Viva Mexico!

Ten Days in

Mexico City

For my 30th birthday, I wanted to take a special trip to a country I’d never been to before. My parents happened to be planning a trip to Mexico and one of my best friend’s from college has been living there for years, but I’d never had the chance to go visit here. Now felt like the perfect time.

I found a roundtrip direct flight from Paris to Mexico City and took off in October 2022 for two weeks in Mexico. I spent ten days in Mexico City that were full of culture, art, history, and gastronomy.

October to May is considered the dry season in Mexico City, although it was early October so the weather was temperamental. I had always imagined Mexico as being hot, sunny, and dry, but it was much cooler and more humid than I expected and it took me a few days to adjust to the elevation (7,349 feet / 2,240 meters). I experienced a crazy lightning storm during my trip, but also had many sunny days perfect for wandering the city and its many parks.

That was another unexpected part of Mexico City for me—the amount of greenery, parks, and dogs all over the city. The streets and parks are so clean in Mexico and restaurants are typically dog-friendly, so as an animal lover I was in heaven. I was also just astounded by the vibrancy of the city. As it was just after the rainy season, it felt like everything was bursting with color.

I stayed in the Hipódromo neighborhood of Mexico City, so the first day I wandered around Avenida Amsterdam. The former horse racing track has now been transformed into a green space where locals walk their dogs in the afternoon. Murals, tropical flowers, street vendors selling tacos and juice, boutique shops, and cafes made this the perfect neighborhood to wander around outside and get a feel for the city.

Exploring the Roma Norte and Hipódromo Neighborhoods

The Flavours of Mexico City

Another amazing way to get a feel for the city was through its flavors! Of course, one of my favorite parts of the trip was EATING. On my first couple of days in Mexico City, I ate at a few great places in La Condesa and Roma Norte:

• Frëims for brunch eating chilaquiles and drinking fresh juice on their outdoor patio

• Tacqueria Orinoco for authentic tacos in a lowkey setting

• Rosetta for an elevated traditional meal in a restored villa

• La Docena for agua chile and oysters in a hip setting

• Churrería El Moro for fresh churros and hot chocolate

Aside from restaurants, Mexico also has a rich food culture around street food. Next stop on my food tour was a street food taco tour in Centro with Club Tengo Hambre. I highly recommend this tour, as it was a great way to experience an important part of Mexican culture and to taste the amazing varieties of one signature dish that I absolutely love. The tour started out by the Palacio de Bellas Artes (which I went back to later for the incredible murals featured later in this article) and it ended in a little hole in the wall pulqueria (which I’d never heard of or tried before). We walked from stand to stand hearing about the history of street vendors and learning about the different regional varieties of each taco. All together, we tried around ten different types of tacos. Here are some of my favorites:

The first taco stand we tried had the most amazing selection of salsas and served steak tacos with a regional melted cheese. We also tried a chile relleno tacos, a taco served with kebab style meat influenced by Turkish immigrants, blue corn masa handmade tacos made with a particular mushroom that grows out of the mold of the corn, and a taco served in a shepard’s pie style mix of meat and potato popular among local workers as an inexpensive, but filling lunch.

The tour finished off at a local pulqueria full of colorful murals behind swinging saloon style doors and an old juke box playing retro music. I had never tried pulque before, but learned from the tour guide that it is a traditional drink made from the fermented sap of agave. We tried two flavors: celery and guava. I preferred the guava for its sweetness. It’s a bit of an acquired taste, similar to a thick and somewhat slimy version of kombucha with an alcohol content similar to beer. The tour guide told us that a lot of teenagers in Mexico learn how to drink with pulque. It’s also an important part of Mexican history, as there are many legends around pulque and during the Aztec era, it was considered a sacred drink. It later became a drink of the people after the fall of the Aztec empire and then banned by Spanish colonizers due to its ties to non-Christian religious beliefs.

Each dish and each drink from the tour had a special significance, either to a particular region or to the history of the country or Mexico city. I loved learning about the importance of rice, beans, and peppers being accessible to people from every walk of life in the country, and how important the street vendors are for working class people who commute to the city and need cheap, nutritional options for lunch during the day. The taco is a true art form of Mexican cuisine that makes the country turn with its unique, rich flavors providing a full meal that you can hold in one hand.

Cultural Sites and Museums of Mexico City

Beyond the flavors of the city, I was also taken by the beauty of some amazing sites, museums, parks, and artworks. Mexico City is full of vibrant colors with a rich history that has been meticulously preserved. I was in absolute awe of the size of the main park Chapultepec and the curation of the Museo Nacional de Antropología. I was also thrilled to visit the former home of an idol of mine—the unique Frida Kahlo and to see the astounding murals of her husband Diego Rivera in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Highlights from Chapultepec Botanical Garden

From the botanical garden, I walked over the nearby Museo Nacional de Antropología. Between the park and the museum, there are several street vendors serving elote, mango, and all kinds of snacks for an afternoon pick-me-up. I decided to grab some mango then headed into the extensive museum. The Anthropology Museum is too large to explore fully in one day. It’s the type of museum you could spend weeks on end studying. I decided to focus on a couple key sections, including the Aztec and Mayan, which showcased astounding art and cultural artefacts dating back centuries.

Highlights from Museo Nacional de Antropologia

Exploring Mexico’s many museums offers a small glimpse into the country’s vast culture and history. While I only discovered a small part, the fragment of culture that I experienced during my ten-day trip left me profoundly inspired. I visited several other museums during my trip, including:

• Frida Kahlo Museum (I recommend reserving in advance)

• Palacio de Belles Artes

• Museo de Arte Popular

The Frida Kahlo museum showcases the artist’s former home and is a popular destination among tourists, so a reservation well in advance ensures your visit. While few of her artworks are present, the museum gives an in-depth view into her daily life and the adversity she faced. Wandering the garden, surrounded by the electric blue walls of her home, one can easily see the influence of Mexico on the surrealist painter’s vibrant palette.

The murals of her ex-husband, Diego Rivera, can be found in multiple locations in the city. At the Palacio de Belles Artes and stood before breathtaking, large-scale murals from Rivera and other talented Mexican artists. For me, this was a must-see and I was so thankful that I did not leave Mexico before standing before these murals in-person. The detail and sheer size of the murals truly took my breath away.

The Museo de Arte Popular highlights folk art across multiple floors for those interested to discover traditions like embroidery, weaving, and dias de los muertos skeletons. This is another extensive museum that I went through a bit too quickly, as I visited it after the Palacio de Belles Artes, but it gives an in-depth view into Mexican folklore and cultural symbols still relevant today.

Palacio de Bellas Artes, a must-see for its large-scale murals

From religious deities rooted in the country’s topography and nature to the bright colours that fill the city, there is so much to see in Mexico city that one could easily spend two weeks exploring the capital alone and still not see everything. I only scratched the surface of the country’s rich cultural heritage during my ten days in the capital, but it deeply impacted me to experience Mexico firsthand—to taste its flavours, smell its marigolds, and feel its vibrant energy. I highly recommend Mexico as a destination for history lovers, foodies, and art enthusiasts and I plan to return several more times in my lifetime.