BEYOND imagination
For a first-time visitor, the incredible scope of attractions in Mexico’s capital can be daunting — but following a few simple rules can make all the difference, writes Nikki Birrell
Considering the internet is literally never far from hand, there really was no excuse for our ignorance. Delight at the lack of a queue outside the bright blue facade of the Frida Kahlo house museum quickly turned to confusion, then crashing disappointment, when we finally registered why the guy at the door wouldn’t let us in: it’s closed on Mondays.
Planning an itinerary in a city that has the second largest metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere, with a population of 21.7 million, can feel a little overwhelming. So, rule number one: check when things are open.
Thank heavens the Coyoacan Market, just down the road from the Frida museum is open daily. Weaving through the coloured maze of stalls selling everything from trinkets and piles of fresh produce to snacks and meals, we sat down to comfort ourselves with a plate of chilaquiles; crispy fried tortilla wedges smothered in red or green salsa with a choice of eggs, beans, or chicken. It’s often eaten for breakfast but is disappointment-erasing at any time of day.
The colonia, or neighbourhood, of Coyoacan, kept delivering these pearls — bedecked mariachi bands serenading diners, dancing troupes in the town square, gorgeous green spaces to lounge about with a churro and a coffee, and beautiful, old, coloured buildings on cobbled streets — the Mexico of my imagination, only better. It’s a little further out, about 13km from the historic centre, so returning to our accommodation here each night felt like a reprieve. On a tighter itinerary, though, you’d maybe want to be closer to the action. Rule number two then? Choose where you stay carefully — Mexico City is made up of hundreds of colonias all with their own vibe and specific appeal, depending on your priorities.
Wherever you base yourself, there are some big-ticket items to tick off and one of the best ways to get an overall picture and decide which to explore further is the hop-on/hop-off Turibus — like many of its kind, the world over, its intersecting circuits visit all the hot spots. Boarding at Coyoacan’s delightful town square, we took our seats on the top deck to bask in the temperate January winter sunshine (which has an average high of 22C) while observing street life . . . at a snail’s pace. This brings us to rule three: allow plenty of time to get places, the airport especially, and don’t bother stressing about Mexico City’s notorious traffic; it won’t get you anywhere. Ubers are cheap and reliable but there’s no getting around that traffic. At least you can expect to be entertained; vendors weave through cars to offer snacks and drinks, but there are creative peddlers too — a juggler on a unicycle and a sparkly-leotardwearing breakdancer passed a few minutes for us.
Hopping off at the golden-winged Angel of Independence monument, we plotted a walking course for the zocalo (town square) in the historic centre, and got our second surprise of the day. It was near-empty with all the surrounding museums and galleries closed (hashtag Monday). On a positive note, it did mean we had the open-daily Metropolitan Cathedral as much to ourselves as is possible in such a populous city. It’s not only the largest cathedral in Mexico City, but the largest and oldest in all the Americas. Started in 1573 and finished in 1813, it incorporates several different architectural styles and the inside is just as awe-inspiring as its impressive exterior, with its ornate altars, imposing sculptures and two ginormous 18th-century organs. If you manage to tear your eyes away from it all and look down, you might notice the
floor, like many other old buildings in Mexico City, is a bit wonky. That’s because the city was built on a lake and is sinking faster than Venice, at an estimated rate of 38cm per year in some parts.
Back on the bus, we decided to get off and do a recce of hipster area, Roma, which was to be our second base after a sojourn to Oaxaca. Monday is a perfect excuse to sit around eating and drinking, and Roma and its adjoining Condesa neighbourhood are the ideal places to do it. Sipping micheladas — beer served with lime juice, chilli sauce, a salt rim and served on ice — is a very refreshing way to while away some hours. As is crunching your way through tuna tostadas at Contramar, an alwaysbusy seafood restaurant in Roma Norte. Those tostadas and the sweet cheese flan will forever be embedded in my mental culinary halls of fame. But finding a good meal around these parts is not a challenge.
Mexican food is right up there among the
country’s greatest assets — from the ubiquitous street food stalls to the upmarket restaurants, it’s all just so good. Tacos of all descriptions, but especially tacos al pastor: spit-grilled pork tacos with pineapple; grilled street corn — ask for “con todo” (with everything, so mayo, lime, chilli, cheese); and sopes, a sort of thick spongy tortilla with a range of toppings, should be high on your must-eat list. And if you follow rule number four — “learn as much Spanish as you can” — it might mean you don’t end up with two bowls of soup (sopa), rather than the sopes you were expecting (on the bright side, the soup was great). Knowing how to at least read a Spanish menu is advisable — things are not translated as often as you might find in, say, Europe. Often wait staff don’t speak English outside of the main tourist spots, and even then you shouldn’t expect it. Incidentally, language mistakes can be fortuitous — pointing at what we thought would just be a coffee one morning turned out to be a delicious cinnamony sweet version called cafe de olla, which we ordered again and again.
We did get back to the Frida Kahlo museum and it was — sincerely — worth the two-hourlong wait to get in (tip: a separate queue for those with tickets pre-bought online moved quite a bit faster than ours). Diego Rivera’s murals in the Palacio Nacional, in the historic centre, are also essential viewing, along with those of the grand Palacio de Bellas Artes, as much for the buildings they’re housed in as for the art.
The National Museum of Anthropology, too, should be on the first-time visitor’s must-dos; it’ll help give context to the many prehispanic cultures of the country, which you’ll undoubtedly encounter in many guises wherever you go in Mexico.
One last not-to-be-missed site: Chapultepec Castle. Sitting atop a hill, overlooking the vast park of the same name, it’s not just mind-blowing for the grandness of the castle itself, with all of its historic European influences, but for its views across the city. Rule number five should kick in here: stop rushing and simply enjoy where you are. You’ll need to make peace with the fact you can’t fit everything in. Console yourself with the time-worn but appropriate mantra, “I’ll be back.”