Marc's Public Blog - Mexico

2024/02/22 Mexico City aka CDMX

π 2024-02-22 01:01 in Mexico, Ntrips

CDMX, Ciudad de Mexico, also known as Mexico City, being the capital of Mexico, was much higher than I thought, 7300ft or over 2000 meters of altitude. It's not montainous looking, but it's a high plateau and definitely a bit harder to breathe at for flat landers :) While I was ready for that, I had no idea that the city was also pretty close to an active volcano that routinely spews ash in the air, and it was doing that when I went to visit during EDC Mexico, so the air quality was poor, which added to the altitude, makes things challenging for some.

Templo Mayor Museum in downtown was quite interesting (click link for more)

Then Palacio De Bellas Artes was an interesting building to visit, with ok-ish displays inside:

After EDC Mexico was over, for a half day, it was best to go check out the Aquario Inbursa (click for blog and more pictures)

Next door was the Museo Sumaya, interesting building from the outside;

Next was time to check out the Museum of Tequilla and Mezcal, do a premium tasting and a dinner on its plaza:

The next day was a day tour to see the Pyramids of Teotihuacan (click for blog)
The tour started with a stop at Basilica of Our LAdy Guadalupe:

Then, we went to see the pyramids, and after coming back from the tour, a bit of time to burn so I quickly checked out the local Ripley's. It was ok-ish, at best, but a good way to spend 1h before the evening activity:

And the evening activity, indeed was to go see Lucha Libre Wrestling at Arena Mexico (click for blog and report) which was fun enough:

The last day started with Chapultepec Castle (click for the blog with more details):

And the day ended with just enough time to visit National Antropological Museum (click for blog) before having to head to the airport for the flight home

And that was it for the visit of CDMX. Happy to have been able to see the hightlights.

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2024/02/23 Mexico City's Templo Mayor Museum

π 2024-02-23 01:01 in Mexico, Museums

Mexico has a rich history from the Mayans and other first nations, and they built really impressive temples for the times. Unfortunately there is very little left of the really cool one in Mexico City, but the ruins and museum in its place were still quite interesting to visit.
This is what it used to look like:

Here is what is left:

The museum was very good:

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2024/02/26 Mexico City's Aquario Inbursa

π 2024-02-26 01:01 in Aquariums, Mexico

While in CDMX, I had a bit of extra time end of day, so going to to Aquario Inbursa made sense. It was split in 2 buildings and had a few more unusual things in the 2nd building:

nurse sharks and bamboo sharks are some of my favorites

Salamenders are very cool, land animals that went back in water

Designer Fish are also fun ;)

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2024/02/27 Pyramids of Teotihuacan, Just North of Mexico City

π 2024-02-27 01:01 in Mexico, Monuments

There isn't much left of the pyramid that was in Mexico City (Mayor Templo), but Teotihuacan is very well preserved with its multiple temples, and even some murals are still left, worth the side trip for sure.

Of course, there are some tourist attractions nearby that the tour got to visit first. We first got to learn how Tequilla is made out of cactus, as well as all the things that cactus can be used for:

there is an anti sweat layer inside that can be used as paper

the fibers can also be used as strings

mezcal is mostly tequilla with worms in it ;)

I did mention that masked wrestling is a big thing in Mexico?

Then it was time to visit the temples:

the murals were impressive

Very cool place, very happy to have seen it

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2024/02/27 Lucha Libre Wrestling at Arena Mexico

π 2024-02-27 01:01 in Mexico, Outings

I used to watch wrestling as a teenager but had never seen a show in person, and Lucha Libre was listed as one of the things to do in CDMX, so I gave it a shot. It was of course silly and had a few expanded "rules" compared to the wrestling I used to watch (3 on each team instead of 2), but otherwise it was the same half ridiculous but entertaining show I had seen before, even if I could not understand the spanish (which ultimately didn't make a huge difference anyway).

Lucha Libre Wrestling is very popular in Mexico, lots of merch in the city:

Very strangely, cameras were not allowed but taking pictures with cell phones, was. Go figure...

Short Video:

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2024/02/28 Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City

π 2024-02-28 01:01 in Mexico, Monuments, Museums

Chapultepec Castle is an interesting historical castle built in Mexico City, originally by the Spanish, and then it was taken by the French which brought a lot of cool things to it, including even some exquisite stained glass made in Paris.
It's pretty far out of the way, a 1h uber ride from town center with rush hour traffic and then It's a bit of a long walk through a park and then uphill from the street (plan an extra 20mn), and google says it can be very busy with long lines, but it was fine the morning I went (early morning is best)

Nice views from the hill:

Had to go through 2 lawyers of security that do not even allow water in. That was non ideal... Eventually got there though, and we paid a private guide who gave us a 1h tour:

the stained glass, shipped all the way from Paris by boat and re-assembled, looked wonderful

I looked up the address in Paris, of course that was over 100 years ago ;)

After the castle, it was another walk through the park to another exit and got to see many vendors, to go to the excellent archeological museum across the street (but still a long walk):

nice insomniac looking owl ;)

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2024/02/28 Mexico City's National Antropological Museum

π 2024-02-28 01:01 in Mexico, Museums

The last thing I had time for, was the National Antropological Museum, pretty close to Chapultepec Castle, and it was a very impressive and pretty complete museum on the history of the land and civilizations, going back thousands of years. Unfortunately I didn't navigate in the correct order, so the history was somewhat backwards, but nonetheless the place was super interesting.

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