Mexico City - Centro District - Feb 2025

 Centro - February 5, 2025

To warn you, I kept picking every picture, so there are lots of pictures of Centro! For our Centro exploration, we first walked from our hotel in Juarez to the Alameda Central park. There were vendors setup from our approach on the west end. We went through the park and saw the fountains. In the last one, a bird came to hang out for the picture.  

It was sad that this monument was under construction; this is the monument to a previous president, Hemiciclo a Benito Juárez. However, it looked very pretty, even with sad reminders of war on the construction barricades. 

Notary historical heritage of Mexico City, an interesting government building across from the park. The gorilla with a banjo was hilarious. The other was a building that I liked. 

Torre Latinoamericana is a good place to go up for a good view of the Palace of Bellas Artes. Pay an admission or buy a drink at the bar for free admission. We went to the Sears for the view and a coffee instead. Statues in front of the Palace of Bellas Artes and the very pretty Palace. If you see a ballet here, you can see the famous Tiffany glass curtain.

I thought it was strange that the metal between the glass dome panels was cooper colored on the left and dark in the middle and right. 

Though not as exciting, other city views that you can get from the Sears cafe. 

The cafe -- Travis had an espresso. and I had a hot chocolate. Hot chocolate (and some other chocolates) commonly have cinnamon in them in Mexico. A sign at the cafe asked you to only stay 30 minutes, so that others could get the view too. We were there early, and there were not too many people there yet. Also, a cool gate from the view. We also checked out the Sears. The cafe was on the 8th floor, through housewares. Since we no longer have Sears in the US, it was nostalgic to visit. They had a floor of Craftsman tools; a floor of candy, fancy confectionaries, and other food and drink; and video games, in addition to the first floor with the makeup counters. They also had restrooms available; again, grab your towel paper on the way in before getting to the stale.   

We then continue on the main Centro street. Here the vendors were plentiful and more aggressive than in other parts of Mexico City. Not as aggressive as some other countries. Though most were yelling in Spanish, so I was not sure what they were even selling. Many were selling tours, I think; the food vendors you can tell by their stands. We found the beautiful tile building. The first side that we saw was under construction, so we started out disappointed and then found that we could still see the front.   

Travis had read to me about the building and noted a store inside that you had to eat at once in your life. We first found a small cafe instead with ice cream, coffee, and pastries, so I was confused. Then we found the restaurant. It was very beautiful, but had a line to be seated. However, now, it made sense. 

Next, we found and looked at a church inside this gate. In the tent right up to the church, they were selling a tequila tasting or something like that. It seemed strange. 

 

Then we came to the The Palace of Iturbide, which Count of San Mateo Valparaíso built for his daughter as a wedding present. It, itself, was impressive, but it had a sign outside for a free display. On a whim, we wondered in. They just asked that backpacks were wore backwards to avoid knocking into something with them. They also had taped lines on the floor to not cross. The display was tons of different Naiveties, available December to February. They were amazing, so many different interpretations and materials used. And the detail! No lack of pictures to share. We were very impressed with this stop.  

Back outside, we found lunch of al pastor, spit-grilled pork slices, at a sit down restaurant. Travis had it in a taco and me in a quesadilla, actually gringas, which is a flour instead of corn, tortilla. Also, there is not much cheese in a Mexican quesadilla, like in we are used to. It came with little dishes of sauces and onions. 

Next, we came across two protest marches on our way to the Zócalo, main square; there were quite a few police officers around.   

The main square had the largest flag that I think I have ever seen. The protestors ended here; they were protesting Trump as president of the US -- fair. One of the protest groups was sponsored by the Mexico Agricultural Dept. That metal building on the right side of the picture was being taken down. Someone was at the top as they were lower one of the A frames down with a pickup; looked quite scary. 

Before fully exploring the square, we went back one block to the Gran Hotel. I saw this in a youtube video that you can ask just to look at the lobby and that the guard would give you 10 minutes. We asked the guard (really more of a bellhop), and he did not care or give us a time limit. It was beautiful. 

Back to the Zócalo or Plaza of the Constitution, we looked at the buildings in more detail and then visited the Cathedral. 

There was an elaborate Mass in progress, which included a large number of Deacons and Cardinals. I'm not sure what the occasion was. The large organs were playing, with one on both sides of the church. 

After the Cathedral, we went to the Templo Mayor museum (Main Temple of the Mexica people in their capital city of Tenochtitlan). Interesting info that I learned before going, the Mexica people build their city in (island) and around a lake. When the Spanish conquerors arrived and Mexico was founded, they filled in the lake and built a city on top. Now, Mexico City is sinking about 15-20 inches per year. Separately, Mexico City has a lot of earthquakes, so we are thankful that we did not experience any. It is evident in some broken/raised sidewalks. We had a quick snack before going into the museum. My brother, who stayed with our son, wanted an Aztec Death Whistle. There was a vendor near the museum blowing one, to get customers attention. My goal was to look in the museum for a less pressure sell; however the museum's gift shop did not have them. Maybe they did not want customers blowing them all the time. After the museum, we stopped by the vendor and got one. 

In the museum, we went through medal detectors and were told to check the backpack. This was free, and they gave you a card to get yours back. Our mistake was not drinking some water from our bottles before giving them up. The museum was $100 Pesos each, and a sign asked if paying with cash that they only wanted low bills. We also visited the restroom here; I really needed a restroom by this point. There was an inside portion of the museum and then much of it was outside. In a later building was another very large museum, also a maze, that we did not begin to have time to see all of it.  

The waste water drainage pipe was interesting. 

There were Phases I-VII of the pyramids that the museum/excavation showed. When pyramids were built, new layers were added over the original layers. 

The snakes

I liked when colors still showed up. 

A replicate, in full color, of the previously pictured statue. 

Inside the big museum. It was very interesting and well done, but we did not have enough time to see it all in depth.  

After, we went to a market where we did spot some of the scorpions to eat (too intense for me; neither of us tried one). Travis got two plums, which were small like he remembered from his childhood. They were very pricy, but he said that they were very good. 

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at different oxxo for more water for the hotel since we went through our first one quickly. They had some on sale, and we grabbed two because we wanted to use a credit card, so wanted to buy more. They rang up for way more than they were priced, so we were trying to communicate that we wanted to go get different, cheaper waters instead. The cashier said something about that he could not cancel the transaction, so we had to buy them. We were at an impasse; after more time of awkwardly trying to communicate, we just left. He huffed and puffed and moved them aside. If he was going to act like this, we did not want to buy from him anyway. That was the only situation that was uncomfortable or scary and where anyone seemed dishonest during our trip -- so that is pretty good.   

For dinner, we stopped at Tony's Pasties and Empanadas near our hotel and took it back to our hotel. We actually stopped here three times during the trip. It was always about $53 Pesos for both of us to eat. I had an empanada with sausage, which was not my first choice, but what was available, though ended up being my favorite. Travis had the pork rojo mole. We did a stop quickly at another convenient store near our hotel and found a 10 liter of water for $48 Pesos that I thought would last us the rest of the trip. It did not, but I really did not have any concept of how much water that we normally drink. Back at the hotel, we enjoyed our dinner.     

Next up...Teotihuacan pyramids excursion

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