Mexico City - Archaeology museum and area - Feb 2025

Archaeology Museum, Castle, and Zoo - February 7, 2025 

We took the long bus ride, about 40 minutes, to the Archaeology Museum, which was to the west of us. It opened at 9am, so we planned to get there early to get in line. Travis read reviews of no water allowed. They also had a free bag check, so we left the backpack again, getting one last drink this time. We arrived and a line was started, but not too long yet, maybe 6 groups in front of us. Here is the nice bird of paradise flower outside the museum and the museum emblem. The eagle with a snake in its beak and talon is in the Mexican flag and commonly used and goes back to an Aztec legend.      

Inside we went through security, visited the restroom, checked the bag, and bought tickets. It was not crowded at first but got crowded later. Nice waterfall outside the museum. The museum was broken up by civilizations, so you had to know what civilization what you wanted to see was in. The app/website did not tell where something was. This was a little frustrating. I wanted to see the Aztec Calendar or Sun Stone first; it was all the way to the back from the entrance. The galleries were in U-shaped buildings around the fountain/waterfall courtyard. 

The Sun Stone, info about it, and what it looked like when originally in use and color still intact. 

For each civilization gallery, the museum had a nice outside space with more exhibits on the other side of the building from the center courtyard. I liked this flowering bush that looked like it was related to a poinsettia. 

The Aztecs, for a ceremony, would dress up as eagles, continuing the eagle theme. 

We got to the Mexica gallery with Teotihuacan pyramid replicas (in color) that we saw in person the day before. 

Prisoners were sacrificed to the gods and buried in the pyramids. Pyramids in Mexico were not used as tombs like in Egypt, but for worship of the gods, with this exception.  

We watched this civilization story on a movie they had. There was scrolls showing their lives. Here is one. They migrated from place to place more than I would have expected.  

I was impressed with the bamboo, and we found the Jade mask. 

We were going to eat at the museum cafe, but it was expensive and the line was not moving at all. We finally gave up on the line and decided to visit one more gallery and go out of the museum to eat. Here is the cafe menu; they also had a sit down restaurant, which also looked busy. I guess we picked lunchtime. 

Olmec head -- original and replica outside

As we were leaving, there was a long line of students on a field trip to the museum waiting to get in. They all had white baseball caps; they were all different but all white. At our next visit at the Castle, they were hiking up when we were hiking down. We got lucky to miss the crowd. Outside, we found these upside down acrobats spinning around a pole. We just caught the end. We found lunch out here. Travis had a Tlayudas, which was a purple tortilla with refried black beans, hot sauce, cactus, onion, avocado, and cheese. It was not his favorite because of the cactus, and I noticed the hot hot sauce flavor the most. I had a hot dog. Travis wanted a caffeine drink, but they did not have diet over here. When we got more into the park, we bought a Coke Zero in a tall can. It was pricy at 40 Pesos. Then I was dying for a restroom later -- eek. In the park vendor area, we also tried a Arabe, which is a flatbread, like pita and got dulce de leche inside. Travis liked it; I was not a fan of the dulce de leche and am not at home or other places either. The vendor did a good job of taking the cash with a glove and not touch food with money germs. 

We then hiked up to the Chapultepec Castle; you buy the ticket at the bottom before hiking up. This is important because when you buy the ticket, you don't know the no food or drinks in the castle rule. This had us scrambling twice. The first check at the start of the hike required no food, but water was okay. At the top, no water was allowed. We drank our extra, hotel provided water bottles and threw them away (in front of the security team), and then for our airplane bottles that we did not want to toss, Travis looked up "empty" in Spanish to say that. They accepted this and could see them. 

The castle was pretty to see and had a museum, though most was in Spanish. There was also a gardens and views.  

Here is the eagle, snake, and cactus from the legend again on the walk down from the castle. 

I also found the CDMX, for Ciudad de México, sign in the park for a picture. In the castle, there was a restroom that I visited once but should have visited again right before leaving because we were out of coins and the park and zoo only had pay -- 5 Peso -- restrooms. I was dying. 

Due to the zoo closing at 5pm and me dying, we just looked a couple of sections of the zoo. The zoo was free with some special exhibits that cost, like reptile house. We felt like the zoo was funded by selling the vendor slots outside in the park. The zoo exit was strategically placed right at the start of the vendors and a long way around to the bus stop. I have a puzzle with this bird in it, so I wanted a picture but could not get a good picture with two layers of glass. This was also supposed to have pandas, but we did not see any pandas. Then two baby monkeys, so cute! One of the parents was trying to hide the baby from the paparazzi -- me. We did see some very cool animals. We headed back to the bus stop to go back to the hotel.   

We decided to try a fine dining experience tonight. I heard to do fine dining because it is more affordable in Mexico. Travis's sister recommended the Sonoma Grill. It was in the Hilton in Centro across from Alameda Central park. Since it was Friday night, we made an online reservation for 5:30 pm; though it was not very crowded, so probably not required. We dressed up best we could; we did not bring any dressy clothes. Some people were dressed up, though a guy at the table next to us had shorts on. In the reservation, we requested a normal height table but were still seated at a high table. Just harder to be comfortable seated in a high bar stool while trying to eat. Another group moved from a high table to a normal height table.

We ordered brisket tacos for two. They made them table side, which was exciting. They also brought us complimentary refried beans with cheese. As a non-refried bean eater, they were delicious. We also had drinks. The meal was very good. The only surprising part was that we only got 4 tortillas for 2 tacos each when we had a lot of brisket. I did eat some brisket on the good chips from the refried beans too with some salsa; this was very good too. I got some food pictures though not very good pictures. It was also served with salts -- the smoky black was good -- and salsas. 

 

 

After dinner, we walked to the bus stop and loaded the Metro card in the dark, and I determined that being out at night in Mexico City was not as scary as I thought. 

Next up...Museo Soumaya and Cablebus ride

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