We were thrilled that, after years of discussion, we were able to take a vacation with our friends Mary Jo and Kevin. We arrived Sunday evening, one day after they did. They had already discovered the roof pool at our AirBnB and we unpacked and joined them. We stayed in Roma Norte, not too far from where we spent a couple of months in 2022.

Surprisingly, it was chilly and threatening rain (what??? in Mexico City). Probably a good thing for the city, but not our happiest weather. We arrived about in time to think about dinner. It’s tough to go wrong with the food in Mexico City. Because we travel so often, it can be difficult to remember all the amazing restaurants we’ve eaten in. A quick scan of the map reminded me of Yeccan (sorry it’s Insta), a beer joint that also serves tacos. I can only attest to the kindness with which they made me veggie tacos and the quality of the chapulines (aka toasted grasshoppers). Excellent! Everyone else loved the meat products. We all loved our beer selections. Yeccan is a brewery that also offers other brands of beer. They list them on a giant chalkboard with alcohol level and international bitterness units (IBUs). Since I’m plenty bitter on my own, I go for low numbers. Steven reaches for the sky.

Monday

We started our sightseeing in earnest. One thing to keep in mind is that all the museums are closed on Mondays. Instead, we headed over to Biblioteca (library) Vasconcelos. We had been there before, but Kevin is an artist and, as such, notices and marvels at every detail so we got a different view of the architecture and style of the building. While Steven wanders through in 20 minutes, Kev could spend hours. I think I fall somewhere in between.

To our chagrin, it was raining again as we prepared to leave the library. We pondered what to do for a few minutes and then decided to walk anyway. Luckily, it drizzled a bit (or as the Latinos call it pelo de gato or cat’s hair — I love that!) and then stopped soon after we headed over to Monument to the Revolution. Steven, not a lover of heights, had not wanted to go to the top the last time we visited. This time, I headed up with MJ and Kev. An elevator (a glass elevator…no way I am going in that!) takes you to the middle of the monument, where you can walk partly around the outside of the dome. To reach the top view post, you walk up a series of narrow spiral staircases. Both MJ and I are sensitive to motion and we could feel it swaying, but we made it up. Not sure it was worth it since it was just a higher view. None of us realized that we could not take the elevator back down, but instead had to walk back to ground level. Time to head back to the apartment for a little R and R before dinner at Paramo, one of our favorite taco spots in Roma Norte.

We ate at a hole in the wall where the owner was giving us advice and tastes of his food. I had ramen. I know, strange, but it was Mexican ramen, maybe. Steven and Kevin liked there food, but Mary Jo wasn’t as thrilled with her chilaquiles because they were on a roll and there wasn’t enough of the chips and salsa. Sometimes, a restaurant or a dish is just a miss.

Tuesday

No trip to Mexico City is complete without venturing to a few Diego Rivera murals. First, we headed to the Diego Rivera Museum. The Uber driver stopped as close to it as a car could get, but we didn’t realize it and ended up marching around a few blocks and through a street market. We finally figured out that we had to go through the stalls to get to it. I’m not sure all that walking was worth seeing the one mural that was in there, but there were also other art exhibits, so we soldiered on through.

From there, we continued our Rivera theme with a visit to the Palacio de Belles Artes, which not only houses murals by RIvera, but José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros (my favorite!), Jorge González Camarena, Roberto Montenegro and Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, but is an architectural wonder as well. Then, it was rest time because …

In the evening … Lucha Libre!

We stopped in at another hole-in-the-wall restaurant before the matches, since we had no idea what food there was in the arena. Outside tourist areas, the food is so cheap, it’s crazy. About $50 for four meals and beers for four people. Delicious as well. During our meal, we saw a pre-match lucha, or fight, on the street. No idea why, but it somehow related to a van that a group of young people poured out of. It all came to naught, but it was entertaining.

We were only a few blocks from the arena, so we plowed through the crowds and the booths filled with T-shirts, Lucha Libre masks and other souvenirs and headed inside. Little did we know that we had bought fancy seats in an area with a buffet full of burgers, hot dogs, popcorn and desserts. Oh well, we were full, but we did have a great view and lovely, padded bench seats instead of folding chairs. We bought the unlimited drinks package and the waitress happily kept the drinks coming. That meant two for me and Mary Jo, but the boys made up for it.

The entire evening was so campy, we had a blast. Apparently, the people behind us had no sense of humor as they were bored and left early. Their loss. We watched cheesy match after match where the ref would count uno, dos, before the pinned wrestler would magically break free. What a total blast!

Wednesday

Mary Jo and Kevin had booked a tour of the Teotihuacan pyramids. Maybe all the travel was getting to Steven and me, but we decided to take it easy and hang out in the apartment. We did go for a little walk to grab some coffee and lunch, but aside from our excitement over delicious focaccia, we had a tame day.

This was something of a nostalgia tour for us, so we went to Barolo, an Italian spot that was just a few blocks from our old apartment. We had noticed that Paramo was fairly empty, but figured it was because it was a Monday, but Barolo was empty, too. During Easter week, many residents return to their towns for the weeklong celebration, so the locals weren’t around.

At Barolo, they make their own pasta, which is yummy, but the wine list is a bit pricy.

Thursday

We hadn’t booked any tours for Thursday, but decided to head into the center of town to see Templo Mayor, the buried city of Tenochtitlan, built back when the land was an island in the middle of a lake and expanded over the years. We didn’t exactly rush out the door, so by the time we got there, the Zócalo, or Constitution Plaza, which is Mexico City’s central square was a bit crowded.

MJ and Kev decided that peering at it from the edges was fine and Steven and I had already been, so we didn’t care. We did find out how to get tickets to the Palacio Nacional, which we missed on our last trip, and then we headed to our favorite Mexican fast food place, La Casa de Toño. For more on that splendid eatery, see our older post. We also went to the Postal Palace, which we had been to before but when it was under renovation. This time, we got to see the whole magnificent building.

The last time we were in Mexico City, in 2023, we didn’t see a drop of rain. In fact, my biggest complaint about it was the lack of water. No rivers, no lakes, no rain, humidity hitting highs of 30 percent. This time, not only did it rain, but it was chilly Sunday and Monday. What?? On spring break? We felt bad for Mary Jo and Kevin since they came from Chicago for the warmth.

That leads me to what we did Thursday afternoon. We luxuriated by the pool since it was finally sunny and warm enough to do so. Aaaah.

Steven and I chose our dinner spot on Thursday as well, but this time it wasn’t as successful. We hadn’t been able to get a reservation for Galanga, a Thai restaurant in Roma Norte. This time, we had no trouble. We should have known something was up. Perhaps they were clearing out the food (which they should have been buying fresh anyway) or they just didn’t order a lot knowing that Easter week is slow, but after we ordered our drinks, they announced that they didn’t have the one Kevin wanted. Okay, he ordered something different. But then, they didn’t have any chicken or one of the two beef dishes. Everything else was seafood or tofu, which left Steven with one option. Very frustrating. We felt they should have told us that before we were settled in. Then, Kevin ordered a beer and by the time it arrived, we were finished with our meal. It was good, but not good enough to justify the poor service and lack of options. Again, the lack of food options could have been an Easter week issue, but the service certainly wasn’t. Oh well. Good company over good service.

Friday

Our penultimate day “together,” we went our separate ways. MJ and Kev went to the Frida Kahlo Museum (Casa Azul), where we had already been, and the Anahuacalli Museum, designed by Diego Rivera and housing his pre-Columbian art collection. Steven and I haven’t been there, but I guess it will wait for our next return.

Instead, we dragged ourselves out of bed early so that we could line up by 9 a.m. to ensure we would get tickets to the free tour of the National Palace. The palace is now the seat of the executive branch of the Mexican government. (No, we didn’t see President Claudia Sheinbaum, I wish!) Once again, the building alone is worth a view, but it also contains murals painted over the course of 20+ years.

The tour is very popular, so definitely get there early. We lucked out because the people who got on line behind us were a lovely couple about our age who live in New Jersey — Kunal and Sarani. The hour went by very quickly with them for company. Our guide said that all the tours are different, but I’m not sure if that means you get to see different things or they just explain the murals differently. We saw the courtyard of the building and then focused Rivera’s work. His themes and style are the same as in much of his work, but the grand scale and details are still amazing to witness up close.

Kunal and Sarani raved about the dozens of murals we could see for free with no line at the Education Society building nearby, and we decided we had to try to see them. We got there, but couldn’t find the entrance, so we did what we usually do: We wandered around the whole city block looking for it, only to realize that if we had gone the other way round we would have realized that we couldn’t find the entrance because the museum was closed. Not only was it closed that day, but we discovered that it would be closed for the rest of our trip. Phooey! It’s be our first stop if/when we return.

Of course, we walked back from the center of town, a modified death march. Don’t worry, we’ll get back to it soon. On the way, we literally (in the true literal sense) walked through the filming of a Pedro Pascal movie called “De Noche.” It’s set in the 1930s and we witnessed the filming of a street scene. Bonus for us.

For dinner, we went to Mercado Roma, which is a fancy food court. Mary Jo and Kevin had Korean food and were surprised to realize that nothing is cooked ahead of time. They dutifully waited for their rice to cook while I had a couple of veggie quesadillas and Steven ate some meat (I think – por supuesto). We ended up speaking, in a combination of English and Spanish, to a very nice guy named Alfredo. It’s always fun to meet new people, especially locals and people who like to travel. He bought us a drink we didn’t really need since we’d already had a couple, but it was very generous of him, so we sat even longer and discussed life and how it changes with retirement or nearing that milestone among other topics.

Our Last Full Day

Chapultepec Park! It was a beautiful day for it. We opted out of the museums and decided to simply stroll (and maybe buy a new stuffy for our granddaughter at one of the million stalls). There’s always something new to see. We stumbled upon the remains of the Aztec aquaducts, which are now a fountain, in the oldest section of the park, designed in 1460 for Emperor Moctezuma.

If you’re interested in our take on Chapultepec Castle, head over here, and for the Museo Nacional de Anthropologia (where Mary Jo and Kevin spend the day) hit this link.

We met back at the apartment, where we started packing, ordering Ubers to the airport, and watching a hailstorm (yes, a hailstorm in Mexico City) before walking back over to Yeccan for more delicious bar food and friendly service.

Can’t wait to travel with our great friends again!