This year, both kids had the entire week of Thanksgiving off. We decided to take some time off from work too and tacked a mini-vacation onto the holiday. We drove down to LA on Friday night and on Saturday morning we took a flight to Mexico City. This was a trip we had originally planned to do in June of 2020--obviously that did not happen. This year in school, Ethan has been studying Mexican history, so it was a good excuse to go!
Anyhow, we discovered the hard way that Volaris, the airline we took, expects you to check in online in advance, and when we got to the airport, we no longer had seats on the flight! After an aggravating 3+ hours at the check-in desk with many threats and arguments, we were put on a direct flight that actually got us in earlier than our earlier one-stop flight did. So in the end all was good.
We rented a wonderful Airbnb in the Condensa neighborhood. It was filled with cool restaurants and cafes, and very green for a city. Early on, we discovered "Mendl's Delicatessen" --a Jewish Deli a few blocks from our place--what a find! Seriously the best bagels we have ever had. In Mexico City! Ha!
Our first day, we headed to the historic city center, via bicycle, as many of the major streets are closed to car traffic on Sundays. The weather was perfect--mid 70s, and the air quite dry, due to the nearly 7500 ft elevation. Many people were out and about, and it was a good way to get a sense of the city layout.
Unbeknownst to us, it was a holiday weekend, with Revolution Day being celebrated on Monday, so the downtown square was absolutely packed, and quite frankly a bit overwhelming. We did visit the Temple Mayor museum, which is the site of the ancient Mexica city Tenotitchlan--which the Spaniards built their city on top of when they moved in. The old city was "discovered" accidentally in the 1970s and now has been partially dug out to form the museum.
Our second day, we headed out to the pyramids of Teotihuican, the famous pyramids about an hour outside of the city. The pyramids a very well preserved and were quite neat to visit.
The following day, we had tickets to the Freida Kahlo museum. While waiting in line for the museum, a classmate of Ethan's walked up to us--he was with his family in CDMX too! What a coincidence! We toured the museum together, and then walked around the nearby neighborhood of Coyocan--which was also lovely.
After parting ways, we headed down tot the canals of Xochimilco--which are historic waterways that were used for agriculture. Now they are where Mexico City goes to party--you can hire boats by the hour with a "driver" who maneuvers them with a stick. Literally hundreds of these boats are pushed through the canals, many of which have large Mexican families with huge picnic spreads, loud music etc. Other boats have food and drinks for sale, and there are even boats with Mariachi bands that you can commission for a song or two! It was like nothing I have ever seen and a lot of fun too. A highlight for Alaina was that these waterways are the only natural home for the axolotl--a weird salamander creature that has been popularized by the video game Minecraft. Though it is unusual to see them in the water, there are places that will gladly accept your money to see captured ones--so of course she did that.
On our last day, we checked our Chapultepec park and the Chapultepec castle, which is where a French emperor ruled over Mexico for a short period of time in the mid 1800s. We also walked in the Roma neighborhood and enjoyed some churros and hot chocolate.
Overall the food was delicious in Mexico City--we went to so many amazing restaurants--both Mexican and non Mexican. Would definitely come back to this city just to eat!!
On Thursday AM, we flew out of Mexico City (having checked into our flights the day before, ensuring seats!), picked up our car in LA, and then drove to Jason's parents house for Thanksgiving. Jeremy was there too, and we enjoyed a nice meal.
Friday, we went on a short hike in their neighborhood and checked out some shops in Palm desert.
Finally on Saturday, it was time to head back to Marin.
A busy week with many different places! We certainly felt like we got away!
