Exploring Coyoacán
Mexico City is chock-full of amazing things to do and we’ve been taking full advantage of living here. The neighborhood of Coyoacán is one of our favorite places to go walk around, do some souvenir shopping, exercise, and get brunch. We’ve been there a number of times so we want to describe it’s awesome features and how a day could be spent exploring all it has to offer. It has amazing parks, cafes, restaurants, and many many shopping areas or mercados. The key to beating out both traffic and crowds in order to have a bit more of a relaxed time is waking up early. Luckily for Coyoacán that means arriving at around 8:00 or 8:30 AM. But if you’re more of a night owl, and don’t mind traffic and crowded places, Coyoacán after sundown is also beautiful and has a happening night scene, bars, pubs and restaurants that offer all sorts of food.
To get to Coyoacán we normally drive. There are a few local streets where you can get free parking that are only a short 10 to 15 minute walk away from the main parques. If you are visiting I wouldn’t recommend renting a car, but instead getting an Uber to drop you off. The traffic in Mexico city has its own flow, which is not something most people would want to attempt to figure out over a vacation (think cars crossing three lanes of traffic from the furthest right lane all the way to turn left within one large intersection).
Depending on how much you like strolling around nature, one of the places that opens early is the Viveros de Coyoacán. A vivero is a plant nursery and this park provides the saplings for trees planted all over the city as part of reforestation. This website states that the Viveros ‘currently spans over 39 hectares where pine, oak, cedar, sweet gum, jacaranda, privet, grevillea and other trees grow; also fruit trees such as apple, quince, pear and hawthorn, among others.’ There is a main 2 kilometer or 1.24 mile long track around the edges of the park and plenty of smaller paths criss crossing the entire park.
It is completely free to enter the Viveros and the park is open from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM every day. This park is also one of the most popular places to exercise. If you arrive around 8:00 AM on a weekend you’ll see plenty of people running the track, doing yoga or tai-chi, or many other activities throughout the park.
There is one thing to note, the Viveros is a bit strict about taking pictures. They have no issues if you snap away with your cellphone, but if you bring a camera with a larger lens they will ask you to either pay a photography permit or not take pictures with the larger camera. We brought an Olympus micro four thirds once and security ended up asking us to put it away.
Once you are done in the Viveros it likely won’t be time just yet for all of the mercados to be open, so it’s a great time to get breakfast or brunch at a cafe close to the central park areas or plazas. There are many cafes and breakfast/brunch places all around, but some of our favorites are GALATEA Panadería y Bistro, Los Amantes Café & Bistro, Café Negro. For just coffee Hanz loves Bosque de Niebla Café. All of these places can be found on google maps.
After breakfast or with a coffee in hand the next best things to do before everything gets too busy are walking around the plazas, enjoying the gazebo and any temporary art installations around it, watching the fountain of the two coyotes, exploring the church once it opens for visitors to enter, and finally people watching, there will for sure be groups of people starting to arrive.
As the morning progresses and more people arrive, the giant two story mercado de artesanías will begin to open up. It offers everything, from traditional souvenirs like blankets, table clothes, clothing, paintings, pottery, and statues; to more unique fare like painted coconut husks in the shapes of mermaids and piercings and tattoos, of the permanent or henna kind. There are tons of distinct shops and you can spend at least an hour just walking around attempting to figure out what items most suit your fancy. Be sure to bring cash along as most places don’t accept credit cards. We’ve definitely needed to have more cash on hand in general in Mexico compared to the US.
With souvenir in hand or after just enjoying the visual cornucopia of the mercado, head back out to the plazas and be sure to try filled churros either before or after lunch. These churros are not like your normal US ballpark or restaurant desert churros. No… Not. At. All. These are in a totally different league. You order each one individually and can get them plain or with a filling. A plain one is still good but no where near the delectable deliciousness of a filled one. Flavors galore equate to it being difficult to choose just one or two (see why exercising is so important over here?!). The place we love has (from memory): Chocolate, Cajeta (a type of caramel), Strawberry, Pineapple, Apple, Peach, Blackberry, Raspberry, Rice with milk, and more, many many more. One or two filled churros is the perfect snack on which to munch while people watching. Our favorite place to go is a little hole in the wall, which generally have the best food, the locals frequent, and most foreigners tend to pass over. Don’t skip this one: Churros Rellenos Cafeteria OMT De Coyoacán.
Food is definitely a highlight of Coyoacán so be sure to go hungry or work up an appetite enjoying the colorful sights. There are plenty of restaurants surrounding the plazas, but do not go to them! Appealing as they may look, they will be far more expensive and cater more to foreign tastes. Go off the beaten trail and go to what Google calls ”Antojitos Mexicanos Market Juanita”, which contains many small shops where locals cook their specialties and serve them directly to you. Seating is first come first served, so you have to watch out for an opening of the number of chairs you need. For two to four people it’s generally not too challenging, but for more than that you might have to spilt your group up. Also note the places will only take cash so be sure to have it on hand.
It might be a bit overwhelming to choose what stall to go to, so we highly recommend the Pozole vendor. Pozole is a traditional Mexican soup or stew containing hominy (dried corn kernels that have been soaked in alkali to soften the outer skins), meat (in this spot, pork is the only option), and garnished with lettuce/cabbage and radishes. You can then add chili flakes, lime juice, oregano or onion to your taste. Don’t be surprised if your neighbor orders other parts of the pig like the ears, feet, or snout. Every part of the pig gets used.
For drinks there is an amazing juice vendor in the food mercado as well. They have multiple styles of drinks you can choose from as well as tons of different fruit types. Many that I had never heard of or tired before (mamey, maracuya, guanábana to name a few), so it’s always an adventure to try a new one and see how it tastes.
Finally, the Blue House or Frida Kahlo Museum is incredibly close to the center of Coyoacán and makes a fantastic addition to any trip. You get to explore one of the houses that Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived in and explore their artwork as you traverse the rooms and corridors contained within. We were enamored by one of the completed self-portraits on display within the house and the traditional Mexican kitchen. Do note that you should buy your tickets ahead of time via the museum website as it is a popular attraction for foreigners and locals alike. The museum also requests that no pictures be taken with cellphones unless you purchase an additional permit once you have entered the museum. Tickets to the Blue House also include entrance to the Anahuacalli museum, which is a bit further way, but houses an impressive pre-Hispanic inspired building that Frida and Diego built filled with collections of pre-Hispanic figurines and parts of the original studio that Diego had there. Kahlo and Rivera, eager to share his legacy with the people of Mexico, imagined the Anahuacalli as a unique work of architecture and a center for future creativity; a City of the Arts. It offers tours in English. Time permitting seeing both is fantastic.
This is just a tiny part of what the Coyoacán neighborhood has to offer so feel free to visit and create your own list of favs.
We hope you liked this post . We’ll keep updating with other entertaining places we’ve been traversing in Mexico City as well as our travels further afield. Positive vibe!
