Mexico City: Day 3

 At 9am, we met up with our guide and four other tourists for our Biking Food Tour. I know we have done a lot of food tours and one fabulous bike tour in Rome. But this would be our first Biking Biking Food tour, and boy it was GREAT! A combination of our favorite things: being with a local guide, eating our way through the city, and efficiency in seeing metro sites. 

I would 10/10 recommend this tour to anyone. The span of biking was long, but there were so many breaks and plenty of times to rest, sit, stand, drink, and of course, eat! Some highlights were breakfast tamales, fresh-squeezed juices from a traditional Mexican food market, pork rinds, riding through several parks, weaving through crowds to see El Angel de la Independencia, and of course, many street tacos.

The culture of Mexico City is fascinating. Our guide told us that the majority of Mexicans in the city eat on the street, as it's just as cheap to have a 20-30 cent taco as to buy all the ingredients and make it at home. Mexico City is home to 9.2 million people, with the greater metropolitan area being closer to 21 million. There are gondolas that transport people from one side of the city to another because traffic is so horrendous. We learned a lot about how small businesses have thrived here in Mexico City and are likely to be passed down through generations. Also, it was no surprise that Mexicans do not vacation in Cancun, but rather go to XXXX.

We were SO full after the tour! We tried to walk some of it off, wandering through a few book stores before walking home. We pre-packed our bags while it lightly rained outside, our first real weather event since coming to Mexico. Luckily, we found a cute spot across the street for a few appetizers and several rounds of drinks to reminisce together about the highs and lows of our week-long adventure in Mexico. 

I am so thankful we got to tack Mexico City onto our trip to this amazing country. It reminds me that these are my roots and that I definitely need to spend more time on Duolingo 😅 I cannot wait to return, and I hope it's not in too distant a future. The food, the city, the people and the language warmed my heart, and we felt so much happiness being in Mexico with family, friends, and with just each other 💓

Mexico City: Day 2

The following day Max had booked what I thought to be just another ruin. We were picked up from our Airbnb at 7am sharp and for approximately 1.5 hours to Teotihuacan. I was truly astounded by the expanse of the ruins here, and the restoration that had taken place to make it the grand scene that unfolded before us. Though our tour guide didn't go into tons of details about the history of the ruins, the highlight of the tour was that we were able to climb the Pyramid of the Moon! It had only just opened that week after being closed for over 5 years! It was so steep, but the view was worth the climb up (and down!). 

We journeyed back to the city and decided to try our luck with Rosetta, which is a Michelin-starred restaurant that Roz told us about. We weren't able to make reservations, but someone on our tour the night before had told us that she was able to walk in with no reservation! We were told it would be a 90-minute wait, so we strolled the streets of Roma Norte, with plenty of boutique shops and antique stores keeping us busy until only 45 minutes later, we were called! We sat outside and were delighted by the quality and fusion of flavors set before us, and sipped house-made limoncello with our decadent dessert of rhubarb cake. Truly one of my favorite meals I've ever had! 

We had a free afternoon, so we trekked over through the Bosque Chepultepec the Museum of Modern Art. We spent over an hour walking through the free sculpture garden before entering for a small fee into the art museum. I loved all the different arts and Max found me after we had gone several ways to bring me to a huge Frida Kahlo painting! It was a great surprise, because we hadn't been able to book tickets to the Frido Kahlo museum. There were actually some great pieces by her, but the largest was the more exciting find of the day. 

It was a day FULL of walking, so we stopped for a little coffee and treat before walking all the way back to Roma Norte. Max distracted my aching feet by telling me origin stories of the cartel and of Pablo Escobar. Needless to say, it was an all day story-telling day :) I loved hearing about such a, shall we say, unique time in Mexican history, and Max tells it in his own narrative, which I love listening to.

Night was falling, but we truly weren't hungry after all our courses at Rosetta. We opted instead to go to a Mezcal Bar, which we had to wait in line for quite some time to enter. It was a moody, hole in the wall spot with great music and complimentary nuts with dried crickets 👀 I tried a few but they weren't my favorite...

In the true spirit of Mexico City, I ate some street food (a kind of sad little burger) before we tucked in for the night. Tomorrow was our foodie bike tour, and we needed the physical rest as well as to make room in our stomachs!

¡Adiós hasta mañana!

Mexico City: Day 1

 On the tail end of our trip, we decided to extend our stay in Mexico by taking a few days in Mexico City. In full Hopkins Style, we crammed in as much as we could!

We had to choose carefully what we wanted to do and see in CDMX, because it is such a vast city, it's impossible to see it all. We dropped our bags at our Airbnb in Roma Norte and walked to a little food court called Mercado Roma. We split a torta and had a cocktail each! We then explore the neighborhood a little bit, it was so clean with tons of tourists and expats walking and biking around the streets. I loved all the trees and the walkability of the area was superb! 

This evening we planned for a Luche Libre, we met at 7pm to eat 'fancy' tacos and have a few sips of smooth tequila and a beer alongside around 15 other people. We chatted with a few other visitors, some of whom had been in the city for some time already and they recommended a few bars and restaurants for us to try! It was nice to talk to fellow travelers and a few solo travelers too! 

Our guides walked us to a street tacos place and we had several tacos right there on the sidewalk, furiously eating while our guides explained the origin and traditions surrounding Luche Libre. They gave us all masks so that we too could be Luchador(a)s. 

The fights were so much fun! Going a Friday night certainly gave the energy and excitement we were hoping for! I will say that going with a crowd is probably the right call, because a lot of the experience, to me, was being surrounded by Mexicans and tourists alike who were invested in the fight! 

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We ended the evening by walking home with hot and sugary churros in hand :)