Mexico City — Week 1
Welcome to Mexico City, or as it is commonly known as CDMX, my 8th city.
The War in Israel
I had many self-deliberations before getting to that arrival to CDMX. Israel is at war, we have hostages in Gaza who are held in tough captivity conditions by a murderous terrorist organization, we have soldiers killed and injured in battle and risking their lives. And we have over 100,000 Israelis who have been evacuated and have not seen their homes since October 7th. The suffering doesn’t stop at the border. Many Gaza civilians are dead or living in near inhuman conditions, and in the West Bank Palestinians are suffering as Israel is toughening it’s control to prevent yet another war front. War is ugly, deadly, and the victims are always the innocent and ordinary people, and never the leaders on either side.
So there’s war, and here is me traveling to Mexico City for a month. If I am to do this, I had to explain it first and foremost to myself:
- I am too old to go out and participate in the war. I had my share of that in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank when I was younger.
- You can do from CDMX almost many of the things you can do while in Israel. Back home we started a small group to maintain the joint community of Arab and Jews in Israel that we worked so hard to build over the years. I continue to do it from here.
- I meet people in CDMX and can educate them about the region and the war.
- I will get to see more of my daughter and granddaughter, who live in California and will come to visit me in SF.
So here you go. I convinced myself, but probably no one else.
Still, I decide to not proactively publish the blog, do if you read it, it means that you either follow me on Medium or specifically asked for a link.
Setting Up
Arriving to CDMX late Monday, the first day (Tuesday) in a new city is always dedicated to the 3 essentials, assuming you already got some cash at the airport:
- Buy groceries. I did that at the nearest Walmart. Spacious and clean.
- Get a local SIM. Get it at your neighborhood Oxxo. Oxxo is the local 7-eleven, although CDMX has many 7-elevens and Circle-Ks.
- Get a metro card. Well, you can’t. I didn’t understand why, but metro cards are not available currently for purchase anywhere in the city. Instead you can get a strip of multiple metro tickets, at 5 pesos (~30 US cents) each. So the card issue is easily solved with a strip of paper tickets, but here’s the real bummer: Metro line #1, which has a station just 5 minutes from the apartment, is shut down for renovation. This is a bad, as it was one of the reasons to select the AirBnB apartment. It also means that the nearest metro station is now on line #9, and it’s a 24 minutes’ walk from the apartment. I will likely use Uber more than I expected.
Once you have food, cash, data and transportation means, you are ready to go. The AirBnB apartment is located at the Condesa neighborhood, one of three CDMX neighborhoods that were recommended as the place to stay at CDMX. The other two were Polanco and Roma Norte. More on this later.
Bosque de Chapultepec and Polanco
Wednesday was dedicated to the Mexico City’s “central park”, Bosque de Chapultepec, that lies between Condesa and Polanco. I walked thru the park, and visited the Chapultepec Castle which is on a hill in the west part of the park. I also went for a tour inside, but the main attraction IMHO is the views from the castle. From there it’s a relatively short walk to the Polanco Neighborhood, although there are really no short walks in CDMX. Polanco is the fancy neighborhood of CDMX, with all the fancy stores, hotels and restaurants. When I walked thru Polanco I thought that I should have rented am AirBnB apartment in Polanco rather than in Condesa, as Polanco is more modern and clean. But this changed later.
CDMX Historic Center
I usually don’t take guided tours. I prefer to tour at my own pace. But Debbie, a Kinnernet friend, suggested to take the Mexican Murals tour, which I took on Thursday, and it was a great suggestion. Mural are large wall paintings painted by several Mexican and American painters, including the famous mural of Diego Riviera (see photo). The tour was 2.5 hours of walking thru multiple mural sites in the historic center of CDMX with only myself and a couple from Kansas City in the group.
I took my first metro ride from Hidlago to Zocalo. The metro is very crowded, but it is well signed and easy to ride. From Zocalo, which is in CDMX’s main square — Plaza de la Constitution, I took a small detour for coffee and veggie toast at Casiopea Café, which is hard to find from the street. It’s on the 2nd floor as you walk inside a store. I started the gpsmycity historic center walk, walking thru Cathedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México, visiting Temple Mayor (remains from the pre-Spanish era, which after visiting the museum I think it’s just enough seeing it from the outside), and walking thru the bustling Calle Madero, the center pedestrian-only main shopping street, all the way to the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes.
El Cardenal, a restaurant franchise with great reviews was waiting at the end of the walk, inside the Hilton hotel, and justified the reviews. The dish with the 3 small tacos: wow.
This was already a pretty loaded day, but I wanted to visit Mercado de La Ciudadela, a very cool arts and crafts market. I made my first CDMX purchase there: a colorful mug.
Condesa
Condesa was once the home of Mexico’s biggest cinematic stars of the 1940s and 1950s. There are more trees in Condesa than in any other neighborhood in CDMX, which is important, as the days can get hot. There are many restaurants, shops and galleries. On my first day I did a short tour Condesa and had my first meal at Las Costillas De La Condesa, three classic tacos with chicken and beans.
Condesa started to grow on me when I did a more thorough walk of the neighborhood on Friday. The more I walk thru Condesa, the more I liked it. Yeah, it’s not as modern, fancy and clean as Polanco, but it’s super vibrant with restaurants, cafes, bakeries and many people outside. And it’s a short walking distance to another great neighborhood, Roma Norte. But if I come to CDMX again, I would If I would come to CDMX again, I will likely get an apartment in Condesa around Parque Mexico and not where the apartment is today.
Saturday is always time to look for markets, and CDMX has such markets on Saturday. The one I visited on my first Saturday was El Bazaar Sabado in San Angel. I walked about 35 minutes from the apartment to the Centro Medico metro station, stopping for coffee along the way at Cafe Barajas, which was ok. From there take the metro to the Miguel Ángel de Quevedo station and walk about 20 minutes from there, although there are likely some mterobus options instead of walking. It’s a relatively small, but cool market in the south of CDMX focused on arts and crafts. Open only on Saturdays. Many local paintings, jewelry, pottery, some clothing.
Saturday night is also the time to go out to see Roma Norte, which is full of people dining and partying.
Sunday is a great game to walk La Condesa and Roma. You know by now that I trust the app gpsmycity for my walks in cities, and I used it for the La Condesa and Roma walk. It never disappoints, although it’s voice guidance is ridiculous. Walking La Condesa on a sunny and warm winter Sunday afternoon can be the highlight of any city tour. Boulevards with cafes and restaurants full of people. Parque Mexico with folks exercising, walking dogs, playing. Street shows and music. I planned to stop for coffee after walking 6–7km, but it’s just impossible to resist the temptations along the way, so the first stop was at Clarice Café y Literature for coffee and a couple of some very tasty sesame cookies. The walk ends at Plaza Rio de Janeiro. BTW, at least in Condesa and Roma, stores open on Sunday.
Some more Condesa food recommendations:
- Get the 4 different veggie tacos at La Tromperia Condesa
- Get ice cream at Bendita Paleta & Gelato. Must try the guayaba flavor.
Some interesting tidbits
- The number of dogs here is unbelievable. Sometimes it seems that everyone has at least one dog, sometimes more. According to the Internet, Mexico has 8.8 million people (Just like Israel) and 2.3 million dogs. And still, the streets are poop-free.
- Strangely enough, Converse stores in every neighborhood. Why? What? Lama?
Total km walked this week: 90.7km. BTW, I walk most of the time listening to music but with one earphone only.
Markets
The number of markets in CDMX is unbelievable. I won’t be able to visit even a half of them in my month here, and I will share recommendations here over time:
- El Bazaar Sabado in San Angel — a relatively small market in the south of CDMX focused on arts and crafts. Open only on Saturdays. Many local paintings, jewelry, pottery, some clothing.
- Mercado de La Ciudadela, a very cool arts and crafts market near the city historic center.
Tips
This section will grow with time.
- Don’t get cash at the airport. InBursa bank has among the lowest ATM fees at 22 pesos. For comparison, the bank ATM at the airport charged 174 pesos for the same withdrawn amount.
- Uber is very available, with very short wait times and reasonable pricing.
- More than in anywhere else in the world, you navigate to a place by Google Maps, and it’s not there. The tip: it is
