Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Thank you Mr. Columbus!

We had Monday off for Columbus Day. Federal holidays are THE BEST. And we had a super three day weekend as a result.

Who wouldn't with these adorable folks in town?

Our pals, the recently engaged Chris and Jessica (hooray!), took advantage of the long federal holiday weekend to travel down from DC to Mexico City. We had a ball hanging out with them in the big bad Distrito.

First, we made a pilgrimage to the north part of the city to see the Virgen De Guadalupe. The basilica preserves the shawl St. Juan Diego saw with the Virgin's image on it. Naturally, this religious site is a hugely popular place, and we were thrilled to finally check it out.

The Virgen complex contains several buildings: a sinking cathedral that was under construction, a modern basilica and a hillside chapel. Oh and A LOT of giftshops.

The actual Virgen image is kept in the basilica and a series of moving sidewalks pass in front of it to prevent too much gaping/bottleneck.


A good crowd-control system, but it gives off a vibe of "Enjoy this quietly, and move along quickly." It also made for difficult views and photos.


We trotted up the hill terraces to the old chapel above the basilica where we caught the end of a mass, passed up several opportunities to have our photos taken with ceramic donkeys, relaxed with some super-sweet aguas frescas and surveyed the view. The weather was glorious, but sadly, the smog stopped us from seeing too far in the distance.

Ride the snake. To the lake.

Next we hit the Centro and the Zocalo, and finally we were on time to visit Mexico City's oldest operating (yet somehow never open when we're around) cantina: El Nivel.
That apron is over 150 years old.

We ordered a round of drinks and soaked up some "first-licensed bar" atmosphere before continuing on to show the visitors the famous mercado in La Merced. Somehow, we managed to approach the sprawling mercado from a different angle on our second visit, and we got fully and totally lost on our way to track down the juicers Chris had admired earlier. By the time we found the restaurant supply part of the market, we were all too tired to do much in the way of actual shopping. We loaded up on some oranges for breakfast and were on our way home!
Where is this damn place?!

As always, we spotted a few items of interest in the Centro:

First, the latest in cardboard box haute couture:

The, a baby Pope. Huh?


Seriously, why is this kid dressed like the Pope?

We spent Sunday in Coyoacan, and moved from the religious sites of Saturday to someplace much more secular: a tour of Leon Trotsky's house. You will remember from your cold war history books that Trotsky was murdered by an agent of Stalin in Mexico City. We got to see the house where it happened (and the pick axe, actually).
It was a lovely place, and in a fine leafy neighborhood. We loved the looks of these contemporary neighbors. The second house is completely tiled, and had a rad old VW van parked out front.


We walked around the main squares in Coyoacan where every type of dormroom trinket was on sale: Che and Simpsons t-shirts, beaded jewelry, patchouli -- all your basic hippie nonsense. But there was also delicious ice cream and cute puppies. And we saw mimes and an old-timers club that dance in the streets for tips!

It was a lovely afternoon, and we topped it off with quesedillas from the best version of a food court ever.

All in all, a very fine weekend with our very gracious guests!

1 comment:

leigh said...

a few :
1. i love the picture of the waiter from Cantina El Nivel - very funny.
2. you got to see the pick-axe that killed Trotsky?!! how cool and kind of gross is that?