castle behind them. — A rather intense ceiling painting in the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Nicole taking a self-portrait in a mirror in the museum with a model ship behind them. — Self portrait with a model ship (photo/Jason Rafal)

A red and gold carriage with a statue of a cherub on the front. — There were at least 6 cherubs on this carriage (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole leaning off a balcony and looking over the treetops of the park toward downtown Mexico City in the distance. — The view from the castle balcony over Chapultepec Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A very different museum that we visited was the Frida Kahlo house, where the artist lived for much of her life. A fascinating woman with absolutely terrible luck, Frida did amazing work, and the blue house and garden she inherited from her parents is amazing. Definitely look her up and learn more about her life, it’s a wild ride.

A large ceramic vase and plants in front of a dark blue wall with a red-rimmed window with green shutters. — A wall in Frida Kahlo’s beautiful garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also walked a little around the Coyoacan neighborhood where Frida’s house is. It’s a lovely neighborhood that felt older or more established than where we were staying. There were lots of restaurants, shops, and street vendors.

A water-stained old clock tower with a cloudy sky in the background. — The 16th century Parroquia San Juan Bautista (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fountain with a statue of two coyotes in the middle. — The coyote fountain in the park in central Coyoacan (guess what the neighborhood is named for) (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sign that says "Ignacio Allende" with a tiny painted coyote on top. — I love the little indicators of which neighborhood you’re in (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the nights we went to see the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, which is performed at the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes. We don’t have photos of the performance, but it ended up quiet different from what we expected. There was dancing. There was singing. There were dueling harps. There were people wearing giant heads. There was a comedic devil dragon. There was a ballet featuring the death throes of a deer. There was dancing with audience members. There were four false endings. It was an experience.

An elaborate building facade that says "Palacio de Bellas Artes" with an ombre tiled dome in the background. — The beautiful performing arts center (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stage with a background screen showing mountains and sky with a mural in an arch over the top. — The equally impressive stage curtain (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man in traditional clothing and a headdress surveys a crowd of people in front of the palace. — The scene in Zocalo, the central plaza (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also visited the artisan market, where we were some of the few tourists visiting on a weekday afternoon. Many of the pieces are made in studios at the market, which was very cool to see.

Looking up at a second-floor studio where guitars are hanging in a row. — A peek up into the guitar studio (photo/Jason Rafal)

We always love seeing the animals in cities, and Mexico City was particularly fun because there were tons of dogs, and tons of dog walkers, all over the place. The dog walkers would meet up in the parks, and the dogs they worked with were all very chill and well trained. We often saw them sitting in a semi circle or walking calmly in a row.

A man walking on a path through a park with 8 dogs on leashes. — A frequent park scene (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several dogs lying down in a semicircle in a park. — I was amazed at how well-trained the dogs were (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small, wrinkly white and brown spotted bulldog lying in the sidewalk with its legs stretched out behind it. — A particularly ridiculous and cute pup on the sidewalk (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dog sitting on a stool behind a street vendor and looking at the camera. — A very polite street cart dog (photo/Jason Rafal)

A blonde spaniel sticking its head out of a second-story window. — A cranky dog barking out the window at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

We didn’t see any cats at first, but we started seeing more as the trip went on, especially when we visited a community garden and educational center in Roma.

A cat sitting on the counter of a dry cleaning shop. — A dutiful shop cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two cats on a bench with their eyes closed, one sitting and one curled up. — Sleepy kitties (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cat lying on a tin roof with large leaves in the background. — Another sleepy kitty (photo/Jason Rafal)

A kitten with blue eyes through chicken wire. — A little kitten with gorgeous eyes in a pen with its siblings (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a wonderful trip, and we have a lot of great things to say about the city. We’re happy to have a direct flight there and definitely plan to be back.

A mural with angel wings and a heart against a rainbow background that says "Love is Love..!" — There were so many rainbows <3 (photo/Jason Rafal)

A garbage truck piled high with a picture of Yoshi on the open door. — A Yoshi garbage truck (photo/Jason Rafal)

A yellow wall and clocktower of an old building. — A university near the city center (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bus with people looking out the window at the camera. — Portrait of a bus (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mural of a squirrel and a rabbit riding a pumpkin and holding a small wooden sword and a paddle with a sign that says "Huerto Roma" while an opossum stretches toward the pumpkin. — I loved this mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a shaded street with a stone-walled building with ferns on the windowsill on. one side. — One of the beautiful streets in Roma Norte (photo/Jason Rafal)

An Enormous GoPro

December 04, 2017 by Nicole Harrison in Mexico

On Monday we took the tour to Isla Contoy that we were supposed to take on Saturday, which ended up being not the tour that I booked but a similar tour with another company that we were added into. This meant that instead of snorkeling at a reef and finishing the trip at Isla Contoy we snorkeled a small amount in another area of the water, spent some time at Isla Contoy, and visited - for the third time - Isla Mujeres.

Our boat was full of European tourists - there was maybe one other small group of American travelers on the boat. It was refreshing for us to be surrounded by other languages, but the guides had to repeat everything in six languages, which was quite the challenge for them.

Our first stop was snorkeling, which was in much calmer waters than the previous days. The guides all teased Jason for his sizable waterproof cased camera, which they called an enormous GoPro (some other people had cameras they took in the water, but they were always GoPros in waterproof cases, which was about ⅙ the size of Jason’s camera in his case). Our guide, Alex, took the group of people who spoke passable English on a tour of a somewhat shallow area with many fish, which he fed with “Mexican bread for Mexican fishes” to make them come up to the surface near us.

The shiny striped fish that we saw the most (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Many more fish on this trip (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric with a fish buddy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the end of the tour we went to the edge of MUSA, which is an underwater museum off the coast of Isla Mujeres. It features stone statues of people and cars and various other things, many of which can only be viewed through diving. Our guide took us to a circle of six giant stone hands making the blessing sign that were at snorkeling level. We were not allowed to touch them, but we could dive down and look at them more closely. I swallowed about a cup of sea water by diving down to see them and not clearing my snorkel at the right time as I came back up.

Eric walking like an Egyption near the hands (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading back to the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After snorkeling we got back on the boat to join everyone who had not gone snorkeling (only about half had gotten in the water) for the ride to Isla Contoy. Throughout the trip we were pressured by the boat staff into drinking very similar tasting, lightly alcoholic drinks of various bright colors. They also played dance music and encouraged us to dance along.

Tropical fruit buddies (with an excellent photobomb) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I had been holding a beer, so my hand was cold (Photo/Eric Strom)

After about an hour on the boat, we arrived at Isla Contoy, which is a wildlife preserve north of Isla Mujeres. It’s highly regulated - no sunscreen is allowed on the island, and the 200 visitors who are allowed per day on organized trips have very limited access to three walking trails and a beach. The island is the most important seabird nesting place in the Mexican Caribbean. Alex took us up in the tower to discuss the island, then took us to look at the birds and the coast.

The name Contoy originates from when the conquistadors came to the area, pointed at the island, and asked the Mayans what it was called. The Mayans thought they were pointing at a pelican. The Mayan word for pelican is similar to contoy, so the Spanish misheard and thought the island was called Contoy.

Isla Contoy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

There was a large community of frigates mating on the island. Frigates are weird birds - they are amazing flyers, but they cannot swim or walk, so their hunting is somewhat limited. They grab fish from the surface of the water or grab them when they jump into the air. The males have a bright red gular sack that they inflate to attract the attention of mates, and they also make a loud clicking noise. Since it was mating season, it was rather loud.

A flying frigate (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the only tourist-accessible beaches on Isla Contoy (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

After walking around and learning about the island, we had a surprisingly delicious lunch in the picnic area before spending some free time on the beautiful white beach. At that point, we boarded the boat and went back to Isla Mujeres. We only had an hour on the island this time, and we didn’t feel the need to explore it again, so we went to the second floor of a bar across the street from the beach and drank some beers.

At the end of the trip, as we made our way back to the mainland, all the boat staff dressed up as either the Village People or superheroes and we all danced to YMCA, Gangnam Style, and another song I wasn’t as familiar with. Amusingly, all the European tourists knew the dances to the songs better than we did. It was surreal, but also rather enjoyable.

Being Tourists in Cancun

December 03, 2017 by Nicole Harrison in Mexico

On Friday, our first full day, we woke up at 4 am, walked to the meeting point at a nearby grocery store parking lot (the grocery store becomes important later) and, after waiting several minutes and hoping we had the right meeting place, boarded a bus full of tourists and drove across the Yucatan to Chichen Itza. Two gas station stops and several short naps later, our guide taught us a little bit about Mayan culture, language, and writing as we pulled into the parking lot as it opened at 8:00. Our guide was not Mayan, but was married to a Mayan woman, and he studied archaeology at school. The focus of the tour was less about how Chichen Itza was built (much of that is still unknown) and more about how amazing it is. Everything is aligned according to the planets and perfectly built to create tricks of light and sound. I’m not sure if it’s human, alien, or magic, but it’s pretty crazy.

A dog at a rest stop on the way to Chichen Itza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

El Castillo at Chichen Itza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stone carvings at the Great Ball Court (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The contrasting surfaces of El Castillo (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After spending a couple hours at Chichen Itza, we went to Tienda de Artesanias Chac Mool in a town called Kaua (which our guide said comes from the Mayan words for two tortillas) to eat lunch at a tourist stop that served traditional food and sold handcrafts. The food was very tasty; we had some of a plant drink called choya, which tastes a bit like a cross between grass and aloe juice, and we were also given samples of a delicious anise-flavored liqueur called Xtabentún. After lunch, we took the long bus ride back to Cancun.

Choya (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday we were supposed to take a tour to Isla Contoy, a wildlife preserve, but the trip was cancelled and tentatively rescheduled for Monday. Since we now had an unexpected free day, we decided to wake up and take the first ferry to Isla Mujeres, a fairly small island off the coast of the Cancun area. We had heard that one didn’t need a lot of time to explore the island, and that a half day was a perfect amount of time (foreshadowing). Isla Mujeres is about four miles long, and it’s popular to rent a golf cart for a couple hours to explore. After trying to find a public entrance to the infamous playa Norte and failing, we found a seemingly reputable rental shop and took off around the island.

Walking along the beach to the ferry (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Near (but not on) Playa Norte (Photo/Eric Strom)

Isla Mujeres is an interesting mix of poverty, tourism, and beautiful coastal views. There are some resorts and houses that can be rented, and what looks like a fair number of second homes as well, but the downtown shopping area predominantly opens for the large numbers of daytime tourists who come over from the mainland to visit. Once you get out of the downtown area, everything starts feeling more permanent and lived in. We drove all the way around the island, stopping to take pictures, before returning the golf cart, having a beer at a beach bar, and taking the ferry back to Cancun.

Driving through the streets of Isla Mujeres (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Mirror group portrait (Photo/Jason Rafal)

What we think was a Mexican Spiny Tailed Iguana at the southern end of the island (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The bar we would end up drinking at…twice (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After returning to the resort, we hung out in the ocean for a while before deciding that we should book a snorkeling and boating trip in case the one on Monday was also cancelled. We went to visit one of the travel agents at the hotel, who said that all of the boating and snorkeling tours from Cancun went to Isla Mujeres. We were not thrilled about this prospect, since we’d already been there, but the alternative was driving a couple hours south for a full-day trip, so I acquiesced despite my fear of being stuck on a boat with a bunch of bros and we opted for a 6-hour trip that involved snorkeling and riding a catamaran.

So, on Sunday, after Eric and I spent a little time paddling around on the resort’s kayaks, we boarded a shuttle from our hotel at 1:30 and were taken to a port in puerto Juarez, which is the Cancun-adjacent town where everyone actually lives. There we boarded the boat, a bit cranky at the other 23 tourists present, and set off to snorkel. The day was partly cloudy and somewhat windy, and the water was choppy enough to make me (a person who grew up landlocked and has never felt particularly at home in the ocean) pretty nervous. Once I got in the water, though, I was distracted enough by the swimming and attempting to snorkel in the waves to actually start to have some fun. We were guided across a somewhat shallow area and saw several types of fish (I cannot name any of them). After several minutes of swimming around, or in my case flailing around, we got back onto the boat and drove to a shallower area right off Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres, where we were welcomed to jump back in and swim around without our floating belt and flippers. We had fun jumping off the boat and exhausted ourselves paddling around in the water. We had some more drinks on the boat and then landed at the Isla Mujeres pier. I wanted to rent bicycles to ride around the island, and Eric graciously agreed to stay with our stuff and have a beer on the beach while Jason and I took an hour ride in the late-afternoon sun on terrifyingly rotted road bike tires. As with all of our international bike rides thus far, it was lovely.

Nicole trying to ignore the nerves (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric takes a dive (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason underwater (Photo/Eric Strom)

Fishes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole struggling to get her flipper back on (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole’s jump from the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric’s jump from the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason’s jump from the boat (Photo/Eric Strom)

Biking through the streets (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We returned the bikes and watched the sunset from a bar on the beach before heading back to our boat, where the other boat passengers sat in the covered back of the boat to drink and stay warm. This mean that we had the pleasure of sitting alone in the dark on the front of the catamaran drinking beer and chatting with our guide, Eme, on the way back to the mainland. He told us stories about his adventures as a tour guide, including a drunk man falling off the catamaran and bailing clients out of “tourist jail” on the island for drinking while driving golf carts.

Eric with a coconut (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset on the beach (Photo/Jason Rafal)

It’s rare that I get complete satisfaction out of a day. Despite my skepticism about the trip, Sunday was one of those days. Between the kayaking, snorkeling, and biking, I ended the day with full-body exhaustion and a new understanding of why people come back to Caribbean vacations again and again.