From Teotihuacán looking towards Mexico City, you see a daunting thick cloud of smog. As you drive through the outskirts of the city, the sky seems to darken a bit as you enter that smog… and we thought, one or two nights will be enough here.
But after we got into the center of the city and especially the neighborhood Condesa, the smog dissipated significantly and a beautiful city emerged. We stayed with Andrea, who we met in the Copper Canyon, at her lovely apartment in Condesa. Saying Mexico City is huge is an understatement. This is North America’s largest city with a population of around around 10 million. There are limitless places to eat, drink coffee, have a beer and walk around. The metro through the city is frequent and cheap – only 5 pesos per ride (equal to about 30 Rappen). This price has actually doubled in the last decade!
The biggest downside of Mexico City was that it isn’t very dog friendly. Dogs are forbidden on the metro and in most restaurants – other than in Condesa, lucky for us, and of course when it comes to street food, anything goes. The Centro Historico of Mexico City is full of museums and churches, which we had to alternate visiting while one of us stayed outside with Mitzi. it was a bummer that each of us had to hurry through the sites, so as the other didn’t sit around on the street waiting (since most coffee shops in the center were wary of the pup). We were still able to visit the Palacio National and see Diego Rivera’s impressive murals and enjoyed the architecture of the buildings around the Zócalo and beyond.
We also visited the Roma and Coyoacán neighborhoods, enjoying food and sights there. In Coyoacán we hoped to visit Frida Khalo museum, but timed it wrong – Saturday morning. We decided waiting an hour or more was a bit much, so visited the markets and center of the neighborhood instead.
After 4 days, we went back to the Landy and said goodbye to Andrea. We hope she is able to visit us in Switzerland when we are back and repay her generosity!