If you walk a city, you are bound to find hidden gems. And today, we did.
We walked towards the historic Centro area, and came across a few cool things. The first was Cafe La Habana, an old historic coffee house that sells Cuban roasted coffee. The story goes that in the 1950s, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara would meet here for coffee once a week, and this is where they planned the Cuban revolution.
A walk along Paseo de la Reforma gives you a view of some of Mexico City's cool modern and retro buildings, including the huge, white, Art Deco Mexico Lottery building.
Towards the incredibly busy Hidalgo bus/metro stop, we saw the tribute to Jose Marti, who was a Cuban nationalist and popular in Mexico City.
Diagonal from this monument, across the very busy streets, is the Pulque museum. We had to stop in for a quick try. The museum is small - very small. Only takes a few minutes to go through. But your entry tickets allows you to sample one small shot of a pulque flavor of your choice. Our choices were pistachio and guava. Pulque is still an acquired taste, but when you flavor it with something awesome like guava, it is a lot more palatable.
Directly next door, down a few steps, and hidden amongst a ton of street vendors, is a cute little church. There was a 12p church service happening, so we did not go inside.
Around a few corners, and near a pretty dodgy area, we found the Panteon de San Fernando. This is a famous cemetery where many of Mexico's heroes are buried, including Benito Juarez. The old cemetery has some cool old headstones and statues. Supposedly some of the tombs had hidden messages and codes from the Freemasons, but I couldn't find anything - although I was unsure what to even look for.
We headed down the busy street, and found a church that was undergoing massive reconstruction. The work had taken over must of the plaza, with fencing and barriers in place. But hidden in the corner of the plaza was a glass door entry to the Museo Franz Mayer. Lucky us - it was open and it was free today. We really had no expectations of this place, and thought it would be a very quick visit. However, the museum is massive, and the collection is so incredibly impressive. Fashion, art, modern works, textiles, furniture, miniatures, posters, a gorgeous open-air courtyard, and a stunning multi-level, dark wood library. And the organization of this museum is one of the best we have ever seen. This museum was an amazing find.
We decided to cut through the Alameda Centra park to get to Mercado San Juan for lunch. Along the way, we saw couples having a dance lesson in the park's pagoda, and we saw the big entry monument for Chinatown and the Orfeon theater. Once in the Mercado, we sat down for a delicious lunch of enchiladas verde.
A few blocks from the mercado is the Museo de Arte Popular. In one word: wow! A beautiful building with some amazing art installations. Folk art. Modern art. Religious art. It was absolutely remarkable!
But my favorite display? A Volkswagen Bug completely covered with glass beads. This is a very popular art exhibit, and has traveled all over the world being displayed in many cities - including at the Denver airport!
What an amazing day of finds and adventures. Just the perfect kind of day in Mexico City.
Comments