Hola!
Whew! What a really great day! We were up this morning about 7, and ready for breakfast about 7:30 am. The Executive Lounge had an acceptable but not great breakfast this morning; we’re hoping for a bit more tomorrow! The view was cloudy with patches of blue sky, and it was nice to be back to the Executive Lounge! (Snobs: Absolutely!). R loves their coffee machine – took forever to fill his cup, but as I’m not a coffee drinker, what do I know?
We were downstairs and calling Uber by about 9 am. It took Carlos a few minutes to get to us, but get to us he did, and we were off to the Museo Nacional de Anthropologia in Chapultepec Park. Traffic was AWFUL: Note to selves – however long you think it’s going to take you to get somewhere, double it! As he wasn’t exactly sure where the Museo was, he let us out where WAZE told him – which was in the park, and we found our way from there. As it turns out, we were only a few minutes away! Truly, even though we got there about half an hour after opening, we were the only tourists in the entrance hall! It was amazing!
(NOTE: I’m posting our lunch and my walk photos in the blog, and will send a second post with photos of our favorites from the Museo!)
On our last visit to Mexico City, we visited the museum twice – the second time on a Sunday, when the world seemed to be visiting with us! This time, though, we started at the end of the ground floor and worked our way backwards, from room 11. We had the entire place to ourselves for about an hour, and mostly ours for another hour or so. This enabled us to stroll leisurely and take lots of photos. R says we’ve taken 107 today … oh boy!
The museum is divided into geographic civilizations, and today we covered (very thoroughly, I might add!) Northern Mexico, West Mexico, the Maya, the Gulf Coast, Oaxaca, and ended at the Mexica, which are also known as the Aztecs. It was great fun seeing the famous Mexican calendar stone again!
By this time, it was noon, and we were in definite need of a sit down and a drink. Last time we were at the museum, the restaurant was closed for some reason, but this time it was open! (Yay!). It’s called the Sala Gastronomica, and we got there a few minutes after noon. We were seated at a lovely table inside, and given, unfortunately, breakfast menus! Turns out that they don’t start serving lunch until 12:30 pm – who knew?! So, we ordered sparkling water and glasses of wine – to tide us over until we could officially order lunch! And boy, was it good!
Restaurant ceiling tiles; very cute! 
Me and a nice glass of Chenin Blanc 
R's cream of black bean soup 
My tortilla soup 
R's beef "package" entree 
Unwrapped 
My stuffed chicken in sauce with sweet potatoes
R started with a bowl of cream of black bean soup. I had their tortilla soup – very different from R’s, but still exceptional. The Mexicans are truly the only population that can make even chicken broth taste amazing! After that, R had their beef with potatoes and some sort of green vegetable wrapped up in a paper package and cooked and presented like that. He enjoyed it; it was sneaky spicy, but good. It came with a serving of cold Mexican potato salad, which was great! I had (yes, again) chicken breast, but this time stuffed with cheese and with some sort of spicy sauce. I don’t know what the technical difference is between a sauce and a mole – the number of ingredients? – but this was a really excellent sauce – just happens to look like a mole! Whatever! It was fabulous! This came with whipped sweet potatoes, which were also terrific! Unfortunately, absolutely no room for dessert!
By this time, it was after 1:30 pm and we were ready to head back to the hotel. Called Uber from across the street, and a few minutes later, Pablo showed up. Easier time this afternoon; maybe not so much traffic? We got back to the Hilton in about 20 minutes, which, traffic considered, was great.
Upstairs for a bit of a rest, but I still needed to get more steps in today. So, I decided to walk to the Zocalo(center plaza in the city) and back. Wow! What an experience! There were SO many people out and about! They have some bleachers set up on Av. Juarez around the park across the street. Not sure what that means exactly, but feels very much like a parade is going to happen. Now technically, the Independence Day holiday is Friday, the 16th. However, I believe the President reads a proclamation somewhere around 11 pm on the 15th – making that tomorrow evening. Much of the center of the Zocalo is barricaded off, with a huge stage being set up at one end between the Cathedral and the Royal Palace. There are decorations on all the buildings, and vendors are selling all sorts of red/green/white stuff. I’m sure I will end up with something myself; just haven’t decided what yet! I’m torn between the headband with flowers on it or a scarf – or maybe both!
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| House of Tiles! |
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| Local church entrance |
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| Beautiful side altar |
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| Stunning main altar |
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| Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zocalo |
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| All dressed up for Independence Day! |
Got back here with something in excess of 12,500 steps for the day, which is good, and now we’re probably in for the night! We’ll head to the Lounge in about half an hour for Happy Hour, but thinking our main meal was this lunchtime. I’m certainly not hungry at all!
Tomorrow will be a very full day! First, we’re meeting our cooking instructor at a park half-a-mile away, to go through the Mercado San Juan. Then, we’ll head to her house and kitchen to cook! She says she lives right near here, so we’ll see how crazy it gets during the day! Then, we have, of course, our Mexicana Fiesta which begins at 7 pm tomorrow night! Wow! Two big things in one day! I’ll definitely have to take a nap sometime before dinner, if I want to stay up past 10 pm! The gal yesterday, whose English was about equivalent to my Spanish (which means not very good…) said it went from 7 pm – 3 am – which I find VERY hard to believe! However, time will tell! So, until tomorrow!
Adios!
Much love,
m
xxx
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