Mexico City for Almost Three Days

Who: Caitlin and Andy

Where: Cuidad de Mexico

When: Thursday Evening thru Sunday Morning 1/16/2014 thru 1/19/2014

What: After an amazing adventure in the Mexican State of Chiapas we decided to lay-over in Mexico City since we had to fly through there on the way home. We were very glad that we decided to spend a few days exploring the art, museums, tacos, mezcal, and local culture in this vibrant city.

Check-Out our Other Trip Report featuring the waterfalls, caves, and culture of the Chiapas

Regardless of our travel experience we are always a little cautious (and potentially nervous) when traveling to a large city as they tend to have reputations that smaller cities don’t just due to the physical size and news coverage. Horror stories tend to run-rampant and every person we talked to back home generally seems concerned that we surely will be abducted by cartels with our heads ending up on a spike near the border…

So stepping off the plane and preparing for our first taxi ride into the city was a bit scary, mostly due to the zealous stories of bad-traverlers. Luckily for us we found ourselves ten minutes off the plane with taxi tickets and sitting comfortably in a new Chevy Suburban hauling us to our hotel; another crisis diverted!

Mexico City blew away all of our expectations. This is a vibrant city that is like any other big-city but with it’s own Mexican flair. Full of art, history, food, neighborhoods, and activity on every corner and street in the city.

Trip Details:

• Hotel Room Mate Valentine – great location, next to a bunch of loud gay bars in the Zona Rosa neighborhood
• Chapultepec Castle – Old Presidential palace now National History Museum
• Zoo – Free entry!
• Diego Riveria Murals
• Cathedral
• Museo del Templo Mayor (Aztec Temple that Spanish built their cathedral over)
• Coyoacan Market
• Anthropology Museum
• Mezcal and Tacos in Condesa Neighborhood

This trip report will be a little different, above are the main attractions that we visited and below will just be a highlight of the interesting things we saw in this really cool city.

Our hotel, Room Mate Valentine, was located in the heart of Zona Rosa which we quickly found out is the center of Mexican gay culture. This was very obvious pulling into our hotel on a thursday night with the LGBT clubs blasting their music and great people watching everywhere. Regardless the area is perfectly located and Zona Rosa is relatively nice with plenty of art and pedestrian areas.

The Art of Mexico City:

Our first full day which happened to be a Friday started with a walk to Parque Chapultepec stopping first at the old presidential palace, Museo de Nacional, which has now been coveted into a museum of Mexican history. This large building was covered in murals depicting different struggles since the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. The commanding location of the building provided a great vantage point to see this section of the city.

The Chapultepec Castle overlooking the city: 

As we headed back into the park as the street vendors began assembling, we made our way to the zoo. The zoo was fantastic with a large variety of animals including several panda bears. The best part is that the zoo was free making it more worthwhile. As the day grew late we attempted to enter the Anthropology museum which for reasons unknown was closed for the day. Instead we caught a taxi to near the Zocolo to view paintings by Diego Riveria. Another free museum (the Education Building) this place blew us away with floor to ceiling paintings depicting daily life, communist ideals, and class struggle. Two large courtyards three stories in height represented hundreds of murals that Diego painted over several years.

We wandered over to the central cathedral in mexico which is just as beautiful as anything caitlin or I have seen in Europe or other places. There happened to be an Mexico City Architecture museum that we wondered into for free which showcased the history of building in the city, always an interesting thing to learn about.

As the sunset started to happen we managed to stumble upon one of the tallest towers in the area Torre Latino and headed to the top to observe this geographically massive city.  After drinking some Mezcal and enjoying one of the rooftop bars we headed back to the crazy streets of the city.

A dinner at a chinese spot (maybe not the best of decisions, but we had ate sooo many tacos at this point in the trip). Delicious churros at El Moro. Walked from the Zocolo to Zona Rosa which was a decent but doable walk. We ended our night relatively early since we walked some 12+ miles that day.

The Aztec and Meso-American History:

Another morning start we took the subway/metro which was right near our hotel to the Zocolo. Much to our delight we found the subway to be incredibly easy to navigate and considering a one way ride to anywhere is the equivalent of ~35 cents.

We started this beautiful morning at the ruins of Temple Mayor. Located within a stones throw of the cathedral this massive complex was only recently discovered in the late 70s as it was previously believed to have been demolished by the Spaniards. This was one of the more interesting ruin sites we visited as it was the central location of the Aztec empire. The temple has been mostly evacuated with layers of construction removed to expose earlier and smaller temples. the largest temple would have been very impressive standing at the height of the nearby catholic cathedral. After wandering through the ruins you enter a museum dedicates to the artifacts collected onsite and the history of the area.

Once done with Temple Mayor the weather was near perfect and as a result we headed down to Coyocan square where we saw another beautiful church, san juan bautista and spent some time shopping in a pleasant marketplace.

Being tight on time we finally headed over to the Anthropology museum where we were blown away by the amazing displays, history, and culture of meso-american people. We had only 4 hrs in the museum which was barely enough time to quickly move through the extensive displays. The layout of the building was such that you spend quite a bit of time I open air or outside exhibits.

The Aztec Calendar/Sun Stone is an impressive 24 Ton chunk of rock. Commonly believed to be the calendar tracking tool it has not been confirmed as such; amazingly it was buried and lost until 1790 when repairs on the Cathedral revealed it once more: 

We finished our night in the nice neighborhood of Condesa where we had our only real nice sitdown dinner of the trip, a delicious Argentinian steakhouse called Patagonia. We followed that up by drinking Mezcal served with fried crickets and apple slices. Mezcal is a new found passion thanks to this trip.

An early morning walk and we headed to the airport and were given hard evidence of the crazy traffic of the city as the ride to our hotel on a thursday night at 7pm took 1 hr and 15 mins…the ride from the hotel to the airport on a sleepy sunday took 14 mins.

Adventures in the Mexican state of Chiapas

Behind the Scenes Instagram Gallery:

NOTE: This is part #1 of a two part Mexico Adventure. Read about the Mexico City adventure here (coming soon). 

Who: Caitlin and Myself meeting up with Matt Jurjonas, and Lesly

When: January 11th thru 16th, 2014

Trip Overview:

• The Magical City: San Cristobal de Las Casas
• Another Magical City: Chiapas de la Corzo
• Horse-back ride to the city of San Juan Chamula
• Mayan ruins of Chinkultic
• Camping at the Lagos of Montebello
• 1 hr in Guatemula
• 300 ft waterfall – Cascada El Chiflon
• 3 nights in a crazy hostel for $7.50 USD/night
• 5 hrs of Caving featuring rock climbing, rappelling, and cliff jumping at Correrado
• Rock Climbing limestone cliffs at Paredes de Copoya
• Endless Supply of Street Food and Happiness

oom!…..we flinch as another loud explosion surprises us with its proximity. The hard part is telling if it the originator is a firecracker or an old backfiring VW Bug. Considering the frequency of both in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas it doesn’t really matter.

Pictured below is the incredible city of San Cristobal De Las Casas right at sunset, situated at over 7,000ft:

It is the end of our first full day and we have situated ourselves at the top of the most prominent hill in the city predominately occupied by the elegant Guadalupe Church. This vantage point is excellent for the sunset but also highlights the cities many sounds, the most common being the unpredictable firework commonly thrown from rooftops, tossed in alleyways or lit off in the main square. Our attention is quickly directed back into soaking in the sunset just as the Sunday night catholic choir starts singing in the background.

The Colorful European Inspired street of”Real de Guadalupe” downtown San Cristobal de Las Casas:

Our first day set the pace for a furious six day trip into the wilds of the Mexican state of Chiapas. A trip interacting with the people living and surviving off of the jungle land, where we witnessed the junction of incredible wildlands with modern survival. A trip into the past and the similarities to the present.

San Cristobal De Las Casas:

Of all of the Mexican cities I have now spent time in (9 major cities), this is one of the most unique and by far the prettiest. Beautiful colonial style architecture with a mountainous jungle back-drop. The City is filled with numerous cafe-lined plazas, cobble-stoned streets full of food vendors, markets, and plenty of charm. Several times we found ourselves drinking cafe or cerveza and enjoying the sights and the common performance of jazz bands on any one of the major plazas. The Market in San Cristobal de Las Casas featuring the freshest food you can find such as recently plucked chickens awaiting the many charcoal grills:

Every meal in this city was amazing. Tacos were the specialty and it is hard to pass up “Al Pastor”, pork seared by flame and served with pineapple. Below at Tacos Del Meson the chef slaves over the heat of the grill while serving up our dinner (pineapple slice is in mid-air):

We took a horesback ride to the city of San Juan Chamula which is unique as the city is autonomous in many forms from the Mexican government. Most of this is due to the indigenous culture that lives there which is an interesting blend of Catholicism and Indigenous beliefs, as such the town doesn’t allow photography as it is believed photos rob their souls. The main church was enchanting as the dark space contains numerous saint figurines, the floors are covered with pine boughs and is filled with incense and candles. The horseback ride to the city was pretty through the countryside full of hard-working families. Lesly on her horse as we approach the city of San Juan Chamula:

Lagos De Montebello and Mayan Ruins of Chinkultic:

A long day’s drive and we finally got out to stretch our legs at the mayan ruins of Chinkultic. On the road in we made the biggest mistake of the trip by not picking up the 11 year old kid running alongside the car, corn bits and chocolate smeared on his face, trying to sell us his “guiding” services. Instead at the visitor center our selection of guides was a single toothless, middle-aged man who was a few days overdue for a shower; we respectfully declined his services and explored on our own. The ruins of Chinkultic are set high in an amazing valley surrounded by water and an elegant design. Ball courts and art with the original pigments are features in this off the path complex.

A Park Ranger sitting on the edge of the ruins that has a commanding view of the surrounding landscape: 

At the end of the day we found ourselves at the lake we planned on camping at, the unexpected part was that the area you normally camp at was under water with the surrounding ground saturated. Caitlin and I scavenged for pine boughs to attempt to create a dry layer to set-our tent on (which worked quite well). We enjoyed a nice evening cooking on a campfire in solidarity on the lake.

The second day of exploring revealed these amazing Lakes:

Everyone in Mexico is Trying to Sell you Something (even building road bumps to slow you down long enough to run alongside your car), these girls were trying to sell us Catholic religion at the parking lot of one of the Lagos: 

We had a brief escapade into the country of Guatemala. It was muddy, rainy, full of chickens, and ended with a delicious meal…bucket list checked!

Food is always an important task while traveling and luckily for us there was an abundance of it everywhere. On the border of Guatemala we stuffed ourselves on chorizo and beans stuffed inside a corn patty while situated in a roadside shack just outside of the rain. As pointed out to us by the proud host was that the corn was directly from her small farm situated on the hill behind us. This older lady also explained to us the “reverse rainy season” where in the mountains (ie San Christobal de Las Casas) it was dry and the lowlands (border of Guatemala and our current location) was rainy.  We sat enjoying a hot lunch out of the rain while this hard-working woman of Chiapas says a few words in passing to the ladies cooking our lunch:  

Cascada El Chiflon:

After a cold morning exploring the Lagos we drove for a few hours to explore this waterfall park we read about. The single most amazing natural sight that we visited was the Bridal Veil Falls at Cascada El Chiflon. The hike in along the nicely paved path in the best organized park we had visited went something like this: parking lot, beer stand, waterfall, picnic areas, beer stand, water fall, water fall, zip-line, big-ass waterfall. Those beer stands were excellent on the way back!

Myself pictured below on the closest observation deck below Velo de Novia Falls (ie Bridal Veil falls) which felt like you were front-row in a car-wash with the speakers blaring: 

We hiked to the top of the waterfall as well, which we found yet another waterfall!

Caving Trip to Correrado:

The path was coated in slippery mud as we pushed through the darkness. Every 10-15 mins we would encounter a obstacle that required us to rock-climb over, crawl under, or carefully traverse along with the limestone rocks coated in this thick mud making this not for the faint of heart.  Of course we are deep in a ancient cave system where a river once flowed strong following a rare underground circular cave system. We were the only Americans in a group of ~12 with the others being from France, Germany, New Zealand, and Mexico with most being about our same age. Following a guide that Rambo knew from living in the city, we continued to climb-up this ancient underground waterway.

The course of events changed quickly once we rappelled into a massive underground cavern. At this point we joined up with the river and began a journey down the new underground waterway carved out by a more recent millennia of rushing water. Our first obstacle was tackled by the lone Frenchman in the group as he jumped off of a 15 ft waterfall into the dark pool below. I quickly followed to ward off the nervousness and upon splashing into the water realized this had just turned into a very fun adventure. The following several hours consisted of numerous cliff jumps (some in the range of ~40ft), rappel’s down slippery waterfalls, swimming under obstacles, shivering in the cold water,  and more cliff jumps. At the large jumps we would cheer each other on and finally got the Mexican mother on the trip to take one of the larger plunges! One last rappel brought us down the final waterfall and into the mouth of the cave where we started. Exhausted, cold, and very happy with this surprise trip.

The company we used was Petra Vertical http://petravertical.com/  – very excellent guiding, just happened that RAMBO made friends with the owner while out rock climbing.

Trip Advisor Reviews: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g150802-d3786061-Reviews-PETRA_Vertical_Adventures-San_Cristobal_de_las_Casas_Southern_Mexico.html

Climbing the Cliffs of Paredes de Copoya:

Our last day in Chiapas was spent climbing the wonderful sandstone cliffs outside the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez. We did some laps on routes, drank Indio, ate chips+beans+salsa, and enjoyed one last day outside.

 Hiking into Paredes de Copoya we were presented with some beautiful forest: 

Rambo showing us how it is done on the cliffs:

 Conclusion: 

Chaipas is a beautiful place that warrants a potential spot on your list of adventures. Geographically it is spread-out, however the natural wonders of the land are quite amazing. Add in that the rock-climbing is just being established here (plenty of adventurous options) and that San Christobal de Las Casas is worth the visit by itself, and you have a deep cultural and adventure based destination.