I had no plans to travel to Mexico City until the day I arrived there. We were in Guatemala, 5 days into a 10 day trip, when the political situation had gotten bad enough that we decided we needed to evacuate ASAP. It wasn't dangerous, just unpredictable, but roadblocks were going to prevent us from following through on any of the plans we had left.
As a result, I woke up at 6 the morning we were going to leave, looked at the departures board from Guatemala City that day, and picked the only destination I felt confident in - Mexico City. We took our prebooked flight from Flores back to Guatemala City that afternoon, looped straight to departures, and flew to Mexico City at 4 PM with Aeromexico.
Despite arriving with nothing planned and my only knowledge of the city being that the food was supposedly good, we filled the next four days with exploration, drinks, hot pools, wrestling, and yes, good food.
Day 1
Centro & Anthropology Museum
After a night of rest at a cheap hotel near the airport, we headed into the city. I was pleased to find Uber was commonplace, as I had recently been to the Riviera Maya where taxi drivers were trying to shut down the rideshare app and harassing anyone who used it. Along with being readily available, Ubers here were cheap! It cost us about $7, or 120 pesos, to get to the city center, and generally anywhere we went was under 200 pesos.
I hadn't had time to do much research on accommodation, so I just ended up booking us a decently rated hostel in the city center called Casa Pepe for the first two nights. I would not recommend it. Aside from a petty personal grudge I will get to later, there was just nothing impressive about the place. Our room was a good size but basic, the drinking water cooler in the kitchen was almost always empty when we went in (forcing you to buy bottled water at reception), it was way too expensive for a hostel, wifi in the room sucked, and quiet hours were not enforced whatsoever. They were meant to start at 10, but two nights in a row we were hearing blaring music and people screaming upstairs until midnight. Also, although perfectly safe, the city center is just not the nicest spot to stay in. Look in the Condesa neighborhood.
After dropping off our bags, we headed out for a walk around the area. We were just a block or two away from the cathedral, so we hit that first. I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to see it, but it's fine for a quick peek. The main section is really large, but there was a mass going on at the time, so part of it was roped off.
Right next to that, there are old Aztec ruins out there in the open called Coyolxauhqui (you better believe I copy/pasted that from Google), after which we walked 15-20 minutes west to reach the Palacio de Bella Artes. I just knew that this yellow-domed art museum was featured in a lot of photos of Mexico City, and although we did not go in, it was located in a nice park that also houses some pretty fountains and a memorial to a former president.
From there, we took a cab to a restaurant near Chapultepec Park called Ojo de Agua. It had cute patio seating and a ridiculous juice menu. We each got smoothies as well as "flu shots" which were turmeric, lemon, ginger, and pepper and came with a fruity chaser, since both of us were feeling slightly run down. My veggie quesadillas here were also great - they came in a set of three and each one had different fillings! One featured lots of cactus, one had a crumbly cheese, and the other had mushrooms and thick cheese.
We walked over to the National Anthropology Museum afterwards, passing through Chapultepec Park where it's located. I do wish we'd had a little more time to explore the park, since we barely scratched the surface. It's absolutely massive and home to a bunch of museums, a zoo, and even a castle. It felt like being in a forest in the middle of the city.
The Anthropology Museum was great though. In four buildings surrounding a central courtyard, it holds the world's largest collection of Mexican artifacts, including tons of really cool Mayan statues and reproductions of ancient sites.
The building to the left had murals and an example of catacombs, the right had some chronological history, and the back building was just wall to wall statues. There was also a lot of cultural information, but unfortunately I was tired to my bones and didn't take in much of the reading.
I'm glad we stopped in the gift shop on the way out which had quality affordable souvenirs, but then I could barely drag myself to the pharmacy before we went back to our hostel, and I was in bed at 8 PM.
Day 2
Cayoacan & Condesa
Thankfully, I woke up on our second day feeling much better. The level of exhaustion I'd been feeling reminded me of Covid, so I was glad that wasn't the case. Probably just a combination of taking four flights in four days as well as stress from suddenly needing to replan our entire holiday.
With my renewed health and a clearer idea of the city, we had an enjoyable and relaxing day, starting with breakfast at a vegan spot called Vegamo where I had an awesome savory waffle sandwich and one of the only decent coffees of this trip.
Our next stop was Cayoacan, the old neighborhood where Frida Kahlo lived. We stopped at her house first, where you can take a tour, but the line was wrapped around the corner and tickets were sold out for the rest of that day and the next.
Instead, we wandered the market, walked the parks and saw the coyote fountain, and had delicious churros on the street from the Churreria General de la Republica.
The remainder of our day was spent in the La Condesa neighborhood, which I had widely read was the best place to stay. Mat also had a friend who had just returned from a trip to Mexico City, and he'd sent us a long list of recommendations, most of which were in Condesa. We based our entire evening on them and weren't disappointed.
Condesa is gorgeous. There are leafy green trees everywhere, hanging over the streets and making the whole district feel like a big park.
We got a coffee at a modern cafe called Sonambulo, then walked over to Parque Mexico. It was very pretty with a big square surrounded by pillars and trellises full of people relaxing, skating, playing, or walking their dogs. There was a duck lake, clock tower, sculptures, and murals.
Across the street was another park, Parque España, that had a dog park and playground. Our chosen spot for dinner was right next to that, a pizzeria called Pizzeria Nosferatu that was adjacent to and did business with a mezcal and craft beer shop called El Grifo.
We grabbed a picnic table out front, shared a mezcal tasting, ordered some craft beers (the hardest part was choosing from their huge selection), and ate pizza. It was my first time trying mezcal, and I preferred it to tequila. It was much smoother and a bit smokier. Highly enjoyable dinner.
Our night ended at one last bar called Tlecan about a ten minute walk from dinner. It was small but had a cool interior, all red granite lit by candles.
My only complaint was that they put a bowl of tasty looking bar snacks in front of us, which I'm glad I took a close look at before deciding to eat because there were CRICKETS mixed into it!! This would have been more of a shock if I hadn't googled a sour beer I'd seen on the menu at El Grifo to find out that "con chapulines" meant with crickets and promptly taken it off of my list of consideration.
Mexico Travel Advisory: Be wary of unsolicited crickets
Day 3
Xochimilco & Lucha Libre
I'd been dying for some chilaquiles, so we walked to El Divino Chilaquil for breakfast on the third day. I don't quite know how to rate this place, because it was good, but I totally ordered the wrong thing.
They had a build your own chilaquiles menu, where you choose the base, the salsa, the crema, and the spice level. I had gone in wanting eggs and mushrooms, mole, chipotle crema, and inferno spice, but the guy working the counter just would not let me. He said the mole wouldn't go with spice, so instead of doing eggs/mole/cilantro crema/whatever spice level, like I should have, I changed it to a different salsa and kept the spice.
Well, first of all, he only gave me the first topping I asked for, which were mushrooms, and they were not good mushrooms. No eggs. Then I think he gave me regular crema instead of chipotle, and the "inferno" spice wasn't even that hot. He asked me afterwards if my food was too spicy like I wouldn't have been able to handle it, and I was like no! It wasn't even close! So while I would go back to try something else, I was disappointed overall.
Moving on from my food critique, we had an afternoon boat tour booked at Xochimilco. There are multiple ways to book these tours, and we compared a few different ones on Air BnB Experiences before choosing.
Xochimilco may look close enough on the map, but Mexico City is huge, and it was an hour long uber ride to get there. We'd planned accordingly and left early, so we were there around 12:10 and had to wait twenty minutes for our guide, Santiago, to arrive at the purple arches where he'd told us to meet.
We ended up with a good group. There were 13 of us total, plus Santiago and our boat paddler. Everyone was in the 20s-40s range and there to party. Our tour offered unlimited beer, mezcal, tequila, water, and snacks.
It is a veritable clusterfuck of these flat-bottomed boats, called trajineras, sitting at the dock to take people out. We were there midday on a Friday, and there were a decent number of groups on the water, but I read that weekends are crazier. The boats are all colorfully painted with individual names. There's a long table down the center where everyone sits for the ride, and we hung a speaker over the top for music.
Once you escape the mess of boats jammed into the harbor, there are tons of boat vendors out on the river floating around selling souvenirs, food, and drinks. I ordered a delicious elote (street corn) and would have gotten a michelada if we hadn't had all that free alcohol already paid for on the boat.
Our particular tour hosted a guacamole making competition, where we were divided into small groups and given a bowl of avocados with a masher, along with minced onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos. Mat and I dumped all of the veggies into ours, squeezed a lime over it, and added the salt, Tajin, and hot sauce already on the table. I was really happy with how it turned out, even if we lost to a trio of American guys at the other end of the table.
We made frequent stops at bathrooms along the way, as well as a stop at an animal enclosure. They had axolotls, salamanders, bearded dragons, a teacup pig (!), snakes, and turtles. We were able to hold all of the reptiles, and I also got some cute axolotl keychains at their gift shop on the way out.
We passed by the Island of the Dolls, a creepy island with a bunch of baby dolls hanging up, and Santiago told us the background story which there's no way I remember in enough detail to tell here (something cheerful about a man whose daughter drowned in the river).
The highlight of the day though was when some of the others in our group hired one of the floating mariachi bands to board our boat on the way back. They played three songs for us, and we were all up dancing and having the best time. Worth the extra money for sure!! (Even though I'm not the one who paid for it.)
Everyone was at least tipsy if not drunk by the time we got off the boat, so it was nap time when we got back to the hostel. Oh, this brings me to my petty grudge against Casa Pepe. The day prior, we had been planning our excursions for these last two days, and since we were doing lucha libre through the hostel, we decided to extend our stay one more night. However, we went to breakfast afterwards and looked at the day trip we were going to do Saturday and realized the very early morning meeting point was in the same area as the lucha arena. Additionally, the hostel only provided transport TO the lucha, not coming back, so it would make more sense for us to move somewhere near there for our last two nights. We came back to reception less than an hour after we'd extended our stay to ask if we could retract that additional night, and they refused. Money-grubbing assholes.
Anyway, I am still glad we did the lucha with the hostel, although buying tickets on your own would cheaper by at least $20. Despite our cost comparisons, going with a group just ended up being an easier and better experience.
We met upstairs at the hostel rooftop bar at 7:30, and they had two tables set up for us all where they provided tacos and a mezcal shot. They also handed out lucha masks that we got to keep, and the girl in charge taught us all some of the swear words people chant at the shows.
There were two shuttles to take everyone to Arena Mexico, but it was chaos when we got there. It had just started pouring rain, and the whole group got separated in the big crowd going inside. Thankfully, we found a few others we recognized and all stood to the side to wait. Everyone caught up eventually, and our guide led us up to our seats.
The arena felt like a rawer version of one back home. Mostly concrete, less formal, and snack vendors in the aisles like at a sporting event. There was a michelada stand right outside our section, and I got one that was so huge that it lasted me most of the show - although to be fair, I made sure to lick every bit of Tajin off the sides, and that took more time than drinking the beer.
I've been a wrestling fan since childhood and been to quite a few WWE and AEW shows, so seeing lucha libre in Mexico was especially cool for me. I even knew one of the wrestlers in the main event, Mistico, who was in WWE for awhile under the name Sin Cara. There was also a women's battle royal and a couple of tag team matches. Super neat, although we didn't get to bed until after 11 PM and had a very early morning wakeup the following day.
Day 4
Tolantongo
My alarm was miserably set for 4 AM, and the drinking the day prior really didn't help. We managed to get up, shower, pack, check out, and grab an Uber to the Juarez area where we had booked a hotel for our final night. We left our bags with reception there and made the 7 minute walk to the Angel of Independence, where our pickup point was. I had been a little worried about walking around in the dark at 5:30 AM, but there were a decent amount of people out! It seemed like most probably hadn't even ended their night yet. There were also street vendors open, which was a blessing because my stomach needed some food to settle it after yesterday's alcohol and sleep disruption.
Our tour was really well organized, although we booked through Viator so I'm not sure who the official operator was. Our guide, Damian, had sent us all meetup information through Whatsapp along with a photo of our van waiting there and a selfie so we knew who we were looking for. There were about 7 people on our tour including us, which was a nice group size.
I grabbed the backseat of the shuttle so I could sprawl out, and despite flying off into the air frequently on the very bumpy ride, I managed to sleep through most of the 2 1/2 hour drive.
We stopped for breakfast about an hour in at some regional hotel with a buffet. This meal was actually so good, I was impressed. I had thick cut potato wedges, some type of nacho mixture with sour cream, little cakes, and a made-to-order mole verde quesadilla.
Our next stop was at a shop outside the park where we picked up the day's necessities. The tour essentially took care of everything. We were each given a little red backpack that contained a waterproof phone case, headlamp, towel, and water bottle that they refilled for us from their big jugs during the day. We were also given the option to rent water shoes, and those were definitely a must if you didn't have your own.
It was a VERY steep drive down a cliff full of switchbacks for the final stretch, including a stop at a viewpoint, before we reached the Tolantongo pools. From here, our day was split into a few parts, and we were told when and where to meet back up at the end of each.
We started off in the hot pools, which are the selling point when you see this place advertised. They're all scattered in tiers over this mountainside and look gorgeous.
The reality wasn't as idyllic, but that probably has a lot to do with us coming on a Saturday when the place was swarmed with local visitors. People camp out here overnight, and you'll see tents set out both near the pools and down by the river.
We started in one of the bigger pools where we could spread out a bit, and it also had a waterfall area.
Next we walked over the suspension bridge and through a tunnel where water was flowing over the entrance.
Finally, we found a small empty pool after a fair bit of searching, so we stayed put until our time at this area was up.
Mat and I were the only two in the group who opted to take a zipline down to the river, while everyone else took the van. It was an added cost, but it was only about $15 each for four ziplines which is insanely cheap compared to what you'd pay in the US.
Best part: We saw our first and only coati of the day stealing food before we took off.
Second best part: The final zipline over the river, which was so pretty.
The third zipline was the longest and most nervewracking, going over the highway and shaking in the wind.
We found the van again after the final zipline, and they took us to meet the group at a picnic table next to the river. We had some time to kill before our food arrived, so we took a swim in the warm water and had the place basically to ourselves. It surpassed the pools in that aspect.
Lunch was also good, and we had put in our orders before arrival. I had some veggie enchiladas verde, plus walked over to the closest bar and brought back a delicious pina colada made with amaretto and served in a pineapple.
Our final stop was the best one - the caves. Aside from the fact that these were also overcrowded, they were so gorgeous located under cliffside waterfalls. The waterfalls were the only cold water of the day, but you only had to suffer for the few seconds it took to pass under them, and then the water in the caves was warm again.
We went into two caves, bypassing the crowd in the first cave to pull ourselves along a rope through some deep water and into a quieter section. We sat back here for a good while with our headlamps on just enjoying the experience.
There was time for a shower before we returned our gear and started the drive back. Everyone napped on the long ride, and we made one stop at a spot with an empanada stand and ice cream stall.
Mat and I walked to our new hotel, Hotel Geneve, when we were back in Mexico City to officially check in, and I instantly regretted ever booking our first hostel. This hotel was absolutely beautiful. It truly felt like a 1920s time capsule. A 4.5 star at only $104 for the night.
From the huge portraits to the old phones, lamps lining the corridors and giant safe behind the concierge desk, event hall lined with Roman pillars, memorabilia in glass displays and the little barber shop in a back corner, I just felt like I was in a different era.
After taking photos of every inch of the place, we had a drink in the curtained Phone Bar where there was a live music duo performing, then went across the street for a very late dinner at a spot full of locals before bed.
Our flight was the next morning, but we still had time for breakfast in the equally charming Buenos Diaz restaurant attached to our hotel. It seemed themed after an old president or military commander judging by the staff uniforms and the portraits on the wall (and throne near the host stand?), presumably someone named Diaz, if my skills of deduction are any good.
The food was great (some sort of saucy egg dish with melty cheese and Lebanese bread), but my favorite part was that they brought the receipt out on a typewriter music box which was just so adorable I could have died.
Even if this trip wasn't planned, I'm happy that fate brought us to Mexico City and I got to experience a more authentic side of Mexico than the touristy beaches.
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