Mexico 2023: Quite the Wednesday in Mexico City

Wednesday I woke up plenty early because I was a man on a mission. The mission? Get my family chilaquiles tortas for breakfast. The line at La Esquina de Chilaquil gets awful long so I decided to get there awful early. The reward? A nice walk through Condesa as it was waking up and being first in line (and the only person there) for quite a while.

These are pictures from my walk over and the absolutely empty torta stand set up.

Dad walked down to join me shortly before the stand opened up and was there to catch all the excitement as they began slinging sandwiches stuffed with soft, salsa’d tortilla chips and chicken milanesas.

And then we walked on back to the house and enjoyed breakfast with everyone. We also picked up some water. Look at this great photo of Dad, the provider, holding the water!

Well fed, it was time to get our day going! We walked over to Chapultepec Park, passing Thanksgiving decorations and other neat stuff along the way.

Chapultepec Park Visit Part 1: Getting to Chapultepec Castle — this means entering the park, walking through some of the park, seeing a bear, seeing a beautiful squirrel, and hiking up the hill to the castle.

Chapultepec Park Visit Part 2: I hadn’t been to the castle in about 6 years and I think a visit to Chapultepec Castle every 6 years is a good amount to do it. It’s cool! There’s really lots to see and discover.

C.P. Visit Part 3: Walking down the hill, through more of the park, and over to the zoo. Saw another beautiful squirrel, got a little panda preview and saw other neat stuff.

C.P. Visit Part 4 — The Zoo! We were there just to see the panda, but we of course saw a beautiful leopard and the tiger on the way. Since my last visit to the park one of their pandas died so just one is left now. Sad. And when we got there the panda wasn’t out in her enclosure! Sadder! We could tell she was being observed in her private space but we couldn’t get over there. It was pretty sad. Or just disappointing. We almost left but Liz was like “Let’s go back and check one more time!” And guess what…a few minutes later the panda came out! She ate a little, we saw her poop, and then she came RIGHT over by the window and chomped on an apple just a few feet from us. It was incredible! In my 4 visits I had never before seen her be any closer than the middle of the enclosure but this time she was just right there right by us! And you know what we learned? Panda ears are real real cute and pandas eat apples real real slow.

Ok and after that we were done with Chapultepec Park! We walked on out and back to Condesa for two lunches — one at Tacos Don Juan and another at El Pescadito across the street. Both were so great and at Don Juan not only did we get tacos but a hamburger as well because I LoVE Mexico City hamburgers!

From there — back to the Air BnB, a little break, and then an Uber over to Polanco for museum time.

In Polanco we dropped Mom and Dad off at the Museo Soumaya (the fun is the first time we went to the Soumaya back in 2017, Mom and I were like “oh Dad would love this” so it was a little bit of a little dream come true to get him over to it) while Liz and I checked out an anniversary show at the Museo Jumex across the way. The show was curated by the head of the New Museum in New York (I used to live there) and it definitely had big New Museum vibes (I know from when I lived there).

Then we went over to the Soumaya and met up with Mom and wound up going to show her the giant grocery door across the street before coming back to find Dad.

Then. Oh boy. We got an Uber to take us from Polanco to the Centro to grab dinner and maybe dessert, too, before our Ballet Folklorico appointment BUT, WOW!, the traffic!! Easily an hour and a half in bumper to bumper rainy traffic all the way over. It was a trying experience. BUT it lead us to a McDonalds dinner in a shopping center. That’s pretty nice!

Rejuvenated by our meal, we went over to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for that evening’s performance of the famous Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. And guess what? It was thrillingly stupendous! You really owe it to yourself to see the BF in DF someday! I would go again at the drop of a hat dance.

From there? A much easier Uber ride home in the rain and right to bed with all of us, a nice big Thanksgiving day waiting for us in the morning.

Just one more Mexico City post after this, I promise!