CDMX - Ciudad de Mexico

After a 7h bus ride from SLP I finally made it to CDMX! Family friend, Juan, came to pick me up at the bus station and we headed to the hotel to get settled in. I think it's safe to say that our CDMX experience can be summarized with two words: food & art.

Day 1:

Dinner in the snazzy Polanco neighborhood.

• Tamarindo Margarita - to DIE for!

• Tableside salsa - spicy but gooood

• Chile en Nogada - yum! A classic dish in September only. Basically a Chile Relleno smothered in a creamy nut sauce, sprinkled with nuts and pomegranate seeds.

Day 2:

Breakfast near the art museum

• Hot chocolate - frothed tableside, how cool!

• A fluffy concha served with nata de leche - loved it!

• Ahogados en frijoles - tasty

Museo Nacional del Arte

• Diego Rivera - Mexican scenes

• Mexiac - black and white portraits

• Jose Maria Velasco - landscapes

Dinner at Villa Maria

• Classic margaritas - yum!

• Guacamole with homemade chips

• Chickenbreast filled with huitlacoche on a squash blossom sauce - huitlacoche is a local specialty, tastes kind of like a mixture of mushrooms and zucchini

• Chocolate sphere filled with mascarpone cream, meringue, and berries - ordered specifically to see how they made the chocolate sphere

Day 3:

Brunch on the run (to have time to do cemetery research)

• Club sandwich from the hotel

Frida Kahlo's House

• Painting materials including adjustable easle and mirror on the bedframe to paint from there

• Colors galore

• Artwork and clothing showing her life through her tragedies (polio, impailed in a train accident, leg amputation, etc.)

Local Art Market

• tons of local artists showing their prints, paitings, jewelry, etc.

Snackages

• Micheladas - never a bad idea!

• Chips with salsa - because salsa belongs on EVERYTHING

• Caldo - because I don't say no to free snacks

Late dinner at El Califa de Leon

• Tacos with the accolades of 1 Michellin Star - Simple but goooood!

Day 4:

Breakfast at Cafe Tacuba

• Hot chocolate - the BEST!

• A piece of cake

• House Enchiladas in a creamy spinach sauce - SO tasty!

Palacio de Bellas Artes

• Ballet Folklorico de Mexico - unbelievably amazing!

• Museum visit

Lunch at the market in Coyoacan

• Guayaba Soda

• Quesadilla de Tinga de Res - the BEST meal I had in CDMX!

• Quesadilla de huitlacoche - interesting to try but not my fave

Day 5:

Breakfast at Ojo de Agua

• Hot chocolate - up there with the best!!

• Molletes with beans and 3 cheeses

Chocolate museum

• fun items about the history of chocolate

Family research update

Although I have documents stating some of our family members passed away in CDMX I didn't think I would find anything, since they only lived there for a little while. But, figured I'd go check out the mentioned cemetery, just in case. After a while of waiting for the office to check their files, they confirmed that both relatives had been buried there (but were exhumed after 7 years). They connected me with the groundskeeper who took me to the two plots. Since their remains are no longer there, there are also no tombstones. That didn't matter at all though. It was extremely emotional to be standing where they once were, thinking about their lives and tragical deaths: my great-grand-aunt Luz died giving birth to her second child, Esther, and Esther died only a few months later of pneumonia.

That's all for now!

Hasta pronto :)

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