The year 2019 was the last time that we published a travel blog. The COVID-19 pandemic basically stopped us from traveling outside the U.S., so we embraced being at home in San Francisco. We spent most of last January in Tahoe with Kristina's cousin Cynthia. Cynthia has a vacation home in Truckee, so we were happy to get to cross country ski together. Cynthia asked us if we wanted to travel in Mexico with her, and we happily accepted.
We arrived in Mexico City (CDMX) for our sixth visit here, and were curious to learn what had changed since our last visit in December of 2019. We noticed that practically all the restaurants now offered outdoor seating options. The restaurant Tamales Veganas didn't disappoint, using both traditional corn husk and banana leaf wrappers.
Cynthia invited her friend Pam to also join us. They went to a more upscale place than us the first evening.
The next day we took the four of us to Los Loosers, a vegan restaurant that we had enjoyed in the past. Here we are in the parklet waiting for lunch to arrive.
We shared a number of plates, and our favorite was the tetela, triangles of cornmeal bathed in a mole sauce and topped with spearmint and spinach.
After lunch we walked to Mercado San Juan, a wonderful market that offers a wide range of fruits, vegetables and more.
The next day we Uber'd to La Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP), a lovely old building in the historic district that we had practically to ourselves. This is the courtyard.
From the third floor window we took some photos.
Cynthia was on the second floor when we took this selfie.
It was warm but not hot in CDMX, but the stone building felt cool and comfortable.
It is the 100th anniversary of Diego Rivera starting to paint the murals here. We were thrilled to find an eBook about the murals. This one is entitled La Cosecha, The Harvest, and it was completed in 1923.
The murals are all buon fresco so the colors are still vibrant. Rivera was proud of his Mexican heritage, but he was also determined to shine a light on the terribly hard working conditions in Mexico, as shown in this scene Entrada a la Mina, Entrance of the Mine.
El Pan Nuestro, Our Bread, was painted in 1928, after Rivera returned from a trip to the Soviet Union. A lifelong communist, his murals represent the ideal of workers having an equal share of plentiful food.
Los Sabios, The wise people, sit on important books and are listened to by all members of society.
Rivera painted 253 murals here, often signing a fresco with also a hammer and cycle image.
The woman on the left is Esperanza Velázquez Bringas, who became the first female magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice in Mexico City in 1929. Shown here as a reporter who is distributing books. Rivera was a strong proponent of literacy for all, and the SEP murals often have the theme of education, with this one entitled Alfabetazación, Literacy.
This photo of Diego Rivera was taken in front of Literacy in 1928.
Also at SEP are David Siqueiros murals, but the stairways where they are located were closed. Instead we saw several of his murals at El museo de arte moderno, The Modern Art Museum (MAM). Another social realist muralist and part of the Mexican Muralist Movement (MMM), Siqueiros painted Cultura Herida: Recuperación de la Herida, Wounded Culture: Healing the Wound, in 1953.
Rufino Tamayo, also part of the MMM, chose themes of Mexican culture but not of politics, such as Homenaje a la Raza India, Homage to the Indigenous Race, with its colorful baskets of flowers.
Cynthia and Pam visited La Casa Azul, The Frida Kahlo Museum, and loved it, as did we on a prior visit.
MAM also had Los dos Fridas, The Two Fridas, on display. We were reminded of the powerful symbolism in the painting with the right Frida, who is dressed as a Teohuana and holding a portrait of Diego that connects into her circulatory system, which then connects to the left Frida.
Most afternoons in CDMX had some rain, which cooled off the temperatures and cleaned the air. One day there was really heavy rain, but luckily we were inside Museo Rufino Tamayo, The Rufino Tamayo Museum.
This portrait of Rufino Tamayo was taken by Juan Gúzman in 1950 with an artifact from Teotihuacán.
Tamayo created this series of lithographs with painted brush strokes for the opening of Museo de Antropología de Rufino Tamayo, which showcases his 1,000+ indigenous artifacts. We visited the museum in Oaxaca in 2017.
This is Guerrero de Nayarit from 1976. Tamayo used the same colors for his brush strokes as Fernando Gamboa did in the galleries at Tamayo's anthropology museum.
Retrato de Olga is a portrait of Tamayo's wife Olga, who appears to be meditating.
Also at the Rufino Tamayo Museum was an exhibit by Swedish artist Tarik Kiswanson. We stayed to watch a performance involving his exhibit Nido, Nest. If you look closely, there are two children spinning the sculptures.
Abraham Zabludovsky was the architect of the museum. It opened in 1981.
Zabludovsky also designed the library at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
This is the entrance to the library.
And, most interesting to us, Zabludovsky designed the apartment building where we stayed in neighborhood La Condesa. We liked all the windows, which had views of trees.
Throughout the apartment were were several more round lights like this one in the foyer.
Down the curved hallway were our bedrooms.
Pam's friend suggested we check out El Bazaar San Ángel. It was housed in an 18th century building.
The neighborhood San Ángel had beautiful architecture and appeared to be quite affluent.
We had a delicious lunch at La Pitahaya, a vegan restaurant in a nearby food court. This was the creamed spinach soup.
We had eaten at La Pitahaya on previous visits to CDMX, so we knew we liked their enfrijoladas, which are like enchiladas but use beans instead of chilies in the sauce.
We also found a wonderful gluten-free bakery named Pan Filio.
We bought a loaf of bread that was made with almond flour and flaxseed meal. It was moist and delicious.
The next day we took the four of us to Los Loosers, a vegan restaurant that we had enjoyed in the past. Here we are in the parklet waiting for lunch to arrive.
We shared a number of plates, and our favorite was the tetela, triangles of cornmeal bathed in a mole sauce and topped with spearmint and spinach.
This photo shows how the cornmeal triangles were wrapped with spinach. They had a bean filling that was nicely spiced.
After lunch we walked to Mercado San Juan, a wonderful market that offers a wide range of fruits, vegetables and more.
The next day we Uber'd to La Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP), a lovely old building in the historic district that we had practically to ourselves. This is the courtyard.
From the third floor window we took some photos.
Cynthia was on the second floor when we took this selfie.
It was warm but not hot in CDMX, but the stone building felt cool and comfortable.
It is the 100th anniversary of Diego Rivera starting to paint the murals here. We were thrilled to find an eBook about the murals. This one is entitled La Cosecha, The Harvest, and it was completed in 1923.
The murals are all buon fresco so the colors are still vibrant. Rivera was proud of his Mexican heritage, but he was also determined to shine a light on the terribly hard working conditions in Mexico, as shown in this scene Entrada a la Mina, Entrance of the Mine.
El Pan Nuestro, Our Bread, was painted in 1928, after Rivera returned from a trip to the Soviet Union. A lifelong communist, his murals represent the ideal of workers having an equal share of plentiful food.
Los Sabios, The wise people, sit on important books and are listened to by all members of society.
Rivera painted 253 murals here, often signing a fresco with also a hammer and cycle image.
The woman on the left is Esperanza Velázquez Bringas, who became the first female magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice in Mexico City in 1929. Shown here as a reporter who is distributing books. Rivera was a strong proponent of literacy for all, and the SEP murals often have the theme of education, with this one entitled Alfabetazación, Literacy.
This photo of Diego Rivera was taken in front of Literacy in 1928.
Also at SEP are David Siqueiros murals, but the stairways where they are located were closed. Instead we saw several of his murals at El museo de arte moderno, The Modern Art Museum (MAM). Another social realist muralist and part of the Mexican Muralist Movement (MMM), Siqueiros painted Cultura Herida: Recuperación de la Herida, Wounded Culture: Healing the Wound, in 1953.
Rufino Tamayo, also part of the MMM, chose themes of Mexican culture but not of politics, such as Homenaje a la Raza India, Homage to the Indigenous Race, with its colorful baskets of flowers.
Cynthia and Pam visited La Casa Azul, The Frida Kahlo Museum, and loved it, as did we on a prior visit.
MAM also had Los dos Fridas, The Two Fridas, on display. We were reminded of the powerful symbolism in the painting with the right Frida, who is dressed as a Teohuana and holding a portrait of Diego that connects into her circulatory system, which then connects to the left Frida.
Most afternoons in CDMX had some rain, which cooled off the temperatures and cleaned the air. One day there was really heavy rain, but luckily we were inside Museo Rufino Tamayo, The Rufino Tamayo Museum.
This portrait of Rufino Tamayo was taken by Juan Gúzman in 1950 with an artifact from Teotihuacán.
Tamayo created this series of lithographs with painted brush strokes for the opening of Museo de Antropología de Rufino Tamayo, which showcases his 1,000+ indigenous artifacts. We visited the museum in Oaxaca in 2017.
This is Guerrero de Nayarit from 1976. Tamayo used the same colors for his brush strokes as Fernando Gamboa did in the galleries at Tamayo's anthropology museum.
Rufino Tamayo created less than a dozen sculptures during his career. La espiga, which was created in 2010 based on a smaller piece by Tamayo, seemed to be glowing in the late afternoon light.
Retrato de Olga is a portrait of Tamayo's wife Olga, who appears to be meditating.
Also at the Rufino Tamayo Museum was an exhibit by Swedish artist Tarik Kiswanson. We stayed to watch a performance involving his exhibit Nido, Nest. If you look closely, there are two children spinning the sculptures.
Abraham Zabludovsky was the architect of the museum. It opened in 1981.
Zabludovsky also designed the library at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
This is the entrance to the library.
And, most interesting to us, Zabludovsky designed the apartment building where we stayed in neighborhood La Condesa. We liked all the windows, which had views of trees.
Throughout the apartment were were several more round lights like this one in the foyer.
Down the curved hallway were our bedrooms.
Pam's friend suggested we check out El Bazaar San Ángel. It was housed in an 18th century building.
The neighborhood San Ángel had beautiful architecture and appeared to be quite affluent.
We had a delicious lunch at La Pitahaya, a vegan restaurant in a nearby food court. This was the creamed spinach soup.
We had eaten at La Pitahaya on previous visits to CDMX, so we knew we liked their enfrijoladas, which are like enchiladas but use beans instead of chilies in the sauce.
We also found a wonderful gluten-free bakery named Pan Filio.
We bought a loaf of bread that was made with almond flour and flaxseed meal. It was moist and delicious.
After a quick look at the bazaar, we Uber'd to UNAM to check out the campus. This is the library, with its rock mosaic murals. This side depicts the indigenous cultures of Mexico.
Opposite is the history of Mexico during Spanish colonialism up through the mid-19th century. The mural includes 12 different colors of natural stones to form the intricate designs.
And on the left is the contemporary history of Mexico. The murals were designed by Juan O'Gorman in 1950 and completed in 1956.
José Chávez Morado designed this glass mosaic mural La Conquista de la Energía, The Conquest of Energy, which was completed in 1953.
We kept walking and spotted a few recent murals. The fantastic fox on the left was signed by Goya Torres in 2017.
Back in La Condesa, we walked around the converted Hippodrome several times. We liked the trees and fountains along the loop.
There are many Art Deco buildings along the path.
We loved the bright colors of these three houses ...
... and the geometric tile shapes in this one.
... and the geometric tile shapes in this one.
We appreciated the reminder to breathe in and out as we strolled on El Hipódromo.
There are also plenty of contemporary buildings in the area. This amazing wolf was signed Leo Tezcu Cano in 2018.
We spotted stickers on everything around CDMX. The placement of this one on the black diamond tile made the halo stand out.
This sticker was signed @narcissssos, who appears to be a tattoo artist in CDMX.
Draw your own conclusions about these.
We had time to go back to our favorite hole in the wall taco shops like Viko, which is located in a pedestrian underpass near the main entrance to Chapultepec Park.
The fillings were typically made from mushrooms or soy.
And we were happy Por Siempre had expanded to a full fledged restaurant. Their tag line by Thoreau is "everything good is wild and free."
More yummy vegan tacos, please!
Since we've stayed in CDMX six times, we thought we had seen and experienced everything we wanted to. But after reading more about Xochimilco, we decided to check it out. We took a three hour boat ride from the Cuemanco port. The traditional boats are called trajineros.
Cuemanco had at least 100 boats at the port. But we were there on a Monday, which is a typically quiet day, so we only saw a few other boats with tourists.
Cuermanco is also known as the eco port. We were glad we had skipped Navitas port, which is known for partying on the trajineros.
There are about 170 square kilometers of canals. On either side of Pam are human-made islands called chinampas that date back to the 6th century.
It was a peaceful and wonderful way to explore by canal this UNESCO World Heritage site.
Small docks lined the canals, and we saw local farmers traveling by canoe.
We liked getting a peek down this small canal.
About 800 people live here and many of them are farmers.
The cats are feral, and survive by catching fish, such as tilapia that were introduced into the canals.
This egret looked like the captain of this trajinera.
Because our boat was moving slowly, the birds were content to keep hunting as we looked on.
Oakland's city bird is the night heron and we saw lots of them. At Xochimilco they are called perros de agua, water dogs. Three types of water plants grow in the canals, including non-native water lilies.
This boat removes the water lilies, so that the canals don't become stagnant.
These yellow flowers are called ninfas and they are not native, but the flowers are very pretty.
The chinampas were formed by excavating mud from the bottom of the large lake. The trees behind us are called ahuejotes and are native. They were planted along the edges of the islands and their roots helped hold the islands in place.
Today the edges of the small islands are reinforced with netting and logs.
The islands were constructed to create farmland that was rich in nutrients and close to water. Xochimilco is a Nahuatl word that can be translated as "place of flowering farmland". This man was selling wreathes made of statice flowers that were grown here.
About half way through our tour we stopped to check out a few sites on the islands.
This statue is named La Llorona and there are many myths associated with her throughout Latin America. One we heard here is that she is haunts the area with her crying wails because she had to kill her children when she was unable to feed them.
Behind us the red structures are mezcal smokers. Agave is grown on the islands, as are many types of vegetables.
This was a fancy bridge to cross between the small islands. More commonly there are just a few boards to scamper across.
Our boat captain was Santiago. He told us all about Xochimilco. He is using a pole made of ahuejote to steer and propel the trajinero.
Cynthia took a turn at poling, but quickly handed it back to Santiago so we didn't run into an island.
Back at Cuemanco, we enjoyed the colorful boats adorned with flags from different countries.
The gift stalls even had toy replicas for sale.
The four of us spent a great week in CDMX. Cynthia and Pam will stay on for a few more days, while we head to Morelia.
