Hola!
Our last day in Mexico City was very convoluted, to say the least! First of all, we were up and to breakfast about 7:30 am. Excellent spread, as usual, and we enjoyed everything!
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| Popocatepetl Volcano from the hotel Lounge |
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| More Popocatepetl |
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| Interior or Bellas Artes |
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| Famous Rivera mural from Rockefeller Center! |
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| More Bellas Artes |
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| And more Diego Rivera! |
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| Walking 5th of May Avenue |
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| Inside the Gran Hotel! |
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| Finally ... the Aztec canals of Xochimilco! |
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| Will definitely be back one day! |
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| Ahhhhh... |
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| End of a long day! |
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| Fabulous steaks! |
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| Grilled veggies |
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| Incredible potatoes au gratin! |
Our plan for the day was three-fold – first to the Palacio de Bellas Artes and their Mural Museum, then a walk down 5thof May to Zocolo to 16thSeptember, and back to the hotel. And finally, we really wanted to visit Xochimilco to see the “Venice of Mexico City” in the canals that were built by the Aztecs!
So … to start. We got to the Palacioabout 10:15 am and there was just a small line for the museum. It does seem like we have spent a lot of time in the Palacio, and I was more than a bit determined to see the Diego Rivera mural that had been destroyed at Rockefeller Center! Up the art deco stairs (and by the way, I am definitely feeling the pyramid steps from yesterday!) to the murals.
There were several different Mexican artists represented, and truly, even after almost 22 years at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, I have no idea how to read the symbology contained in these works! However, Robert did take some good photos … and you can see for yourselves!
From the Museum, we crossed the street and strolled down May 5thAvenue. Truly, it was the difference between night and day as opposed to our trip down the same street on Saturday! Then, it was absolutely full of people – at least now we could enjoy the stroll! We crossed in front of the Zocalo and then walked down two blocks in search of the Gran Hotel de Ciudad hotel. Truly a stunning creation – the elevators are wonderful, but the ceiling is beyond belief! R was able to take one photo before we were told that it was “cell phones only” … oh well! We had planned to make a dinner reservation there for tonight, but turns out the restaurant doesn’t open until 1 pm, and it was only 11:30 am! So … headed back to our hotel to try and make a reservation on line, stopping first at a 7/11 to get a Magnum Classic! Great for lunch!
Back to the hotel only to discover that once on-line, no reservations were available for tonight at the Gran Hotel! As it was through Open-Table, I honestly have no idea if this was right or not – but decided we would look for another place.
Found GoTan, an Argentinian restaurant which had great reviews, which just happened to be directly across the street front the Hilton! Wow! Who knew?! Went in and made a reservation for 8 pm tonight! Looking forward to it!
Then came our amazing afternoon. Xochimilco was left as an area with canals when it was colonized by the Spanish in the 1500’s. It is now really the only proof of how the Aztecs reclaimed land back then, and we wanted to see it. Apparently, weekends are really wild and crazy there, as people rent boats and take beer and food out and cruise the canals! Other boats containing food and Mariachi bands stop to see if your boat requires anything! It sounded like fun to us, but we really only wanted to see the canals themselves. So … Edmundo our Uber driver picked us up in front of our hotel. He was an interesting driver – pretty risky, I thought, at some points, but I just sat back to enjoy the ride … which went on, and on, and on … truly, if we had really realized how far Xochimilco was from our hotel, I think we would have postponed the trip! It took probably an hour and a half of incredible traffic and we went through all sorts of neighborhoods! Finally, truly, we arrived … but by this time it was after 3 pm and we needed to get back to pick up laundry at 6! We got out of the car, and asked Edmundo to wait for five minutes – we’d be back! That gave us time to 1) photograph the main canal, and 2) allow us time to hit the bathrooms!! Then back into the car and a really crazy route – with much less traffic – back to our hotel! All in all, I think we were driving for at least three hours – the traffic in Mexico City is incredible! But what was really the biggest thing we took away from this is that if the Aztecs built Xochimilco as part of Tenotitchlan, their town was incredibly huge! From Xochimilco to TemploMayor, it must be at least 30 miles! That’s a lot of canals to build; the Aztecs were very determined folks!
When we were at long last back at our hotel, we decided that food was what we needed most, so instead of waiting for 8 pm and our dinner reservation, we headed immediately to GoTan – and it was fabulous! Our young waitress explained to us about the various kinds of beef cuts and preparations, and recommended an excellent Mexican red wine for us to try.
So…we each started with an Empanada – Robert’s was spicy beef, and mine was more traditional – some egg and olive included. Both were fabulous, and I used a great deal of chimichurri sauce on mine! For mains, we both ordered their Entraña steaks, rare – just fabulous! They came with incredible potatoes au gratin as well as a mixed assortment of grilled vegetables. We were WAY too full for dessert, but can only assume they were wonderful, if the steaks and sides were any judge. Definitely ***** in our book! Look forward to returning at some point in the future!
We picked up our laundry after dinner, and now are pleased to announce that we have clean clothes! Yippee! So, for about $4.50 we are now good to go with clean clothes at least for a few more days!
Back to the hotel, and it will definitely be an early night for me! Tomorrow we leave this lovely hotel and head to the airport to pick up our rental car. From there, it’s only about 90 miles to Puebla – so more from there tomorrow!
Much love,
m
xxx
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