We arrived in Mexico City on Thursday, October 31 which was Halloween as well as Diwali (not very popular in CDMX). Metropolitan Mexico City’s population is north of 22 million people, making it the fifth largest mega city in the world.
After dropping our bags off at the Sheraton Mexico City Maria Isabel, we headed out to Zocalo Plaza de La Constitucion where there were several art installations on display for Dia De Los Muertos (the Mexican holiday, Day of the Dead), which took place over the weekend.
We went to the Metropolitan Cathedral and then directly next to Templo Mayor, which are ruins of ancient Aztec temple.
We walked to the Casa de los Azulejos (house of blue tiles) and the beautiful Palace of Belles Artes.
After enjoying our street tacos, we went to Sears. We got the idea of going to Sears from a YouTube video where it was suggested to go to the top floor cafe for a fantastic view of the Palace of Belles Artes (similar to the view of the White House from the top floor of the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, DC). Besides, who knows, this might be the last Sears we ever go into.
We then made our way over to the Diego Rivera Mural Museum which we both really enjoyed.
We got back to the hotel and went up to the Executive Lounge for a drink before heading out to dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from the Sheraton.
We started Friday by taking a Uber to Chapultepec Park. Our first stop was Chapultepec Castle. Construction on the castle started in 1785 and it was completed in 1864. The displays provided a thorough history of México, which was very interesting.
After the castle, we walked through the park to the National Museum of Anthropology. The large modern building and displays are wonderful. One of the highlights was seeing the Stone of the Sun, which was created in the early 1500’s and many say it is the most famous work of Mexican sculpture.
We then walked around the La Condesa neighborhood and ate lunch at the busy Tacos Don Juan.
In the evening, we went back to Zocalo Plaza de La Constitucion where a lot of people were dressed up for Day of the Dead festivities and the installations were lit for the evening. As we walked down the street, we stopped for about an hour to watch an excellent blues band playing on the street, before heading to dinner.
We had dinner at Limosneros, which we both really enjoyed, especially the cocktails. After dinner, we walked around for awhile. CDMX was packed with tens (or hundreds) of thousands of people celebrating Day of the Dead holiday festival. It was such a cool atmosphere, as people were very chill and just having a good time.
Saturday we joined a guided walking tour of the Roma neighborhood. In the 1950’s, Roma was a beat generation neighborhood. This is the place that William Burroughs of Naked Lunch fame shot and killed his wife when attempting to shoot an apple of the top of her head – William Tell style. This is also the neighborhood featured in the Academy Award movie, Roma. The guide was very informative as he talked about the architecture as well as the history of earthquakes that have impacted Roma. It was nice meeting people from Australia, San Francisco, Romania and Toronto.
After the walking tour, we headed back toward the Sheraton, which is located on Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, one of the most important streets in Mexico City. Marigold flower beds filled the median of the street. This was the site for the Dia De Los Muertos parade. We watched the parade along with 1.5 million people (that is how many attended it in 2023).
I’ll be honest, I was not aware of Dia De Los Muertos being so huge in Mexico when I booked our weekend in Mexico City. We sort of hit the lottery as it was great seeing the celebrations.
Last night we took it easy as we had a fun filled three days in CDMX. Visiting Mexico City was a wonderful experience. We are ready to come back because there are things we missed since we ran out of time.
Traveling Walters 