Mexico City, Days 2 & 3: Bosque de Chapultepec & Centro
Day 2: Bosque de Chapultepec
We started Day 2 of our trip by going to a different cafe for breakfast, Casa Melibea. At first, we thought it was only an indoor plant store, but then realized that they had seating outside, and discovered that they also served coffee and food, so we decided to give it a try. Nick did some research into cafes in our area, and found that there are many coffee shops here, so we could go to a different each morning on this trip, and still have many more that we would miss.
After ordering our food, we found one lovely outdoor table and waited for our coffee and breakfast:
Nick and I both ordered mochas, but Tiffany ordered what they called a Café Bonbon: coffee with sweetened condensed milk. When it arrived, it looked pretty with the various distinct layers:
Our food arrived soon after, and we were impressed by how the food looked for such a small cafe:
I ordered their French toast, Tiffany ordered the toast with Tortilla Española, and Nick was boring and ordered toast with butter and jam. My French toast was lightly battered on seeded bread, but it was still quite good with the fresh fruit and powdered sugar. Tiffany’s dish was by far the best one, with toasted bread topped with a tomato spread and the tortilla española on top. It was interesting, but all of them tried it and seemed to like it.
After enjoying our wonderful breakfast, we walked around the Amsterdam area to a small art gallery called House of Gaga. But first, we stopped by this cool boutique:
The angel wings are a reference to the iconic angel wing sculpture located somewhere else in the city where people tend to take a lot of photos in front of. Here, there wasn’t a line, so that’s a plus!
After a 10 minute walk, we made it to House of Gaga, although there wasn’t really a sign or anything indicating it’s location. We looked around and saw a floor level store with large windows with interesting art inside, and figured that it was there, and we were right!
Nick really didn’t tell us much about this place other than it had interesting art, and interesting it was:
We’re not sure what’s going on here, but it was…fascinating. Reading the short introduction to the exhibit, it appeared that the theme was the issue of water scarcity. Even knowing that, we still had a hard time understanding the relevance of the theme to the art. In any case, it’s a small gallery and we saw everything in about 5 minutes.
Our next stop was Bosque de Chapultepec, a massive park in the city, but first, we had to walk there. On the way, we walked through another cute park, Parque España:
Next to the park, we noticed a lot of activity in front of a Little Caesar’s Pizza, and were wondering what was happening. There were balloons, someone in a Little Caesar costume, and many people walking away with boxes of pizza. Nick said that it was their grand opening, and we could have gotten some free pizza if we wanted it, but decided that the calories weren’t worth it:
And then we continue our walk to Bosque de Chapultepec, admiring the various cute houses and a random Xbox mural:
Inside the large park, we stopped to take photos in front of the Altar a la Patria:
It’s hard to miss as it’s the first thing you see when you cross the bridge over the freeway from the entrance, but it’s a wonderful plaza to be greeted with before continuing further into the park.
The first site we wanted to visit here was Chapultepec Castle. Inside, we were told that buying tickets using cash required talking to an attendant, but if you wanted to use a card, there were a few machines tucked away inside to the right, so we headed there and quickly bought our four tickets. We then started our ascent to the top, where the castle is located, but first, we needed to clear security, where the only issue they had with us were our water bottles filled with water. We were told that we needed to finish or empty them out by the time we got to the top, so all of us are chugging water while walking up the hill. We’re not sure why they cared so much about this, but even at the top where they checked tickets, they were telling people to empty water bottles.
Anyway, we headed inside with our empty water bottles, and were greeted with the beautiful facade of the castle
Inside, the first room we encountered was the carriage room where this ornate carriage was displayed:
Behind this room was a long hallway with ornate gold detailing in the ceiling:
And then you head outside to one of the balconies, with an awesome black and white checkered floor:
Because the balcony surrounded half of the castle, while walking on it, you got amazing views of Mexico City:
Some of the rooms were open, allowing guests to see how the castle looked back when it was occupied:
We then headed upstairs and were surprised that on top was a beautiful garden and tower:
There were also many large stained glass pieces that were amazing, especially when illuminated by the sun behind it:
Before leaving, I wanted to check out the front garden, which had a nice fountain and sculpture, but I thought the second floor garden was prettier:
And then we headed off to find the famous CDMX letters in the park, but there were many people in line wanting to take photos, so I quickly took this one as one person hurried off before the next one ran in:
We were getting a little hungry at this point, and thirsty because we had to dump our water out earlier, so we went to the food area of the park where many hawkers come running out of their respective establishments with menus to get us to come in. Despite another man further away yelling at us from afar, a much louder woman came running out with a menu and won, so we followed her to a restaurant called Super Tortas Gigantes. It wasn’t like we were wanting a full meal, but alas, here we were ordering 3 tacos and a torta:
For $8, we had an awesome snack with delicious salsa, and our stomach, as far as we can tell, did not suffer for it.
With our bodies hydrated and energized from this break, we headed off to visit one last museum before heading home. We wanted to see the Museum of Modern Art, but we couldn’t figure out how to get in, or even if it was open, so instead, we walked across the street to the contemporary art museum, Museo Tamayo.
There were a lot of interesting pieces from various artists inside, and much like the House of Gaga, we weren’t entire sure what was being presented:
It was a nice, if not confusing way to end our time in the park. We then needed to head back home to quickly change and battle traffic to get to our dinner reservation at the #52 restaurant in the world, Sud 777!
When booking the reservation, I had to book the tasting menu option at that point, so I did and hoped that Tiffany and Mike would be fine with it, and they were. For the next four hours, we were taken through an amazing culinary journey of 13 courses. It was actually a 12 course tasting menu, but Mike noticed that in small print at the bottom was a line that said “extra plate or meat, fish or vegetables at no additional cost,” so at the end of the main courses, we requested a fish dish. When it came out, we could overhear the table next to us ask each other why they didn’t get that dish.
Highlights of the meal included a fried cheese ball, smoked tuna with an amazing green mole sauce, and an almond cake with a rum and milk chocolate ganache and vanilla bean sauce. Here are photos of the entire meal:
Despite the crazy traffic getting there, we had a lovely dinner and an unforgettable experience at Sud 777. We got home late and all of us quickly crashed for the evening. However, there was a loud rooftop party going on atop a building next to us, and it went on for hours, making it very hard to sleep. According to Tiffany, they people were poorly singing songs by Rosalia and Bad Bunny, making the experience even worse…
Day 3: Centro
We woke up this morning wanting to try another cafe that’s within a one block radius from us, Espiritu Sanu. We were lucky enough to find an empty table for four, so we quickly sat ourselves down and downloaded the menu. Similar to Casa Melibea, we were surprised with the numerous food options given the small size of the store front. It turns out the kitchen is located somewhere else, so it all made sense.
I ordered avocado tostadas with smoked trout, Nick ordered the chilaqules, Tiffany ordered mushroom enchiladas, and Mike got the avocado toast with a fried egg on top. After a few minutes, we were served a spinach tostada with a side of slices avocado, and avocado toast with smoked trout on top. We thought maybe this was our order, but we read the menu wrong and this was really what the items were:
I ended up taking the trout from Mike’s toast and putting it on top of the spinach tostada, and then a few minutes later, we were told that our orders were wrong, and were served our actual dishes. It turns out that we were served what a nearby table ordered, but we were told we could keep the dishes, so we ended up with free food!
We then got an Uber to take us to Plaza de la Constitución, in the Centro district of the city. On the drive there, Nick took photos of a couple of cool murals on the road:
Traffic was pretty bad, and it probably didn’t help that it’s a Saturday, because it felt really crowded everywhere in the area.
When we finally arrived, another set of CDMX letters appeared, so I was able to get a photo in front of them:
This plaza is actually the same one used back when the Aztecs ruled the area, before the Spaniards came and conquered (i.e., destroyed) everything. I was impressed by the sheer size of the plaza, and could see how magnificent it would have been back in the Aztec days as a major gathering site for the public.
Next we headed to the nearby cathedral, which we didn’t spend much time in ‘cuz we had enough religion from visiting Museo Soumaya, but the outside looked cool:
After that, we went to Museo del Templo Mayor, which houses some of the remains of the temples and artifacts found in the area. It was cool to walk around the ancient grounds and being able to see the various walls that still stand. Apparently, numerous expansions happened during that time, usually coinciding with a new incoming ruler. And by expansion, what really happened was a new out wall was build around the existing outer walls. So as you walked around, you would see a section where the same tiered walls appeared row after row, indicating the various expansions of the temple:
We continued through the outdoor area of the museum and discovered a large indoor museum, showcasing the artifacts that were found during various archaeological digs. We didn’t spend too much time here because we had other places to go, but here are some pictures that Nick took:
After walking to what was supposed to be an area with murals by Diego Rivera, we discovered that it was closed, so that was a failure. Pivoting plans a bit, and getting a bit hot from being in the sun, we decided to walk to Churreria el Moro, a churro shop nearby. But on the way, we walked through some crazy, crowded shopping streets with fascinating architecture:
There was an entire block full of stores selling quinceañera dresses, with woman outside in full dresses trying to drum up business. I would have taken photos, but the sidewalks were super busy and there were cars everywhere, but it was a fascinating sight to see.
Eventually we made it to Churreria el Moro, and were lucky enough to get a table there. We each ordered a package of four churros and a drink, and a chocolate dipping sauce. The churros showed up on a plate, and we were extremely excited to have some:
These churros were thinner than the ones we get in the US, but were wonderfully crispy on the outside and soft in the center, and they were still warm. They paired well with our chocolate drink or milkshake, and offered a wonderful pick-me-up to get us through the next part of our day. Soon we were off to walk to Alameda Central.
It was only a few blocks away, but it was still extremely busy everywhere, so walking was a bit of a challenge. We were soon greeted by the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes:
We elected not to go inside, as yesterday we had seen enough fine art for now, so we headed into the large square nearby. Many people were there enjoying the grass and the fountain. There were some skateboarders trying out some new tricks, some people dancing in gazebos, and various food carts where we ended up getting a cup of elote with cheese and chili sauce:
Apologies for the blurry photo, I guess my camera was also recovering from the fire in the chili sauce.
Next, we headed to Biblioteca Vasconcelos, a large library with a cool interior. We were going to get an Uber, but didn’t want to wait 18 minutes for a 20 minute walk, so off we went through an area that didn’t seem to get many, if any, tourists. On the way, we saw a few more cool murals:
And then we finally made it to the really large library. Inside, it didn’t look like a library at all, but instead, it resembled something from a 70’s sci-fi movie:
Nick said it reminded him of The Matrix, and Mike I think had similar thoughts as well. We wandered around for a bit and headed up to the second floor, but Nick and Mike weren’t allowed in because they had backpacks on, so I went in and up the stairs for this “Where’s Waldo” photo:
And then I notice Nick walking down the stairs to join up with Mike and Tiffany, who were talking to a family at the bottom of the stairs, so I headed down there too. When I got there, the family had walked away, and then turned around suddenly to ask if they could take a photo with all of us, and we were like, sure.
I missed almost all of the prior interaction, but what Mike recalled was that after he was turned away due to his backpack, he walked down the stairs where a young woman started talking to him in Spanish and pointing some direction. He thought she was telling him where the bag check was, so he politely declined, but apparently she was very insistent on whatever she was requesting. Soon, Tiffany came downstairs, and she was in shock or something, and then asked her to take a photo, which they understandably thought they meant a photo of their family. I think after a few moments, they realized that the girl wanted a photo of her with Tiffany, and then Nick comes down the stairs, and they were like, who’s this tall white man (we seriously were the only non-Mexicans in this library). So he’s talking to them in Spanish and was like, yeah, they want to take a photo of us with them in it. Also, when they asked where Tiffany was from, and he said that her family’s from Taiwan, the girl was super excited.
At this point, I started walking down the stairs, and I think they turned around to see me, an Asian man with magenta hair, and that’s when they were like, we need a photo of this group of people, so we obliged. The girl seemed super happy, and we were happy that such a small gesture could bring joy to someone. Afterwards, we were debating whether they thought we were k-pop stars or something.
We then headed back home to chill for a bit before going to our dinner reservation at nearby Broka Bistro. We thought it would be French cuisine, but it really was modern Mexican cuisine, and it was all delicious. I ordered scallop ceviche and blackened octopus, Nick and Mike both ordered plantain gnocchi, but Nick ordered pork belly as his main while Mike ambitiously ordered tacos and a fish dish, both as his mains. TIffany ordered three different tacos (Baja fish, a veggie one, and lamb), and shrimp quesadillas as her main. Of course, we were presented with their house made sauces, which were so good, we asked for more:
It was a lot of food, but we all enjoyed every dish we ordered. I even convinced the others to get dessert, mainly because one of the dishes was called ‘imposible de calabaza’ or the impossible pumpkin. However, when I ordered it, I called it ‘imposible de cabeza’ or the impossible head, to which the server looked at me very confused, but understood what I meant. When it arrived, she told me, here’s the imposible de cabeza, with a laugh. It was great, and so were the desserts.
And now we’re all getting ready for bed and resting up for tomorrow, where we’ll visit the Venice of Mexico City: Xochimilco.