If somebody mentions Mexico to you, your first thought might be of white beaches of the Riviera Maya or the Mayan Ruins of Chichén-Itza and Tulum. Mexico, however, is a lot more than that. It is a Federation country composed of 31 states, each of them having their own culture and tradition.
Ciudad del Mexico is the capital that represents them all. It is located in the central-southern part of the country and is the most populous city in North America, counting 31 millions inhabitants. I’ve been exploring it during my 5 months stay in the country, after the experience in the Bahia Principe Hotel.
Arriving at the airport of Ciudad del Mexico by flight from Guatemala took me around three hours. The best way to reach the city from the airport is certainly the underground. The ticket costs only five pesos, which is less than half dollar. The city itself can be found unusually cheap for being a capital, but because of the extreme high-priced coast of Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
Somehow, the underground of Ciudad del Mexico, or commonly said CDMX, was compared by my mind to Moscow. Both capital of huge and multi-ethnic countries, these city unify and assemble a representative piece of their population.
Using public transport in CDMX can be dangerous as in the peak times is very crowded, so I would recommend to be extremely careful to your stuffs and wait for the next train if you see that the first arriving is too full.
If I can recommend a place to stay it would definitely be the Regina Hostal: it is situated in a very cool area of the city, few minutes walk from the central square and the rooms are soo cool for an hostel that price. Moreover, the breakfast is included and every night they gather around with beers in the public room that allows you to have a chat with the other travellers and create good firendships!
Ciudad del Mexico t is very big city and full of museums. One week is for me the best time to stay there in order to see all the major and important sightseeing. You can't miss the Zocalo, the Museum of Bellas Artes, full of paintings of Diego Riviera.
In this painting, Riviera created the first Cathrina, that became the symbol of people coming back from the death during the Dia Los Muertos
Zócalo
Zócalo is in many cities of Latin America the name indicating the centre of the city. In CDMX, this is composed by the main square called “Plaza de la Constitucion” and the streets with shops, libraries and cafes that surrounds it. On the Square is located the main Church, symbol of the city and pyramids of Templo Mayor, some Aztecas ruins that are interesting to be compared to those you can see in the Yucatan península from the Mayas.
A place that I strongly recommend to see in Zócalo is the Palacio Nacional. It is located on the right side of the Church and the entry is free, under previous booking. The Palacio was past used for ... Inside, it is a now a Museum, explaining the interesting history of Benito Juárez, the President of Mexico who fought against the French occupation and established a democratic federal republic in Mexico.
Xochimilco
If you have five or more days to spend in CDMX, you could consider doing a daily excursion. Those situated in the surroundings of the city are: Teotihuacán, the place containing the Aztecas pyramids of the Sun and the Moon; Puebla, a colonial city showing the rests of the monastery of Cholula, and Xochimilco, a village where coloured boats float on the canals of the lake.
I went to Xochimilco with Juan and Vale, a couple from Peru that I met the previous night at the Regina Hostel. We decided to use public transport, so we took the blue line till the station Tasqueña, and from there a train arrived in Xochimilco. Despite being the most economic solution to go there, I would not recommend it, because of the long time that it takes (more than 1 hour) on public transport and around 20 minutes to walk from the final stop till the site. Instead, it would be a better option to use Uber.
The tour that are offered are on the Trajineras, wooden boats painted in colourful colours and bearing different names in honour of a family member of the owner. The tours on boats bring you to the Isla de las Muñecas, while you can enjoy some food and the music of the Mariachis. Unfortunately, the weather was not nice, so we decided not to do the tour, but we enjoyed our time by taking some photos with our favourite Trajineras!
Frida Kahlo
One of the most popular character of Mexico is Frida Kahlo. She was born in 1907 in Ciudad del Mexico, in a house called La Casa Azul. Frida suffered a lot in her early ages, as she was diagnosed the illness of polio as a child, and at the age of eighteen she suffered from an accident that irreversibly conditioned her health.
During the time she spent at the hospital, Frida started painting herself transmitting trough art her emotions and pain. During her career, she met The famous Mexican Painter Diego Riviera and fell in love with him. They got married and they went living in the house where she had spent her childhood.
The Casa Azul, where she spent most of her life is nowadays a Museum in Ciudad del Mexico, where you can see her bed and recover all the story of her life.
Lastly, you could try to check in the Arenas of CDMX if there are some shows of « Lucha Libre », a professional wrestling in which fighters wear colourful masks that became characteristics of their image.
What do you think about CDMX? If this article was useful for your next visit leave me a like and check the new ones!
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